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The Great MigrationAuthor(s): Joe William Trotter, Jr.Source: Magazine of History, Vol. 17, No. 1, World War I (Oct., 2002), pp. 31-33Published by: Organization of American Historians

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25163561Accessed: 17/04/2010 15:21

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 Magazine of History.

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Joe

William

Trotter

Jr.

The

Great

Migration

F'rom

the

onset

of the

international slave

trade

through

recent

times,

migration

has been

a

persistent

theme

in

African

American

history.

Yet,

only

with the advent

ofthe

Civil

War

and

emancipation

did

black

population

movement

take

on a

voluntary

character,

slowly

converging

with that of

other

groups.

With the

coming

ofWorld

War

I

and

its

aftermath,

blacks

made a fundamental break with

the

land

and

move

into

cities

in

large

numbers. The Great

Migra

tion

ofthe

early

twentieth

century

foreshadowed

the

long

run

trans

formation of African Americans

from

a

predominantly

rural

to

a

predominantly

urban

population.

It

not

only

reflected the African

Americans'

quest

for

freedom,

jobs,

and

social

justice,

but also the

emer

gence

of

new

patterns

of

race,

class,

and

ethnic relations

in

American

culture, society, and politics.

As

a

result of World War

I,

an

estimated

seven

hundred

thousand

to

one

million

blacks

left

the South.

Another

eight

hundred

thousand

to

one

million

left

during

the

1920s.

Although

the

prewar

migrants

moved

to

southern

cities

like

Norfolk,

Louisville,

Birmingham,

and

Atlanta

as

well

as

to

a

few northern

cities

like

Chicago,

Philadelphia,

and

New

York,

African Ameri

cans now

moved

throughout

the urban North and West

(see

table).

Moreover,

while

upper

South and border

states

repre

sented the chief

sources

of

out-migration

before

World War

I,

Deep

South

states

dominated the

migration

stream to

northern

and

western

cities.

Blacks born

in

Mississippi,

Alabama,

Georgia,

South

Carolina,

and

Louisiana,

for

example,

made

up

over

sixty

percent

ofthe black

population

increase

in

Chicago

(and

Illinois

in

general)

between 1910 and 1920. At

the

same

time,

more

black

men

than

women

migrated

during

the

war,

reversing

the

prewar

trend.

In

the

rapidly

industrializing

cities

of

Cleveland, Detroit,

and

Milwau

kee,

for

example,

the

sex

ratio

ranged

between

one

hundred

twenty to one hundred

forty

men to

every

one

hundred

women

during

the

war

years.

A

variety

of

factors

underlay

black

population

movement.

Afri

can

Americans

sought

an

alterna

tive

to

sharecropping,

disfranchisement,

and racial

injus

tice

in

the South.

In

1917,

the

African

Methodist

American

Church

Review

articulated

the forces that

propelled

blacks

out

of the

South.

Neither

character,

the

accumula

tion of property, the fostering of the Church, the schools and a

better

and

higher

standard of the

home had

made

a

difference

in

the

status

of black

southerners.

Confidence

in

the

sense

of

justice,

humanity

and

fair

play

of the white South

is

gone,

the

paper

concluded. One

migrant

articulated

the

same

mood

in

verse:

An'

let

one

race

have all de

South?Where

color lines

are

drawn?For

'Hagar's

child' done

[stem]

de

tide?Farewell?we're

good

and

gone.

African Americans

were

also

attracted

by

the

pull

of

opportu

nities in

the North. The

labor

demands

of northern

industries,

immigration

restriction

legislation,

and

greater

access

to

the

rights

of

citizens

(including

the

franchise)

all

encouraged

the

movement

... ' '.

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OAH Magazine

of

History

October 2002

31

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of

blacks

into

northern

cities.

Wages

in

northern industries

usually

ranged

from

$3

to

$5

per

eight-hour

day,

compared

to

as

little

as

$.75

to

$1 per

day

in

southern

agriculture

and

to

no more

than

$2.50

for

a

nine-hour

day

in

southern industries.

