This time in the post World War II era, many African Americans had began to become a more urbanized center of population, around 1970. (Inmotionaame, pg. 1) The regular population included about 70 percent of just the natural population to live in more urbanized cities. (Inmotionaame, pg. 1) Soon African Americans dominated, having 80 percent of their community to live and take the same benefits in more urbanized centers of the Unites States. (Inmotionaame, pg. 2) Only about 53 percent of African Americans and others who seemed to migrate stayed in the same area around the South. (Inmotionaame, pg. 2) 1.5 million African Americans left Southern areas for Northern cities from 1910 to 1940. (Memory.loc.gov, pg. 1) Then from 1940 to 1950 another 1.5 million African Americans left the South, and moved to Northern cities. (Memory.loc.gov, pg. 1) Soon after by 1970 there were more than 5 million African Americans in the North. (Inmotionaame, pg. 2) The global structure and states being of the United States underwent a huge geographical change, but what was surprisingly significant during this time after the end of World War II, was their change in destination. (Memory.loc.gov, pg. 2) Every 1 in 7 Southerner went from going South to North, from South to North or Western states, immediately afterwards. (Faculty.washington.edu, pg. 1) A great amount, over half a million African Americans left the two Carolina’s- North Carolina, and South Carolina, and Georgia in the post World War II time period and decade. (Wisconsinhistory.org, pg. 1) California got to experience so much, almost all of the great impact they had with this migration, since many settled in California and nearby states such as Los Angeles and San Francisco. (Inmotionaame,... ... middle of paper ... ...the Southern state areas. Also not only was it African Americans migrating, but also urban consumers of the United States, or people known as low-class or low-waged. There were also many people who were affected by this mass migration patterns. (Faculty.washington.edu, pg. 5) It was so abrupt that the government no longer needed physical labor to work the sugar and cotton fields, so more and more technological innovations to support this change, such as tractors and the at the moment famous new cotton picker was what lead the United States into a new tremendous point in history, the Great Depression. (Inmotionaame, pg. 3) Overall there were many migration patterns of African Americans throughout the United States after the post World War II time period. This catastrophic engagement resulted in many new and significantly impactful ways of living to so many people.
The Great Migration was a huge relocation of African Americans from the Southern states of the United States to northern and Midwestern cities. This occurred between the years of 1910 and 1970. Over 6 million African Americans traveled to Northern cities during the migration. Some northern city destinations were Richmond, D.C, Baltimore, New York, and Newark. Western and Midwestern destinations were those such as Los Angelos, San Francisco, St. Louis, Chicago, and Detroit. During this time period and previous years, Jim Crow laws in the South were greatly in affect and causing African Americans a rough time due to the racism they faced. After Reconstruction had ended, white supremacy had taken it's toll in the South and Jim Crow had taken over.. The North, Midwest, and West of the United States began to face a shortage in industrial laborers due to World War I beginning and putting an end to immigration of Europeans to the United States. African Americans felt that heading north was their escape from harsh laws and unsatisfactory economic opportunities. Many people, including teenagers, from the South would write letters to the Chicago Defender asking for help to come North and find work because in the South it was hard to make a living. Some migrants already had family members in the North. For example, James Green, an elderly man who migrated at a young age from Goldsboro, North Carolina, had an aunt who lived in New York, who wanted him to be with her. He and his wife moved to New York, after his return from the air force. Because
The Great Migration period during the age of Jim Crow was a time of major movement of African Americans within the United States. Between the years 1910 to 1930 a huge population increase occurred within African American society that ultimately caused the beginning stages of the Great Migration. As a result, this population increase of blacks influenced them to seek for better opportunity in work, land, and safety for their families. Outside of those reasons one major factor that forced African Americans to migrate was the influence of Jim Crow laws and practices. Jim Crow was still present during this period and caused colored individuals to seek for more habitable areas outside the South being that lynching was at its worst, white mobs attacked blacks, and living conditions were mediocre for African Americans compared to that of a middle class white family. In this paper I will argue that the Jim Crow era was driving force behind the main factors that shaped the Great Migration; and those factors are the ideas of wanting to seek better work opportunity, living conditions, and over all safety for ones self and family.
