In this three-lecture course, Dr. Terry Anne Scott will examine the Great Migration in American history. From the late nineteenth century continuing until the 1960s, millions of African Americans migrated out of the South in search of what Mississippi-born author Richard Wright once characterized as the “warmth of other suns.” Black Southerners escaped the Jim Crow South for a less racially oppressive North and West. They left, altering the racial and political landscape of the entire country.

Dr. Terry Anne Scott

Wednesdays, November 1, 8, 15

5:00 pm PST / 8:00 EST

All lectures will be recorded and available until December 1.

Lecture Three: Life in a New City (Chicago, Detroit, Seattle, New York)

The swelling of the Black populations in towns and cities meant job competition and what historian Allen Spears has referred to as increased “social visibility,” both of which grated on the already thin racial tolerance of many local whites. Migration brought black and white people into ostensibly unrestricted contact, which subsequently made Blacks’ presence and varied assertions of freedom highly threatening. But Black people found a way to thrive, despite these challenges.

Join Dr. Scott as she explores the lives of Black migrants in three cities: Chicago, Detroit, Seattle, and New York. We will examine how African Americans reestablished community in these cities. Where did they work? What businesses did they create? How did they gain political power? What were their leisure outlets? How did the migration change America?