Positive Effects Of The Great Migration

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The Great Migration was a significant time when African Americans southerners wanted to escape segregation. They believed that segregation in the north was a lot less intense as it was in the south and many wanted to do something about it. Many families thought there were better economic opportunities and for different races if only they could get out of the racially corrupt south. In the beginning of 1916, African American families packed up and headed North, in hopes of a positive outcome. The Great Migration as a whole happened during the years of 1916 to 1970. Between that time, African American Families moved from the South to the North and to the West. Following the Civil War, many African Americans had packed up and migrated to urbanized areas like Chicago and New York. By 1920, almost 300,000 African Americans had moved away from the south, Harlem being a very popular destination for the traveling families. New arrivals found jobs in slaughterhouses, factories and foundries, but working conditions were strenuous to their bodies and sometimes dangerous. Many didn 't consider the amounts of people that would be migrating to New York and that made competition for living space harder. As more people began to realize the opportunities of work and the places to live were getting smaller by the day, many began to migrate towards the West of the United States in hopes opportunities would be the same out there. By the end of 1970, it was estimated that almost six million