Great Migration of African Americans from South to North (jan 1, 1916 – jan 1, 1970)

Description:

Great Migration: The migration of more than 400,000 African Americans from the rural South to the industrial cities of the North during and after World War I.


Racial repression also marked the years during and after World War I. The beginning of the Great Migration — a decades-long migration between 1916 and 1970 that would ultimately see 6 million black people exit the South — had drawn hundreds of thousands of African Americans from the South to northern and midwestern industrial cities for war work. These migrants found more economic clout and stronger voting rights in the North, which in turn fostered community building and a drive for racial justice (see “Firsthand Accounts”). However, the arrival of these southern migrants during the war deepened existing racial tensions, as African Americans competed with whites — including recent immigrants from Europe — for jobs and scarce housing.

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