What Were The Effects Of The Great Migration On African America

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Many African Americans during the war era were able to create cultural power by the Great Migration north between 1914-1920. Approximately fifty-thousands African Americans made the conscious decision to pack their belongings and head north, this decision altered the social, cultural, and political appeal of cities such as Chicago, New York, Cleveland, Pittsburg, and Detroit. The Great Migration changed Black America and the nation as a whole. African Americans united strongly during the transition of the Great Migration, because this movement that changed history was a social movement empowered by African Americans who dreamed of a better life for themselves and their families. The newspaper in South called “The Chicago Defender,” assisted African Americans to break ties from their oppression and take advantages of …show more content…
They sometimes had to suffer segregation by residents of the town they lived in, substandard living conditions, job discrimination, and aggressive white residents. Older African Americans rejected the presence of new African American migrants, because the neighborhoods of the African American became overcrowded and condemned as ghetto. Despite some of the negative experiences for African Americans their life in the North was invigorating and adventurous. African Americans no longer had to endure the harsh Jim Crow Laws and continuous threats of racial violence, they had a new sense of liberty. Southern African Americans who moved to the north inspired new vibrant forms of music, literature, and art. African Americans’ culture progressed, and musicians like Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, and King Oliver transported their music North from New Orleans. In Chicago these jazz artists took lead of the improvements in musical instruments and new recording inventions to become celebrities in the Roaring 20s known as the Jazz