1
10
20
-
https://shec.ashp.cuny.edu/files/original/reason_356b1d79c6.png
8f74c2fa2fd8dfb5f0968ff5f0b2a5ad
Omeka Image File
The metadata element set that was included in the `files_images` table in previous versions of Omeka. These elements are common to all image files.
Width
341
Height
468
Bit Depth
8
Cartoon
Original Caption
"The Reason"
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
"The Reason"
Language
A language of the resource
English
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
Description
An account of the resource
In the early twentieth century, African Americans had plenty of reasons to leave the rural South: disfranchisement, segregation, poverty, racial violence, lack of educational opportunities, and the drudgery of farm life. As the cartoon below from The Crisis magazine shows, lynching stood out as particularly horrific and unjust. Violently reinforcing the legal system of discrimination in the South, white mobs tortured and murdered black men for alleged wrongdoings or for the “crime” of prospering economically. More than 3,700 people were lynched in the United States between 1889 and 1932, the vast majority of them in the South.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Albert A. Smith, “The Reason,” <em>The Crisis</em>, March 1920.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Albert A. Smith, “The Reason,” The Crisis, March 1920.
Primary
Is this Primary or Secondary? Enter 1 for Primary or 2 for Secondary.
1
Relation
A related resource
1600
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1920
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Modern America (1914-1929)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Immigration and Migration
Great Migration
-
https://shec.ashp.cuny.edu/files/original/homelifechicago250_be69343cbf.tif
5ff4dcdb3b3b9dc6e3966f62ed1dbc32
Omeka Image File
The metadata element set that was included in the `files_images` table in previous versions of Omeka. These elements are common to all image files.
Width
2373
Height
1779
Photograph
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
“A colored family in a one room light housekeeping apartment”
Language
A language of the resource
English
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
Description
An account of the resource
One of the first challenges for southern migrants who arrived in Northern cities like Chicago was finding a place to live. One report tells of a single day when 600 families applied to live in 53 housing units. Given the demand, unscrupulous landlords charged high rents for run-down apartments. Rapid population growth was not the only reason black families had so few options. Both de facto and de jure segregation contained black residents' housing choices to a few neighborhoods like those on Chicago's south side that became known as the city's "black belt." A strong sense of family sustained many migrants through these difficult conditions.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Unknown
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Known as "Chicago Families in Furnished Rooms" or "A Colored Family in a One-Room Light Housekeeping Apartment," in dissertation by Evelyn Heacox Wilson, March 1929; University of Chicago Library.
Primary
Is this Primary or Secondary? Enter 1 for Primary or 2 for Secondary.
1
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1929 (Circa)
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Modern America (1914-1929)
Great Migration
-
Biography/Autobiography
Biographical Text
<p>THE FIRST TIME I went North was in 1924. My pal then was Hines, a young man about eighteen. He was from a farm in Texas. We were hoping we’d get to see the Mason-Dixon line. I thought in my mind that it would look like a row of trees with some kind of white mark like the mark in the middle of the highway....The train stopped in Covington, Kentucky just as the sun was rising. Someone said the bridge ahead was the Mason-Dixon line. We were North. We didn’t have to worry about sitting in the back, we felt good.... </p>
<p>When we reached Detroit each of us had an address of the people where we would live. Mine was the Gordon house on 30th Street. I looked at that number so many times before leaving home I had it perfect....We got off the train and at that moment our memories snapped. Both Hines and I could remember the streets but not the numbers....We decided to take a cab and ride to the streets and look at the numbers. We thought the addresses might come to us this way. We thought if we asked someone on the street they would surely know our friends just like we knew everybody in the country. </p>
<p>We rode a cab to 30th and McGraw. The cabdriver said colored people lived north of McGraw. We walked slowly and spoke to people. They didn’t stop or look around at us. We were amazed. People speak back in the country. We started again at one end of 30th. We would knock on two or three doors on each block. The train arrived at five and we were still walking at nine. We began to get real worried. Would we sleep in the street? Were there any parks? One side of 30th was completely white. But hearing so much about equal rights and complete freedom, and that North was heaven, we didn’t realize any difference. One white woman said that our friends couldn’t possibly live on her block because no colored lived at that end of 30th. We walked off her porch wondering why. We didn’t want to believe in discrimination up North but it kept going around in our heads. </p>
<p>Someone advised us to call the police and spend the night at the station. We said to each other, “Hell, no, we aren't going to write home and say we spent our first night in the city in jail.” I had never been to jail at that time and I sure wasn't going to start then.</p>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
A Black Migrant Crosses the Mason-Dixon Line
Language
A language of the resource
English
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
Description
An account of the resource
In this memoir first published in 1952, Charles Denby, an African-American migrant from Alabama, recalls his train ride North and first night in Detroit, Michigan. In 1930, out of work because of the Great Depression, Denby moved back to the South. He returned to Detroit in 1943, where he became an member of the United Auto Workers union and was active in radical causes for more than three decades.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Charles Denby
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Charles Denby, I<em>ndignant Heart: A Black Worker's Journal</em> (Wayne State University Press, 1989), 27-28.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Reprinted from <em>Indignant Heart: A Black Workers Journal</em> by Charles Denby. Copyright © 1978 Wayne State University Press, with the permission of Wayne State University Press.
