What Is The Great Migration?

The Great Migration was a movement of 6 million African Americans from the rural South to the urban North, Midwest and West which occurred from 1916 to 1970. Southerns were driven out of South due to lack economic opportunities and harsh segregationist laws. (Great Migration) The need of industrial workers grew due the the first world war was to their advantage. African American population expanded exponentially in New York, Chicago and many other cities. Before the great migration, African Americans took up 2 percent of Chicago's population, yet by 1970, African Americans took up 33 percent. (James Grossman) Not everything during the great migration was pleasant. Migrants faced poor working conditions, racism and difficulty finding a living
Black southerners were forced to make a living by working on the farm. This offered very little freedom and opportunity, especially due to the boll weevil epidemic in 1898 which caused crop damage all across the South. (Great Migration) Around 1916 the North offered a job at the factory with a salary three times more than what African Americans would expect to make in the South.(Great Migration) Because of these many economic opportunities, African Americans moved North. In 1900, nine out of every 10 African Americans lived in the South, and three out of every four lived on farms, by 1970 the South was home to less than half of African-Americans, with only 25 percent living in rural areas. (The Great Migration) “ Northern cities grew by large percentages, including New York (66 percent) Chicago (148 percent), Philadelphia (500 percent) and Detroit (611 percent).” (Great Migration) Migrants found new jobs, some that were dangerous. Female migrants had a harder time finding jobs which ended up creating competition between the sexes. Also, due to the North having more of a white population, finding homes for African Americans to live in was challenging. (Tolnay, Stewart