The movement of Southern blacks to the urban North and West over the course of the 20th century had a profound impact on black life, affecting everything from politics and labor to literature and the popular arts. This encyclopedia provides readers and researchers with a comprehensive reference work on this central topic of African American history, exploring the breadth of the black migration experience from its origins in the agricultural economy of the post–Civil War South to the return migration of the late 20th century.

Entries cover such topics as the destinations that attracted black migrants, the impact of the Great Migration on black religion, the relationship between migration and black politics, and the patterns of discrimination and racial violence migrants encountered. Unlike more general reference works on African American history, each entry in the encyclopedia situates its subject within the context of black migration and articulates connections between the subject of the entry and the overall history of the migration.

Features

• Provides students with essential information about key people, places, organizations, and events that defined the movement of Southern African Americans to the urban North and West
• Covers the first major migration between the advent of World War I and the Great Depression and the second, smaller wave from 1940 to 1970
• Devotes considerable space to the social, cultural, and political world of black migrant communities of the urban North and West
• Includes primary sources to promote critical thinking and interpretive reading underscored in the Common Core Standards
• Features contributions from a wide range of disciplines, including art and music history, demography, economics, journalism, history, literary criticism, political science, and sociology