Great Migration of African Americans

1. “The coming problem of agricultural displacement in the Delta and the whole South is of huge proportions and must concern the entire nation…. The country is upon the brink of a process of change as great as any that has occurred since the Industrial Revolution. Five million people will be removed from the land within the next few years. They must go somewhere. But where? They must do something. But what?... Most of this group are farm Negros, totally unprepared for urban, industrial life. What will be their reception at the hands of… workers whose jobs ad wages they threaten?” – David Cohn, 1947

2. African American Genealogy Conference April 5, 2014 / Hennepin County Library • If you are African American, the Probability of having – ancestors from the southeastern USA – ancestry including slaves.

3. Mass migrations of African Americans in U.S. history 1. Slave trade - 1700s 2. Rural South to Urban North – 1900s 3. Migration out of ghettos to suburbs and Sunbelt – after WWII and accelerating in more recent decades 4. 1990s to today: New migration of Africans to the U.S. Great Migrations of African Americans

4. Human Migrations: Basic Terms These “Great Black Migrations” all embody basic migration characteristics • Humans are very mobile and adaptive – we are “generalists” in ecosystems • Importance of migrations in human history • Ethnic geography of USA product of mass migrations • Migrations include many stories – of optimism and adventure, and of brutality and suffering – and result in booms and busts – examples? Why do people migrate? • Forced migrations • Voluntary: result of Push and Pull factors that are environmental, political, and/or economic in nature Basic categories of migrations: • International • Internal: inter and intra- regional • Rural –to – Urban / Suburbanization & sprawl • New forms of Mobility and resulting Lifestyle related migrations Common Patterns • Migration Chains - Why do migrants tend to follow similar routes? • Pioneers establish Enclaves – others follow. Why? Examples? • Barriers to Migration (physical, political, cultural) and Xenophobia (What factors increase it?)

5. Trans-Atlantic Triangle Trade • Largest Forced Migration in History – more than 10 million migrated • First slave ship to U.S. 1619 Jamestown / 1833 – British Slave trade outlawed • U.S. Civil War, Emancipation Proclamation, and 13th Amendment end slavery in U.S. The Trans- Atlantic Superhighway of the 18th Century Most African Americans are descended from slaves

6. Migration away from the Ghetto • Origin of term “Ghetto” • Urban concentration of African Americans – density often 20X of typical suburb • Example of Baltimore – nearly all of the quarter million pop’n in one mile2 neighborhood NW of downtown • Outward expansion from overcrowded urban neighborhoods - led by middle class blacks - starts after WWII but meets great resistance. • More recently: Return to the South – Appeal of the Sunbelt

7. New Immigration from Africa • Starts about 1990 to present – 1980 Refugee Act • First significant immigration of Sub-Saharan Africans since slave era • Over 2.8 million Americans reported ancestry from Sub-Sahara Africa on 2010 Census. • Top countries of origin: Nigeria, Ethiopia, Somalia

8. African American distribution today - a product of many migrations Percent African American by County 2010 Source: U.S. Census. Image by Center for a Better South using SocialExplorer.com http://blackdemographics.com/population/black-state-population/

9. Great Migration of African Americans Conditions in the South after Slavery • Segregation, Jim Crow laws, KKK, Lynchings • As Reconstruction era ends, all-white Southern Democrat party comes into dominance • 1900 – over 90% of U.S. blacks in south, mostly rural • Over six million will migrate north or west • TPT Documentary “Slavery by a Different Name” – chain gangs provide cheap work force http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Cotton+pickers+in+south&FORM=HDRSC2#view=detail&id=D4ACE3022944FC0AF26F66B4BEC73BD62754CE5C&selectedIndex=41

10. • Sharecropping would dominate the South’s agricultural economy for 80 years after the end of the Civil War • Cotton picking: one of the few employment arenas open to blacks North Carolina Source: Learn North Carolina

11. • Vast majority of southern blacks to become sharecroppers after the Civil War – Rent paid via a portion of the crop – “Feudalism” – Landlord rationale - Labor needed to pick cotton • Why did most sharecroppers grow cash crops instead of food to feed the family? Sharecropping http://imgc.allpostersimages.com/images/P-473-488-90/15/1507/TE3BD00Z/posters/william-aiken-walker-cotton-pickers-in-the-american-south.jpg

12. Sharecropping in Mississippi Delta • Land in large plantations, each a fiefdom • Workers paid once a year at “The Settle”, and often in scrip Cotton, the least mechanized commercial crop in U.S. Photo: http://thejackalmanblog.com

13. Great Migration of African Americans Basics of the largest internal migration in U.S. History • Categorization: Voluntary, Inter-regional, Rural-to-urban • These the traits of many American migrations during 20th Century. • Many Push factors and Lure of North “The Promised Land” • Pull Factors – Jobs!, Industrialization, railroads and autos, schools, voting rights, freedoms Image: Rubenstein, J - Prentice Hall

14. Two Waves in the Great Migration Second Wave picks up during WWII New geographies including Westward Chicago #1 destination 1960s – migration slowing Deindustrialization of Rust Belt • First Wave 1910-1930 • Destination: northern industrial cities • Migration increases during WWI • Competition with other immigrants Image: http://memory.loc.gov/award/mhsdalad/220000/220105v.jpg

15. Great Migration of African Americans Black population % change by U.S. state 1900 to 1990 Light purple = Population decline Very light green = Population growth of 0.01-9.99% Light green = Population growth of 10.00-99% Green = Population growth of 100.00-999% Dark green = Population growth of 1,000.00-9,999% Very dark green/Black = Population growth of 10,000% Image: Rubenstein, J - Prentice Hall What do the states with the greatest increase have in common?