Primary
Is this Primary or Secondary? Enter 1 for Primary or 2 for Secondary.
1
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1952
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Modern America (1914-1929)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Immigration and Migration
Great Migration
-
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Transcription
Any written text transcribed from a sound.
<p><em>I'm wondering why your family decided to leave Mississippi. How was that decision made and why was it made? </em></p>
<p>Well, the North offered better opportunities for blacks….
I've heard that recruiters were often in danger in Mississippi if they came down to get workers for northern companies. </p>
<p><em>Do you recall him ever expressing any fear about this job that he was doing? </em></p>
<p>Yes. I know that many of the blacks would leave the farms at night and walk for miles. Many of them caught the train to come North…Usually they would leave with just the clothes on their backs. Maybe the day before they would be in the field working and the plantation owner wouldn't even know that they planned to go and the next day he would go and the little shanty would be empty. These people would have taken off and come up here. </p>
<p><em>Was there a fear that the plantation owner wouldn't let them go or that they couldn't leave? </em></p>
<p>That's very true. They wouldn't. Plantation owners had much to lose. [African-American farmers] were illiterate and they had to depend on the plantation owner. He would give them so much flour for use during the year, cornmeal or sugar or that sort of thing and then at the end of the year you would go to settle up with him and you would always be deeply in debt to him. That was his way of keeping people. You never got out of debt with him…. </p>
<p><em>Now, as a young girl, did you agree with this decision to move North? Did you think it was a good idea?
</em></p>
<p>Yes. I think I did. Because even as a child I think I was pretty sensitive to a lot of the inequalities that existed between blacks and whites, and I know that after we came here my mother and dad used to tell me that if I went back to Mississippi, they would hang me to the first tree.
</p>
<p><em>What role did the church play in your early life in Mississippi?
</em></p>
<p>Well, I think the church played a very important part in the life of all blacks in Mississippi because it was religious center as well as social. That was one place that they could go and meet and discuss their problems. Relax. So just the--their big picnics and big church meetings they used to have….
</p>
<p><em>Given the opportunities that were available in the North, why did anyone decide to stay in Mississippi?
</em></p>
<p>Well, I think that it was a lack of knowledge of about what the North had to offer until these agents came there to get them to come up here to work.
</p>
<p><em>You were leaving at least a few of your relatives and friends behind. How did you feel about those people that you left behind and weren't ever going to see again?</em> </p>
<p>Well, I think it comes back to a matter of trying to exist, really, and trying to improve your own lot.</p>
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview.
None
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed.
Rubie Bond
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
A Tenant Farmer’s Daughter Remembers Leaving Mississippi
Language
A language of the resource
English
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
Description
An account of the resource
In 1917, ten-year-old Rubie Bond left Mississippi with her parents and migrated to Beloit, Wisconsin. Her father, who worked as a tenant farmer in the South, had been recruited to work at a factory in Beloit. In 1976, she was interviewed as part of an oral history project documenting the experiences of African-American migrants who moved to Wisconsin between the 1910s and 1950s. In this excerpt, Bond describes why her parents decided to leave the South.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Bond, Rubie. Interview. Tape Recording, 1976. Beloit Bicentennial Oral History Collection. Beloit College Archives, Beloit, Wisconsin; from Wisconsin Historical Society, “Oral History: Rubie Bond, the African-American Experience in Wisconsin,” Audio Number 637A/1, http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/teachers/lessons/secondary/rubiebond.asp.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Used by permission of the Wisconsin Historical Society.
