The Great Migration
The Great Migration:
So we have already learned, that the Afro-Americans living in the South were facing a lot of discrimination and violence. It was almost impossible to break out of the economic and financial situation they were in, which means most of the Blacks lived in extreme poverty.
Beginning in the 1910‘s, many Southern Afro-Americans immigrated from the South to the North to escape the repressing consequences of the Jim Crow Laws which weren‘t as harsh in the North as in the South. They also hoped to get jobs in the North which was generally more open to employ Blacks.
From 1914 -1920, about 500,000 black Southernes moved to the North, many to cities like Chicago, New York, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Detroit. And when the U.S. joined WW1 in 1917 creating need for manual labourers, many Blacks recognized their chance, abandoned their agricultural life and worked in factories, creating a new economic position for many Afro-Americans.
Of course, still many communities didn‘t welcome Afro-Americans, considering them inferior just as the White Southerners did. Also, many older generations of Blacks, who had lived in the North all their life, resented the migration of Southerners as competition over living space, creating ghettos, as well as jobs became even tougher than before.
The Great Migration, continuing from the 1910‘s until the 1970‘s gave Black Americans the chance to achieve a better way of life and made way for Black America to expand and grow powerfully. This movement was essential for Afro-Americans to change their political, social and cultural position.
So we have already learned, that the Afro-Americans living in the South were facing a lot of discrimination and violence. It was almost impossible to break out of the economic and financial situation they were in, which means most of the Blacks lived in extreme poverty.
Beginning in the 1910‘s, many Southern Afro-Americans immigrated from the South to the North to escape the repressing consequences of the Jim Crow Laws which weren‘t as harsh in the North as in the South. They also hoped to get jobs in the North which was generally more open to employ Blacks.
From 1914 -1920, about 500,000 black Southernes moved to the North, many to cities like Chicago, New York, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Detroit. And when the U.S. joined WW1 in 1917 creating need for manual labourers, many Blacks recognized their chance, abandoned their agricultural life and worked in factories, creating a new economic position for many Afro-Americans.
Of course, still many communities didn‘t welcome Afro-Americans, considering them inferior just as the White Southerners did. Also, many older generations of Blacks, who had lived in the North all their life, resented the migration of Southerners as competition over living space, creating ghettos, as well as jobs became even tougher than before.
The Great Migration, continuing from the 1910‘s until the 1970‘s gave Black Americans the chance to achieve a better way of life and made way for Black America to expand and grow powerfully. This movement was essential for Afro-Americans to change their political, social and cultural position.
Sources: http://exhibitions.nypl.org/africanaage/essay-world-war-i.html
Vivienne Sanders; Civil Rights in the USA
Vivienne Sanders; Civil Rights in the USA