African-Americans
Migrate
African American History
Dr. D. Sanders
Presented By:
Alexis D. Ocasio
Rohesia C. Hicks
The Migration of Blacks
The Great Migration was the migration of
thousands of African-Americans from the
South to the North. (1920’s)
African Americans were looking to
escape the problems of racism in the
South and felt they could seek out better
jobs and an overall better life in the
North.
It is estimated that over 1 million African
Americans participated in this mass
movement.
The Migration of Blacks
Reasons for this movement:
o Brought about by the economic
changes by W.W. I
o Empty factory jobs (European
Immigrants)
o Southern agriculture undergoing
severe difficulties
o Constant racism in the SOUTH!!!
Southern Whites Reaction
At first, the white South was relieved
NO MORE blacks!!!
NO MORE inferiority!!!
But as the migration grew the whites
realized the threat it posed
Many attacked the migrants and those
who supported them
More WHITE Reaction
Fines and jail time was given to
supporters of the migrants
People were stopped, accused, and
threatened if they helped
Licenses to recruit required $1,000 or jail
time for sixty days
In Macon, Georgia, the fee was $25,000
White Reaction Escalates
People come back from the war with NO JOB!!!
―the blacks have taken over‖
NORTHERN WHITES become RACIST
towards the BLACKS
VIOLENCE BROKE OUT!!!!!!
Race riots of 1919
Bombing of black owned houses
Lynching
NATIONAL RIOT!!!
Washington, D.C. in late July
A light skinned black crossed and passed the
color line at a local beach
WHITES drowned the BLACK MAN
The white POLICE officer refused to arrest the
white killers
BLACKS REVOLT against the POLICEMAN!!
Little was done about AUTHORITY until
BLACKS armed themselves
Emergence of a BLACK
LEADERSHIP
The year 1919 marked a turning point in
AMERICAN HISTORY!!
As far as racial violence is concerned,
blacks openly fought back in greater
numbers than ever
The ―NEW NEGRO‖ was born
Great Migration created the 1st ―mass
national movement‖ among African
blacks
EMERGENCE OF MARCUS
GARVEY
A West Indian black who came to the USA
His message was based on the conviction that
blacks must create their own Independent
Nation!!!
WHY????
Because they would never receive justice in a WHITE
MAN’S country
Attracted many West Indians at first but it eventually
appealed to many emigrant SOUTHERN BLACKS
NORTHERN PROMISED LAND offered neither
PROMISE nor LAND!!!!
MARCUS GARVEY
Proposed to set up a
“ZION” in Africa, the
ancestral homeland of
black people
OPPRESSION of
GARVEY:
Opposed by both WHITE
and BLACK, GARVEY
was convicted of
questionable offenses
He was in prison and
then deported
CHICAGO DEFENDER
Robert S. Abbot in
1905 founded
Accurate account of
information showing
why blacks left the
SOUTH
Chicago, Cleveland,
New York, New
Jersey, Indiana,
Detroit
Chicago’s
population tripled
Pages: 232-240
ACCOUNT #1
Dear Sir: I have learned of the splendid
work which you are doing in placing
colored men in touch with industrial
opportunities. I therefore write you to ask
if you have an opening anywhere for me.
I am a college graduate and understand
Bookkeeping. But I am not above hard
labor in a foundry or other establishment.
Please let me know if you can place me.
ACCOUNT #2
Dear Sir: I am a reader of the Chicago Defender. I am
writing to see if you all will please get me a job. And
Sir I can wash dishes, was iron nursing world in a
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 enough money to pay my way. I
am a girl of 17 years old and in the 8 grade at Knox
Academy School. But an account of not having money
enough I had to stop school. Sir I will thank you all with
my all my heart. May God Bless you all. Please
answer in return mail.
HOW DO THESE
ACCOUNTS MAKE U
FEEL!!!!!?????
and now:
THE HARLEM
RENNAISAINCE
It was a cultural nationalistic movement
caused by the GREAT MIGRATION
"something like a spiritual emancipation.“
originally called the “NEW NEGRO
MOVEMENT”
The H.R. was a literary and intellectual
flowering that fostered a new black cultural
identity in the 1920s and 1930s
"spiritual coming of age" in which the black
community was able to seize upon its "first
chances for group expression and self
determination."
HARLEM RENNAISAINCE
The Harlem Renaissance transformed African-
American identity and history
Also transformed American culture in general
Never before had so many Americans read
the thoughts of African-Americans and
embraced the African-American community's
productions, expressions, and style
Harlem Renaissance
Black Migration, south to north, changed
their image from rural to urban, from
peasant to sophisticate
Harlem became a crossroads where blacks
interacted with and expanded their contacts
internationally
A rich source for racial imagination and it
freed the blacks from the establishment of
past condition
ART/JAZZ
Archibald J. Motley Jr. depicted contemporary black social nightlife
in the city
Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood, also known as the Black Belt,
became home to more than 90 percent of the city’s black population
by the 1930s
Nightlife, one of Bronzeville’s many nightspots, figures seem to
have left the world’s troubles behind.
Inside the club, there is nothing but exuberant, upbeat energy. The
dancers’ pulsing, jumping movements are suggestive of jazz.
BLACK POETS SING
Countee Cullen
Langston Hughes
Countee Cullen
Cullen, Countee , 1903–46, American poet, writer of
the Harlem Renaissance—
a flowering of black artistic and literary talent in the
1920s—
Cullen wrote poetry inspired by American black life.
His technique was conventional, modeled on that of
John Keats, and his mood passed from racial pride and
optimism in the 1920s to sadness and disappointment
in the 1930s.
Among his volumes of verse are Color (1925), Copper
Sun (1927), The Ballad of the Brown Girl (1927), and
On These I Stand (1947).
Countee Cullen
Incident
Once riding in old Baltimore,
Heart-filled, head-filled with glee;
I saw a Baltimorean
Keep looking straight at me.
Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue, and called me, "Nigger."
I saw the whole of Baltimore
From May until December;
Of all the things that happened there
That's all that I remember.
Langston Hughes
Joplin, Missouri, was a member of an abolitionist family.
first published poem was "The Negro Speaks of Rivers―
poems, short plays, essays and short stories appeared in
the NAACP publication Crisis Magazine and other
publications.
sixteen books of poems, two novels, three collections of
short stories, four volumes of "editorial" and "documentary"
fiction, twenty plays, children's poetry, musicals and
operas, three autobiographies, a dozen radio and television
scripts and dozens of magazine articles and edited seven
anthologies.
died of cancer on May 22, 1967.
East 127th Street was renamed "Langston Hughes Place"
by New York City Preservation Commission.
Ku Klux
They took me out
To some lonesome place.
They said, "Do you believe
In the great white race?"
I said, "Mister,
To tell you the truth,
I'd believe in anything
If you'd just turn me loose."
The white man said, "Boy,
Can it be
You're a-standin' there
A-sassin' me?"
They hit me in the head
And knocked me down.
And then they kicked me
On the ground.
A Klansman said, "Nigger,
Look me in the face--
And tell me you believe in
The great white race."
CONCLUSION
SUMMARIZE CHAPTER
M&M Survey Quiz/Review
QUESTIONS/ANSWERS
CREATED BY: Alexis D Ocasio &
Rohesia Hicks