Primary
Is this Primary or Secondary? Enter 1 for Primary or 2 for Secondary.
1
Relation
A related resource
1600
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1976
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Modern America (1914-1929)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Immigration and Migration
Great Migration
-
Teaching Activity
Objectives
<ul>
<li>
<p>Students will learn about lynching, segregation, sharecropping, and the experiences of African Americans in northern cities after they moved there from the South during the World War I era</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Students will understand how life was different in the South and in northern cities for African Americans</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Students will understand how African Americans tried to improve their lives in the North</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>This activity supports the following Common Core Literacy Standards in History/Social Studies:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>RHSS.6-8.1. Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>WHSS.6-8.2. Write informative/explanatory texts, including the narration of historical events.</p>
</li>
</ul>
Materials
1895, 1896, 1887, 1884, 1885, 1888, 1893
Historical Context
Between 1910 and 1930, more than one million African Americans moved out of the South. They sought economic opportunity, freedom from racial segregation, and safety from lynching and other kinds of racist violence. The promise of freedom and full citizenship drew them to cities in the North, Midwest, and West. Once there, the migrants faced poor housing, discrimination on the job, and racial violence. They responded by forming women’s clubs, engaging in political campaigns, and creating the “New Negro†movement.
Lesson Plan Text
<p><strong>Step 1:</strong> Discuss with students: When does home become so bad that you have to leave? Is it better when you do leave? Write down their answers and have them available on the board or chart paper to refer back to later. </p>
<p>Hand out Map of Migration Routes Followed by African Americans During the Great Migration</p>
<p>Ask students to find Mississippi (MS) and Chicago on the map and draw a line between the two. Explain that the <em>Up South</em> documentary they are about to see will show stories of people who went from Hattiesburg, Mississippi to Chicago, but as they can see from this map, this is part of a larger story of more than a million people who left different parts of the South for cities in the North. </p>
<p><strong>Step 2:</strong> Play chapters 1-3 (00:17-6:01) of <em>Up South</em>. Ask students to think about the following as they watch: One part of the story of life in the South is lack of economic opportunity; another part of the story is about oppression and segregation. What was so bad about sharecropping? </p>
<p>After watching, lead a brief shareout of students’ thoughts on “what was so bad about sharecropping.” (If you think your students need additional information in order to clarify their understanding of sharecropping, have them read and discuss Description of Sharecropping.)</p>
<p>Hand out the Active Viewing: <em>Up South</em> worksheet and ask students to write down examples of what life was like from the document and/or film in the Jim Crow and Sharecropping sections of the worksheet. </p>
<p><strong>Step 3:</strong> Hand out Bar Graph of Lynchings of African Americans, 1890-1929. Have student volunteers read aloud the description text above the graph and the text below it. </p>
<p>Ask students to write down three facts about lynching in the Lynching section of the worksheet. </p>
<p>Play chapters 4-5 (6:02-12:09) of <em>Up South</em>. Ask students to think about the following as they watch: What was the <em>Chicago Defender</em> and why is it important in this story? </p>
<p><strong>Step 4:</strong> Discuss the <em>Chicago Defender</em> and ask students to summarize why people left the South. Ask students to predict what they think will happen when migrants get to the North; record their answers. Either provide these categories or organize their responses on the board or chart paper into these categories: jobs, rights, community, housing. </p>
<p>Play chapters 6-7 (12:10-21:35) of <em>Up South</em>. Assign small groups of students to listen for information about one of the categories (jobs, rights, community, housing) as they watch.</p>
<p>Ask students to write examples from the documentary and from the survey about life in the North on the worksheet, making sure to fill in at least one example for each category (jobs, rights, community, housing) </p>
<p>Ask students to write examples from the documentary and from the survey about life in the North on the worksheet, making sure to fill in at least one example for each category (jobs, rights, community, housing) <br /> <br /><strong>Step 5:</strong> Revisit the predictions students made about life in the North and ask each group to report back what they learned from the film. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Hand out Black Chicagoans Describe Their Migration Experiences and ask students to circle evidence that relates to what category they were listening for in the film. Briefly discuss their answers. </p>
