THE GREAT MIGRATION

The International High School at Lafayette

American History
Mr. Joel
Unit 3 – Immigration and Migration
Hareem Qureshi

INTRODUCTION
 The great migration was the movement of 2,000,000 African
Americans out of the southern U.S to the Midwest, Northeast and west
from 1916 to 1919. It was an exodus of African Americans who left
their farms in the south around the time of WW1 and traveled to
Northern industrial cities in search of better lives. African Americans
migrated to escape racism and seek employment opportunities in
industrial cities. The southern blacks left south also because they were
the victims of Jim Crow Laws and had no right to vote. The great
Mississippi flood of 1927 also displaced hundreds of African Americans
farmers and farm workers. So, people migrated toward North on a
quest of freedom, justice and dignity. Migration grew as the African
Americans moved as families groups and also as individuals. The Great
Migration had many different causes, which affected the African
American in negative and positive ways. (Doc. 1&3)

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The Great Migration was a long-term movement of African

Americans from South to urban North. African Americans left south to
escape the discrimination constitution and racial segregation of the
late 19th century and Jim Crow Laws. They migrated to North to find
better schools for their children so they would get rid of field work, to
have justice so they would have right to vote, to find jobs in industrial
cities of North so they would not work as poor farmers and to save
their lives so they would not be the target of racial discrimination and
widespread violence of lynching in the South. (Doc.1&2)

CAUSES

There are different causes of the Great Migration. The general

cause was the shortage of workers in Northern factories. In the early
1900s many northern people left their jobs to fight in WW1. Then
factory owners had to find new workers to replace those who were
marching off to war. So, the factory owners send agents from Northern
factories into the Southern counties and towns looking for laborers.
Later, the Northern industries offered jobs to Southern blacks as
workers and lent them money to be repaid later, for their railroad
ticket. The agents also promised to give a better housing to the
Southern blacks.
On the other hand, African Americans of the South were the
victims of Jim Crow Laws. Jim Crow Laws were state and local laws in
United States enacted between 1876 -1965. These laws commanded
the racial segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly
“separate but equal” status for black Americans. For example: The
segregation of public schools, public places and public transportation.
The segregation of restrooms, restaurants and drinking fountains for
whites blacks. U.S military was also segregated. The most extreme
form of Jim Crow Laws was lynching. Lynchings were most common in
the small, middle-sized towns where blacks were competitors to local
whites. It was the cheap entertainment for local white people.
Newspapers and magazines wrote routinely bad words like niggers,
coons, darkies and even worse to the Southern blacks. Jim Crow Laws
were the major factor in Great migration during the early part of 20th
century because it caused the great number of Southern African
Americans to move toward Northern cities to seek better life with
many opportunities. (Doc.3, 4&5)
The sharecropping was also the cause of Great migration
because spending life, as a black Southern sharecropper during early
twentieth century was very hard. Sharecropping was a landlord and
tenant relationship in which the tenant cultivated the owner's land and
received a percentage of the profits, in either money or crops. Often
the tenants had to buy or rent seeds, equipment, and animals from the
landowners. The result was that the sharecropper constantly owed
money to the landowner, which means they would have debts over
debts. At that time farming was a low paying difficult occupation. So,
with the low income, it was really hard for the Southern black farmers
to return all the debts to their landlords. Farmers worked long labor
intensive days in extreme heat with low pay and hoped for a good crop
return. Children also used to work on farms. Therefore, they used to
attend school only six months out of a year in Mississippi. After being
so industrious, sharecroppers and tenant farmers often had to deal
with dishonest landlords who were like the destroyers of all their hard
work. So, the sharecropping also caused the African Americans from
the South to migrate to North. (Doc.6&7)
Further more, blacks had few options at the voting polls. Many
blacks did not vote because they had to pass difficult literacy tests,
pay a large poll tax, own property, or were threatened with violence.
Worse than these intimidations, many felt that their vote would not
make any difference. Some brave African Americans like Eddie
McDonald migrate to the North to have a voice in government. (Doc.7)
The great Mississippi flood of 1927 was a natural disaster, which
caused the Great migration. It was the most destructive river flood in
the history of United States. The flood ruined the farms. The boll weevil
destroyed cotton crops. The Mississippi river broke out of its levee
system in 145 places and flooded 27,000 square miles (70,000 km2).
The flood caused over $400 million in damages and killed 246 people
in seven states. So, the Great Flood of Mississippi River was also the
cause of Great Migration of African Americans to northern cities.
(Doc.1&9)

