Social Inequality In The South

The African-Americans wanted to migrate North because the social conditions were difficult to live with in the South. The prejudice toward African-Americans in the South was too great to be ignored. The African-Americans wanted to be seen as equal and they knew that the wait for social equality in the South would take too long. Moving to the North not only gave the possibility of social equality, but there were also more job opportunities and the Northerners did not view African-Americans the way Southerners did. African-Americans were presented with “better educational opportunities and greater personal freedom [in the North]” (Crew 36). In the South, The opportunity for growth did not exist in the South, the African-Americans wanted social equality more

Not only did it affect the growth of the African-Americans, but it also affected their human rights. The Southerners did not give African-Americans the right to “judges...lawyers...jury rolls…[and] the law” (Brown 180) the only thing African-Americans had was “justice...in the end” (Brown 180). With these being the conditions in the South, the only way for social equality was by migrating to the North. The African-Americans believed that once their was social equality, economic equality and racial equality would soon follow. Being socially accepted by whites was all it took to get a fair job, a fair education, and a fair opportunity. Jacob Lawrence painted a series of images that resembled the great migration. One of his paintings shows an image of five African-Americans all smiling as they are looking out the window at factories. The painting provides a feeling of excitement and hope, that is what the African-Americans felt when arriving in the North. They felt a sense of hope, hopeful for their futures and excited about the opportunities to come. They are all painted happy in a group to show how they are happy about their new life and have forgotten their old