THE GREAT MIGRATION

The International High School at LafayetteAmerican History

Mr. JoelUnit 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_lawsDocument 5 – “Jim Crow”http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/what.htmDocument 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/harlemrenaissance2.htmlDocument 9 – “The Great Mississippi Flood”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Mississippi_Flood_of_1927