This collection uses primary sources to explore the Great Migration.

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.

Read about the African American migration north in the early 20th Century through a collection of migrant letters and a lecture by scholar James Grossman.

These seven letters to the Chicago "Defender," a black newspaper, offer accounts from individuals who chose to leave the South from 1916-1921 in search of better opportunities as a part of what is now known as the Great Migration.

The resources here, including letters, photographs, official documents, and maps, represent the exodus of African Americans from the South to the Great Plains in the late 1800s.

This fascinating transcript from a PBS special about numbers in the 20th century focuses on people and how they were affected by the Great Depression in terms of employment, agriculture, and even marriage rates. Be sure to click on the...

Artistic expressions of the new black self image inspired by migration to the urban North. This focus of this site is "Song of the Towers", a series of four murals sponsored by the federal Works Projects Administration, outlining black...

Collection of 11 primary resources exploring the migrations made by African Americans in the 20th Century and the effects they had. Includes text links, notes and questions for discussion.

Letters by African Americans seeking help to leave the South. They explore issues including identity, family, community, and the struggles induced by the need to migrate north.

Accounts of African American migrations from the rural South to Southern cities. This resource provides not just accounts of the Great Migration focusing on the flight from the South to the North, but also the migration within the South...

Set of primary documents, photos, audio and sheet music having to do with the movement of homeless families during the Great Depression. Teaching guide included.

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.

Primary source photos showing the devastation of the Dust Bowl and refugee migration to California.

The journal kept by John Donelson during the journey by boats down the Tennessee River in 1779-80 is one of the great records of American migration. The most dramatic day of the journey was Wednesday, March 8, a day in which Donelson's...

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...

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...

A high school project in which the students collected the oral histories of people living in Bland County, Virginia which is located in the western part of the state. The stories focus on the family histories.