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109-641: The Chicago Black Renaissance was influenced by two major social and economic conditions: the Great Migration and the Great Depression . The Great Migration brought tens of thousands of African Americans from the south to Chicago. Between 1910 and 1930 the African American population increased from 44,000 to 230,000. Before this migration, African Americans only constituted 2% of Chicago's population. African American migrants resided in

218-613: A "Sengstacke family-led" deal to facilitate trust beneficiaries and other Sengstacke family shareholders to agree to the sale of the company. Picou recruited Sam Logan, former publisher of the Michigan Chronicle , who then recruited O'Neil Swanson, Bill Pickard, Ron Hall and Gordon Follmer, black businessman from Detroit, Michigan (the "Detroit Group"), as investors in Real Times. Chicago investors included Picou, Bobby Sengstacke, David M. Milliner (who served as publisher of

327-436: A chance  to rebuild, both structurally and culturally. Old vacant buildings were being used as studios for artists and musicians. The creation of Hull House was significant to Chicago’s artistic history because it gave a space for “immigrants and other working-class Chicagoans.” Although Hull House was meant to be a space used for the marginalized, African Americans were still excluded. It was not by definition segregated, but

436-488: A cultural boom in cities such as Chicago and New York. In Chicago for instance, the neighborhood of Bronzeville became known as the "Black Metropolis". From 1924 to 1929, the "Black Metropolis" was at the peak of its golden years. Many of the community's entrepreneurs were Black during this period. "The foundation of the first African American YMCA took place in Bronzeville, and worked to help incoming migrants find jobs in

545-635: A larger role, with migrants following the path set by those before them. African Americans from the South also migrated to industrialized Southern cities, in addition to northward and westward to war-boom cities. There was an increase in Louisville's defense industries, making it a vital part of America's effort into World War II and Louisville's economy. Industries ranged from producing synthetic rubber, smokeless powders, artillery shells, and vehicle parts. Many industries also converted to creating products for

654-547: A new one. Some historians differentiate between a first Great Migration (1910–40), which saw about 1.6 million people move from mostly rural areas in the South to northern industrial cities, and a Second Great Migration (1940–70), which began after the Great Depression and brought at least five million people—including many townspeople with urban skills—to the North and West. Since the Civil Rights Movement ,

763-436: A painter but as a gentlemen, as a man”. As Motley began his career, he realized that working in portraiture was not very profitable. In one of Motley’s early works, “The Fisherman” it is extremely unexpressive and does not bear much resemblance to Archibald’s later work. The palette Motley uses in this portrait is very muted and realistic. A middle age man is sitting in a chair, looking out to the right, not making eye contact with

872-518: A portion of the migrants, as African Americans searched for social reprieve. The historic change brought by the migration was amplified because the migrants, for the most part, moved to the then-largest cities in the United States ( New York City , Chicago , Detroit , Los Angeles , San Francisco , Philadelphia , Cleveland , and Washington, D.C. ) at a time when those cities had a central cultural, social, political, and economic influence over

981-521: A quantifiable phenomenon, the Defender took a particular interest in sensationalizing migratory stories, often on the front page. Abbott positioned his paper as a primary influence of these movements before historians would, for he used the Defender to initiate and advertise a "Great Northern Drive" day, set for May 15, 1917. The movement to northern and midwestern cities, and to the West Coast at

1090-640: A result of these advancements, the percentage of Black families living below the poverty line declined from 87% in 1940 to 47% by 1960 and to 30% by 1970. Populations increased so rapidly among both African-American migrants and new European immigrants that there were housing shortages in most major cities. With fewer resources, the newer groups were forced to compete for the oldest, most run-down housing. Ethnic groups created territories which they defended against change. Discrimination often restricted African Americans to crowded neighborhoods. The more established populations of cities tended to move to newer housing as it

1199-614: A segregated zone on Chicago's south side, extending from 22nd Street on the north to 63rd Street on the south, and reaching from the Rock Island railroad tracks on the west to Cottage Grove Avenue on the east. This zone of neighborhoods was known as the "Black belt" or "Black ghetto." African Americans saw Chicago, and other cities of the north, as a chance for freedom from legally sanctioned racial discrimination. Migrants mainly found work in meatpacking plants , steel mills, garment shops, and private homes. The Great Migration established

