1920s Unit Module Three - Great Migration

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Great Migration



The What? of The Great Migration

African Americans migrating from the South to the North. What question would you ask if you could?

Migration means to move. The Great Migration  describes (gives details about) a time when large numbers of African Americans moved.  They moved from one place in the U.S. (The South) to other places (The North and West). This involved the movement of more than 6 million African Americans from the rural South to the cities of the North, Midwest and West from 1916 to 1970, had a huge impact on urban life in the United States.
They moved  FROM the SOUTH TO the NORTH and WEST .
This shows the idea of how people moved from the South to the North.
Why? - The Goals of Migration

A member of the KKK at one of their rallys.
What types of things did they do that made African Americans want to leave the South?
They moved in order to get away from several problems. One was jobs.  Jobs for African Americans in the South were scarce (not many of them). The jobs they could get did not pay much (were low paying).
Also, in the south African Americans still faced:
Discrimination

and violence

There was still discrimination and violence in the North, Midwest, and West , but it was less than in the South. It should not be a surprise that many wanted to get away and find better opportunities (chances).

In order to help you understand the WHY of the Great Migration you will now have the chance to read the stories of actual people who actually experienced the Great Migration.
Personal story: Calvin O’Neal
INTERVIEWER: When you began thinking about moving to the North what did you think of it?
NARRATOR: At that-I started when I was in high school, and when I was growing up with the desegregation and the only things - I went to school from the first until the twelfth for agriculture, I wanted to make a better life and a better opportunity because I didn't have that chance in the South. Cause I went to an all Black school from the first grade until the twelfth. and I didn't wanna be working no farm, so I decided either go to army, either I come to New York City.

Personal Story: Alberta Wren:

INTERVIEWER: You were born in 1907. And when did you leave to come to Yonkers in New York?
Alberta: Now you ask me so hard questions. Now I say I was the age of 17.
INTERVIEWER: Did they tell you, um, about the opportunity? Did they tell you about the neighborhood? Before you...
Alberta: No. You know you just come to get work ... in the southern part of the country you know and could not get work and here you get better work here you know pay more and stuff like that.

Personal Story: Roy Fields

Roy: I was born in Lunenberg County, Virginia. That's about eighty miles south of Richmond, … County. And I was born March 13th, 1912. And I came to Yonkers, New York, where my grandfather in the year of 1929.
INTERVIEWER: So you grew up in that town in Virginia.
Roy: In the country out there. I left there when I was fourteen; in fact, I was probably fourteen a couple days after I left. I was fourteen when I came here.
INTERVIEWER: Tell me about that town in Virginia. What was it like there?
Roy: We were out in the country and it was the nearest town, which was Chase City, Virginia, about twelve miles from where we lived because we lived out in the country and the, we had the farm our there with my grandmother and my grandfather and then I, that's where I started to school there. And at that time they had, in the country … in Virginia …. and I went to the Hollywood Grammar School there.
INTERVIEWER: What kind of school was it?
Roy: That was just a, it went up to seventh of eight grade there. Then I left there and came up here. My grandmother came first to visit my uncle, because they were up here. And she came for a visit during the Christmas holiday. At that time, she wrote back because we didn't have no telephone, she wrote back and said my aunt's husband, my grandmother's sister, her husband, Uncle William, he was into the Otis Elevator Company. And he said that he could get my grandfather a job there with him at Otis's. So we just closed the house and came on up here and my grandfather went into the Otis Elevator Company and that's where he worked until he was hurt in an accident, on a job there. And then he had to go out on disability. And so that's where it all started. Then I started to going to school here.

Personal Story: Addie Fields
Addie: No, no, Virginia. See, we had a separate school. The white children's school would be about a block from ours. They were let out, one half an hour ahead of us. And, so we could never catch up with them to have a fight! You understand? So that was that. And it was a lot of fun. We thought it was fun anyway. I don't know what the older people thought about it, but we thought it was fun because we figured they were scared of us.
Addie Well, when I came here I wanted to finish school for one thing. Because where I was going was more of a country school and they taught different. Then we didn't, it wasn't college people that was teaching us. It was people that maybe had finished their high school or they had gone through maybe a first couple of years of college and they could come back and take the first, second or third grade or like that. And we didn't go to school until we were seven years old. You see the children today are in school at two and three years old. We had to walk four and five miles to school.

Personal Story: Rev James Hall
INTERVIEWER: OK, can you tell us, uhm-uh, you spoke about working in the coalmine, uhm-- what made you leave?
NARRATOR: I left because I didn't see an out. I had became a young man and I had children and look like I wasn't getting anyplace and then I heard the words say what I-- in me from my grandfather said, "Don't stay here," and one day I went to work and-uh, all of a sudden as I was going underground and I got down to the bottom and I turned around and came back and I said "I quit."

Personal Story: Crosby Brittenum

Crosby: Around North and South Carolina we heard the White people tried to stop us from coming North. But, uh, they couldn’t do that. They tried to stop us but they couldn;t.
Interviewer: Did you hear stories about why people left the South?
Crosby: They used to treat african Americans terribly bad in Mississippi and Alabama. Them two states and Georgia were pretty bad. You know they used to lynch colored people for looking at a White woman. Didn’t have to say nothing, just look at her too hard.
How of Migrating:


African Americans on a train during the Great Migration arriving in a city in the North. Can you see evidence of one of the things they wanted?
There were different ways African Americans traveled. They included traveling by train, boat, or bus. Some had  automobiles (cars). A few used horse-drawn carts.
In order to help you understand the HOW of the Great Migration you will now have the chance to read the stories of actual people who actually experienced the Great Migration.

