THE GREAT MIGRATION

GREAT MIGRATION 1910 - 1930

-Migration of 4.1 million Blacks from rural south to urban north, west, midwest- CAUSES: Boom in Labor, Recession in South, WWI economy, Absence of White laborers-RESULTS: Creation of Black “ghettos” in cities

(Harlem, NY; South Side, Chicago; Detroit) Creation of Black political / cultural base in cities

1900:20,000 Foreign Born Blacks

92% of BlacksLive in the South

1940110,000 ForeignBorn Blacks

77% of BlacksLive in the South

CARIBBEAN IMMIGRATION

Caribbean

-Decline of Sugar industry-Migration of labor and capital to Panama Under the U.S.-Racist employment practices underBritish Colonialism.

AFRO-CARIBBEAN RACIAL IDEOLOGY-Majority Consciousness-High Literacy and Skilled Employment-Radical Politics -Pan-Africanism and World View of Racism-British Citizenship / Lack of Attachment to Protestant Christianity

BOSTON’S SOUTH ENDc. 1885

BLACK ENCLAVES- TREMONT, CAMDEN, SHAWMUT AVE

New York Evening Globe 1916To the Editor of the Globe—I have read with keen interest your editorial in to-day’s Globe entitled “The NegroProblem,” in which you say that the migration of large numbers of Negroes to the north withinthe past year has been due to his lack of fair treatment in the south and the effect it will haveupon the country. You will concede that the Negro is an American citizen—dyed-in-the-wool, American, without even the symptoms of a hyphen. And as an American first, last and all the time he is entitled to his constitutional rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness anywhere in America he may choose to make his home, [provided] he is competent to work. . . . The American white man gives the immigrant every opportunity to get up in the world because he is white. He never takes into consideration that the immigrant is often an enemy of American institutions regardless of the fact that a great president was assassinated by one. But when war breaks out who is it that goes to the front?

Mobile, Ala., April 25, 1917

Sir: I was reading in the paper about the Colored race and while reading it I seen in it where cars would be here for the 15 of May which is one month from to day. Will you be so kind as to let me know where they are coming to and I will be glad to know because I am a poor woman and have a husband and five children living and three dead one single and two twin girls six months old today and my husband can hardly make bread for them in Mobile. This is my native home but it is not fit to live in just as the Chicago Defender say it says the truth and my husband only get $1.50 a day and pays $7.50 a month for house rent and can hardly feed me and his self and children. I am the mother of 8 children 25 years old and I want to get out of this dog hold because I dont know what I am raising them up for in this place and I want to get to Chicago where I know they will be raised and my husband crazy to get there because he know he can get more to raise his children and will you please let me know where the cars is going to stop to so that he can come where he can take care of me and my children.

“The Colored People of the United StatesHave made extraordinary progress towards selfSupport and usefulness, and ought to be Encouraged in every possible and proper way.My sympathy with them is of long standing, andI want to assure them through you that should IBecome President of the United States they mayCount on me for absolute fair dealing and forEverything by which I could assist in advancingThe interests of their race in the United States.”Woodrow Wilson, 1912

President Woodrow Wilson

-Segregation of Federal Government- Endorsement of “Birth of a Nation”- Confrontation with Trotter, 1914

Harlem Hell-Fighters, 369th Regiment

-Du Bois “Close Ranks”- 400,000 blacks serve- Segregated Units -Croix de guerre in France- Col. Charles Young and Failure to Enlist Black Officers

RED SUMMER 1919

OVER 26 riots of whites targeting blacks

LIST of RIOTS: Elaine, AK; Chicago, IL; Scranton, PA; Omaha, NE; Newberry, SC; New York City; New Orleans, LA

Chicago Defender est. 1905 by Robert S. Abbott

“But by the God of heaven, we are cowards and jackasses if now that the war is over, we do not marshal every ounce of our brain and brawn to fight a sterner, longer, more unbending battle against the forces of hell in our own land. . . Make way for Democracy! WE saved it in France, and by the Great Jehovah, we will save it in the United States of America, or know the reason why.” – Du Bois, 1919