The Great Migration, The NAACP

The Great Migration

The Great Migration has been explained as “the movement of the Black Belt from the South to the North.” This definition oversimplifies things somewhat- there remained large numbers of African Americans in the South- but it captures the general idea, namely that hundred of thousands of African Americans left the South for political, social and economic reasons. The first wave of migration occurred in the 1870s , when large numbers of African Americans migrated to Texas, Kansas, and other western areas to escape the negative aspects of living in the Deep South. Another quartet of a million African Americans moved to the North between 1890 and 1910, while about 35,000 moved to the Far west (California, Colorado, and so on). Some people think of these population movements as a precursor to the Great Migration itself.

The departures increased dramatically in the years 1914-1929, the period generally assigned to the Great Migration. During these years between 300,000 and 1,000,000 others resettled in the North. In fact, what happened in the years between 1914 and 1929 laid the groundwork for a pattern that would continue for much of the century. African American migration from the South remained strong through the 1960s, except during the Great Depression, when the trend slowed for a time.

…

The African Americans who left their homes during these years hoped to find better jobs and a new sense of actual, as opposed to theoretical citizenship. They were searching for natural human freedoms for themselves, their families, and their new communities in the North.

from

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to African American History (87-88)

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The Founding of the NAACP (commonly pronounced N double A C P)

In 1905, DuBois and William Munroe Trotter founded a group that came to be known as the Niagara Movement (so named because the group had been convened at an organizational meeting held near Niagara Falls.) It was dedicated to the abolition of all racially discriminatory practices in the United States.

Three years later, following a race riot in Springfield, Illinois, DuBois’ group of African American intellectuals decided to broaden their movement. They began reaching out to a number of like-minded whites, and eventually launched- on February 12, 1909, the one- hundredth anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth- a new organization decided to promoting racial equality, opposing segregation, and seeking justice for those who perpetrated racially motivated violence.

They called their new group the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP.

from: The Complete Idiot’s Guide to African American History

(record the title only)