Great Migration (African American) - Causes

Causes

When the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, less than eight percent of the African American population lived in the Northeastern or Midwestern United States. This began to change over the next decade, and by 1880, a migration was underway to Kansas. The U. S. Senate ordered an investigation into it. In 1900, about 90 percent of blacks still lived in Southern states. They also moved to Canada in order to maintain safe haven from anti-abolitionists.

Between 1910 and 1930, the African-American population increased by about forty percent in Northern states as a result of the migration, mostly in the major cities. Cities including Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, and New York City had some of the biggest increases in the early part of the 20th century. Blacks were recruited for industrial jobs, such as positions with the expansion of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Because changes were concentrated in cities, which had also attracted millions of new or recent European immigrants, tensions rose as the people competed for jobs and housing. Tensions were often most severe between ethnic Irish, defending their recently gained positions and territory, and recent immigrants and blacks.

African Americans moved as individuals or small family groups. There was no government assistance, but often northern industries, such as the railroads, meatpacking, and stockyards recruited people. The primary push factors for migration were segregation, the widespread violence of lynching, and lack of opportunities in the South. In the North, they could find better schools and adult men could vote (joined by women after 1920). Burgeoning industries created job opportunities.