The Great Migration: 1910-1970

They would walk miles to help their families, to have a happier life, to find work, and to be free. The Great Migration was a turning point for African American history. The Great Migration was “a movement of of African Americans from rural southern United States to north, northeast, midwest, and west of the United States”(Great Migration African American). “During this time six million African Americans migrated”(The Great Migration). This took place during the twentieth century 1910-1970. The reasons The Great Migration took place are ones that we no longer have to deal with today and the impact it had is why we are the way we are today. There are many reasons for the cause of The Great Migration. One reason was the Europeans, “The Europeans were immigrating to the United States, but during WW1
the immigrating slowed”(The Great Migration).
Due to the immigration slowing, businesses began to have labor shortages. As a result of the labor shortages African Americans began to migrate to the north for work. Another reason for The Great Migration, was the poor conditions in the south. An example is the boll weevil, the boll weevil came and ate most all the crops in the south, during the twentieth century. “After the American Civil War, slavery ended, not having any money or land african americans became sharecroppers”(Great Migration). Sharecroppers were people who agreed to maintain a person's crops in return for food and shelter. As a result of the boll weevil eating the crops, african americans did not get the return of food and shelter and most of them lost their jobs. For this reason is why hey had to migrate north. Even though there
were poor conditions in the south, the major reason for The Great Migration were Jim Crow laws. African Americans were just recently freed and in the south people didn't like that. To take action against the recently freed blacks, the south inforced Jim Crow laws. These laws forced blacks and whites to have separate things, for example bathrooms. Even though they both had bathrooms the colored bathrooms might not have toilet paper or be extremely dirty because no one would clean them. Due to the unfair segregation laws in the south African Americans moved north. In the north there were few segregation laws and everyone were treated as equals. There were six million to migrate north, that had to have impacted on the united states somehow. An example of the impact The Great Migration had is change in northern cities. “Cities such as Chicago and New York saw their population grow expediently”(Impact of Great Migration). One city that grew expediently was Harlem in New York it was an all white neighborhood,but during The Great Migration “the neighborhood housed 200,000 African Americans”(Impact of Great Migration). Not only was there changes in the north the United States changed as a whole. “In 1900, nine out of every 10 blacks lived in the south and by 1970 the south was home to less than half of the african american population”(Impact of Great Migration). The migration lasted 60 years, and in the end most all were happy. The worries about jobs, food, shelter, and their families lives were finally at ease. The Great Migration was also a turning point for African American history because they took action when european immigration slowed, they took action when hard times came upon the south, and when they were treated unfairly. They took action by choosing the best path for their families and for themselves and that path was migrating north.