As the United States developed and grew, upward mobility was central to the American dream. It was the unstated promise that no matter where you started, you had the chance to grow and proceed beyond your initial starting point. In the years following the Civil War, the promise began to fade. People of all races strived to gain the representation, acknowledgement and place in this society. To their great devastation, this hope quickly dwindled. Social rules were set out by the white folk, and nobody could rise above their social standing unless they were seen fit to be part of the white race. The social group to be impacted the most by this “social rule” was the African Americans. Black folk and those who were sympathetic to the idea of equal rights to blacks were targeted by the Ku Klux Klan. (Burton, 1998) The turning point in North Carolina politics was the Wilmington Race Riot of 1898. It was a very bold and outrageous statement from the white supremacists to the black folk. The Democratic white supremacists illegally seized power from the local government and destroyed the neighborhood by driving out the African Americans and turning it from a black-majority to a white-majority city. (Class Discussion 10/3/13) This event developed the idea that even though an African American could climb a ladder to becoming somebody in his or her city, he or she will never become completely autonomous in this nation. Charles W. Chesnutt discusses the issue of social mobility in his novel The Marrow of Tradition. Olivia Carteret, the wife of a white supremacist is also a half-sister to a Creole woman, Janet Miller. As the plot develops, we are able to see how the social standing of each woman impacts her everyday life, and how each woman is ...
African Americans migrated to escape racism and prejudice in the south, as well as to seek jobs in industrial cities and resulted in a major shift in where African Americans lived in the United States. Many blacks went north during the great migration due to the fact of believing that they would get better jobs and fair treatment in the north. The Chicago race riot caused by hatred for one another of members of different races in the same community. The black people had suffered the worst of the bloodshed, they had also been arrested by police twice the rate of whites. Many blacks viewed the migration as a well inspired deliverance from the land of suffering. The south could be hostile, but the north could be careful, cold, and lonely. The reason why the Chicago race riots was ludicrous was because of the Eugene Williams situation and doing that time thirty-eight people died 23 (African American and 15 white) and over five hundred were injured. You can relate this back to what’s going on in present time with the police brutality how they are killing African American teens for no reason just because they believe they are up to no good. The Eugene Williams situation really set things off that’s why Chicago had that big riot just like the one in Baltimore with the Mike Brown brutality and
Generally, the Second Great Migration proved to be an impactful event in American history that shifted the balanced of race in northern cities. There are both positive and negative outcomes from this transition that are directly related to the discrimination faced by minorities in American society. As more awareness reaches the public, hopefully these outdated perceptions can be altered to benefit those who have been restricted from obtaining greater
The Great Migration was a time where more then 6 million African Americans migrated North of the United States during 1910-1920. The Northern Parts of the United States, where African Americans mainly moved to was Chicago, Detroit, New York, Philadelphia and Cleveland. They migrated because of the work on railroads and the labor movement in factories. They wanted a better life style and felt that by moving across the United States, they would live in better living conditions and have more job opportunities. Not only did they chose to migrate for a better lifestyle but they were also forced out of their homes by unsatisfactory economic opportunities and harsh segregation laws. They were forced to work in poor working conditions and compete for
The great migration was a mass exodus for African Americans from around America, to Harlem, New York. African Americans came to Harlem in large groups. Harlem had become a symbolic capital for African Americas across America. (1) ency. britt. The driving point for the "Great Migration" was the brutal conditions of south during the reconstruction period. African American's were haunted by racial bigotry and grave violence usually by the means of lynching. In addition to violence, the legal system in south was intentionally antagonistic toward African Americans. The Jim Crow laws in the south were designed to keep African Americans oppressed.
