The Great Migration.Black southern populations to northern US

The Great Migration
Name
Institution
The Great Migration
The World War I caused some serious economic conditions that led to the African Americans in the Southern United States to migrate in massive numbers to the Northern United States. The African Americans were optimistic that the economic situation would be favorable in the North than it was in the South and that this would give them a chance for a better life. The increased demand for workers in the north, the Jim Crow laws and racial segregation in the south were the main reasons for the great migration.
The leading reason for the Great Migration was the demand for workers in the North following the World War I. Accordingly, after the United States decided to participate in the war a large number of people decided to enlist in the army, which caused a major shortage of labor in the Northern factories and industries (Li, 2019). Meanwhile in the South, African Americans were facing a shortage in the agricultural work and therefore they were readily enticed to migrate to the North where there was plenty of work. More work meant higher pay, better education and housing hence most of the Africans took the opportunity and moved to the North. Another reason is racial segregation and the Jim Crow Laws. On segregation, the Southern law demanded that the facilities for blacks be separated from those of the whites such as transportation facilities, public schools, and water fountains among others. Apart from segregation, the African Americans in the South were also escaping the violation of their rights through the Jim Crow laws. The laws prevented them from exercising their voting rights. While the Fifteenth Amendment gave the African Americans this right to vote, legislation was passed in the South aimed at taking away this voting right from the African American men.
In participating in the Great Migration, the African Americans encountered some risks. One of these risks was high mortality or reduced longevity for the African Americans. According to Black et al (2015), most of those that migrated to the North lived in deplorable circumstances including discriminatory housing. The expected employment opportunities were not in the North as promised and because of this, many African Americans reverted to heavy drinking and smoking. Additionally, shifting from the life in the rural South to the urban life in the North affected their lives and for this reason, their longevity reduced. There was also the risk of racism and prejudice for the African Americans because even though segregation in the North was still illegal, there was widespread racism and...