Moving North. What do you know about the Great Migration?

Moving North

What do you know about the

Great Migration?

Background• In 1910 there are 8 million African-Americans in the US,

7 million live in the South. Over the next 15 years, 10% will move north

What reasons can you think of that might motivate

African-Americans to leave the South?

Push Factors

• Boll weevil infestation begins in 1892

• Cotton crops devastated

• Thousands of agricultural workers lose their jobs and farms

• Sharecroppers become deeper in debt to plantation owners

• Lower wages, few economic opportunities

• Violence and segregation become facts of life “Jim Crow”

Lynching becomes more common in

the South

From 1892-1917, over 3000 African-Americans were lynched, mostly in the South Victims were:•Hanged•Shot•Burned•Castrated•Maimed•Dismembered•Beheaded

What does this newspaper tell you about lynching in

the South?

Pull Factors

• WWI begins in 1914, severely slowing European immigration to America

• Northern factories increase production to supply Allied Powers leading to increased demand for workers

• When American enters the war, Whites leave factories for military service, further increasing demand

• To fill the need for workers, Northern factory and railroad owners began recruiting Southern Blacks • In many cases, Blacks

are willing to work for less than Whites (but still more than they can make in the South)

Why Chicago?

• Weekly paper founded in 1905 by Robert Sengstacke Abbott for African-American readers

• Published editorials, articles and cartoons lauding the benefits of the North

• Posted job listings and train schedules to facilitate relocation

• Never used the words “Negro” or “black”; used “the Race” instead

Distribution of the Chicago Defender

Circulating the Defender

• Two-thirds of Defender’s readership outside of Chicago

• Brought by train by Black Pullman porters and rail workers

• Read aloud in churches, restaurants, and barbershops for those who could not read

• Each paper was read and passed on by 4-5 different people

Southern Opposition• Southern leaders

fought to keep their politically powerless labor force

• Warned Blacks of harsh city life and deadly winters

• Feared loss of political power with population loss (and Northern gain)

A Migrant’s Story

• Create a 1st-person narrative about the Great Migration

• Create a character from the South who has decided to move north.

• Use the source material in the provided packet.

• Your story must include the reasons why you are leaving and why you are going to Chicago