The migration of African Americans in the United States has occurred in response to many important events in the country's history.

Image of a text-only advertisement titled: Ho for Kansas.

Source: Exodus Broadside, Library of Congress

Exodus to Kansas
In the 1870s, there was a mass migration of African Americans from the South to Kansas. African Americans were fleeing from the harsh and discriminatory treatment that African Americans experienced in the post-Civil War South, as "free men". This search of a better economic opportunity combined with the available Homestead Act land made Kansas a favorable choice for African Americans The advertisement to the left was created to encourage African American migration to Kansas.

World War I also caused a mass migration of Southern African Americans to move from the rural South (9 of every 10 lived on farms) to major cities to escape sharecropping and poverty. The industrial job opportunities associated with the war efforts were seen as an opportunity for African Americans to improve their lives. From 1916 to 1930, there was 1.5 to 2 million Southern African Americans who migrated to northern cities. This is sometimes referred to as The Great Migration.

Click on the map to compare your answers.

Based on the Great Migration Map, where did African Americans from the south migrate?

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Image of a US Map that has three arrows pointing from the South to areas near Chicago, Detroit, and New York. The map of The Great Migration (1916-1930).

Source: The Great Migration (1916-1930), In Motion

New York, Detroit, and ChicagoClose Pop Up
Image of an African-American family (a mother and father and two young boys and two young girls.

Source: 1168429, Library of Congress

This is a Southern African American family pictured in the North about 1917.

The Impact of the Great Migration

Click on the various factors surrounding the Great Migration to learn how this movement impacted African Americans and their communities.

Image of a US map that indicates the various blues styles, destination cities, states of origin, and the various corridors of migration.

Source: The Great Blues Migration, Michael Siegel, Rutgers Cartography 2005, In Motion

Analyze the map above and answer the following questions in your notes.

  1. Does this map show the cultural, political, or economic impact of the Great Migration? Explain your answer using examples from the map.
  2. In your opinion, which "blues style" had the greatest impact on the United States (which style reached the most people), East Texas, Mississippi Delta, or Piedmont?
  3. Approximately how many miles did a migrant from Houston, Texas travel along the South West to Midwest and Far West to Los Angeles?