Part III, Second Great Migration

Shannon Carter, PhD Spring 2011

Lecture, Week Four: The Second Great Migration

What was the Second Great Migration1?
The dramatic exodus of African Americans from countryside to city and from South to North during World
War I and the decade that followed changed forever black America's economic, political, social, and
cultural lives. The Great Migration was, up to that point, the largest voluntary internal movement of black
people ever seen.

Somewhat ironically, the Great Migration's sequel during and following World War II has not been given
its own title by scholars. It is, in fact, often considered to be merely a continuation of the earlier movement,
following a momentary pause during the Depression. In many ways, however, this second huge exodus
from the South deserves a separate identity; it was larger, more sustained, different in character and
direction, and precipitated an even more radical and lasting transformation in American life than its better-
known predecessor.

1
Images and text for this section were, once again, derived from the Inmotion webtext at url
appearing in Footnote 1 of Week Four, Part II.
Part III, Second Great Migration
Shannon Carter, PhD Spring 2011

Leaving the South

Figure 1: Library
of Congress,
Prints and
Photographs
Division,
FSA/OWI
Collection [LC-
USF34-040820-D],
Jack Delano

Following on the heels of the Great Migration of African Americans from the rural South to the urban
North, the second wave, between 1940 and 1970, was even larger than the first. During the 1940s alone, as
many African Americans left the South as had during the previous three decades. The South experienced an
out-migration of almost 4.5 million African Americans. Here, a family prepares for a trip north, from
Florida to New Jersey.
Part III, Second Great Migration
Shannon Carter, PhD Spring 2011

Rural Poverty

Many who migrated from the rural South were escaping the direst conditions. During the 1930s,
sharecroppers and tenants were among the poorest Americans, earning incomes far below the national
average. In the mid-1930s, the median household income in the United States was $1,500; a study of
employed sharecroppers in four Southern states found the
average income of black families to be $294.
Figure 2: Schomburg Center for Research
in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints
Division, Carl Mydans/Resettlement
Administration
Part III, Second Great Migration
Shannon Carter, PhD Spring 2011

Forging an Urban Population

Prior to World War II, the majority of African Americans lived in the rural South and worked primarily in
agriculture. But within thirty years, the black urban population grew from 6.4 million in 1940 to over 18
million in 1970.

Figure 3: Library of Congress, Prints and

Photographs Division, FSA/OWI
Collection [LC-USF34- 038825-D]