L4: The Great Migration
Equality and Hierarchy: The African American
Experience
Agenda
Objective:
1.
To understand what the Great Migration
was.
2.
To understand the causes of the Great
Migration
3.
To evaluate the effects of the Great
Migration on the lives of American
Americans.
4.
To evaluate our essential question:
Was the Great Migration emancipatory
for African Americans?
Schedule:
1.
Lecture
2.
Reading
3.
Whole Class Discussion
Homework:
1.Consult Unit
Schedule.
Remember:
Literature
Review Due
...(Tan = Wed;
Red & Blue =
Thurs);
Task for Today: Objectives
1. Understand what the Great Migration was
2. Understand the causes of the Great Migration
3. Evaluate the effects of
the Great Migration on
the lives of
African-Americans.
 Essential Question:
Was the Great Migration
emancipatory for African
Americans?
Taking Stock: Where We Are in Our
Story so far…
• Describe life for blacks in the Jim Crow
South…
Possibility Opens Up
• The life you described, is the life that the
overwhelming majority of African Americans
lived.
– In 1900, 90% of blacks lived in Southern States!
• But…In 1910, a new spark of possibility
emerged for African
Americans as an
industrial boom in the
North sparked demand
for new workers.
The Great Migration
• 1910-1930 (second wave,
1930 to 1970)
• Movement of 6 million
African Americans out
of the rural south into the
Northeast, Midwest, and
West.
– New York, Chicago,
Philadelphia, St. Louis,
Detroit, Pittsburgh,
Cleveland, and Indianapolis
• Largest internal movement of an American population.
• By the end of the Great Migration…
– African Americans became an urbanized—rather than rural—
population.
– Northern American cities became significantly more black
Causes of the Great Migration
Jim Crow Laws in the South (Push)
Racial Violence in the South (Push)
Limited Economic Opportunities in the South (Push)
Increased Demand for Industrial Workers in the North
(Pull)
Better Educational Opportunities in the North (Pull)
Increased Political Opportunities in the North (Pull)
Effects of the Great Migration
• Shift Blacks from a Rural Population to an
Urban Population
• Increase the number of African Americans
living in North cities; Make these cities truly
multi-racial
• But what else??...
Effects of the Great Migration
• To evaluation the effects of the Great Migration we
will look at a piece of prose by Richard Wright
called the “The One-Room Kitchenette” (1941)
• Our focus will be on:
– Examining the effects of the Great Migration on African
American lives?
– Evaluating whether the Great Migration was
emancipatory?
• You will…
– Read the story
– Discuss the above questions with the class.