<p>Play chapters 8-10 (21:36-29:18) of <em>Up South</em>. As students view the clip, ask them to think about: Who was the New Negro and how did he try to solve problems in the North? </p>
<p>After watching the clip, review students’ understanding of the New Negro.</p>
<p><strong>Step 6:</strong> Assign students to complete the Active Viewing: <em>Up South </em>Writing Prompt.</p>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Language
A language of the resource
English
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
Title
A name given to the resource
Active Viewing: <em>Up South</em>
Description
An account of the resource
In this activity, students watch the ASHP documentary <em><a href="http://ashp.cuny.edu/ashp-documentaries/up-south/">Up South: African-American Migration in the Era of the Great War</a></em> with documents and exercises designed to support and reinforce the documentary's key concepts of Jim Crow, lynching, sharecropping, migration, and life in northern cities. At the end of the activity, students complete a short writing task on how life changed and how it stayed the same for migrants, and how they tried to improve their lives in the North.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning, 2011
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/" rel="license"><img style="border-width: 0;" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/3.0/88x31.png" alt="Creative Commons License" /></a><br />This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/" rel="license">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License</a>.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2011
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Modern America (1914-1929)
Active Viewing
Common Core Reading
Common Core Writing
Delving into Data
Great Migration
Up South
-
https://shec.ashp.cuny.edu/files/original/vocab_a3ce9421de.pdf
f98ed4008bcbc69bf6a1776bf86b64f5
Worksheet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Active Viewing: <em>Up South</em> vocabulary sheet
Language
A language of the resource
English
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
Description
An account of the resource
These words and phrases from the <em>Up South</em> documentary may be unfamiliar to students.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning, 2011.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/"><img style="border-width:0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/3.0/88x31.png" alt="Creative Commons License" /></a><br />This work is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License</a>.
Primary
Is this Primary or Secondary? Enter 1 for Primary or 2 for Secondary.
2
Relation
A related resource
1894
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2011
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Modern America (1914-1929)
Active Viewing
Great Migration
Reading Supports
Up South
-
https://shec.ashp.cuny.edu/files/original/up-south-active-viewing-worksheet_47de6ae6bc.pdf
f4b69f617744a8f6e450e95f3d2c31e8
Worksheet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Active Viewing: <em>Up South</em> worksheet
Language
A language of the resource
English
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
Description
An account of the resource
This worksheet is designed to help students organize information from the documentary <a href="http://ashp.cuny.edu/ashp-documentaries/up-south/" target="_blank"><em>Up South: African-American Migration in the Era of the Great War</em></a>.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning, 2011
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/"></a><br />This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License</a>.
Primary
Is this Primary or Secondary? Enter 1 for Primary or 2 for Secondary.
2
Relation
A related resource
1894
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2011
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Modern America (1914-1929)
Active Viewing
Great Migration
Reading Supports
Up South
-
https://shec.ashp.cuny.edu/files/original/active-viewing-up-south-writing-prompt_bb4ad0ea3b.pdf
232770babef82e613a206a0036fb8dc0
Worksheet
Text
Any textual data included in the document.
<p>This worksheet aligns to Common Core Literacy Standards in History/Social Studies:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>WHSS.6-8.2. Write informative/explanatory texts, including the narration of historical events.</p>
</li>
</ul>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Language
A language of the resource
English
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
Title
A name given to the resource
Active Viewing: Up South Activity Writing Prompt
Description
An account of the resource
This is a writing prompt for the Active Viewing: Up South activity.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning, 2011.
Primary
Is this Primary or Secondary? Enter 1 for Primary or 2 for Secondary.
2
Relation
A related resource
1894
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2011
Active Viewing
Common Core Writing
Great Migration
Up South
-
https://shec.ashp.cuny.edu/files/original/lynching-chart_b776de6e07.png
f66b27c4799df2881c030e86466ccd02
Omeka Image File
The metadata element set that was included in the `files_images` table in previous versions of Omeka. These elements are common to all image files.
Bit Depth
8
Height
361
Width
601
Quantitative Data
Statistics, Census Data
Text
Any textual data included in the document.
