We will be investigating the push and pull factors which resulted in Black Migration.

By late 1920s the Klan had lost much of

its influence. However, race hatred and

race murder still continued in Southern

States. Between 1910 and 1940 a great

number of Blacks moved to the north.

In 1910 only 10% of Black people lived in the north

By 1940, 22% of Black people lived in the north

Push & Pull Factors

Push Factors:Reasons that push people away from the area in which they live e.g. unemployment.

Pull Factors:Reasons that pull people towards a new Area e.g. employment.

Copy and complete a T-Chart similar to the one below:

Push Factors Pull Factors

reasons

• Racial Violence in Southern States

– KKK

– Beatings, lynchings etc

• Blacks treated like second class citizens

• Sharecropping – Caused poverty, poor housing and debt

reasons

We were sharecroppers. Sure it sounded OK. We picked cotton on our own piece of land and got a share of the profits but it wasn’t enough. Anything we grew we gave a share of the crop to the boss, our landlord. Yeah, he gave us seeds and tools and even our shack to live in but it was a trap. We never had enough money to get out of debt so we kept on workin’ for the old boss until the bad times came in the late 20’s.

Huddie Leadbetter, Sharecropper, 1930

• Sharecropping

reasons

• Little money spent on education

• Often ‘the last hired and the first fired’

• Authorities did nothing to improve conditions for Black people but did much to make them worse

reasons

reasons

• Promise of better paid jobs– Cheap labour was needed in the Industrialising

Cities in the North

Southern States

New YorkChicago

Detroit

Philadelphia

Cleveland

reasons

• Hope of better education, housing etc• The American Dream

Why did many Black Southerners migrate to Northern States?(Use Source A and Recall) 5 marks

Farming in the USA in the 1920’s faced big problems but for black sharecroppers rural poverty was made worse by segregation and the fear of the KKK. A move to factory work in the cities, especially cities in the north, sounded very attractive.

Source A is an extract from a modern textbook.