UPLIFTING THE RACE THROUGH DOMESTICITY: CAPITALISM, AFRICAN-AMERICAN MIGRATION, AND THE HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY IN THE GREAT MIGRATION ERA OF 1916—1930

2006 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 599-624 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Banks
Gone Home ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 29-52
Author(s):  
Karida L. Brown

This chapter provides an account of the first wave of African American migration into the Appalachian region of eastern Kentucky. It addresses the implementation of Black Codes, also known as Jim Crow laws, the convict leasing system, and how psychological and physical terror in the form of public lynchings helped maintain the social order of white supremacy. Brown attends to the role of the labor agent as a grey-market actor in facilitating the onset of the first wave of the African American Great Migration. Drawing on the oral history and archival data, the chapter distils a profile of the legendary figure, Limehouse, the white labor agent hired by United States Steel Corporation to sneak and transport black men and their families out of Alabama to Harlan County, Kentucky to work in the coalmines. The chapter also focuses on the psychosocial dimensions of this silent mass migration, specifically the spiritual strivings, the hopes, dreams, and disappointments that accompanied the Great Migration.


Author(s):  
Felix L. Armfield

A leading African American intellectual of the early twentieth century, Eugene Kinckle Jones (1885–1954) was instrumental in professionalizing black social work in America. In his role as executive secretary of the National Urban League, Jones worked closely with social reformers who advocated on behalf of African Americans and against racial discrimination in the United States. Coinciding with the Great Migration of African Americans to northern urban centers, Jones' activities on behalf of the Urban League included campaigning for equal hiring practices, advocating for the inclusion of black workers in labor unions, and promoting the importance of vocational training and social work for members of the black community. Drawing on rich interviews with Jones' colleagues and associates, as well as recently opened family and Urban League papers, the book freshly examines the growth of African American communities and the new roles played by social workers. In calling attention to the need for black social workers in the midst of the Great Migration, Jones and his colleagues sought to address problems stemming from race and class conflicts from within the community. This book blends the biography of a significant black leader with an in-depth discussion of the roles of black institutions and organizations to study the evolution of African American life immediately before the civil rights era.


Author(s):  
Robert M. Marovich

This chapter examines the role played by the Great Migration in the development of black sacred music in Chicago. Starting around 1916, thousands of black men, women, and children landed on Chicago's shores as part of the Great Migration, also known as the Great Northern Drive. Regardless of the way migrants traveled, Chicago was the destination of choice, the Promised Land. This chapter first discusses the sources of the new African American migrants' disillusionments in Chicago, including unemployment and substandard housing, before turning to early congregational singing in sanctified services and in storefront churches. It then considers the rise of African American Protestant churches as well as the migrants' creation of their own “islands of southern culture.” It also compares northern and southern worship practices among African American churches and concludes with an overview of the proliferation of storefront and sanctified churches in Chicago, along with sanctified worship in Spiritual churches and their influence on gospel music.


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