Moreover,

between

1915

and

1925,

the

average wages

of

domestics

in

some

northern

cities

doubled. Northern

cities

also

promised

access to

better health care, schools, and the vote.

African Americans

often viewed the

Great

Migration

to

northern

cities

in

glowing

terms:

The

Promised

Land,

the

Flight

out

of

Egypt,

and

Going

into

Canaan. One black

man

wrote

back

to

his southern

home,

The

(Col.)

men

are

making

good.

[The

job]

never

pays

less than

$3.00 per

day

for

(10)

hours.

In

her letter

home,

a

black

female

related,

I

am

well

and

thankful

to

say

I

am

doing

well

...

I

work

in

Swifts

Packing

Com

pany. Up

here,

another

migrant

said,

Our

people

are

in

a

different

light.

Over

and

over

again,

African Americans

con

firmed that:

Up

here,

a man can

be

a

man. As one southern black man wrote

home

from the

North,

I

should

have

been

here

twenty

years ago

...

I

just

begin

to

feel

like

a

man...

My

children

are

going

to

the

same

school

with the

whites and

I

don't have

to

humble

to

no

one.

I

have

registered.

Will

vote

in

the

next

election

and there

isn't

any yes

Sir

or

no

Sir. It's

all

yes

and

no,

Sam

and

Bill.

The Great

Migration

was

by

no means

a

simple

move

from

southern

agriculture

to

northern

cities.

It

had

specific regional

and

sub-regional

components.

More

blacks migrated to southern cities between

1900 and

1920 than

to

northern

ones.

Further,

African

Americans

frequently

comprised

from

twenty-five

to

fifty

per

cent

of the

total,

compared

to

little

more

than

ten

percent

in

northern

cities.

Be

fore

moving

to

northern

cities

like Phila

delphia,

Boston,

and

New

York,

for

example,

rural

migrants

first

moved

to

southern

cities

like

New

Orleans,

Jack

sonville,

Savannah,

Memphis,

Charles

ton,

and

Birmingham.

The

Southern,

Louisville,

Nashville,

the

St.

Louis and

San

Francisco,

and

the

Illinois Central railroads all traveled northward

from

Birmingham

and

Bessemer,

making

the

Jefferson County

cities

the

major

distribution

points

for blacks

going

north

from

Alabama.

In

Georgia,

cities

like

Columbus,

Americus,

and

Albany

served

as

distribution

points

for

blacks

leaving

from

west

Georgia

and

east

Alabama,

while

Valdosta,

Waycross,

Brunswick,

and

Savannah

served

as

distribution

centers

for blacks

leaving

the

depressed

agricultural

counties of southern and southeastern

Georgia.

To

blacks

moving

up

from

Mississippi,

Arkansas,

Alabama,

Louisi

ana,

and

Texas,

Chicago

was

the

logical

destination,

whereas

cities

in

Pennsylvania,

New

Jersey,

New

York,

and the

New

England

states

attracted

blacks

from

Florida,

South

Carolina,

Virginia,

and

Georgia. Upon

arrival

in

northern

cities,

black

population

movement

usually developed

secondary

streams.

As

one

contemporary

observer

noted,

All

of the arrivals here

[Chi

cago]

did

not

stay.

. . .

They

were

only

temporary

guests

awaiting

the

opportunity

to

proceed

further and settle

in

surrounding

cities

and

towns.

Southern blacks helped to organize their own movement into

the urban North.

They developed

an

extensive communications

network,

which included railroad

employees,

who

traveled back

and

forth between northern and southern

cities;

northern

black

weeklies

like

the

Chicago Defender

and the

Pittsburgh

Courier;

and

an

expanding

chain of kin and friends.

Using

their networks of families

and

friends,

African Americans

learned

about

transportation,

jobs,

and

housing

beforehand.

