LEARNING TOGETHER: The Story of America
So, did anything good come from the Great Migration? Yes, the silver lining was that this was a time of the rise of black culture, self-pride, and independence. These overcrowded areas gave birth to pockets of robust Black communities such as in New York City you have the creation of Black Harlem. Out of this era came the Harlem Renaissance when urban culture and art blossomed with Black writers (Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes), actors (Dorothy Dandridge), dancers (Josephine Baker), intellectuals (W.E.B. Du Bois) and musicians (Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong). Music like ragtime, jazz and blues came to life.
The New Negro Movement was a time when Black people knocked down doors to opportunities in sports, politics, businesses, medicine, legal, newspapers, theaters, music companies, nightclubs, homeownership, and a massive number of Black churches rose across the nation. It was a time of Black cultural pride.
The Great Depression slowed the migration out of the South for a brief time. By the 1970s, African Americans started to return to the South. Many felt that progress made by the Civil Rights Movement was partly responsible for Black Americans reclaiming their Southern roots. The New South as it was called promised improvements in race relations and the end of Jim Crow Laws.
But has The New South really changed that much from the old Southern way of life? Or is it the same old racism and discrimination hiding in plain sight waiting for the right opportunities to rise again?
5-part mini-series
OUR HISTORY MATTERS
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