The Great Migration: Reading

BY THE NUMBERS
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The Great Migration SCAN
WHY AFRICAN-AMERICANS MOVED OUT OF THE SOUTH BY RODGER DOYLE
I t began between 1916 and 1918, when

more than 400,000 southern blacks went
north; at times, entire communities and
church organizations packed up and moved
virtually intact to New York, Detroit, Chica-
higher-paying manufacturing positions, thanks
in part to the newly mandated Fair Employ-
ment Practices Committee. Unions also helped,
as their leaders realized that it was better to
have blacks in the fold rather than using them
go and other northern cities. During the next as strikebreakers. But blacks lost some eco-
50 years, net migration of blacks from the nomic gains in the 1970s and 1980s because
South totaled over five million, with addi- of deindustrialization, and they began leaving
tional millions leaving but returning after a the North beginning in the 1970s, going to a
relatively short stay. In 1900, 90 percent of now booming South where prices were low
black Americans lived in the South, compared and the racial climate had improved.
with about 50 percent by 1970. It is sometimes said that the mechanical
Substantial migrations had occurred be- cotton picker, introduced in the 1940s, made
fore—for example, the movement to the Ok- farm hands redundant, thus putting pressure
lahoma Territory between 1890 and 1910— on them to migrate. But it was probably more
but nothing on the scale of the mass exodus of often the case that cotton growers adopted
1916–1918. Northern industry, newly de- the machines because labor had gone north-
prived of immigrant labor from Europe by ward. Another notion is that southern blacks
World War I, precipitated the migration, but migrated to northern states for the welfare
conditions in the South made migration possi- benefits, but no hard evidence for this propo-
ble. At the time, southern blacks were coping sition exists.
with the devastating effect of the boll weevil on
the cotton crop, which had thrown hundreds
1910
of thousands off the land. Industrialization in
the South, much of it financed by northern in- FURTHER
terests, made obsolete many black-dominated READING
occupations, such as blacksmithing. Mean-
while importation of cheap goods from the The Strange Career of Jim Crow.
North had eliminated local manufacturing C. Vann Woodward. Oxford
firms and, with them, jobs. Expanding Jim University Press, 1955.
Crow laws further oppressed blacks.
Indispensable for migration was a com- Migration and Residential
1970 Mobility in the United States.
munications system for spreading the news Larry Long. Russell Sage
about the North. In part, that task fell to black Foundation, 1988.
newspapers, notably the Chicago Defender,
which had many southern readers, and by Farewell — We’re Good and
agents of northern industry who came to the Gone: The Great Black
Migration. Carole Marks. Indiana
South to recruit blacks, at first even giving out University Press, 1989.
free railroad tickets to Chicago and other
cities. Soon migrants were relaying glowing Black Exodus: The Great
messages— letters that were often read from Migration from the American
African-Americans (percent of U.S. population)
pulpits. Nonprofit organizations, such as the South. Edited by Alferdteen
Less than 2 2 to 5 5 to 15 Harrison. University of Mississippi
Urban League, disseminated information 15 to 30 30 or more Press, 1991.
about jobs and housing to new migrants.
During the 1930s, opportunities dimin- Next month: The great migration and the The Great Migration in
ished in the North, and emigration slackened, formation of the black ghetto. Historical Perspective: New
RODGER DOYLE
not picking up again until World War II and Dimensions of Race, Class and
Gender. Edited by Joe William
the postwar boom. In the 1940s blacks began Rodger Doyle can be reached at Trotter, Jr. Indiana University
moving in large numbers up the ladder into [email protected] Press, 1991.
www.sciam.com SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN 25

COPYRIGHT 2004 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC.

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BY THE NUMBERS

I t began between 1916 and 1918, when

www.sciam.com SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN 25

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