As

one

contemporary

ob

server

noted,

The

chief

stimuli

was

dis

cussion.

.

. .

The

talk

in

the barber

shops

and

grocery

stores

.

. .

soon

began

to

take

the form of

reasons

for

leaving.

Also

fueling the migration process were the

letters,

money,

and

testimonies

of

migrants

who returned

to

visit.

As

one

South

Carolina

migrant

to

Pittsburgh

recalled,

I

was

plowing

in

the field and

it

was

real hot.

And

I

stayed

with

some

of the

boys

who

would

leave

home

and

[come]

back... and

would

have

money,

and

they

had clothes.

I

didn't have that.

We

all

grew up

together.

And

I

said,

'Well,

as

long

as

I

stay

here I'm

going

to

get

nowhere.'

And

I

tied

that

mule

to

a

tree

and

caught

a

train.

Other

migrants

formed

migration

clubs, pooled their resources, and

moved

in

groups.

Deeply

enmeshed

in

black kin

and

friendship

networks,

black

women

played

a

conspicuous

role

in

helping

to

organize

the black

migra

tion.

As

recent

scholarship

suggests,

women were

the

primary

kin

keep

ers.

Moreover,

they

often

had their

own

gender-specific

reasons

for leav

ing

the

rural

South.

African American

women

resented

stereotyped

images

of

the

black

mammy

,

who

presumably

placed

loyalty

to

white

families

above

her

own.

African

American

women's

migration

reinforced

the

notion

that

lifting

the

race

and

improving

the

image

of black

women

were

compatible

goals.

As African Americans

moved

into

northern

cities

in

growing

numbers,

a

black

industrial

working

class

emerged.

Southern

black

sharecroppers,

farm

laborers,

sawmill

hands,

dock

workers,

and

railroad

hands all

moved

into

new

positions

in

the urban

economy.

In

Cleveland,

Pittsburgh,

Detroit,

and

Milwaukee,

the

percentage

of

black

men

employed

in

industrial

jobs

increased

from

an

estimated

ten

to

twenty

percent

of

the

black

labor

force

in

1910

to

about

sixty

to

seventy

percent

in

1920 and

1930.

African American

women

also

entered

industrial

jobs,

although

BAPTIST

MEK

ME

PROBLEM

The

Ohio

Colored

Baptist

Women's

association,

during

its

eleventh

an

nual

convention at

the

Mount

Haven

Baptist

church,

3725

Cedar

avenue

S.

E.,

took

up

the

problem

of

looking

after

thousands

of

Colored

children

who

have

come

into

the

state

recently

pom

the

south.

The

rush

of

Colored

laborers

and

their

families to

northern

states in

the

last

few

months

has

brought

this

prob

lem

of children

directly

up

to

Colored

Baptists

and

mission

workers._

Newly

arrived

African

Americans,

removed

from

extended

families,

had

no one

to

watch their children

while

they

went to work.

This

article

appeared

in the

Cleveland

Advocate,

27 October 1917.

(Ohio

Historical

Center

Archives,

also

a

part

of the American

Memory

collections

at

the

Library

of

Congress.)

32 OAH Magazine of History October 2002

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their

gains

were

far less than those of black

men.

In

Chicago,

the

percentage

of black

women

in

manufacturing

trades increased

from

less than

one

thousand

in

1910

to

over

three thousand

in

1920.

Industrial

jobs

now

made

up

fifteen

percent

of the

black

female labor

force

compared

to

less than

seven

percent

in

1910.

While

labor

agents helped

to

recruit

black workers for

jobs

in

meatpacking,

auto,

steel,

and other

mass

production

industries,

these

labor

agents

were soon

supplanted by

the

expansion

of black

familial and communal networks.

Employers

testified

that,

After

the

initial

group

movement

by

agents,

Negroes kept going

by

twos

and

threes.