EFFECTS

The Great Migration had both positive and negative effects on

the Southern migrants. Migrating to North gave many economic
opportunities to the Southern Blacks. They became the factory workers
from the farm workers. Many migrants arrived at Chicago and labored
in steel mills and on railroads. Many migrants moved to Pittsburgh,
which was a great industrial center. Although the life in the North was
better, it was not ideal. Although they were promised better housing
and jobs in the North, some families were forced to live in overcrowded
and unhealthy quarters. On the other hand, migrants kept coming.
Southern landowners took actions on the flow of migrants going toward
North. They tried to stop migration by jailing the labor agents and
migrants. Migrants were often taken from the railroad stations and
jailed until the trains departed. However migration grew and grew by
thinking toward the promise of better housing in North. In the North
the early arrival was not easy, because African Americans found on
streets could be arrested for no reason. It was happening because
many Northern workers were angry because they had to compete with
the migrants for housing and jobs. They were riots. Migrants soon
learned that the segregation was not confined (limited) to the South.
Migrants had to rely on each other. In some ways Southern migrant’s
lives did became better. Their children were able to go to school and
the adult Southern blacks gained freedom to vote, which was not for all
Southern blacks.
Harlem Renaissance was the momentous effect of Great
Migration. It was an especially brilliant moment in the history of blacks
in America from 1920 – 1940. During the Harlem Renaissance African
American artists such as Langston Hughes and Jacob Lawrence
revolutionized literature with their innovative form and unique style of
writing. Jacob Lawrence was an artist who increased the spirit of
Southern blacks to have freedom through his paintings.
Langston Hughes was a poet and the prominent figure of Harlem
Renaissance. He wrote poems against racism and gave hope to
Southern black migrants to have freedom and equality some day. He
was the voice of Harlem Renaissance. Harlem Renaissance proved to
be a monumental turning point for African Americans as they began to
work with a new sense of confidence and a sense of achievement that
was never before experienced by so many black artists in long troubled
history of the people of Africa in North America. One goal of many
Harlem Renaissance writers was to increase pride in African American
culture. (Doc.1&8)
CONCLUSION

The Great Migration - movement of 2 million African Americans

from the South to the North had several different causes, which led
which to both positive and negative effects. Discrimination
constitution, racial segregation, Jim Crow laws, having no right to vote,
injustice, low wage jobs, sharecropping and great flood of Mississippi
River were the causes of the Great Migration which occurred from
1916-1919. The Great Migration led to economic opportunities, racism
and Harlem Renaissance. As Langston Hughes said, “I have discovered
in life that there are ways of getting almost anywhere you want to go,
if you really want to go.” Therefore, the Great Migration was the shift
of over 2 million southern African Americans who really want to leave
south to have a better life outside of it. Even though Southern blacks
faced a lot of struggles but their Great Migration did led a Harlem
Renaissance, the brilliant moment in the history of blacks in America.
On the whole, Great Migration was one of the biggest population shifts
in the history of United States and migration is still going on for many
people today. (Doc.1&3)

WORKS CITED

Document 1 – “Great Migration (African American)”

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Migration_(African_American)
Document 2 – “Great Migration”
(www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/545.html)
Document 3– “The Great Migration” (Book)
By: Jacob Lawrence
Document 4 – “Jim Crow Laws”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Crow_laws
Document 5 – “Jim Crow”
http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/what.htm
Document 6 – “Sharecropping”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharecropping
Document 7 – “The Great Migration”
 http://www.albanypinebush.org/pdf/Lesson-DBQ-RappRoad-
TheGreatMigration.pdf
Document 8 – “Harlem Renaissance”

http://education.ed.pacificu.edu/sweb/537fri/webquestsj/harlemrenaiss
ance2.html
Document 9 – “The Great Mississippi Flood”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Mississippi_Flood_of_1927