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HIS325: African American History

HIS325 : African American History

The Great Migration was caused by a host of factors that contributed to the movement of African Americans from the South to the North , creating sizeable communities in the North . Some of these reasons explain the movement out of the South others refer to the attractions of the North In any case , the Migration proved a watershed ' in African American history because of the geographic relocation and associated social changes

The factors leading African Americans to leave the South were mainly economic disempowerment and discrimination that former

slaves had to endure in the original places of their settlement in the US . Suffering under oppressive Jim Crow laws , African Americans did not see a future for themselves on southern lands . For sharecroppers , economic misfortune was exacerbated by the Boll Weevil infestation that invaded southern lands in the early 20th century . The plight of African American farmers was aggravated by the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927

The factors that attracted them in the North were equally compelling . In the post-war economic expansion , industrial production in Northern states was booming , requiring constant addition of new labor . These opportunities could no longer effectively be filled by European migrants as their stream waned in the aftermath of the bloody war . The government also blockaded the stream of migrants with tougher anti-immigration legislation . However , the supply of African American hands was large and these people could effectively fill in vacancies offered to them by the growing industrial manufacturing , and especially in military industries . Expansion did not only mean job creation in the industrial sector - its growth was fuelling vacation of jobs in services and other areas that were quickly filled by incoming migrants . Migrating African Americans also hoped that the North , lacking the traditions of Black Codes and Ku Klux Clan would prove a more pleasant place to live in

The Great Migration had a variety of consequences both for the African American population and the rest of the nation . For migrating workers the move presented new challenging opportunities that gave them many advantages as compared to their former condition in the South . Earning higher wages , they now had access to many aspects of life from which they had been barred by their oppressed condition . New educational opportunities unfolded for the children . The community as a whole gained access to new horizons that also precipitated cultural rebirth . A manifestation can be the Harlem Renaissance that created a string of cultural leaders among Afro-Americans

The entrance of African Americans into the industrial workforce in combination with their departure from the South opened to many businessmen the importance of black labor . In the South , business men and planters soon found out that it was impossible to treat the Negro as a serf and began to deal with him as an actual employee entitled to his share of the returns from his labor (Wikipedia , 2006 . The attitude toward black farm workers soon became more humane , and they were regarded as entitled to part of the...

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