A Century Apart

The Great Migration occurred from around 1916 to 1970. African-American families living in the South moved to areas in the North, Midwest, and Northeast, in search of greater economic opportunities and a just life. In the early twentieth century, the United States had entered World War I, and was bustling with industrial opportunities. Many black men replaced the positions of the current factory workers at war. Black women took up domestic jobs, but faced more difficulty entering the job market. The social makeup of the North and Midwest soon changed. There was a hope and expectation among Southern blacks that the North offered a more promising future than the South, for obvious reasons. Unfortunately, though segregation was technically illegal in the North, it was still very prevalent. As more African-Americans migrated, ghettos began forming around major Northern cities: living spaces were crowding, and whites did not want to live in the same neighborhood as the new migrants. Whites even created covenants, or agreements between white homeowners to never sell their houses to African-Americans.

In 1919, a seventeen-year-old black teenager named Eugene Williams, was swimming in Lake Michigan when he accidentally crossed the unofficial segregation lines at the beach. As a result, white men stoned him until he drowned. When officers showed up, the white men—who had just committed murder—faced absolutely no consequences. Rage broke out over this unjust event, and Chicago was on fire for days. Thousands of African-Americans became homeless as their houses burned down. Blacks and whites all over the Southside of Chicago fought; many were killed, and an even greater number were injured. Fast forward to 1992, and a situation mirroring the Chicago Race Riots can be found in the L.A Riots. In a very similar fashion, there is a racially charged beating of a black man—in this new case, Rodney King—the four white police officers face no verdict, and in response to the racial injustice, Los Angeles is set on fire. The Great Migration brought African-Americans from a place filled with lynchings and the KKK, and thrusted them into another community that was just as racist and intolerant.

-Mayeena Ulkarim