Primary Source Set The Great Migration
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"South Unable to Put Stop to Negro Exodus": Newspaper coverage of the Great Migration, 1916 -
"Distribution of the Colored Population of the United States: 1890" from The Statistical Atlas of the United States (image 26) -
"Negro Population Change: 1940-1960" from The National Atlas of the United States of America (image 191) -
Interview with Arthur Goodlett about his migration from Alabama to Omaha in 1917 -
"Detroit, Michigan. Looking over slum houses. These are conditions under which families originally lived before moving to the Sojourner Truth housing project" 1942 -
Sign opposite the Sojourner Truth Homes housing project in Detroit, 1942 -
"The Charge": Newspaper editorial on the Great Migration, 1917 -
Trolley car conductors in Philadelphia, around 1940 -
Man carrying sign in front of milk company, Chicago, 1941 -
Newsreel coverage of the Chicago Defender's Bud Billiken parade, 1945 (begins at 0:30) -
"Harlem Rent Parties," 1938 -
"Big Bill" Broonzy describes his move from Arkansas to Chicago in the early 20th century -
"Extra Patrols, Closed Streets Are Ordered to Check Rioting": Newspaper coverage of the Washington, D.C., race riot, 1919 -
Newspaper coverage of the violence of Red Summer, 1919 -
Boy Scout meeting in the Ida B. Wells Housing Project community center, 1942 -
"A Time for Freedom": Newsreel coverage of the 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom -
Jewel Mazique working in the stacks of the Library of Congress, 1942 -
Two women working in an aviation plant in Inglewood, California, 1942
The resources in this primary source set are intended for classroom use. If your use will be beyond a single classroom, please review the copyright and fair use guidelines.
Teacher’s Guide
To help your students analyze these primary sources, get a graphic organizer and guides: Analysis Tool and Guides
Background
From the 1910s to 1970, one of the largest internal migrations in the history of the United States took place. Millions of African Americans moved from rural to urban centers and from southeastern states to the north and west. This exodus, which came to be called “the Great Migration,” transformed American life in the 20th century and beyond.
Many factors fueled the Great Migration. World War I created job opportunities in industrial cities, and improved railroads and other modes of transportation made it easier to move far away. Countless families made the journey out of the southeastern states to escape discriminatory Jim Crow laws and racial violence. Black newspapers published articles about opportunities in the north. At first a trickle of people headed to cities such as Detroit, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Baltimore. Soon that trickle became a flood.
Though many of those who made the exodus found success in the north and west, segregation and discrimination also could be found there. New Black arrivals faced exclusion in employment and housing, as well as some segregation in schools and transportation. They could be relegated to specific neighborhoods, and new housing projects built to accommodate the growing cities were often underfunded and neglected. Black students might have to walk miles away from their communities to attend Black-only schools. And in the summer of 1919, large-scale racial attacks against African Americans took place in several U.S. cities, in a wave of violence that came to be called the “Red Summer.”
At the same time, those who made the migration north and west built new organizations, congregations, institutions, and cultural scenes in their new communities. Chicago, St. Louis, and New York’s Harlem neighborhood saw a renaissance of creativity as musicians, artists, and writers gathered together, collaborated, and found great success. Businesses like Johnson Publishing and the Madame C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company provided needed services to a growing urban Black clientele. Black-owned newspapers and other media outlets grew. Civil rights organizations including the NAACP and the Urban League grew and fought for equal opportunities for African American communities across the U.S.
Suggestions for Teachers
- Ask students to select and read an oral history by someone who participated in the Great Migration. What motivated that person to make the migration? What challenges did they face during their move and afterwards? Does the oral history include that person’s thoughts on positive and negative consequences of their move?
- Direct students to select one or more historic newspaper accounts from Chronicling America that report on the Great Migration. Encourage them to identify the different perspectives that are included in each account. Are any perspectives missing? Why might that be?
- Challenge students to research the impact the Great Migration had on their own home community or a community they’re familiar with. Encourage them to search Chronicling America, the Sanborn Maps collection, and other Library of Congress online collections to find primary sources that document some of the people, institutions, and organizations that were involved in or affected by the Migration. How were those people and organizations depicted in the primary sources? How are they remembered or represented in that community today?
- Direct students to analyze the maps in this set depicting the African American populations of different regions of the United States, or similar maps elsewhere in the Library’s online collections. What changes do they see? Encourage students to speculate about and explore the causes of the different changes in different regions.
- Ask students to research one of the episodes of racial violence that took place during or around the Red Summer of 1919, using primary sources from this set or elsewhere in the Library’s online collections. What primary sources are they able to find documenting this episode? Whose perspectives are included and excluded? How can they explain any gaps in the primary source record?