The Great Migration was the movement of many African American citizens of the United States to seek better lives. The migration of blacks was caused by many natural and manmade crises. The Dust Bowl, the Great Depression, living conditions for blacks, and racism in the south were key influences in causing the Great Migration. This movement of blacks lasted a large part of the twentieth century with only a portion of occurring from 1910-1930, but still yielding over one million blacks moving north in those 20 years (Candaele 7). This affected the north and south alike, increasing the population in the north drastically, and decreasing the southern population. This affected the United States’ economy as well. The drastic increase in the north’s
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The Dust Bowl was a series of “Dust storms and drought [that] ravaged the midwest”, killing crops and destroying farms and towns alike, causing many farmers to move away to seek jobs (Holland). The Dust Bowl had such an effect because “Mechanical cultivation decreased soil quality, letting the dust bowl blow away or destroy farms and their crops”, causing much more harm to farms than if the soil quality was better, which made the storms harsher due to picking up all of the dry soil (Fanslow). Kittie Clason Webb states that ‘“the fields of wheat [were] so blasted by heat that they cannot be harvested”’ and that she remembers ‘“field after field of corn stunted, earless and stripped of leaves, for what the sun left the grasshoppers took. I saw brown pastures which would not keep a cow on 50 acres.”’ from the many dust storms sweeping the midwest (Holland). Another cause of the Great migration was the Great Depression were that “Farmers increased spending on mechanical cultivation, increasing their debt”, later when the dust storm destroyed all of their crops, the farmers went bankrupt unable to pay their debt and fled to find jobs (Fanslow). This left banks with no money, making them bankrupt and the United …show more content…
Blacks moving to a less racist and more job-productive part of the United States changed much of the culture in those regions and made a lot of what the industrial driven north what it is now. With this movement of blacks, the entire country was affected, the economy, the citizens, and even the environment. The Great Migration occurred due to the poor life quality for blacks, and without this movement, the quality of life would not have increased any more than it was before the Great
The Dust Bowl was a series of “Dust storms and drought [that] ravaged the midwest”, killing crops and destroying farms and towns alike, causing many farmers to move away to seek jobs (Holland). The Dust Bowl had such an effect because “Mechanical cultivation decreased soil quality, letting the dust bowl blow away or destroy farms and their crops”, causing much more harm to farms than if the soil quality was better, which made the storms harsher due to picking up all of the dry soil (Fanslow). Kittie Clason Webb states that ‘“the fields of wheat [were] so blasted by heat that they cannot be harvested”’ and that she remembers ‘“field after field of corn stunted, earless and stripped of leaves, for what the sun left the grasshoppers took. I saw brown pastures which would not keep a cow on 50 acres.”’ from the many dust storms sweeping the midwest (Holland). Another cause of the Great migration was the Great Depression were that “Farmers increased spending on mechanical cultivation, increasing their debt”, later when the dust storm destroyed all of their crops, the farmers went bankrupt unable to pay their debt and fled to find jobs (Fanslow). This left banks with no money, making them bankrupt and the United …show more content…
Blacks moving to a less racist and more job-productive part of the United States changed much of the culture in those regions and made a lot of what the industrial driven north what it is now. With this movement of blacks, the entire country was affected, the economy, the citizens, and even the environment. The Great Migration occurred due to the poor life quality for blacks, and without this movement, the quality of life would not have increased any more than it was before the Great