Why Did African Americans Move West

181 Words1 Pages
A massive amount of Americans moved west of the Mississippi River between the Civil War and the end of the 1800s for many reasons. I think the biggest reason for the movement was all of the new land. People even lined up at the border of Oklahoma in 1889 waiting to claim land. Another reason people moved west was to earn lots of money. When gold was discovered in a town, a tremendous amount of people moved to that town so it became a boomtown. Once all of the resources were found and used up, the miners would move on and the town would become a ghost town. Many African Americans moved out west because in the west your skin color didn’t matter much, just your ability to work hard. When women began gaining rights in the west, more women wanted