By the 1910s, African Americans, facing a very grim situation in the South, sought ways to escape their oppressors. They hoped to find this outlet in the northern cities, pushed by increased economic opportunity. Cities, which could represent the thoughts of hundreds of thousands of people, and could facilitate the exchange of ideas, became an engine for change.
Advertisements to motivate African Americans to migrate Northward, Chicago Defender.
Black migration in and out of Southern States, Black Culture And The Harlem Renaissance.
Great Migration Picture, Smithsonian
African Americans made their way North in a movement called the Great Migration. Harlem, a neighborhood in the North of Manhattan had a depression in its real estate market, making for affordable housing. This, combined with its various cultural institutions, made Harlem a massive congregation center for African Americans.
Map of Manhattan, Black Culture And The Harlem Renaissance.
"At the turn of the twentieth century, many African Americans left the Southern towns, left the crushing prejudice and prohibition, and moved north to Chicago and New York City, west to Los Angeles and San Diego... They were drawn by the heady promise of better lives, of equality, fair play, and good old American four-star freedom..."
~ Maya Angelou, Letter to My Daughter
However, it became clear rather quickly that those economic, social, and political struggles would continue for African Americans.
"...Their [African Americans] expectations were at once fulfilled and at the same time dashed to the ground and broken into shards of disappointment...Many members of that early band of twentieth-century pilgrims must have yearned for the honesty of Southern landscapes where even if they were the targets of hate mongers who wanted them dead, they were at least credited with being alive."
~ Maya Angelou, Letter to My Daughter
Though The Great Migration certainly did not eradicate the inequalities that African Americans suffered though, what it achieved was the creation of a large community of African Americans in Harlem, from where there ensued a great explosion of arts and creativity, lasting from the late 1910s to the Great Depression, led by pioneers who sought to break the frontiers of racial prejudice.
"But it was not just in Harlem, it was in Richmond, Norfolk, Chicago, Pittsburgh; there was this flowering of black sonic, visual, written expression."
