The Great Migration

Which Association supported the Great Migration?

• The NAACP aided the Great Migration with funds

What was the Magnitude of AA that Migrated to the North

• Around 250,000 AA workmen migrated up North

• Chicago had a huge AA population, in 10 years AA population went from 44k-109k

  • Chicago had a lot of successful AAs, an AA was the first to conduct a successful operation on the human heart

• Between 450k and 500k AA migrated to the north between 1915-1918

• 700,000 southern AA went North up in the 1920’s

• 1940-1970 one and a half a million southern AA migrated North

What were causes of the Great Migration?

• Boil Weevil ruined cotton crops, so it also ruined the economy down South (1915-1916)

  • especially in Mississippi and Alabama

• Hate crimes down south (South Carolina and Southwestern Georgia)

• Jim crow

• Residential and labor segregation laws

• Poor educational facilities

  • buildings were used

  • difference in equipment

  • pay of AA teachers less than white ppl

  • less grades

• low wages

• lynching

• terrible treatment on farms

• floods of 1916

• rains and high waters in the spring destroyed other crops

• labor shortage in Europe

• A lot of Sharecroppers became broke or in deeper debt than the landholder.

  • They remained in poverty

• 1915-1915: Agricultural depression in the south

  • south was cut off from overseas market for cotton

• Industrialization of southern agriculture in the 1930’s reduced the dependence on AA labor

Why were White people down South mad that AA were migrating to the North?

• The could not afford to lose AA that were harvesting their crops

  • a financial issue

  • thousands of acers of rice and sugar cane are going to waste because of lack of labor

What were some downsides for AA living up North?

• Inadequate housing

  • residential overcrowding

  • AAs put in houses w/o kitchens, toilets, and heat

  • AAs were forced to pay extremely high rents

• racial discrimination

  • especially from white unions

  • race riots

  • Summer of 1919:there was a 9 day race riot

  • 1917-1921: When AAs tried to move from the “Black Belt” there were 58 counts of white people bombing black homeowners

• Most AA’s went up North without a plan

  • no definite employment plan or housing plan

  • caused for temporary camps to be put in place

What opportunities did AAs have up North?

• There was a company where AA’s were employed for 50 years up north

• Better education

  • Black children had longer and better education in North than the South

• Better protection

• AAs were able to buy homes and put money in banks (especially in Chicago)

• Immigration from Europe to Northern US caused demand for labor

  • industrial betterment

  • were able to obtain unskilled labor in rail yards/roads

    • The Pennsylvania railroad had 3-5k AAs employed

• White miners up North went on strike so AA’s were employed

• In Detroit, the automobile industry increased the employment of AA

• In Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago, and Gary steel mills hired thousands of southern AA men.

• A lot of AA women got jobs as laundresses, cleaning women, and maids (all higher wages than the south)

• Had more say in politics

• Black churches, social clubs, fraternal and social welfare organizations flourished

What was Racism like up North?

• Hate crimes in St. Louis Illinois

  • Whites did not want AAs in town anymore, so they resorted to violence

• There was Racism up North and they were deceived by the fact that Lincoln was from Illinois and thought that there would be no racism there

  • residential segregationde facto segregation

  • A lot of White people declined AAs looking for a job

  • AAs were regulated to janitorial or common labor

  • White workers would walk out of jobs when AAs were employed

What were tactics that the South used to convince Black people to move down South?

• They tried to say that they would provide transportation, better wages and living conditions in the South

Why was there economic competition up North?

• groups (AAs and white ppl) were so nearly equal

• employers were trying to get cheap labor

• White people were trying to keep AAs out of jobs

How did word spread about opportunities up north?

• Word of mouth & letters spread among families and friends

• People from the same communities would plan to relocate in Northern neighborhoods

• The Chicago Defender was spread around the North and streamlined to the South

  • The Chicago Defender ridiculed the South and their low wages, and the lack of opportunity and freedom

  • The Defender also labeled the the North as the “promise land”

Why was Harlem significant?

• Harlem was an economic magnet and the “cultural capital of Black America”

• Harlem Renaissance

  • where black arts, music, and literature flourished

How did AAs participate in the politics up North?

• 1920-1928: AA’s in Chicago were able to elect AAs to the city council and state legislature

• Oscar Depriest was the first Black man to represent a northern district in congress

  • he was sent to the House of Representatives

• 1930’s: The National Negro Congress and “Don’t Buy Where You Can’t Work” campaigns were popular

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