16. First Wave of the Great Black Migration • 1917: Chicago Defender - Enlisting Biblical imagery - launches “The Great Northern Drive”, encouraging southern blacks to come north • Low-skill jobs plentiful in Northern cities • Recruiters from large industries sent south • 1920s National Origins Laws restrict immigration • Migration slows during Great Depression

17. Outmigration Stirs Fears in South • “Negros are necessary to the south, and it is desirable that they should stay there and not migrate to the north” – Hortense Powdermaker, 1939 • 1930: Town leaders in Clarkesville, MS decide to address situation of black discontent and ask for a list of grievances: – “No good jobs, cheating at the settle, lynchings, being denied the courtesy of titles of Mr and Mrs, poor schools, no hospitals, no sidewalks or garbage collection….” • “Meanwhile in Chicago a black person could go anywhere, and could vote, and was not required to step off the sidewalk so that whites could pass, and was not called “boy” and did not have to sit in the back of the bus”. – From “The Promised Land” by Nicholas Lemann

18. St. Paul’s Rondo Neighborhood would be a destination for some during the 1920s Photo: Minnesota Historical Society

19. Part Two: Migration Resumes and Accelerates along with Modernization Does the work of 100 hands and cuts costs five-fold • Photo: Rosalia Matkin Mechanical Cotton Picker – changes everything in South

20. Second Wave – Mass Exodus from South • Mechanization and chemicals would eliminate need for most southern farm workers – North now seen as “safety valve” – Segregation organization “Citizens Council” in MS offers to pay one-way fares north • WWII vets coming home demanding rights • By now nearly all southern blacks know folks and of the way of life in the northern cities • Chicago South Side replaces Harlem as the capitol of black culture and nationalism • By 1960s demand for unskilled labor in steep decline

21. America’s Industrial Revolution Detroit’s Black Population : 1910 = 6,000 1960 = 500,000 Fordism: availability of low-skill jobs in industry Chicago’s Black Population: 1910: 40,000 1930: 234,000 1950: 492,000 1960: 813,000

22. World War II An era of great opportunity

23. Women’s roles expanding and wages increasing • Image: http://www.makingtracks.org/images/thumbs/1944_thumb.jpg

24. Black Shopkeeper in Chicago 1950 • In 1940, cotton picking paid $1-2 / day • An African American could make $5-$10 a day working in one of Chicago’s many factories, slaughterhouses, laundries, hotels, restaurants, or mail order houses Photo: http://tps.nl.edu/newman1.jpg

25. 1940: U.S. Hwy 1 would bring many of Florida’s African Americans north to Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York just as Hwy 51 would carry many from the Delta to Chicago. Photo: the Reporter, WCU.edu

26. Segregated Waiting Room in Jackson, MS Many would travel north on trains. Railroads would provide many jobs for new immigrants as well Source: Wordpress.com

27. 1949 Detroit Elementary school Pull Factors: wanting a better life for one’s family

28. Great Migration of African Americans Social Impact of the Great Migration • Distribution: By 1970 only half of America’s black population in the South • Black populations and communities in Northern Cities • Enclaves (ghettos) – Harlem, Chicago South Side • Race, race relations, racial inequalities no longer merely a Southern issue • Upheaval and Fear: • “Panic Peddlers”, White Flight, and Blockbusting • Being black becomes synonymous with being urban • “The Promised Land” – Upward mobility or disillusionment?

29. Overcrowding in Ghetto • Chicago neighborhoods: history / custom of fiercely maintained segregation • 1950 Chicago South Side “black belt” bursting at seam • 1950s Middle class blacks attempt to move into adjacent white neighborhoods – Woodlawn, Airport Homes, Cicero – Ensuing riots involved 1000s and lasted weeks • Thereafter Chicago city leaders would focus on greater density within the black belt of the South Side http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2243/2391132259_af94a82333_z.jpg

30. Building Upward in the Ghetto • 1962 Caprini-Green constructed and Robert Taylor Homes becomes the largest public housing project in the world • 1960s: deteriorating ghettos and fleeing black middle class

31. Great Migration of African Americans • Relocation diffusion and new forms of African American culture • Jazz – the first wholly American music form • Delta Blues roots of Chicago Blues Muddy Waters

32. 1920s Harlem Renaissance “Jazz is a good barometer of freedom. In its beginnings, the United States spawned certain ideals of freedom and independence through which eventually, jazz was evolved, and the music is so free that many people say it is the only unhampered, unhindered expression of complete freedom yet produced in this country.” --Duke Ellington Langston Hughes, poet of the Harlem Renaissance

33. Jacob Lawrence from “The Migration Series”

37. Aaron Douglas “Song of the Towers” 1936

38. African American Geneology http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8byrlp98Rs Note: Start at 2:30 min - 8:40 min “African American Lives” video series with Henry Lewis Gates, Jr

Great Migration of African Americans

Great Migration of African Americans

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