An Economic Profile of Black Life in the Twenties

Bibliographic Data

ID18955872
AuthorsTheodore Kornweibel (American Civilization Program Lafayette College, corresponding author)
Year1976
Volume6
Issue4
Pages307-320
Publication date1976-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Black Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-9347 • E-ISSN: 1552-4566
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/002193477600600401
OpenAlexW2042163729
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited17

Migration of black peasants from the farms to the cities was no new phenomenon in the early twentieth century. Such population movements had been taking place ever since emancipation, when for the first time the illusion of urban opportunities, combined with wartime dislocation and dis-content, drew many black families away from their rural occupations and roots. During the decade of the 1860s the black population doubled in southern cities like Atlanta, Memphis, and New Orleans. Beginning in the 1880s the direction of migration changed significantly and blacks took to the cities of the North and Midwest. What has become known as the Great Migration-the mass movement of folk from the South seeking industrial opportunity and a freer, more dignified life in the North-took place during the second decade of the twentieth century, particularly in the war years of 1916-1918. In 1910 a little over a quarter of the black population was urbanized; by 1920 the proportion was one-third, and at the end of the twenties more than two-fifths lived in city environments. At that same time 88% of northern blacks found their homes in urban areas (Farley

Political science · Sociology · Australian History and Society · Gender Studies · History · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Psychology · Race, History, and American Society

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