A Very Brief Summary: The Black Exodus

The Great Migration was a huge relocation of African Americans from the Southern states of the United States to northern and Midwestern cities. This occurred between the years of 1910 and 1970. Over 6 million African Americans traveled to Northern cities during the migration. Some northern city destinations were Richmond, D.C, Baltimore, New York, and Newark. Western and Midwestern destinations were those such as Los Angelos, San Francisco, St. Louis, Chicago, and Detroit. During this time period and previous years, Jim Crow laws in the South were greatly in affect and causing African Americans a rough time due to the racism they faced. After Reconstruction had ended, white supremacy had taken it's toll in the South and Jim Crow had

During these years of radical reconstruction, the African Americans were going through some very tough times. The laws that were put on them were harsh and unreasonable. All they wanted to do was becomes socially and economically apart of the United States. Groups like the KKK were unfair towards the blacks and made their lives miserable by holding rallies and killing them. As a result of reconstruction, the blacks were not given social or economic equality because of laws like the black codes and Jim Crow laws, and the rebellious whites in the south. These African Americans struggled just to support themselves, but whites eventually accepted them at the end of the

escaped from slavery in maryland. he was a great thinker and speaker. published his own antislavery newspaper called the north star and wrote an autobiography that was published in 1845. Ft.

Harris, Leslie M. In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626-1863.

Both free and enslaved Africans were discriminated against in this time period but responded differently towards their challenges. African Americans found ways to cope with their situation one being religious gatherings (Doc D). They sang old traditional African songs and danced. By doing so, they can forget about life troubles for a moment and give themselves a sense of hope that someday they would by free. Some slaves where more violent than other and began rebellions against their white owners. The use of rebellion was inspired to them by the Bible and that God was pleading for their cause with earnestness and zeal (Doc G). Slaves who caused mischief was relocated deeper south where the treatment and condition was even worse. The Fugitive Slave Law forced the North to send back any slaves who escaped to the North in return for a reward. Slaves who tried to escape to the North were also relocated. By relocating them, the chances of escape decreased for them. Even

Blackmon provides many stories in his book about what the slaves to forced laborers went through and how they felt about the new so called “freedom” they gained. The Black Americans prior to the Emancipation Proclamation have never seen the slightest clue to what freedom could even feel like. “Some of the old slaves said they too weren’t sure what “freedom” really was”

They faced challenges with the migration and between 1915-1916 they faced even more challenges when their crops where attacked by boll weevil which ultimately ruined their crops. This caused economic conditions to worsen for them and then another misfortune was the fact that they were stripped of their rights to vote. Black southerners moving to the North caused more distress for them trying to make a living. While the economic grew, it also caused problems for the Europeans as well which caused labor to become unavailable because of the elimination cheap labor to be replaced with black southerners to fill positions. African Americans started to feel like they were making

The South was a complete mess after the Civil War. The early part of the 20th century brought many changes for African Americans. There was a difficult challenge of helping newly free African American slaves assimilate among their white counterparts. They suffered from crop failures, economic hardships, and the early failures of Reconstruction in the south. So as result many Southern African Americans migrated to northern cities in search of employment and a chance at a better life. However, Southern African Americans migrating to northern cities quickly discovered that they were not able to enjoy the same social and economic mobility experienced by their European immigrant counterparts arriving around the same time. There were many

With few outlets to succeed in America at the time, African Americans put forth extra effort to succeed when they were given a chance. Often times, this

In this time period, life was extremely hard for African Americans simply because they were slaves and even though they were emaciated in 1863 by the Emancipation Proclamation. They were still treated with such disrespect...to the point where they were considered not to be humans. They were instilled with so much fear that the thought

In 1865 to 1877, a very important part of U.S. history took place, and that was Reconstruction, where every slave was freed, and the whites and black lived equally among one another. It wasn’t an easy breeze and took a long time for whites to accept blacks, and even in current day there are some problem with racism, the main focus was to get rid of slavery, and that was a success.

Knowledge and understanding is key to success and that’s what African Americans developed over the previous battle with black codes. Blacks saw opportunity in adverse situation, such as overcoming black codes which led to overcoming sharecropping. Through that adverse situation, blacks created a way to go around the sharecropping system by eventually forming the “Colored Farmers National Alliance.” African Americans saw the opportunity to sponsor their own cooperative stores where members could obtain necessary goods and equipment at a reduced price, published newspapers to help educate

After the post-Civil War reconstruction era in 1879, white supremacy was at an all-time high. There was economic deprivation as the boll weevil and flooding exterminated cash crops like cotton, resulting in poor crop yields and an uncertain economy(Clark); threats from the supposedly subdued Ku Klux Klan, the need for better jobs, and segregation due to the Jim Crow Laws were some reasons why African Americans decided to flee the South. By 1919, one million African Americans had left the South by train, boat, bus, cars, and even horse drawn carts (Great Migration). This massive migration with little space in the North led the African Americans to make their own city with their own cultures.

The Great Migration brought about changes that would bring prosperity to most, but little did they know, it would come with a price. That price was endured through various social, economic, and political challenges that occurred during this harsh time in black history. Many opportunities were available for families that would travel far to take advantage of opportunities that would start a new beginning. The Great Migration was a movement of hope that there is a land that is free of oppression and strife. However, black families in the north faced issues that were troubling and contradicting to their belief of the north. Their thoughts of living racism free and gaining economic power was far fetch when they experienced the challenges of the north. The challenges blacks faced during the Great Migration paved the way for numerous opportunities and breakthroughs we have experienced and have not experienced today.

In the book The Destruction of Black Civilization Professor Chancellor Williams felt that black people, Africans and the African culture must have contributed something to human civilization and was out to prove that his thesis correct. He basically stated argued that Africans couldn’t have been the only race that did not make any contributions to the evolution of human civilization. If a person was to stop and look at an American and European text book on human civilization, there would be very little of info on the contributions of Africans to society in general. This was shocking to Dr. Williams and he was out to refute that very clause upon the black race.