1910–1970 CE · Americas · Rights
The Great Migration and the remaking of Black America
Around six million Black Americans left the U.S. South for northern, midwestern and western destinations, seeking safety, opportunity and greater freedom.
Unknown photographer / Chicago History Museum; published in Chicago Defender, 4 September 1920 · Public domain in the United States · Source and rights ↗
Why families moved
Racial violence and Jim Crow restrictions pushed people to leave, while employment and educational opportunities helped shape their destinations. Discrimination also confronted migrants in destination cities, including barriers to housing. Migration unfolded over decades, through individual decisions and family networks, rather than as one journey or centrally organised movement.
Read the photograph as a record
The linked photograph record identifies the Arthur family’s arrival in Chicago in 1920. It offers one documented moment within this much larger movement. A photograph can identify a place, family and occasion; it cannot stand for every migrant’s experience. Compare such images with census records, newspapers and personal testimony to examine how movement changed communities.