Causes Of The Great Migration

Have you ever heard of the Great Migration? No, it is not about birds or ducks. It is actually about the movement of the African- Americans to the north. The start of the migration was as simple as can be, to escape segregation. During the great migration, the blacks suffered many situations relating to segregation. The results of the great migration affected urban life in the United States. Between the dates 1917-1970, about 6 million African- Americans migrated from the south, creating the movement we all know as The Great Migration. Before the Great Migration, black southerners faced problems of segregation. The cause of the Great Migration was the desire of the African-Americans to escape segregation known as Jim Crow. They believed the racism was less prominent in the North. Little did they know, that was not the case. When
Therefore, the African- American culture was reborn in the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was the social and cultural boom that took place in Harlem around the 1930’s. During the mid 1920s, it was known as “The New Negro Movement”. It was shortly renamed “Harlem Renaissance” by Alain Locke. Although it was a depressing time period, people found it the time to introduce new things. Things they produced ,such as paintings and blues became a big factor in representing how they felt. Jacob Lawrence encouraged a great amount of people to leave their homes using his art work. Lawrence pointed out the physical and economic problems that pushed people to move to the north. After the War, when the soldiers had returned to their jobs, they noticed that their spots in the factory’s had been taken by poor African Americans. This created the hatred towards African- Americans because they had taken Caucasian jobs in the factories.("Saved and Sanctified: The Rise of a Storefront Church in Great Migration Philadelphia." Religious Studies Review, vol. 39, no.