The Great Migration The Great Migration was the movement of 6 million blacks out of the Southern United States to the Northeast, Midwest, and West from 1910 to 1970.

The First World War created a labor shortage in the United States by ending the mass immigration of Europeans workers who provided much of the labor to power American industry. Meanwhile, industrialists (big business men) were making money from the war, because America's closest allies, Great Britain and France, relied heavily upon the United States for supplies. To end the labor shortage, the industrialists encouraged white women, black men and women, and Mexicans to enter industrial occupations that they had been barred from before the war.

Tens of thousands of black southerners traveled North for work. As we look at the following pictures, think about some of the push and pull factors of the Great Migration. Why did blacks feel pushed from the South? Why did they feel pulled towards the North?

Paintings About the Migration (Movement) of the African Americans By Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000)

Due to the South's losing so much labor, the crops were left to dry and spoil.

Also, there had always been discrimination.

Another cause was lynching (hanging) Another cause was lynching (hanging). It was found that where there had been a lynching, the people who were reluctant (refusing) to leave at first left immediately after this.

The African Americans were given free passage on the railroads which was paid back by Northern industry. It was an agreement that the people brought North on these railroads were to pay back their passage after they had received jobs.

The Migration of the African Americans, Panel no. 1, 1940-1941

In every town African Americans were leaving by the hundreds to go North and enter into Northern industry (business).

They left the South in large numbers and they arrived in the North in large numbers.

After a while some communities in the south were left almost bare because many blacks left for the north.

Many men stayed behind until they could bring their families North.

After arriving North the African Americans had better housing conditions than they had in the south, but they still weren’t great.

As well as finding better housing conditions in the North, the migrants found very poor housing conditions in the North. They were forced into overcrowded and dilapidated (rundown) tenement houses.

In many cities in the North where the African Americans had been overcrowded in their own living quarters they attempted to spread out. This resulted in many of the race riots and the bombing of African Americans homes.

They arrived in Pittsburgh, one of the great industrial centers of the North, in large numbers.

The African Americans that had been brought North worked in large numbers in one of the principal industries, which was steel.

They also found discrimination in the North although it was much different from that which they had known in the South.

The African Americans being suddenly moved from out of doors and cramped into urban life, contracted a great deal of tuberculosis. Because of this the death rate was very high.

The African Americans who had been North for quite some time met their fellowmen with disgust and judged the newly arrived blacks.

In the North the African Americans had freedom to vote.

People who had not yet come North received letters from their relatives telling them of the better conditions that existed in the North.

The female worker was also one of the last groups to leave the South.

Questions 1. Why did blacks feel pushed from the South? 2. Why did they feel pulled towards the North? 3. What was the Great Migration? 4. Pick three words to explain the experience of African Americans in the North.