AP® African American Studies review sheet from Aim for Five (aimforfive.com/african-american-studies/units/3/3-16)
Unit 3 · Topic 3.16
3.16 The Great Migration
From the 1910s to the 1970s, about six million African Americans left the South for cities in the North, Midwest and West. Pushed by violence, Jim Crow and poverty and pulled by jobs, the Great Migration turned Black Americans from a mostly rural people into a mostly urban one and transformed American culture.
Key terms
- Great Migration
- push and pull factors
- boll weevil
- National Urban League
- Jacob Lawrence's Migration Series
Why people left
The Great Migration was one of the largest internal migrations in US history: about six million African Americans moved, in waves, from the South to the North, Midwest and West between the 1910s and the 1970s.
| Push factors (reasons to leave the South) | Pull factors (reasons to go North and West) |
|---|---|
| Lynching and racial violence | Safety and more freedom |
| Jim Crow segregation and disenfranchisement | The chance to vote and fewer legal barriers |
| Floods, the boll weevil (a beetle that destroys cotton) and failed crops | Jobs in factories during labor shortages in the First and Second World Wars |
| Sharecropping and debt | Higher wages |
How they got there
Railroads made the trip possible, connecting Southern towns to cities like Chicago, Detroit and New York. The Black press provided the encouragement and instructions. The Chicago Defender printed job ads, train schedules and stories of Northern opportunity, and Black railroad porters carried copies south.
The required anonymous letter, published in The Messenger in 1920, urged African Americans to leave the South. Jacob Lawrence's The Migration Series (1940–1941), a set of 60 panels, tells the story of the migration in bold colors and simple shapes. Panel No. 1 shows a crowd of travelers at a train station heading to Northern cities.
Resistance from the South
As underpaid Black workers began to leave, white employers in the South grew alarmed about losing cheap labor. Some towns tried to stop the migration, sometimes arresting migrants on false charges or banning labor recruiters, and racial tensions rose.
How it changed America
The migration transformed American cities and Black communities. Cities like New York, Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Los Angeles absorbed Black Southern culture, including food, music, church traditions and speech, creating a shared culture among Black communities nationwide. It fed the Harlem Renaissance (3.11), the electric blues (3.14) and growing Black political power in Northern cities.
African Americans went from being mostly rural to mostly urban. Migrants also built new relationships with their surroundings, for example enjoying parks, lakes and nature for leisure rather than as places of hard labor.
Migrants still faced discrimination in the North, in jobs and housing (4.5). The National Urban League, founded in New York City in 1910 as an interracial organization, helped newcomers find housing and jobs and adjust to city life. It later supported A. Philip Randolph's 1941 March on Washington movement and worked with the Civil Rights movement.
Worked examples
Try each one yourself first, then open the solution.
- Example 1
Push and pull factors
Describe one push factor and one pull factor that caused the Great Migration.
Show the solutionHide the solution
- Step 1: Push factor: something in the South that drove people away, such as lynching or the boll weevil.
- Step 2: Pull factor: something in the North or West that attracted them, such as wartime factory jobs.
- Step 3: Be specific for each.
Answer: Model answer: One push factor was racial violence: the constant danger of lynching in the Jim Crow South led many Black families to leave for their safety. One pull factor was work: during the First World War, Northern factories faced labor shortages and offered jobs at higher wages, drawing migrants to cities like Chicago and Detroit.
Common mistakes
- Thinking the Great Migration was one short event. It came in waves over about sixty years.
- Assuming migrants escaped racism completely. They faced segregation and discrimination in Northern cities too.
- Forgetting the West. Many migrants went to cities like Los Angeles and Oakland, especially during the Second World War.
On the exam
- Push-and-pull questions are common. Have two of each ready with specific examples.
- Lawrence's Migration Series and maps may appear. Connect the image or data to causes and effects.
Connected topics
Videos
Check yourself
4 questions on 3.16 The Great Migration. Pick an answer to see if you got it, and why.
| Year | Share of Black Americans living in the South | Black population of Chicago | Black population of Detroit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1910 | 89% | 44,103 | 5,741 |
| 1920 | 85% | 109,458 | 40,838 |
| 1940 | 77% | 277,731 | 149,119 |
| 1970 | 53% | 1,102,620 | 660,428 |
U.S. Census Bureau data, as compiled in historical census statistics (rounded shares), prepared for this practice set
Which trend is shown in the table?
The sharp growth in Detroit's Black population between 1910 and 1920 is best explained by
A limitation of the table for studying the Great Migration is that it
Photographs taken in June 1921 show thick black smoke rising over the Greenwood district of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Later images show streets lined with chimneys and brick shells where homes, churches and businesses had stood, and groups of Black men walking with their hands raised as armed white men watch.
Description written for this practice set of photographs of the Tulsa Race Massacre, 1921
Racial violence like this, along with poverty in the South, most directly encouraged
0 of 4 answered