The Great Migration

If the US history have been marked by massive waves of external immigration through the years, mostly at the end of the 19th century with the opening of Ellis Island as the largest immigration station of the country for instance, internal movements of population took place as well. Indeed, on the eve of the first world war, around 1910, comes the first wave of what is known as the Great Migration, which second major wave starts in the 40’s and eventually gets to an end in 1970.  In 60 years, about 6 million of African Americans decided to leave the segregationist south to the urban north, full of hope to achieve better conditions of living, both on economic and social levels.

What led millions of afro Americans to massively migrate within the country from 1910 to 1970 and what impact did this great migration had on US politics and economy?

To answer this, I will first deal with the various reasons behind this great internal movement, between economic and social issues enhanced by the remains of the civil war. Then, I will talk about the harsh conditions of migration and obstacles encountered by the moving populations, about the migrating process. Finally, I will end my presentation by showing the impact of the Great Migration on the US society, on its demography, political ground, and culture.

1. The reasons behind the Great Migration

Economic factors are often what lead populations to migrate in order to get the opportunity to find a better job, to grow financially more easily and to eventually increase the standard of living. As a result of the civil war and years of slavery, most afro Americans still suffered from the plantation economy which the south was still benefiting. Even though they were now legally free workers, some would still have to work under harsh conditions and the wage would still be insignificant. For instance, many of them were sharecroppers:  they were working as farmers for landowners, often former slave owners, and only received as a wage a part of the harvest, hence the word “share” croppers^[1].

The north being a massively industrialized region and based on a factory economy as well as the lack of local workers due to “the loss of 5 million men who left to serve in the armed forces” after World War I created a large demand for workers. ^[2] 

This need for workers was so high that some black southerners were even getting paid to migrate to the north, with the example of the Pennsylvania Railroad^[3] that got 12 000 afro Americans to cross the country at its own expanse in 1916.^[4]

In addition of the resulting economic issues of the Civil War and expansively of the Reconstruction era, the black codes and then the Jim Crow Laws^[5], active from 1877 to 1964, brought other serious problems, rather social and political. Indeed, it was under these segregationist and deeply racist laws that afro Americans living in the south faced discriminations of all sorts, from being denied a fair justice-system, education, and some public spaces to getting physically assaulted and even murdered. It was not uncommon for them to get “lynched”, for instance.

To sum up, between economic motives and remaining social and racist issues, in the 1910’s, it is more than 440 000 afro Americans that chose to leave the south to settle in the northern areas of the country^[6], but not without obstacles.

1. The process of the Great Migration

During the first wave, which could be considered as the prequel of the following one, about more than 1.6 million^[7] afro Americans from mostly southern rural areas decided to head to the north, and most commonly in industrialized big cities such as New York and Chicago in which job opportunities did not lack of. At first, to encourage migration and get workers to come in northern cities, agents were engaged by companies to recruit black people and make the north seem to be a sort of promised land, as attractive and free as ever^[8]. The creation of the Chicago Defender in 1905, a black owned newspaper, also played its part in promoting the north and attracting afro Americans by publishing testimonies and letters from north settlers, sharing their experience in urban areas^[9].

But soon, they were no need to anymore, and the growing process of mass migration was engaged.

Even though in 1930, during the period of great Depression, the migration seems to be in hold, with the lowest number of migrations since the 1910’s (390 000), the highest point is soon to be reached and a threshold crossed when, in the 40’s, about 1.5 million migrate and mark the beginning of the second wave, way more consequent in terms of numbers.

Migration was for most a necessity, and despite the harshness of life in the natal land, leaving was not without difficulties and risks.

In addition of the traveling problem, finances were to be questioned as well, as migrating comes at a cost, and a high one. Most of migrants had to sell their ownings, from lands to personal belongings, or borrow money just to finance the traveling.  It was not uncommon for young men to migrate first and get a job as unskilled worker in factories so that the rest of their family would be sent the earned money to be able to make it to the North.^[10]

Few traveling options were offered to migrants, and segregation was even more an issue when it comes to taking buses and trains, often overcrowded. Some of them had no other option than to make the trip to north by “horse-drawn cart, or even by foot”^[11].

Even after reaching the wanted destination (or not), the journey was only starting, and the so desired new life still to be achieved. Some organizations, such as the National Association for the advancement of Colored People^[12], were created to help the new entrants to integrate and most specifically to find jobs easily, housing and many other essential services. For the ones that quickly found jobs, they were often “in factories, slaughterhouses and foundries” and the “working conditions were arduous and sometimes dangerous”^[13]. Moreover, the promise of a safer and more open environment was not quite reached knowing that racism, although not legal in the North, was still deeply rooted and shown through the refusal of renting houses to some black households for instance, or segregated neighbourhoods.

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