Personal Story: Calvin O’Neal
INTERVIEWER: Um, did you come with anyone when you first came?
Calvin : No, uh, I left North Carolina when I was 17 years old. And when I left, I remember when I came to New York on the bus; I had a dollar and 25 cent in my pocket.
INTERVIEWER: And that got-how much did it cost to get here, do you remember?
Calvin : About 25 dollars.

Personal Story: Alberta Wren
INTERVIEWER: And how did you get up to Yonkers? Did you take a bus or did you take a train?
Alberta: Train.
INTERVIEWER: Train. Do you remember that experience?
Alberta: No just uh, you go to the nearest train station

Personal Story: Roy Fields
INTERVIEWER: And how did you travel up here?
NARRATOR: We came by train.
INTERVIEWER: Do you remember the train trip?
NARRATOR We left, lemme see. Where did we catch that train? Out of Chase City, Virginia, I think. I think that's where we caught the train, yeah. Because that's the, yeah. And we traveled all the way from Chase City, Va. to New York.

Results of Migrating
Results are things that happen because something else occurred (happened). They are kind of like causes and effects. The following stories will let you see how the Great Migration affected some people.

Personal Story: Calvin O’Neal
INTERVIEWER: So, what did you do in order to find your way?
NARRATOR: The first job I had I worked at was as a service adviser.
Personal Story: Roy
INTERVIEWER: What was your first job?
NARRATOR: My first job was…a lotta money. A lotta money. After school, three dollars a week. [Laughter]
INTERVIEWER: And what were you doing for those three dollars?
NARRATOR: Oh, I was in a Italian restaurant upstairs, around the corner.
Personal Story: Rev. Hall
INTERVIEWER: What type of work did you do?
NARRATOR: I worked in dry cleaners (cleaned clothes) -uhm, here in New York. I was always a-- I was a presser (got wrinkles out of clothes). I did lots of jobs, trying to find the most money and I was a presser and I-uh, got a job here working at three dry cleaners-uhm, to make-- you know, money to take care of my family. I did move up into a position wherein that I was able to work for a gentleman and he sold me his store. And-uh, I was living in Manhattan and when he sold me the store, at the time he sold me the store I moved into Yonkers and I had my own dry cleaners in Larchmont.

Summary of Results:
As Chicago, New York and other cities saw their black populations expand exponentially, migrants were forced to deal with poor working conditions and competition for living space, as well as widespread racism and prejudice. Female migrants had a harder time finding work.

As a result of problems finding places to live, many blacks ended up creating their own cities within big cities. This led to the growth of a new urban African-American culture (way of living). The biggest example was Harlem in New York City, a formerly all-white neighborhood that by the 1920s housed some 200,000 African Americans.

The Great Migration also began a new time of increasing political activism among African Americans, who after being disenfranchised in the South (could not really vote) found a new place for themselves in public life in the cities of the North and West.

The Great Migration Through Letters to a Newspaper
Chicago, the city in Illinois, was a VERY active place during the 1920s. It was a place where many African Americans came during the Great Migration because there was a newspaper there named The Chicago Defender that was run by an African American man. It gave encouragement and help to African Americans wanting to move out of the South. Many of them wrote letters to the newspaper asking for help. Following this introduction you will find parts of some of those letters.
Letter One
LUTCHER, LA., May 13, 1917

Dear Sir: I have been reading the Chicago defender and seeing so many advertisements about the work in the north I thought to write you concerning my condition. I am working hard in the south and can hardly earn a living. I have a wife and one child and can hardly feed them. I thought to write and ask you for some information concerning how to get a pass (train ticket) for myself and family. I dont want to leave my family behind as I cant hardly make a living for them right here with them and I know they would fare hard if I would leave them. …  I was out in town today talking to some of the men and they say if they could get passes that 30 or 40 of them would come. But they havent got the money and they dont know how to come. But they are good strong and able working men. If you will instruct me I will instruct the other men how to come as they all want to work.

Letter Two
Dear Sir: I thought that you might help me in Some way either personally or through your influence (help), is why I am asking you.
I am a married man having wife and mother to support, (I mention this in order to properly explain my plight) conditions here are not altogether good and living expenses growing while wages are small. My greatest desire is to leave for a better place but am unable to raise the money.
I can write short stories all of which show African American characters, but use no Jim Crow stuff. I can also write poems, have a gift for cartooning. These things will never profit (earn money) me anything here in Natchez (Mississippi, The South). Would like to know if you could use one or two of my short stories in your great paper. They are very interesting and would furnish (give) good reading. By this means (doing it this way)I could probably leave here soon and come in possession of better employment near you enabling (making it possible) me to take up my drawing which I like best.



Letter Three
SELMA, ALA., May 19, 1917
Dear Sir:
I am a reader of the Chicago Defender I think it is one of the Most Wonderful Papers of our race printed. Sirs I am writeing to see if You all will please get me a job. And Sir I can wash dishes, wash iron nursing work in groceries and dry good stores. Just any of these I can do. Sir, who so ever you get the job from please tell them to send me a ticket and I will pay them. When I get their as I have not got enough money to pay my way. I am a girl of 17 years old and in the 8 grade at Knox Academy School. But on account of not having money enough I had to stop school. Sir I will thank you all with all my heart. May God Bless you all. Please answer in return mail.

Letter Four
Gentlemen: I want to get in tuch with you in regard of good location & a job i am for race elevation (better for African Americans) every way. I want a job in a small town some where in north where I can receive very good wages and where I can educate my 3 little girls and demand respect of intelegence (being smart). I prefer a job as cabinet maker or any kind of furniture mfg. if possible.
Let me hear from you all at once please. State minimum wages and kind of work.

Newsela Story
Read this Newsela story. Jim Crow and the Great Migration.
(You will have to log into your FCPS Newsela account through FCPS Google account.)