The Great Migration

The Great Migration was a time period from 1910-1970 in which many African Americans left the South. Jim Crow laws, violently enforced codes in the South, racially segregated African Americans. So Black people left for the North and West, often in fear for their lives. This massive shift in the African American population was known as the Great Migration, and it played a major part in shaping  cities everywhere, like Los Angeles. When these migrants moved into the cities in the North, there were many widespread misconceptions about them. Some of these misconceptions were that they had higher levels of unemployment, were more likely to be on welfare, and they had a higher chance to be a single parent household than the people already there. However, it was found that migrants had lower levels of unemployment, higher income, lower levels of poverty, and were more likely to raise their children in a two parent household than the people already there. The Great Migration was a major time period in American history that is everywhere in urban life today.