All Rights Reserved. Portions are copyrighted by other institutions and individuals. Additional information on copyright and permissions. Great Migration Next. A majority of these migrants were residents of Deep South states such as Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and Louisiana, where living conditions were particularly harsh.
Floods, boll weevil attacks on cotton, lynchings, and segregation were among factors pushing them to leave. During this twenty-year period, more than two hundred thousand African Americans from Virginia left the state. The pathway north was not usually a straight journey from southern rural locations to northern cities. Migrants made several stops along the way, often during the course of several months, before they reached their final destination.
In Virginia, Richmond and Norfolk experienced significant increases in African American residents during this period. Richmond was home to one of the largest locomotive plants in the world, a major flour mill, significant tobacco operations, and important iron manufacturing companies. Early in the war Norfolk was selected as one of the key embarkation points for troops and supplies going to Europe.
As one of the primary naval bases on the Atlantic Coast, it needed workers. Norfolk Shipbuilding and Drydock, Texas Oil, and British-American Tobacco, among others, sought dock workers and laborers to help them manufacture and ship materials. African American workers hoped in the process to gain access to jobs in well-established companies that might stretch out into the future.
For some this move met their expectations and they settled into their new lives for the long term, but for others this proved to be only a temporary stop. Whatever those residents found in these cities did not provide enough incentive to stay.
A number of issues impacted the decision whether to stay or to go. Along with increased wages, migrants hoped to find better living conditions in their new locations. They were frequently disappointed. African American sections of southern cities suffered from poorly maintained roads, dilapidated housing, poor sanitation, and subpar educational facilities. A report on housing for African Americans in Richmond described conditions as horrible.
African American residents of Norfolk also complained to city officials about lack of streetlights, sewers, and paved streets. Parents further complained about a dearth of decent playgrounds for their children. They were frustrated by the modern facilities built in white neighborhoods while their facilities steadily deteriorated.
While some residents chose to protest to city officials, others decided to seek a new life elsewhere. For them the offer of better wages was just one of many factors that drew them north.
Better educational opportunities and greater personal freedom also proved enticing. These factors made potential migrants more open to the encouragement of relatives, friends, and others in the North who suggested they relocate. Individuals who decided to go north got their information about the opportunities there through a variety of sources.
Many companies sent labor recruiters south to let workers know about available opportunities. Early in the war the Pennsylvania Railroad sent labor recruiters south to find people to work for them and other companies. Recruiters were often sent to areas where they had family or friends who trusted them and might be ready to relocate.
The naval yards on Hog Island in Philadelphia also actively advertised for workers. They offered wages that were significantly higher than black workers could earn in Virginia. The more than three dollars a day available in Philadelphia was a significant improvement over the less than one dollar a day made by the average farm laborer. African American newspapers also served as sources of encouragement. The Chicago Defender , run by Robert S. Abbott, circulated widely throughout the nation and actively encouraged migration.
It offered editorials and stories extolling the virtues of life in the North, and also included advertisements from northern companies highlighting their need for workers and noting the high wages they paid. The Pittsburgh Courier played a similar role in that city.
As a staunch opponent of segregation, he counseled African Americans to consider leaving rather than submit to mistreatment. A chart breaks down the birthplaces of African American residents in Philadelphia's predominantly black Seventh Ward at the turn of the twentieth century.
The largest number of residents were born in the city 2, ; the next largest group were born in Virginia 1, These findings were published in W. DuBois features a broken chain. The book documents African American life in Philadelphia at the turn of the twentieth century.
Use these maps and charts to investigate volumes and directions. The first map reveals decade-by-decade the number of southerners living in northern and western states.
Select a state of origin and see where people went. Another map shows similar data for each metropolitan area where Black southerners settled. A third allows us to highlight a northern or western state and see which southern states contributed the most migrants.
Or start with a southern state and see where its people went. Finally an interactive table provides the data behind these visualizations. The Great Migration out of the South lasted three-quarters of a century, slowing in the s.
Since then, Black Americans have been moving to the South in large numbers, in some sense reversing the Great Migration. But the story is more complicated than the slogan. The Great Migration was largely from the rural South while the new migration has little to do with rural areas, or with states like Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana which saw so many leave during the exodus.
The big cities of Georgia, Florida, Virginia, Texas, and North Carolina have attracted most of those participating in the Move South and typically this has not been a return migration.
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