The African American “Great Migration”

ASU HST 200 (Historical Themes) The Growing Pains of Urbanization, 1870-1900 The African American “Great Migration” In search of better prospects elsewhere, approximately two million African Americans left the rural South between the conclusion of the Civil War and the start of the Great Depression. The bulk of African Americans who left the South in the early 20th century—known as the "Great Migration"—went to the Northeast and Upper Midwest, though some did migrate west. For these African Americans, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Indianapolis were the main travel destinations. More over two thirds of the African American migration's entire population lived in these eight cities. This movement was the result of both "push" and "pull" causes working together. Despite the end of the Civil War and the enactment of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Despite the passage of the Constitution, which guaranteed equal protection under the law, ended slavery, and protected the right to vote, African Americans continued to face severe racial prejudice. Following the Civil War, the advent of the Ku Klux Klan brought to a surge of lynchings, increasing violence, and death threats. Racial violence persisted even after the Klan was officially disbanded in the late 1870s. Researchers at the Tuskegee Institute estimate that between 1865 and 1900, there were 3500 lynchings and other racially motivated killings in the South. Northern and midwestern towns provided a chance for African Americans leaving this violent culture to escape the perils of the South. African Americans were "pulled" to the cities by factors such as employment opportunities, where they could earn a wage instead of being dependent on a landlord, and the opportunity to vote (for men, at least), which was purportedly free from the threat of violence, in addition to this "push" out of the South. Factory owners and other companies looking for inexpensive labor supported the movement, even though many people lacked the resources to relocate north. The males would frequently relocate first, then, after settling into their new city life, send word for their families. These African American workers were forced into many of the lower-paying unskilled or semi-skilled jobs due to racism and a lack of formal education. Over 80% of African American males had low-paying employment in construction, steel mills, mines, and meatpacking plants. They were frequently employed as porters or servants in the railroad sector (Figure 19.8). They held jobs as chefs, waiters, or janitors at other establishments. There were a few jobs available for African American women in the garment industry and laundries, but they were more frequently employed as maids and domestic servants. These women experienced prejudice because of both their color and gender. Regardless of the nature of their employment, African Americans in the North often found housing to be more readily accessible and were paid more for doing the same work than they were in the South. These financial advantages were, nonetheless, outweighed by the greater expense of living in the North, particularly when it came to rent, groceries, and other necessities. Because of this, African Americans frequently ended up living in filthy, cramped quarters that resembled the tenement slums where European immigrants formerly resided in the cities. Even for African Americans who had come specifically to live in these cities because of the possibilities they offered, living in these metropolitan areas was extremely challenging. They soon discovered that racial discrimination persisted not just in the South but also in the North, beyond the MasonDixon Line. The entrance of African Americans angered European immigrants, who were also looking for a better life in American cities. They believed that African Americans would compete for the same positions or offer to labor for less money. Their fast rush into the cities led to acute housing shortages and even more congested tenements; landlords routinely discriminated against them. Afterwards, homeowners in mostly White communities signed covenants promising not to sell to African American buyers; they also frequently left neighborhoods where African Americans had successfully made their way inside. Furthermore, some lenders used mortgage discrimination—later dubbed "redlining"—to refuse house loans to eligible borrowers. African Americans were concentrated in some of the poorest slum neighborhoods of most large metropolitan cities as a result of widespread discrimination; this issue persisted for the most of the twentieth century. Given that the economic difficulties they experienced were comparable to those African Americans endured in the South, why did they go to the North? Noneconomic advantages hold the key to the solution. The African Americans who traveled north during the Great Migration desired larger personal freedoms and better educational possibilities. In the North, state legislatures and local school districts increased funding for the education of Black and White students and strictly enforced rules requiring attendance at school. Similarly, in larger, more crowded northern urban centers, life allowed a degree of anonymity, and with it, personal freedom, that allowed African Americans to move, work, and speak without bowing to every White person they encountered, unlike in the South where even the absence of a deferential gesture could result in physical harm to the African American who made it. Psychologically, these advantages more than made up for the ongoing difficulties Black migrants had in the economy.