A Century of Negro Migration (African American)

Joe L Harvey rated it really liked it Jul 23, Michael rated it liked it Mar 06, Donald Rivers rated it it was amazing Feb 23, Dante Williamston rated it it was amazing Jan 01, Ericka rated it it was amazing Oct 28, John Armwood II rated it it was amazing Jun 20, Jamie rated it liked it Nov 26, There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Convinced that the role of his own people in American history and in the history of other cultures was being ignored or misrepresented among scholars, Woodson realized the need for research into the neglected past of African Americans.

Along with William D. Jackson, and James E. Stamps, he founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and Histor Convinced that the role of his own people in American history and in the history of other cultures was being ignored or misrepresented among scholars, Woodson realized the need for research into the neglected past of African Americans. His other books followed: Wesley after Woodson's death in It has never missed an issue, despite the Great Depression, loss of support from foundations, and two World Wars. His experiences at the Y and in the surrounding Bronzeville neighborhood inspired him to create the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History now the Association for the Study of African American Life and History , which ran conferences, published The Journal of Negro History, and "particularly targeted those responsible for the education of black children".

He was one of the first scholars to study African-American history. A founder of The Journal of Negro History in , Woodson has been cited as the "father of black history". Woodson believed that education and increasing social and professional contacts among blacks and whites could reduce racism and he promoted the organized study of African-American history partly for that purpose.

The Bronzeville neighborhood declined during the late s and s like many other inner-city neighborhoods across the country, and the Wabash Avenue YMCA was forced to close during the s, until being restored in by The Renaissance Collaborative. He studied many aspects of African-American history. For instance, in , he published the first survey of free black slaveowners in the United States in The time that schools have set aside each year to focus on African-American history is Woodson's most visible legacy.

His determination to further the recognition of the Negro in American and world history, however, inspired countless other scholars. Woodson remained focused on his work throughout his life. Many see him as a man of vision and understanding. Although Woodson was among the ranks of the educated few, he did not feel particularly sentimental about elite educational institutions.

Because the migrants concentrated in the big cities of the north and west, their influence was magnified in those places. Cities that had been virtually all white at the start of the century became centers of black culture and politics by mid-century. Informal residential segregation and the tendency of people to settle with others of their home communities led to concentrations of blacks in certain areas.

The northern "Black metropolises" developed an important infrastructure of newspapers, businesses, jazz clubs, churches, and political organizations that provided the staging ground for new forms of racial politics and new forms of black culture. As a result of the Great Migration, the first large urban black communities developed in northern cities beyond New York, Boston, Baltimore, Washington D.

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It is conservatively estimated that , African Americans left the South in through to take advantage of a labor shortage in industrial cities during the First World War. In , the African-American population of Detroit was 6, The Great Migration, plus the immigration from eastern and southern Europe , rapidly turned the city into the country's fourth-largest. By the start of the Great Depression in , the city's African-American population had increased to , In —01, Chicago had a total population of 1,, During the second wave of the Great Migration —60 , the African-American population in the city grew from , to , The flow of African Americans to Ohio, particularly to Cleveland , changed the demographics of the state and its primary industrial city.

Before the Great Migration, an estimated 1. Louis, and Omaha, also had dramatic increases in their African-American populations. By the s, New York's Harlem became a center of black cultural life, influenced by the American migrants as well as new immigrants from the Caribbean area. People tended to take the cheapest rail ticket possible and go to areas where they had relatives and friends. Educated African Americans were better able to obtain jobs after the Great Migration, eventually gaining a measure of class mobility , but the migrants encountered significant forms of discrimination.

Because so many people migrated in a short period of time, the African-American migrants were often resented by the urban white working class often recent immigrants themselves ; fearing their ability to negotiate rates of pay or secure employment, the ethnic whites felt threatened by the influx of new labor competition. Sometimes those who were most fearful or resentful were the last immigrants of the 19th and new immigrants of the 20th century. African Americans made substantial gains in industrial employment, particularly in the steel, automobile, shipbuilding, and meatpacking industries.

Between and , the number of blacks employed in industry nearly doubled from , to , The unions ended the segregation of many jobs, and African Americans began to advance into more skilled jobs and supervisory positions previously informally reserved for whites. Between and , the number of blacks in managerial and administrative occupations doubled, along with the number of blacks in white-collar occupations, while the number of black agricultural workers in fell to one-fourth of what it was in Census from to Populations increased so rapidly among both African-American migrants and new European immigrants that there were housing shortages in most major cities.

