Literature and Human Rights: The Great Migration

The Great Migration was the mass movement from 1915 to 1960 (with some sources saying as late as even 1970) of about 5 million African-Americans to the north and west. Initially, they moved to major cities in the United States such as Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and New York City; but as time went on and towards the time of World War II, they had moved also as far west as Los Angeles, Portland, and Seattle.

The African-American people who were living in the South during this time were experiencing not only just economic oppression, but also social oppression. Economically, there was a combination of the desire to escape oppressive conditions in farming and other opportunities that left little room for advancement. Socially, the heightened amount of lynchings, enforcement of Jim Crow laws, inequalities in the justice system and educational areas, and overall growth of violence within southern communities.

Additionally, the Northern states sent recruits to bring farming African-Americans up North to fill the positions left behind by the people who went to World War I. There were numerous opportunities in jobs such as farming, railroads, steel mills, factories, and tanneries. Since there was such a large need for workers up north, many southern African-Americans took the chance to leave the South to make a better life in a major city.

Those who left traveled by train, boat, bus, sometimes car, or even horse-drawn cart. The process of getting there was long and exhausting and took a lot of energy to make the stops and deal with people who were still unwelcoming to them. Often times this journey would occur in stages—stopping along the way to work for a while and then continue on their way.

These men, women, children, families; settled into the cities of the North (and later the West) and thus began the Urbanization in America. The influx of people in each city brought chaos, yet lots of diversity with the masses. Ultimately, the history of the African-American people began to change and they became more socially, politically, and culturally prominent in American cities, changing their backgrounds and stories forever. Out of this migration came the Harlem Renaissance and the Jazz Age—both incredibly influential periods of time in American society.