The New Great Migration

Black Americans have a long history of moving for more freedom and opportunity

The 2020 census reports another Great Migration by Black Americans is underway.

The first and second Great Migrations were the massive internal migration of Blacks from the rural areas of the South to urban centers in the North, Midwest and Western regions of the U.S.  

My grandparents on both sides of the family were among those who migrated from South Carolina to Philadelphia to seek jobs. They were among an estimated 6 million Blacks who left the South between 1910 and 1970. 

The migration of Black Americans from the South can be seen as coming in two waves. 

The first Great Migration was between 1910-1940, according to the U.S. Census. The Second Great Migration occurred between 1940-1970.

Black Americans left the South for jobs in cities experiencing a labor shortage in many industrial centers in the Northeast and Midwest due to strict legislation in the early 20th century that limited immigration to the United States. Cities like Philadelphia, New York, Chicago and Detroit became common destinations for Black migrants from the South from 1910 to 1940.

The Second Great Migration came during and after World War II. Black migrants flooded into many of the same cities, that were destinations before the war, often following relatives that had made the journey to the North and Midwest earlier. The Jim Crow South and poor economic conditions spurred an even larger migration of Black Americans resulting in the creation of large Black population centers in many cities across the Northeast, Midwest and the West.

“The Great Migration was the outpouring of six million African Americans from the Jim Crow South to the cities of the North and West, from the time of World War I until the 1970's, writes Isabel Wilkerson, the author of The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration which details the migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, from 1915 to 1970. “This was the first time in American history that American citizens had to flee the land of their birth just to be recognized as the citizens that they had always been. No other groups of Americans has had to act like immigrants in order to be recognized as citizens.

"Scott and Violet Arthur arrive with their family at Chicago's Polk Street Depot on Aug. 30, 1920, two months after their two sons were lynched in Paris, Texas. The picture has become an iconic symbol of the Great Migration. (Chicago History Museum). Wikipedia photo public domain 

Thus the Great Migration was not solely about moving. It was the seeking of political asylum within the borders of one’s own country. They were defecting a caste system known as Jim Crow. It was an artificial caste system based in which everything you could and could not do was based on what you looked like.”  

Now a third Great Migration appears to be underway, according to the U.S. Census. 

The census reports that nine of the 10 cities with the most Black residents nationwide showed decreases in Black population. Of that list, only Houston saw an increase in Black population.

According to census data, the percentage of Black Americans who live in the South has been increasing since 1990, and the biggest gains have been in the region's large urban areas. The Black population of metro Atlanta more than doubled between 1990 and 2020, surpassing 2 million in the most recent census, with the city overtaking Chicago as the second—largest concentration of African Americans in the country after metropolitan New York. The Black population also more than doubled in metro Charlotte while greater Houston and Dallas—Fort Worth both saw their Black populations surpass 1 million for the first time. Several smaller metro areas also saw sizable gains, including San Antonio; Raleigh and Greensboro, N.C.; Orlando and Little Rock.

Meanwhile, the Black population declined in a number of Northern and Western cities. For the second census in a row, since 1990, Chicago and its suburbs lost 130,000 in Black population. There has been a decline in Black population in the mid-western cities of Detroit, Flint, St. Louis, Cleveland and Milwaukee.  The trend is also true for cities outside of the Midwest. In metro New York, the second consecutive loss in Black population was recorded, losing about 110,000 Black residents since 2000. In California, metro Los Angeles has lost 160,000 Black residents since 1990, while metro San Francisco, where the cost of housing is notoriously high, has lost 90,000.

To understand the reasons behind this new Great Migration, The Washington Post interviewed Black Americans who had moved to the South in recent decades. 

The Post reports: “Like many of those who moved during the original Great Migration, the primary driver of their decisions to leave home was economic. They moved South either with a new job already in hand or with hope that they could find work in some of the nation's fastest—growing cities. Many also moved in search of affordable housing that could help their families build the kind of generational wealth their parents and grandparents in the North were locked out of because of redlining and other discriminatory housing policies. Some were hesitant about moving South, recalling the horror stories of racial terror told to them by their elders. They all found that racism existed in both the North and South, but for some, the larger concentrations of Black people in the South provided additional safety. In all cases, they moved in search of something better, but looking back, none felt like they'd found the promised land — at least not yet.”

Even after the first and second migrations of Blacks from the south to north, most Black Americans still lived in the South. 

The new migration is for some of the old reasons that Blacks have historically moved internally within the country of their birthright – jobs and land. The history of Black America can be viewed as an ongoing quest for freedom and increased economic opportunity.

Irv Randolph is an award-winning journalist and political commentator. For more opinion on politics, Black culture and currents events visit The Randolph Report. If you like this article, please share it. If you are not a subscriber, please do so.