These

were

drawn

by

letters,

and

by

actual advances

of

money,

from

Negroes

who had

already

settled

in

the North.

.

.

.

every

Negro

that makes

good

in

the

North and

writes

back

to

his

friends

starts

off

a

new

group.

Although

African

Americans

improved

their lot

by taking

jobs

in

urban

industries,

they

nonetheless

entered

the

industrial

economy

at

the lowest

rungs

of the

occupational

ladder.

More

over,

as

their numbers increased

in

northern and

western

cities,

they

faced

growing

restrictions

on

where

they

could

stay,

educate

their

children,

and

gain

access

to

much needed social

services

and

public

accommodations. Race

violence

erupted

in

Chicago,

East

St.

Louis,

Pittsburgh,

and

Philadelphia during

the

era

ofthe Great

Migration.

Race

riots

not

only

helped

to

reinforce residential

segregation

in

northern

cities,

they highlighted

the

growing

nationalization

of

the

race

question

in

American

society.

African

Americans

responded

to

the

impact

of

class and racial

restrictions

on

their lives

by intensifying

their

institution-build

ing,

cultural,

political,

economic,

and

civil

rights

activities.

They

built

churches,

mutual

aid

societies,

fraternal

orders,

and social

clubs;

established

a

range

of

new

business and

professional

ser

vices;

and launched diverse

labor,

civil

rights,

and

political

orga

nizations.

These

activities

culminated

in

the

rise

of

the

New

Negro

movement

during

World

War

I

and

its

flourishing during

the

1920s.

The

Garvey

Movement,

the

cultural

renaissance

in

Harlem and

elsewhere,

the

growing

militancy

of

the

National

Association for

the Advancement of

Colored

People,

the

spread

of the

National

Urban

League

movement,

and

the

emergence

of

the

Brotherhood of

Sleeping

Car Porters

gained

stimulus from

the

mass

migration

of

blacks from the

rural and

urban South

into

the

cities

of the North and West.

As

the

nation

entered

the

Depression

and World

War

II,

the

Great

Migration

continued

to

transform

both black and white

America. The

technological

revolution

in

southern

agriculture,

the

emergence

of

the

New

Deal welfare

state,

and the militant

modern civil

rights

and

black

power

movements

ofthe

1950s

and

1960s,

all

helped

to

complete

the

long-run

transformation of

blacks

from

a

predominantly

rural

to

a

predominantly

urban

people. By

1970,

African

Americans,

beginning

as

the

most

rural

of

Americans,

had

not

only

become the

most

urbanized

segment

ofthe

U.S.

population,

they

also

posed

the

most

salient

challenge

to

the nation's

status

quo.

Note:

The author wishes to thank Macmillan

Publishing

Company

for

permission

to

reprint

portions

of

his

essay

on

black

population

movement,

in

Jack

Saltzman,

ed.,

Encyclopedia

of African

American Culture and

History (1996).

Bibliography

Grossman,

James

R.

Land

of Hope:

Chicago,

Black

Southerners,

and the

Great

Migration.

Chicago,

IL:

University

of

Chicago

Press,

1989.

Harrison, Alferdteen. Black Exodus: The Great Migration from theAmerican South.

Jackson,

MS:

University

of

Mississippi

Press,

1991.

Lemann,

Nicholas. The

Promised Land: The Great

Black

Migration

and

How

it

Changed

America. New

York:

Alfred A.

Knopf,

1991.

Marks,

Carole.

Farewell?We're

Good and Gone:

The Great

Migration.

Bloomington,

IN:

Indiana

University

Press,

1989.

Painter,

Nell Irvin.

Exodusters: Black

Migration

to

Kansas

after

Reconstruction.

New

York:

Knopf,

1977.

Trotter,

Joe

William,

Jr.,

ed.

The Great

Migration

in

Historical

Perspective:

New

Dimensions

of

Race, Class,

and Gender.