With fewer resources, the newer groups were forced to compete for the oldest, most run-down housing. Ethnic groups created territories which they defended against change. Discrimination often restricted African Americans to crowded neighborhoods.

The more established populations of cities tended to move to newer housing as it was developing in the outskirts. Mortgage discrimination and redlining in inner city areas limited the newer African-American migrants' ability to determine their own housing, or obtain a fair price. In the long term, the National Housing Act of contributed to limiting the availability of loans to urban areas, particularly those areas inhabited by African Americans. As they lived and worked more closely with European Americans, the divide became increasingly indefinite. This period marked the transition for many African Americans from lifestyles as rural farmers to urban industrial workers.

This migration gave birth to a cultural boom in cities such as Chicago and New York. In Chicago for instance, the neighborhood of Bronzeville became known as the "Black Metropolis". From to , the "Black Metropolis" was at the peak of its golden years.

Many of the community's entrepreneurs were black during this period. For urbanized people, eating proper foods in a sanitary, civilized setting such as the home or a restaurant was a social ritual that indicated one's level of respectability. The people native to Chicago had pride in the high level of integration in Chicago restaurants, which they attributed to their unassailable manners and refined tastes.

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Migrants often encountered residential discrimination, in which white home owners and realtors prevented migrants from purchasing homes or renting apartments in white neighborhoods. In addition, when numerous blacks moved into white neighborhoods, whites would quickly relocate out of fear of a potential rise in property crime, rape, drugs and violence that was attributed to neighborhoods with large black populations.

These tendencies contributed to maintaining the "racial divide" in the North, perhaps accentuating it. By the late s and s, African Americans were hyper-urban, more densely concentrated in inner cities than other groups. Since African-American migrants retained many Southern cultural and linguistic traits, such cultural differences created a sense of "otherness" in terms of their reception by others who were already living in the cities.

The Great Depression of the s resulted in reduced migration because of decreased opportunities. With the defense buildup for World War II and with the post-war economic prosperity, migration was revived, with larger numbers of blacks leaving the South through the s. After the political and civil gains of the Civil Rights Movement , in the s migration began to increase again. It moved in a different direction, as blacks traveled to new regions of the South for economic opportunity.

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The beginning of the Great Migration exposed a paradox in race relations in the American South at that time. Although blacks were treated with extreme hostility and subjected to legal discrimination, the southern economy was deeply dependent on them as an abundant supply of cheap labor, and black workers were seen as the most critical factor in the economic development of the South. One South Carolina politician summed up the dilemma: When the Great Migration started in the s, white southern elites seemed to be unconcerned, and industrialists and cotton planters saw it as a positive, as it was siphoning off surplus industrial and agricultural labor.

As the migration picked up, however, southern elites began to panic, fearing that a prolonged black exodus would bankrupt the South, and newspaper editorials warned of the danger. White employers eventually took notice and began expressing their fears. White southerners soon began trying to stem the flow in order to prevent the hemorrhaging of their labor supply, and some began attempting to address the poor living standards and racial oppression experienced by Southern blacks in order to induce them to stay. As a result, southern employers increased their wages to match those on offer in the North, and some individual employers opposed the worst excesses of Jim Crow laws.

When the measures failed to stem the tide, white southerners, in concert with federal officials who feared the rise of black nationalism , co-operated in attempting to coerce blacks to stay in the South. The Southern Metal Trades Association urged decisive action to stop black migration, and some employers undertook serious efforts against it. The largest southern steel manufacturer refused to cash checks sent to finance black migration, efforts were made to restrict bus and train access for blacks, agents were stationed in northern cities to report on wage levels, unionization, and the rise of black nationalism, and newspapers were pressured to divert more coverage to negative aspects of black life in the North.

A series of local and federal directives were put into place with the goal of restricting black mobility, including local vagrancy ordinances, "work or fight" laws demanding all males either be employed or serve in the army, and conscription orders. Intimidation and beatings were also used to terrorize blacks into staying.

During the wave of migration that took place in the s, white southerners were less concerned, as mechanization of agriculture in the late s had resulted in another labor surplus so southern planters put up less resistance. A map of the black percentage of the U. A map showing the change in the total Black population in percent between and by U. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The Great Migration in Context: The Chicago Experience, — Don't have an account?

Sign in via your Institution. Sign in with your library card. Show Summary Details Summary and Keywords The unanticipated and massive migration of half a million African Americans between and from the racially oppressive South to the welcoming North surprised the nation. Reed Department of History, Roosevelt University.