African American Great Migration

African American Great Migration
Name	African American Great Migration
Caption	Routes of population movement from the Southern United States to Northern, Midwestern, and Western cities
Period	1910s–1970s
Type	Internal migration

African American Great Migration The African American Great Migration was a prolonged movement of millions of Black residents from the Southern United States to Northern, Midwestern, and Western cities between the 1910s and 1970s. Influenced by labor demand, demographic shifts, legal regimes, and cultural networks, the migration reshaped urban landscapes in cities such as Chicago, New York City, Detroit, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia. It intersected with major events and institutions including World War I, World War II, the Harlem Renaissance, and the Civil Rights Movement.

Background and Causes

Economic push factors included mechanization of agriculture in the Cotton Belt, tenant farming decline after the Panic of 1907, and disruptions from boll weevil infestations affecting the Mississippi Delta. Labor pull factors involved industrial expansion in the Great Lakes region, shipbuilding on the Hudson River and Puget Sound, and wartime production at plants like Ford Motor Company and Bethlehem Steel. Political and legal contexts featured disfranchisement under Jim Crow laws enacted by state legislatures such as the Mississippi State Legislature and the Alabama Legislature, and court decisions from the Supreme Court of the United States including precedents sustaining segregation. Social networks formed through institutions like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the National Urban League, the Black church, and recruiting efforts by labor agents in cities such as Pittsburgh and Cleveland facilitated relocation. Migration was also driven by escape from racial terror exemplified by incidents in Tulsa, Wilmington, North Carolina, and riots like the Red Summer of 1919.

Phases and Demographic Patterns

Scholars delineate multiple phases: an early wave (1910–1930) concentrated on destinations such as Chicago, New York City, and Detroit; a wartime and immediate postwar wave (1940–1970) that expanded flows to Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle; and continued suburbanization after Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka and the Interstate Highway System. The migration altered county populations in regions like the Black Belt (U.S. South) and increased Black urban populations in Cook County, Illinois, Wayne County, Michigan, and Los Angeles County, California. Demographic patterns included gendered labor shifts involving women recruited to work in textile mills in Lowell, Massachusetts and service sectors in Baltimore. Statistical analyses by demographers referencing data from the United States Census Bureau show pronounced increases in occupational diversity and shifts in household structures in cities such as St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Kansas City, Missouri.

Destinations and Urban Impact

Major destinations developed concentrated neighborhoods—Harlem in Manhattan, Bronzeville in Chicago, Black Bottom in Detroit, and Central Avenue corridor in Los Angeles—that became nodes for churches like Abyssinian Baptist Church, mutual aid societies such as the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows, and cultural venues including the Apollo Theater, Cotton Club, and Lincoln Theatre. Municipal politics in cities like Chicago and Philadelphia were reshaped as Black voters influenced ward organizations and elected officials in bodies like the Chicago City Council and Philadelphia City Council. Urban infrastructure projects such as the Dan Ryan Expressway and slum clearance programs under the Housing Act of 1949 had disproportionate effects on African American neighborhoods in Bronx and Brooklyn. Migration contributed to the growth of Black-owned businesses exemplified by entrepreneurs tied to institutions like the National Negro Business League and professionals emerging from historically Black colleges such as Howard University and Tuskegee Institute.

Economic, Social, and Cultural Effects

Economically, migrants supplied labor to firms including Packard Motor Car Company, General Motors, and wartime shipyards at Sparrows Point; unions such as the United Auto Workers and the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters negotiated over interracial membership and workplace access. Socially, the migration produced new cultural movements: the Harlem Renaissance fostered writers like Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Claude McKay and musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Bessie Smith. Intellectual networks linked figures associated with the NAACP and the Black Panther Party later in the twentieth century. The movement transformed popular culture through radio stations like WBLS, record labels such as Motown Records in Detroit, and publishing houses including Random House that released works by Ralph Ellison and Richard Wright. Public health, housing, and schooling systems in cities like Brooklyn and Baltimore were reshaped by organizations like the Urban League and philanthropic entities such as the Rosenwald Fund.

Opposition, Policies, and Racial Violence

Resistance to migration and urban settlement included restrictive covenants enforced by real estate boards like the Chicago Real Estate Board and legal challenges adjudicated in courts such as the Supreme Court of the United States in cases including Shelley v. Kraemer. Racial violence and race riots erupted in cities including East St. Louis (1917), Chicago Race Riot (1919), Detroit Race Riot (1943), and Watts riots (1965), and Southern violence such as the Tulsa Race Massacre served as catalysts for flight. Federal policies like the National Housing Act of 1934 and practices by the Federal Housing Administration contributed to redlining that disadvantaged neighborhoods in Philadelphia and St. Louis. Labor opposition came from craft unions and employers uneasy about competition in places like Birmingham and Raleigh; antidiscrimination gains required activism through litigation by groups such as the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

Legacy and Long-term Consequences

Long-term consequences include the electoral realignment that made cities like Detroit and Cleveland central to the Civil Rights Movement and national politics, contributing to the careers of leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. and organizations like SNCC and SCLC. Urban cultural legacies persist in institutions such as the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, museums like the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and musical legacies from Motown to hip hop in The Bronx. Economic and spatial inequalities created by migration-era policies informed later movements addressing mass incarceration tied to legislation like the War on Drugs and advocacy by groups such as the NAACP and ACLU. Scholarship from historians like Isabel Wilkerson, Ira Berlin, and Alain Locke continues to interpret migration through archives held at universities including Columbia University, Howard University, and University of Chicago. The migration reshaped American society from municipal governance to cultural production in cities including New Orleans, Atlanta, Houston, Milwaukee, Baltimore, San Francisco, Oakland, Jacksonville, and Providence.

Category:African American history