Six million African Americans left the South between 1915 and 1970. It’s a common belief that most were poor sharecroppers, but many were skilled professionals. They were escaping racial terror, and whites used these three myths and tactics to try to stop them.
Myth: We Couldn’t Survive The Cold: Landowners created a terrible myth that Black folks fleeing couldn’t survive cold Northern weather to persuade people to stay—this myth was a straight-up lie.
Tactic: Mail Interference: The Chicago Defender newspaper helped the community by printing stories about job opportunities to encourage our people to leave the South. Whites didn’t want to lose their cheap workforce, so they interfered with U.S. mail to stop the Defender from being distributed.
Myth: Travel was easy: Heading north was an expensive, long journey. Families rarely migrated together and often sent their younger men away first, expecting them to find jobs and send money back home to help bring the rest of the family. Southern cities enacted laws to prevent group travel for Black people. Police would go to train platforms to round up families trying to leave together. The journey was grueling and sometimes had to be done on foot.
Despite oppressive obstacles, we can unite to create new liberated realities. We've done it before, and we can do it again.