Causes Of The Great Migration

The Great Migration was the relocation of millions of African Americans from the rural South to the industrial Northern cities, from 1910 to 1930. Cities such as Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York were becoming populated with lots of African Americans during this time for plenty of reasons mentioned later. The north was often referred to as the “Land of Hope” or the “Land of Paradise” as it gave better opportunities to the African Americans compared to those in the South. The Great Migration was caused by many push-pull factors leading them to their decision to relocate. The causes for migration to the north by the southern African Americans were segregation, an increase in the spread of racism, lots of violence such as riots and lynching,
During this time, there was an inequality of education amongst the African American community. Segregation was so strict in the south, children of color were not allowed to go to school with white children. Everything that white people were allowed to do was limited to black people because white americans felt that African Americans were a lesser human than them due to their skin color. African Americans were treated as primitives and were treated with so much disrespect. It was much more than disrespect, it hard to put the pain, discrimination, and situations full of hatred into words. Inequality was present in all aspects of their lives, from walking on the sidewalk, drinking from the water fountains, school education, and even in transportation. Segregation was major in the south, water fountains had signs above them labeled “White” and “Colored”, when blacks needed transportation they had to sit in the back of the bus, and whites were afraid to even look at or stand next to an African American. Not only were schools segregated, colored schools did not receive the same quality of education that predominantly white schools received. Discrimination was overrated in the southern parts of the United States. Another social issue during the Great Migration was violence against African Americans. Many blacks were being sprayed with the water hose of fire trucks, lynched, or beaten with police batons causing serious injury or even death. White Americans didn’t care for the well-being of African Americans that’s why blacks wanted to leave the South. Lastly, they had unfair chances in the legal system. Blacks weren’t represented well in the courts because of racial inequality. There once was a case that involved nine black teenage boys, the Scottsboro Boys, falsely accused of raping two white women. They were given an all white male jury that quickly