The Great Migration was the movement of more than 6 million African Americans from the South to Northeastern, Midwestern, and Western cities. Before it began, 90 percent of all African Americans were living in the South. By the end, nearly half of them were living in cities of the North and West. (Wilkerson). During this time, the Southern economy was suffering greatly. Wages were low, jobs were few and pests called bull weevils could destroy entire cotton crops. (Liccone 3). After the passing of the 13th Amendment, freed slaves were allowed to leave their plantations and start a new life. However, leaving their plantation could result in angry whites hurting or killing them, so most were convinced to stay with their fo...
The progression of people into and within the United States has had an essential impact on the nation, both intentionally and unintentionally. Progressions such as The Great Migration and the Second Great Migration are examples of movements that impacted the United States greatly. During these movements, African Americans migrated to flee racism and prejudice in the South, as well as to inquire jobs in industrial cities. They were unable to escape racism, but they were able to infuse their culture into American society. During the twentieth century, economic and political problems led to movements such as The Great Migration and The Second Great Migration which impacted the United States significantly.
After the end of the civil war African Americans had more opportunity and freedom since the men were soldiers of the civil war. Most African Americans had the plan to leave the south and move to up north because of the racism still lingering in the south, for example the Plessy vs. Ferguson Supreme Court case. This case was about a light-skin colored man sitting in the “white” car of a train. Although he was light-skin he was still considered black and got arrested for sitting in that section of the train. This was an opportunity to express racial equality, but the end result was devastating. The Supreme Court declared that segregation of race was to be still constitutionally acceptable. Also economic status in the south was getting lower and there was not as much labor due to destroyed crops.
When the newcomers came to the north and west Starling, Gladney, and Foster it wasn’t a warm welcome. Wilkerson says that often when immigrants from the southern states came to the north or west mostly people closed the door on them and didn’t want to help. It a long time for them to find there place in major cities of the North and West, but southerners who stayed end up finding their way using elements of the old culture with the new opportunities in the north. Also traveling to the newer states wasn’t easy for African Americans. They usually traveling by train, boat or bus. And it was very dangerous to travel because of the gas station your able to stop at and even stop to get food. Also the long trips ahead. You would never know what troubles would be head of the journey. Typically once the black citizens arrived in the state it was hard to settle and to find a job with leak of skills. Like Ida Mae husband George ended up hauling ice up flights of stairs in cold Chicago and Ida Mae did domestic jobs before finding a decent job. Wilkerson also states that it took them a long time before really get settled in an affordable home in south side of Chicago. Then the journey to south was not cheap to make it far so many African Americans took in mind that having money before leaving would be the
The black migration gather everything that they have and start of the new century together, as a unit, with 204,000 individuals leaving in the first decade. Around World War I, the pace accelerated, and continue through the 1920s. In fact, by the 1930s, 1.3 million southerners were leaving to other regions. In the 1930s, the great depression, wiped out job opportunity, for all. Unfortunately, the affected ones were the African Americans, in the northern industrial belt, this caused a sharp reduction in migration. Furthermore, the second great migration began around 1940, as the country was gathering up to start entering World War
Rohrbough, M. J. (2003). Migration during the antebellum period. Encyclopedia of American history: Expansion and reform, 1813-1855, 4. Retrieved August 14, 2008, from Facts on File: American History Online database.
The Great Migration, which lasted from 1910 to 1930, was the first mass movement of African Americans from the South to the North. There was one main factor that led to new job opportunities which attracted many African Americans to industrialized cites in the North. The occurrence of World War I in Europe had increased U.S. factories and factory productions as European nations, involved in the war, depended on the United States to replenish their supplies. Likewise, the war decreased laborers in the United States as it abridged the migration of many European immigrants to the U.S. as well as toke many citizens as soldiers which caused a massive vacancy in the work field. Philip Bonner, from the University of the Witwatersrand, explained this phenomena as he said, “It was only the outbreak of the first World War cutting off the flo...
Beginning in the 1919 and lasting through about 1926 thousands of Blacks began to migrate from the southern United States to the North; an estimated 1 million people participated in what has come to be called the Great Migration.[1] The reasons for this mass movement are complicated and numerous, but they include search for better work, which was fueled by a new demand for labor in the North (particularly from the railroad industry) and the destruction of many cotton harvests by the infectious boll weevil ...