Jacob Lawrence, The Migration of the Negro

Welcome to "One Way Ticket: The Great Migration North". "One Way Ticket" refers to a Langston Hughes poem of the same title. The poem (that is a part the student activity section) expresses the longing that many southern African Americans felt, to move to the northern United States, to what many thought was the "promised land". This massive migration numbered was the largest internal migration in history, and took place from about 1890 to the 1970's.

There were several waves of migration, as well as many destinations. This site will concentrate on the migration that Jacob Lawrence (see above) painted his famous series to commemorate. That movement occurred from about 1910 to 1919. Unlike Lawrence, whose family went to settled in Atlantic City and then Harlem in New York City, the unit looks at the migration from the Mississippi Delta to Chicago. All aboard for a rich and fascinating journey!