The Great Migration and African American Culture

Great Migration > Social Patterns

• from rural areas to cities

• from the South to the North

• Appalachian whites

• Puerto Ricans

• African Americans

Great Migration > Motives

• immigration slows down because of WW I

• more work because of WW I

• more jobs for groups previously left out--women, rural migrants, racial minorities

• racial segregation and violence in the South

• sharecropping

• natural disasters such as floods and boll weevil infestations

• conscious choice on the part of migrants (many did not leave)

Great Migration > Railroad Routes

Great Migration > Painting by Jacob Lawrence, 1940

Great Migration > Painting by Jacob Lawrence, 1940

Great Migration > Blues Song “Times Is Getting Harder”

Times is gettin’ harder, Money’s gettin’ scarce.Soon as I gather my cotton and corn, I’m bound to leave this place.

White folks sittin’ in the parlor, Eatin’ that cake and food,Nigger’s way down to the kitchen, Squabblin’ over turnip greens.

Times is gettin’ harder, Money’s gettin’ scarce.Soon as I gather my cotton and corn, I’m bound to leave this place.

Me and my brother was out. Thought we’d have some fun.He stole three chickens. We began to run.

Times is gettin’ harder, Money’s gettin’ scarce.Soon as I gather my cotton and corn I’m bound to leave this place.

1920s > Harlem Renaissance > Marcus Garvey’s Supporters Parade in Harlem

1920s > Harlem Renaissance > NAACP Anti-Lynching Ad in the New York Times

1920s > Harlem Renaissance > The Crisis Ad for Black Swan Records, 1923

1920s > Harlem Renaissance > The Crisis Cover, 1929

1920s > Harlem Renaissance > Zora Neale Hurston Photo by Carl Van Vechten

1920s > Leon “Bix” Beiderbecke, “Sorry,” 1928

1920s > Louis Armstrong, “Weather Bird,” 1928