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.

The Great Migration had a profound impact on many aspects of American life. Watch this map to see how the growth of African Americans living in the north grew from 1910-1970. Read the reasons for the migration and the challenges they...

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.

Examples of the blues inspired by the African American migration to Northern cities. These lyrics and audio clips explores the reasons for, and effects of, these migrations.

An analysis of the 1919 Chicago race riot and a description of African American life in Chicago. One analysis is provided by Charles Johnson, editor of the Urban League's magazine Opportunity, describing the problems that beset black...

From the Encyclopedia of American Social History. Read about the black migration to the West, primarily Kansas and Oklahoma after the end of Reconstruction and the institution of black codes in the South.

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...

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.

A look at the migration of the African American people. The site includes images, texts, maps, and timeline.

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...

Congressional testimony and a letter that explore late nineteenth-century black migration from the South. Links to both resources are provided within this site.

Read about the reasons for the Great Migration of African Americans from the Deep Sourth to northern cities in the first few decades of the 20th century. After the Great Depression, the migration numbers increased again. Find out what...

A short story that explores the influence of the Southern plantation past on African American efforts to create new urban identities and the predicaments of post-emancipation life.

Photographs and an address that illustrate the role Africa played in black identity in the late-nineteenth century. This article compares Rev. Henry McNeal Turner's "back to Africa" campaign with the Exoduster migration to Kansas led by...

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...

Read about the African animals that hold the record for the longest land migration by a group of mammals.

Learn about the achievements and national problems of the African nation of Botswana in this video segment from Wide Angle.

Online exhibit from the Library of Congress explores black America's quest for equality from the early national period through the twentieth century. Exhibit contains a wealth of items including books, government documents, manuscripts,...

The Library of Congress surveys the migration of African Americans to out of the South after the Civil War. Features include statistics, maps, and reasons for the migration.

A comprehensive overview with many interesting facts and information about the movement of African Americans from the southern farmlands to the northern cities.

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.

This site has a lesson plan on Muddy Waters focused on the American Masters documentary about him. Parallels the Great Migration with the growth of the blues music movement in America. Click on Muddy's name to access a detailed biography...

Come and trace the migration of the blues through the United States. This site features an in-depth look at the origins of the Blues throughout its development across the Deep South of the US and beyond.

African Americans in the 1920's had a new attitude. In this video segment from A Walk through Harlem, learn about the Harlem Renaissance. [0:59]