Historical Event
Great Migration
The Great Migration was a mass movement of over six million African Americans from the rural Southern United States to urban centers in the North and West between 1916 and 1970, driven by the search for better economic opportunities and escaping Jim Crow laws. This significant demographic shift transformed cities such as Chicago, Detroit, and New York, influencing cultural, social, and political landscapes through the proliferation of art, music, and new forms of community organization.
Why This Matters
The Great Migration is crucial to the Transatlantic Reconnection narrative as it not only enhanced the cultural exchange between African Americans and continental Africans but also laid the groundwork for shared struggles for civil rights, influencing movements across the diaspora. It created a network of cross-cultural connections that continue to resonate in contemporary expressions of identity, resilience, and creativity among Africans and the African American community.
Timeline Context
The Great Migration
See journey timeline
Art as Resistance
See journey timeline
Related People
A. Philip Randolph
1889–1979
Alvin Ailey
1931–1989
Angela Davis
1944–?
Aretha Franklin
1942–2018
August Wilson
1945–2005
Billie Holiday
1915–1959
Bobby Seale
1936–?
Charles H. Wright
1918–2002
Coleman Young
1918–1997
Denzel Washington
1954–?
Dr. Margaret Burroughs
1915–2010
Duke Ellington
1899–1974
Eldridge Cleaver
1935–1998
Ella Fitzgerald
1917–1996
Five Points community leaders
?–?
Fred Hampton
1948–1969
Frederick Douglass
1818–1895
Gladys Knight
1944–?
Harriet Tubman
1822–1913
Huey P. Newton
1942–1989
Ida B. Wells
1862–1931
James Brown
1933–2006
Jean Baptiste Point DuSable
1745–1818
Judith Jamison
1943–2024
Katherine Dunham
1909–2006
Lloyd Richards
1919–2006
Louis Armstrong
1901–1971
Michael Jackson
1958–2009
Miles Davis
1926–1991
Minnie Evans
1892–1987
Motown artists
?–?
Oscar Stanton DePriest
?–?
Pullman Porters
?–?
Robert Battle
?–?
Robert S. Abbott
1870–1940
Rosa Parks
1913–2005
Sarah Vaughan
1924–1990
Thomas A. Dorsey
1899–1993
Thurgood Marshall
1908–1993
Related Heritage Sites
Acorn African American Cultural Center
Oakland, CA
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
New York, NY
Apollo Theater
New York, NY
August Wilson House (August Wilson Center)
Pittsburgh, PA
Black Panther Party National Headquarters Site
Oakland, CA
Bronzeville-Black Metropolis National Heritage Area
Chicago, IL
Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
Detroit, MI
DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center
Chicago, IL
Five Points — Welton Street Cultural Historic District
Denver, CO
National Museum of African American History and Culture
Washington, DC
Pilgrim Baptist Church
Chicago, IL
Sugar Hill
New York, NY
Related Lessons
The Three Pillars: Black Church, HBCUs, and the Divine Nine
Unit 4.5
Dance as Liberation: Alvin Ailey & Dance Theater of Harlem
Unit 6.5
Economic Self-Determination: From Mutual Aid to Black Wall Street
Unit 7
The Literary Diaspora: Black Pulitzer Prize Winners & the Canon They Built
Unit 6.5
Resistance as Migration, Then and Now: The Diaspora's Unfinished Work
Unit 7.5