What Was the Great Migration?
A short history of the Great Migration and its lasting legacy in the United States.
Between the 1900s and 1960s, the United States saw one of the largest population redistributions in its history. An estimated six to seven million African Americans left the Southern states in search of greater equality, opportunity, and a safer environment for their families. While they didn’t always receive a warm welcome in their new homes, they carved out social and economic niches that would have a lasting impact on the developing nation. Understanding the Great Migration and its impact is an essential part of understanding modern US culture and history.
Origins of the Great Migration
In the wake of the Civil War and the emancipation of millions of enslaved people, the United States government faced a difficult task. Not only did it need to bring two warring factions back together, but it needed to do so while Southern society underwent a radical restructuring. The former slave-owning states’ economies had been largely reliant on the labor of enslaved people, who were often still viewed as less than human. To complicate matters further, discrimination against Black people extended into the Northern states as well. Many of the politicians tasked with Reconstruction held racist views themselves. And, following the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, the nation lacked a clear vision of how to move forward.
And so, despite early successes in enfranchisement and the election of Black officials in the South, Reconstruction ultimately failed. Although slavery had formally ended, many African Americans found themselves still working for low wages with little opportunity or access to education. Many families relied on subsistence farming to make ends meet. Worse, Jim Crow laws fostered a society of racial segregation, disenfranchisement, and unpunished violence against Black families. The final nail in the coffin for many was a series of ecological disasters in 1915 and 1916, which disrupted Southern agricultural production.
The Story of the Great Migration
Faced with such difficult and dangerous obstacles, it’s not surprising that many African Americans left their former lives behind in search of a new beginning. Two major events opened new doors for Black Americans—industrialization and the World Wars. Growing cities needed workers, and the World Wars depleted the pool of available young men. Where African Americans may have been denied jobs before, demand began to override prejudice. This encouraged whole families to pack up their belongings and leave the Southern states, an exodus that would have long-lasting effects on US culture and history.
Major destinations of the Great Migration included cities like New York, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia. After World War II, the trend of the Great Migration began to push West into states like California.
Although the Great Migration saw Black workers transition from mainly agriculture into industrial and professional fields, it was not always peaceful or easy. Racist beliefs still pervaded much of the nation, and segregation, both formal and informal, was widespread. Communities that had once been almost exclusively white often reacted to their new neighbors with fear, violence, and restrictive zoning laws. Black families were shut out of housing in many areas. This refusal to allow integration from many white communities encouraged a continued wealth gap and the growth of separate cultural trends.
The Legacy of the Great Migration
Despite segregation and bias, African American leaders worked tirelessly to improve the social power and wellbeing of their communities. Musical trends like rock and roll, jazz, funk, and R&B all trace their origins to Black musicians before they hit the cultural mainstream. Dances such as the Charleston, Lindy Hop, and Twist were also invented by African American artists. From the 1910s to the 1930s, New York’s Harlem neighborhood saw a flowering of Black music, literature, philosophy, theology, and drama now known as the Harlem Renaissance. Similar scenes across the nation built the foundations of the later Civil Rights Movement, which fought against Jim Crow Laws and the discrimination still faced by African Americans and other minority populations.
The United States would be a dramatically different nation without the Great Migration. Through great personal bravery and hard work, Black families fundamentally transformed the nation’s self-identity. Was your family’s history impacted by the Great Migration? Be sure to share in the comments or by writing your own article!
References
African American Registry. “Black History and Dance in America, a Story.” African American Registry, 20 Oct. 2021, aaregistry.org/story/african-american-dance-a-brief-history/.
Grossman, James. Land of Hope: Chicago, Black Southerners, and the Great Migration. University of Chicago Press, 1991.
“World War I And The Great Migration | US House of Representatives: History, Art and Archives.” United States House of Representatives, history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/BAIC/Historical-Essays/Temporary-Farewell/World-War-I-And-Great-Migration. Accessed 6 May 2022.
Wilkerson, Isabel. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration. Vintage, 2011.
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