LEARNING TOGETHER: The Story of America
In the early 1900s, about ninety percent of African Americans lived and worked in the rural South. But, just a few years later, between 1916 to 1970 over six million Blacks moved from the farms to the urban Northeast, Midwest, and West, some even traveled as far as the Caribbean Islands, Canada, London, and Paris. This mass exodus is referred to as The Great Migration or The Great Northward Migration.
During this period, there were two major migrations. The first relocations occurred between 1916-1940 when over a million African Americans fled to places like New York City, Chicago, and Philadelphia. The second migration occurred between 1940-1970 which included people traveling west to Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, and Seattle. This time over five million Black folks headed to the Midwest and West.
Although, Black Americans were no longer slaves, they weren’t free to go when and where they wanted to go. This was especially true in the South during the Great Migration. What happens when white Southerners refuse to let their Black citizens go north? See Part 2
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OUR HISTORY MATTERS
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