<p>Across the South, someone was hanged or burned alive every four days from 1889 to 1929, according to the 1933 book <em>The Tragedy of Lynching</em>, for such alleged crimes as "stealing hogs, horse-stealing, poisoning mules, jumping labor contract, suspected of stealing cattle, boastful remarks" or "trying to act like a white man." One was killed for stealing seventy-five cents.</p>
<p><br />Like the cotton growing in the field, violence had become so much a part of the landscape that "perhaps most of the southern black population had witnessed a lynching in their own communities or knew people who had," wrote the historian Herbert Shapiro. "All blacks lived with the reality that no black individual was completely safe from lynching."</p>
<p>—Isabel Wilkerson, <em>The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration</em></p>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Bar Graph of Lynchings of African Americans, 1890-1929
Language
A language of the resource
English
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
Description
An account of the resource
From 1890 to 1900, an average of 175 African Americans were lynched each year. Lynchings were attacks motivated by racism where white mobs brutally murdered black victims, sometimes in the night, but often in a public way with many witnesses. Lynch mobs often hung their victims, but also sometimes burned or tore apart the victim's body. African-American men were the most common targets of lynch mobs, but women were also hurt and killed. White public officials in the South did not criticize lynching, did not punish those responsible, and often supported the actions of lynch mobs. African Americans (most notably the journalist Ida B. Wells) fought back against lynching by trying to bring national attention to the issue.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
“Lynchings by Year and Race,†University of Missouri Kansas City Law School, http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/shipp/lynchingyear.html and Isabel Wilkerson, <em>The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration</em> (New York: Random House, 2010), 39.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Graph copyright American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning <br />This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License</a>.
Relation
A related resource
1894
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2011
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Modern America (1914-1929)
Great Migration
-
Book (excerpt)
Text
Any textual data included in the document.
<p>Question: Why did you come to Chicago?</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Some of my people were here.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>For better wages.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>To better my conditions.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p><br />Question: Do you feel greater freedom and independence in Chicago? In what ways?</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Yes. Feel free to do anything I please. Not dictated to by white people.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Yes. Can vote; feel free; haven’t any fear; make more money.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Yes. Can vote; no lynching; no fear of mobs; can express my opinion and defend myself.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Yes. No restrictions as to shows, schools, etc. More protection of law.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p><br />Question: What were your first impressions of Chicago?</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>When I got here and got on the street cars and saw colored people sitting by white people all over the car I just held my breath, for I thought any minute they would start something, then I saw nobody noticed it, and I just thought this was a real place for colored people. No, indeed, I’ll never work in anybody’s kitchen but my own, any more…</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Didn’t like it; lonesome, until I went out. Then liked the places of amusement which have no restrictions.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p><br />Question: What do you like about the North?</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>More money and more pleasure to be gotten from it; personal freedom Chicago affords [allows], and voting.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Freedom of speech and action. Can live without fear, no Jim Crow</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p><br />Question: What difficulties do you think a person from the South meets in coming to Chicago?</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Just the treatment some of the white people give you on the trains. Sometimes treat you like dogs.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Change in climate, crowded living conditions, lack of space for gardens, etc.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>… Get in with wrong people who seek to take advantage of the ignorance of newcomers.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p><br />Question: Do you get more comforts and pleasures from your higher wages?</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Yes. Living in better houses, can go into almost any place if you have the money, and then the schools are so much better here.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Yes. I live better, save more, and feel more like a man.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Yes. I live in a larger house and have more conveniences. Can take more pleasure; have more leisure time.</p>
</li>
</ul>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Black Chicagoans Describe Their Great Migration Experiences
Language
A language of the resource
English
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
Description
An account of the resource
In the summer of 1919, violence broke out between whites and African Americans in Chicago. The five-day riot left thirty-eight people dead and more than five hundred people injured. The city formed a Commission on Race Relations to study what happened during the riot and what conditions in the city contributed to the violence. As part of that study, the Commission surveyed recent African-American migrants from the South. These questions and answers are a selection from the larger survey.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Chicago Commission on Race Relations
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Chicago Commission on Race Relations, <em>The Negro in Chicago</em> (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1922), 97-102.
Primary
Is this Primary or Secondary? Enter 1 for Primary or 2 for Secondary.
1
Relation
A related resource
1889, 1894
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1922
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Modern America (1914-1929)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Civil Rights and Citizenship
Great Migration