Great Migration: African Americans' Journey to a Better Life - Essay Sample

Introduction

The great migration resulted in the massive relocation of African Americans from south to northern American cities. During the period starting from 1915, more than 6 million African Americans migrated to the North American cities due to Jim Crow segregation laws. The African Americans suffered intensive racial discrimination from the south, owing to the white supremacist movements that were predominant at the moment. The blacks took advantage of widespread industrialization and urbanization taking place in the north. They shifted in search of employment opportunities in sprawling industrial and urban centers in the northern region (Grossman, 1991). At the time, African Americans were facing social, political, and economic challenges, and these challenges fueled their desire to move to the north. World War 1 created demand for industrial supplies from the industries of the northerners. The African Americans at the south had to struggle with the sharecropping introduced through segregation policies.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

The boll weevil epidemic further strained the marginalized African Americans in the south, where there were little economic opportunities left for the blacks. The violence, intimidation, and lynching were common to the black southerners (Collins & Wanamaker, 2015). The booming industrial economy in the north inspires many northerners to lure African Americans from the south to migrate to their cities to provide cheap labor. On arrival, many African Americans from the south found semi-skilled and unskilled jobs in foundries, slaughterhouses, and factories. Segregation in the north was not allowed, but blacks had to endure racial prejudice and discrimination from whites in the north. The great migration fostered the creation of new black urban migration creating platforms for the first waves black civil movements that agitated for more equal rights to African minorities

Obstacles Met by Africans When Leaving South

Africans who sought to leave south were met with resistance from the whites. Many obstacles originated from the hard economic situations of Africans who could not afford the means to move to the north. The Jim Crow laws and poor performance of their farming made their economic conditions worsen, and owing to the pressure arising from job advertisements in the north. The white southerners ensured that the backs lacked means to migrate. The African Americas had to rely on their relatives who may have migrated earlier through facilitation to gather enough resources to pay for their train or ship that could ferry them to the north. Escaping from the south was not easy for Africans as they had no skills from schools. The discrimination laws had made it difficult for Africans to benefit from education in the south.

The migrants had to cope with segregated waiting rooms as they traveled through trains, buses, and coaches. The environment that could facilitate easy transportation of the blacks from the south was made difficult as a way of discouraging them from moving. The blacks were subjected to unfamiliar and discriminative travel procedures with unfriendly handlers from the south. They also ensured that there was very little to drink and eat, and fares skyrocketed to prevent the blacks from moving to the north. The movement to the north was not smooth; some migrants were forced to move in phases through step migration. Discrimination and racial prejudice was also predominant in the process of migration since the white southerners were reluctant to release the blacks to the north.

Challenges Africans Americans Encountered in North American Cities

When African Americans arrived in the northern cities, they faced several challenges, such as poor urban housing. The Africans working in northern industrial cities had to face poor social amenities in an urban neighborhood. Lack of skills due to limited educational opportunities in the south made African Americans only rely on hard menial jobs in the industries. The semi-skilled or unskilled labor attracted little wages from the industries; hence poverty persisted even in the north urban life for Africans. The north had no segregation laws, but prejudice and racism towards African Americans existed (Grossman, 1991). Structural segregation continued in the form of poor focus on the provision of social amenities to the overpopulated black neighborhoods in the city.

Female immigrants faced difficulties securing jobs in the north, owing to gender and racial discrimination happening in the north. Upon arrival, the Africans received resentment from European whites who were also migrating to the urban areas. Africans were confined to some of the worst urban slums as the banks practiced mortgage discrimination. This would later be introduced as redlining with the aim of denying African Americans an opportunity to own land and housing.

Life expectancy for the African migrants to the north shortened as most of them hard to endure working for long hours in the industry under unhealthy working conditions. The healthcare system was also poor, and access to quality healthcare became a challenge in highly concentrated African urban slums. The crime rates would also be high, making most of them stay in fear of attack. Most of the Africans had to live with fear in urban life away from their relatives. Violence and crime vices became the order of the day in the urban slums. Most of the things that were prohibited in other areas were permissible in the slums; hence the Africans were confined to live in a deplorable state. Unhealthy habits such as smoking and alcohol drinking picked from city life also negatively affected the health of Africans in the new northern city life

How African Americans Were Able to Endure Transition From Rural to Urban Society

Given the challenges that the African Americans experienced in the south, they endured the transition to northern urban life due to greater opportunities and a sense of freedom. The north offered greater educational and economic opportunities as compared to the south. African Americans worked for several jobs in the north under challenging work environments to get wages that could survive their bills in the city. Some new migrants found social and financial support from family networks of those who had migrated earlier. Local school districts and state legislatures also allocated funds for the education of blacks and compulsory schooling enforced. Life in the urban environment created some sense of anonymity and personal freedom. Despite the challenges in the city, African Americans had a sense of freedom to speak, move, and work freely without fear of crossing paths with the whites in the neighborhood. Such psychological gains coupled with economic opportunities helped Africans to cope with urban life challenges

The old settlers facilitated the transition of Africans from rural to urban life. The white settlers provide economic opportunities to blacks. Those in dire need of industry workers offered fares to the Africans to migrate to the north. The Africans who had settled earlier played a host role to the new immigrants. However, most of the European settlers view Africans massive immigrants as a threat to economic opportunities. Their discriminatory and racial prejudice behaviors resulted in cold race relations in the northern cities. The cold race relations hindered the ability of the blacks to endure the transition owing to psychological torture they had to endure. The European white, old settlers perceived massive black migration to the north as a threat to labor force demand and an opportunity for industries to lower remuneration.

References

Collins, W. J., & Wanamaker, M. H. (2015). The great migration in black and white: New evidence on the selection and sorting of southern migrants. The journal of economic history, 75(4), 947-992.

Grossman, J. R. (1991). Land of hope: Chicago, black southerners, and the great migration. University of Chicago Press.