Bloomington,

IN:

Indiana Univer

sity

Press,

1991.

Trotter,

Joe

William,

Jr.,

Afro-American

Urban

History:

A

Critique

of

the

Literature,

in

Joe

William

Trotter,

Jr.,

Black Milwaukee:

The

Making of

an

Industrial

Proletariat,

1915-45.

Urbana,

IL:

University

of

Illinois

Press,

1985.

Trotter,

Joe

William,

Jr.,

The

African

American

Experience.

Boston,

MA:

Houghton

Mifflin

Company,

2001.

Joe

William

Trotter

Jr.

is

Department

Head

and Mellon

Professor

of

History

at

Carnegie

Mellon

University.

He

is

currently

President

ofthe

Labor

and

Working

Class

History

Association

and directs

Carnegie

Mellon

s

Center

for

African

American

Urban Studies

and the

Economy

(CAUSE).

As

well

as

several

scholarly

essays, books,

and

edited

volumes

on

African

American

urban

and

Labor

history,

he

is

also the

author

of

the

college

textbook,

The

African

American

Experience

(Boston:

Houghton

Mifflin,

2001).

4

Continued

from

page

30

States would

help

defeat

Germany

but also

prevent

a

vengeful

peace

by

the

Allies?see

John

Milton

Cooper, Jr.,

The Warrior and

the Priest: Woodrow

Wilson

and Theodore Roosevelt

(Cambridge,

MA:

The

Belknap

Press of

Harvard

University

Press, 1983),

288-333.

24-

Wilson

visited the

State,

War,

and

Navy Department

Building

from

4:00

to

4:30

p.m.

on

Monday,

26 March

1917,

see

Head Usher's White

House

Diary,

1913-1921. The

president

probably

returned

the

telegram

to

Baker

after

the

cabinet

meeting

that

began

at

2:30

p.m.,

Tuesday,

27 March

1917.

Time

ofthe

cabinet

meeting

recorded

in

Executive

Office

Diary.

The

late

Arthur

S. Link

kindly

allowed

me

to

consult

this

in

the

Office

of the

Papers

of

Woodrow

Wilson,

Firestone

Library,

Princeton

University.

25. 28 March

conference

of

Baker

and

the

generals

to

go

over

the

new

conscrip

tion

plan reported

in

Crowder

to

Stimson,

29

March, 1917,

cited earlier.

Baker

delivered

to

the

president

Crowder's

two-page summary

ofthe bill

to

increase

temporarily

the

military

indicating

that the

Additional Forces

would

be raised

solely by

selective

conscription.

Baker

to

Wilson,

29

March

1917,

and

enclosure

cited

earlier.

26.

On the

battle

over

conscription

in

Congress,

which

is

when

the Roosevelt

Volunteers became

a

public issue,

see

Chambers, To Raise

an

Army, 153-77.

27.

Chambers,

To Raise

an

Army,

144-51;

Arthur S.

Link,

Woodrow Wilson:

Revolution,

War

and Peace

(Arlington

HeightsJL:

AHM

Publishing Corpo

ration,

1979),

69-71;

and

Allan R.

Miilett,

Over Where?

The

AEF

and

the

American

Strategy

for

Victory,

1917-1918,

in

Kenneth

J.

Hagan

and

William R.

Roberts, eds.,

Against

All Enemies:

Interpretations of

American

Military

History from

Colonial

Times

to

the Present

(Westport,CT:

Green

wood

Press,

1986),

235-56.

John

Whiteclay

Chambers

II

is

professor

and

former

chair

ofthe

History Department

at

Rutgers

University,

New

Brunswick,

New

Jersey.

Two

of

his

books,

To

Raise

an

Army:

The Draft

Comes

to

Modem

America

(1987)

and

The

Oxford

Companion

to

American

Military

History

(1999),

won

Distinguished

Book

Awards

from

the

Society for

Military

History.

OAH

Magazine

of

History

October

2002 33