The Great Migration
The History and its Impact
Great Migration
Richard Wright
Author of NATIVE SON and BLACK BOY
Great Migration
World War I
The start of the
Great Migration.
Change in Immigration to U.S.
1914
1918
1,218,480
110,618
Six million blacks left
rice plantations,
tobacco farms,
cotton fields and
fruit groves to go
North.
Great Migration headed North…
Painting by Jacob Lawrence
Moving North
Black family arrives in Chicago
(www.blackpast.org/.../great-migration-1915-1960)
Cotton sharecroppers during the 1930s
Courtesy of Alabama Department of Archives and History
Teaching
Motivation to leave the South
• Push Factors:
• Pull Factors
• Jim Crow
• Bad economy
• Lynchings
• Better jobs
• Less discrimination
• Higher wages
Farm mechanization spurred migration
www.foresthistory.org/.../images/fig97.jpg
Jim Crow Laws
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Marriage
Barbershop
Burial
Service in restaurants
Baseball
Use of parks
Sale of liquor
Separate entrances…
OnStage Atlanta Theatre Company 2597 N. Decatur Rd. Atlanta, GA 30033
Great Migration
www.1st-art-gallery.com/thumbnail/132478/1/Ge
Three who made the
trek north.
Ida Mae Gladney
George Starling
Robert Foster
Dr. Robert Pershing Foster
ebookfriend.ly/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/5bd...
General John J. Pershing
bp.blogspot.com/__dCb5tmxOb0/TNn1lPUJXOI/AA...
Bill Russell receiving Presidential Medal
thatsenuff.com/.../bill-russell-barack-obama.jpg
Leaving the South
painting by Jacob Lawrence
Dr. Robert Pershing Foster
ebookfriend.ly/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/5bd...
In Nashville, Tennessee
img.groundspeak.com/waymarking/9532dcbf-5619-...
Buick Roadmaster
www.2blowhards.com/1947%20Buick%20Roadmaster.jpg
Nuevo Laredo, Mexico
texaswatertowers.com/.../postcard_laredo_1.jpg
Travel Guide
abagond.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/greenbook...
Lordsburg, New Mexico
www.vintagepostcards.org/cathy/lordsburg-nm-n...
On to Phoenix…
Dr. Robert Pershing Foster
ebookfriend.ly/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/5bd...
Heading to California
Dr. Foster’s Trek to California
Monroe to Houston
(350 Miles – 7 hours)
Houston to Nuevo Laredo
(300+ miles – 6 hours)
Nuevo Laredo to
Lordsburg, NM
(766 miles – 15 hours)
Lordsburg – San Diego
(600 miles – 11 hours)
Dr. Robert Pershing Foster
ebookfriend.ly/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/5bd...
Ray Charles
www.nndb.com/.../ray-charles-younger.jpg
“Hide Nor Hair”
djdiddywah.com/pix/RayCharlesHideNorHair.JPG
Dr. Robert Pershing Foster
ebookfriend.ly/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/5bd...
Great Migration
New York, Chicago, St. Louis
Painting by Jacob Lawrence
1916 - 2016
Great Migration
Culture….
•Repertoire of beliefs and
behaviors
•Assumptions and conduct
•Reflects history and teaching
•Change over time
Great Migration