The Great Migration and the Exodus North

The Great Migration began around 1916 when one-half million African Americans “jumped the rail north” in search of good jobs and improved living conditions. In effect, southern migrants voted with their feet. They chose to leave the Jim Crow South where racist laws and an unjust economic system prevented any chance for achieving a better life. The migrants hoped industrial mobilization for World War I would open doors to the meaningful work and steady wages they previously had been denied. Upon arrival in Chicago, black workers gladly accepted grueling jobs in places like the Union Stockyards. They anticipated these jobs would provide a fresh start to a better life with greater chance of acquiring the rights and privileges of real citizenship. Patriotic young black men also enlisted in the American military believing service during World War I was the surest means of establishing a right to full citizenship. Unfortunately, the migrants discovered obstacles to achieving the American Dream in Chicago. Earlier black settlers condemned the country habits and the unrefined behaviors southern blacks displayed in the tenements, saloons, and jazz clubs of the increasingly overcrowded Black Belt. European Americans were even less welcoming. In Chicago, black citizens quickly realized no security existed outside the Black Belt.