L4: The Great MigrationEquality and Hierarchy: The African American

ExperienceAgenda

Objective: 1. To understand what the Great

Migration was.2. To understand the causes of the

Great Migration3. 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: 5. Lecture6. Reading 7. Whole Class Discussion

Homework:1.Consult

Unit Schedule. Remember: Literature Review Due ...(Tan = Wed; Red & Blue = Thurs);

Task for Today: Objectives1. Understand what the Great Migration was2. Understand the causes of the Great

Migration3. 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.