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Worksheet
Curated OER

Migration: An African American Adventure

For Students 6th - 8th
Learners read the book, The Great Migration by National Geographic, then complete this set of related worksheets. They review vocabulary, complete five short answer questions, discuss push and pull factors for the migration, then write a...
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Lesson Plan
Stanford University

Chicago Race Riots of 1919

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Learners explore the Chicago Race Riots of 1919. In this American history lesson, students watch the move "Up South" regarding the African American migration following World War I. Learners read primary documents regarding the race riots...
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Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Freedom, Making of African American Identity: V. 2, 1865 1917

For Students 9th - 10th
Sixteen primary sources-historical documents, literary texts, visual images, and audio material-that explore African American perceptions of freedom from Emancipation to the early-twentieth century.
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Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Making of African American Identity: Volume Iii, 1917 1968: Migrations

For Students 9th - 10th
Collection of 11 primary resources exploring the migrations made by African Americans in the 20th Century and the effects they had. Includes text links, notes and questions for discussion.
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Primary
University of Chicago

University of Chicago Library: The Great Migration

For Students 9th - 10th
Read about the African American migration north in the early 20th Century through a collection of migrant letters and a lecture by scholar James Grossman.
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Article
New York Public Library

African American Migration Experience: The Northern Migration

For Students 9th - 10th
This article explores the reasons African Americans left the South and migrated north both before and after the Civil War, and many aspects of what their lives were like.
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Website
Other

Tsu: The Progressive Era and World War I

For Students 9th - 10th
A comprehensive outline covering the major ideas, leaders, and actions of the Progressive Era and the transformation of the United States as a result of World War I.
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Website
PBS

Pbs: American Experience: Fatal Flood

For Students 9th - 10th
This resource is a companion site to a documentary about a major flooding of the Mississippi River in 1927, where in Greenville, Mississippi, efforts to contain the river pitted the majority black population against an aristocratic...
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Unit Plan
Nebraska Studies

Nebraska Studies: African American Settlers

For Students 9th - 10th
This presents an overview of African Americans moving and settling in the West.
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Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Making of African American Identity: Forward:1917

For Students 9th - 10th
Letters, an article, a pamphlet, and a song that point to greater black migration from the South and black cultural achievements in the twentieth century. The texts examines how migrations north affected the relationships of African...
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Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Making of African American Identity: Migrations: Negro Migration During War

For Students 9th - 10th
An analysis of the reasons why blacks moved north around the time of World War I. An article by Emmett J. Scott (1873-1957), who for a time served as Booker T. Washington's personal secretary, is linked to this resource.
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Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Writing for Help, Making of African American Identity: V. 3

For Students 9th - 10th
Letters by African Americans seeking help to leave the South. They explore issues including identity, family, community, and the struggles induced by the need to migrate north.
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Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Making of African American Identity: Old Timers, Newcomers

For Students 9th - 10th
An editorial cartoon and a newspaper article illustrating the tensions between members of established African American communities in the North and Southern migrants. Links to both resources are provided within this site.
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Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Making of African American Identity: Leaving, but Staying

For Students 9th - 10th
Accounts of African American migrations from the rural South to Southern cities. This resource provides not just accounts of the Great Migration focusing on the flight from the South to the North, but also the migration within the South...
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Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Making of African American Identity: New Consciousness

For Students 9th - 10th
Alain Locke's essay, "Enter the New Negro," is provided within this site and describes a new African American sense of self, inspired by migration to the urban North.
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Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Making of African American Identity: Painting the Migration

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Paintings by Jacob Lawrence titled, "The Migration of the Negro", a series of sixty paintings, illustrates the migration of African Americans to the North in the twentieth century. A link to this artwork can be found within this summary.
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Handout
New York Public Library

In Motion: The African American Migration Experience

For Students 9th - 10th
A look at the migration of the African American people. The site includes images, texts, maps, and timeline.
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Lesson Plan
New York Public Library

In Motion: The Land Promised Lesson Plan: African American Homesteaders

For Teachers 9th - 10th
The narrative, The Western Migration, features African Americans with agricultural backgrounds who migrated west following the Civil War and availed themselves of the opportunity to homestead. The Land Promised is designed for use in...
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Website
Library of Congress

Loc: African American Mosaic: Black History and Culture

For Students 9th - 10th
Online version of a Library of Congress exhibit, covering information about black history, including colonization, abolition, migrations, and the WPA. It is multimedia and contains hundreds of primary source documents.
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Handout
Chicago History Museum

Encyclopedia of Chicago: Great Migration

For Students 9th - 10th
Read this historical account of events that became known as the Great Migration, the movement of African Americans from the South to the North, and the effect this had on Chicago and other urban northern cities.
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Website
Library of Congress

Loc: African American Mosaic: Western Migration and Homesteading

For Students 9th - 10th
Contains text and photos on the African-American exodus to the West. Includes primary source documents and maps from the era.
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Primary
Digital Public Library of America

Dpla: The Great Migration

For Students 9th - 10th
This collection uses primary sources to explore the Great Migration of African Americans to the Northern and Midwestern states in the early 1900s. Set includes an overview, primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide.