The+Great+Migration

The Great Migration

by Nyla, Tisah, Zoie, Shahid, Kevin,  Jabril, Brooke, Aziz and Ronald, grade 5 and Ella, Jacob and Cyrus, grade 6

The Great Migration was a journey from the racism of the South to the North, where there were better opportunities for Black people. It was a ticket to a better life for African Americans which changed the face of the North and the South and spanned about fifty years, from 1917 to the 1970's. The Great Migration started in part because of the failure of the attempt to integrate the South through Reconstruction, as well as racial violence from groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. Jim Crow laws were another reason Blacks migrated North. The Jim Crow laws were laws that segregated Blacks and made racial inequality legal. Another problem that caused African Americans to go North was a cotton eating insect called the boll weevil. The boll weevil was eating all the cotton, which made it hard for the sharecroppers because they couldn't work and make money. African Americans found out about jobs in the North from newspapers and letters, and that made them want to pack up all their belongings and head North. Before the Great Migration a slow process of change occurred. It was called Reconstruction. Reconstruction was a time in which the United States attempted to rebuild the country after the Civil War. Northerners started to debate how the Southern States should be brought back into the Union.. In May, 1865, Andrew Johnson, who was President at the time, talked about his Reconstruction plan. The plan let white Southerners get away from the consequences of annexing themselves for slavery. Andrew Johnson and the Confederates wanted to keep Blacks from having equal rights. Southern States passed Black Codes, which limited African Americans' freedom and brought them back to what was basically slavery. President Johnson disagreed with the 14th Amendment, which gave equality to all citizens. He tried to veto the amendment but Congress over-ruled him. Radical Reconstruction was an uprising of a civil rights movement led by Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner. They believed that African American men had the same political rights and should have the same opportunities as white men. They were trying to make Reconstruction work for Black people. Through Radical Reconstruction the 14th Amendments started working. The Freedman's Bureau was a group that protected Black people's rights in the South. Black men started to vote, and got to elect Black representatives who helped to write State Constitutions. They created the public school system in the South. The State Constitutions included the 13th and 14th Amendments, which gave Black people protection from slavery and inequality. Black people had a lot of power during Reconstruction, and had many political ideas. Southern white people didn't like that Black people had power because they had never had political power in America before. The Ku Klux Klan was a terrorist group which attacked Black people and started race riots. White people teamed up with Democrats and tried to get legal white supremacy back. Sadly ,the last Federal troops were pulled from the South at the time of President Rutherford B. Hayes' election, and in 1877, Radical Reconstruction ended. After Reconstruction, the South made laws called Jim Crow Laws, which were like the Black Codes. Jim Crow Laws restricted Black people's rights. They made Black people take literacy tests before they could vote. They made restaurants and stores segregated. They separated schools by race, and African Americans didn't get the same quality of education. Bathrooms, water fountains, buses and trains were segregated. In 1892, Homer Plessy, who was one eighth Black, tested the Jim Crow laws about segregated trains. He bought a ticket and sat in the "whites only" car. Security came and tried to take him to the "colored" car. Plessy refused to go, so they called the police and they arrested him. Plessy pleaded his case to the Supreme Court in a case known as Plessy vs. Ferguson. In 1896 the Supreme Court ruled that places could be segregated but conditions had to be equal. It was called "separate but equal". Plessy vs Ferguson showed the struggle of segregation, and was a push factor for Southern Black people to move North. Another push factor for Southern Black people was the boll weevil. The boll weevil was a job-stealer to Black people during the Great Migration**//.//** At the time Blacks in the South were usually sharecroppers for white people. They basically had to pick plants like cotton, no matter what the weather, for very low pay. Yet, the boll weevil started coming by and eating the crops, and that made Black sharecroppers' jobs harder. Boll weevils ate more and more crops, which made the number of crops to decrease. Blacks started to lose their jobs, but with job openings in the North increasing, the need to go North grew. The Northern newspapers promoted the Great Migration for Blacks to go North. In the North there was less segregation, better housing, better jobs and fewer lynchings. There were more job opportunities because many white men were deployed in the military to fight in World War I in 1917. The newspapers were a pull factor for Black people to go North because they advertised jobs and gave information about where people could get housing. The newspapers told stories about the North, saying there were better jobs, better education for children and a better life for Black people. Relatives from the North sent letters to their families in the South to tell them life was better in the North. Most people who went North during the Great Migration travelled by train. The train stations were so packed that people had to stand in line for hours. Some people got arrested at the train stations because the plantation owners didn’t want them to go North. They didn't want them to leave the South because there would be no one there to take care of the crops, since millions of people were leaving the South during the Great Migration. The trains took people to places like New York, Chicago, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. When Black people moved North, they needed refuge. In Philadelphia they had that. Philadelphia was a popular destination for the migrants. The Christian Street YMCA took in migrants, told them where to get jobs, and gave them a place to sleep. Tindley Temple bought houses and rented them out to migrants. The Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) was a Black empowerment movement started by Marcus Garvey. It helped the migrants start a new life by giving them hope. It changed how they felt about themselves and taught them how to have pride. Mother Bethel AME Church also helped the migrants by being a welcoming community. The Great Migration gave United States history a new course. The South had fewer agricultural workers, and the North had more industrial jobs and opportunities. From the 1920's to the 1970's, 6.1 million Black people came North from the South. Cities grew, and had large populations of Black people. Many Black people moved to Harlem, where art and culture grew, and then the Harlem Renaissance began.