Background of the Great Migration and How it Impacted the American Society

The Great Migration
Student’s Name
Institution
The Great Migration
Introduction
The Great Migration describes the period between 1915 and 1960 when over five million African Americans moved from the rural South to the industrialized Northern cities. Life in the South for the African Americans was burdensome and painful. The North promised a better life, and therefore, they began leaving the cities in the South. As they relocated to the North, they faced numerous risks. The relocation to the North had significant social and cultural impacts on American society. As such, significant aspects of the current American society were influenced by the Great Migration. This paper examines the background of the Great Migration and how it impacted the American society.
Reasons for the Great Migration
There are a number of reasons that contributed to the relocation of African Americans to the North. A major reason was the harsh segregationist laws that were present in the south. The Jim Crow laws in the South made the lives of African Americans difficult. The laws prevented African Americans from using schools, buses, theatres, as well as other facilities that were reserved for the whites (Arora, 2015). With the majority of the whites in the South being against social, civil, and political equality, the segregationist laws persisted, and thus African Americans had to move to the North in search for improved living conditions.
Another reason that necessitated the movement of African Americans was the unsatisfactory economic opportunities in the South. After the end of Slavery in 1865, life became difficult for African Americans as they lacked land and money. According to Arora (2015), many of the African Americans that were freed became sharecroppers as they rented land from the whites and paid them in the form of a portion of farm proceeds. However, as noted by Arora (2015), the state of agriculture worsened in the South between 1910 and 1920. The crops were severely affected by insects and floods. This resulted in poverty among the African Americans. Therefore, they migrated from the South in great numbers.
The need for industrial workers in the North also played a big role in the Great Migration. WWI contributed to the demand for workers in the north (Ayers, Gould, Oshinsky, & Soderlund, 2008). The North lost millions of men who left to serve in the armed forces during the war. Firms in the North were in need of workers, and therefore they helped the African Americans secure passage. With the North needing labor from the South, and the African Americans experiencing oppressive conditions, the movement to the north was impossible to stop. Therefore, labor shortage was another reason for the Great Migration.
Risks
The Africans Americans who sought to travel from to the North were involved with a number of risks. One of the risks was leaving behind family members. The decision to move to the north was thus a hard one as one could risk losing family members. According to the African-American Migration Experience (n.d.), African Americans had to decide who in their families will make the journey to the north. Sometimes parents went north, while children were left in the care of grandparents. Another risk was ...