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1308-683: A series of articles critical of the party, its failures to advance black civil rights, and what it saw as Republican's embrace or acquiescence in segregationism , party support in a revitalized Ku Klux Klan , and the Republican's Lily White Movement . The paper's final pre-election editorial read in part: “We want justice in America and we mean to get it. If 50 years of support to the Republican Party doesn’t get us justice, then we must of necessity shift our allegiance to new quarters.” For

1417-627: A shift toward social activism . African Americans on the south side coined the word Bronzeville , a word that described the skin tone of most its inhabitants, to identify their community. Jazz , blues , and gospel grew and flourished during the Chicago Black Renaissance. Jazz, which developed as a mix of European and African musical styles, began in the southeastern United States, but is said to have made its way from New Orleans to Chicago in 1915, when migrants came north to work in factories, mills, and stockyards . As more of

1526-508: A small rural town 70 miles (110 km) southwest of Memphis . The race riots peaked in Chicago, with the most violence and death occurring there during the riots. The authors of The Negro in Chicago; a study of race relations and a race riot , an official report from 1922 on race relations in Chicago, came to the conclusion that there were many factors that led to the violent outbursts in Chicago. Principally, many Black workers had assumed

1635-420: A variety of reasons, in the coming years, black support for the Republican Party fell rapidly. Abbott took a special interest in his nephew, John H. Sengstacke (1912–1997), paying for his education and grooming him to take over the Defender, which he did in 1940 after working with his uncle for several years. He urged integration of the armed forces. In 1948, he was appointed by President Harry S. Truman to

1744-622: A weekly column on the Defender , called "Advice to the Wise and Otherwise." In 1923, Abbott and editor Lucius Harper created the Bud Billiken Club for black children through the "Junior Defender" page of the paper. The club encouraged the children's proper development, and reading The Defender . In 1929, the organization began the Bud Billiken Parade and Picnic , which is still held annually in Chicago in early August. In

1853-406: Is that they believe Motley exaggerated features of African Americans.  In “The Liar,” the exaggeration critics comment on are perhaps the lips and how big they are, playing into the stereotypes of how certain people thought of African Americans. Additionally, it is thought that this exaggeration was meant to appeal to a certain audience. This was the white audience who during this time period were

1962-529: The Michigan Chronicle . In a 1967 editorial, the Defender decried anti-Semitism in the community, reminding readers of the role of Jews in the civil rights movement. "These powerful voices," the Defender wrote, "which have been lifted on behalf of the Negro peoples' cause, should not be forgotten when resolutions are passed by the black power hierarchy. Jews and Negroes have problems in common. They can ill-afford to be at one another's throats." Control of

2071-590: The Chicago Defender and her sister publications was transferred to a new ownership group named Real Times Inc. in January 2003. Real Times, Inc. was organized and led by Thom Picou , and Robert (Bobby) Sengstacke , John H. Sengstacke's surviving child and father of the beneficiaries of the Sengstacke Trust. In effect, Picou, then chairman and CEO of Real Times, Inc., led what was then labeled

2180-721: The Defender to a weekly publication schedule. The Defender was one of only three African American dailies in the United States; the other two are the Atlanta Daily World , the first black newspaper founded as a daily in 1928, and the New York Daily Challenge , founded in 1971. In 1965, Sengstacke created a chain of newspapers, which also included the Pittsburgh Courier , the Memphis Tri-State Defender , and

2289-761: The Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, less than 8% of the African-American population lived in the Northeastern or Midwestern United States. This began to change over the next decade to such an extent that a U.S. Senate committee ordered an investigation into the causes of the mass migration from the South during the preceding decade, especially to Kansas, where many sought refuge. In 1900, about 90% of Black Americans still lived in Southern states. Between 1910 and 1930,

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2398-427: The Great Depression , more advances took place after workers in the steel and meatpacking industries organized into labor unions in the 1930s and 1940s, under the interracial Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). The unions ended the segregation of many jobs, and African Americans began to advance into more skilled jobs and supervisory positions previously informally reserved for whites. Between 1940 and 1960,

2507-597: The Great Northward Migration or the Black Migration , was the movement of six million African Americans out of the rural Southern United States to the urban Northeast , Midwest , and West between 1910 and 1970. It was substantially caused by poor economic and social conditions due to prevalent racial segregation and discrimination in the Southern states where Jim Crow laws were upheld. In particular, continued lynchings motivated

2616-643: The Harlem Renaissance , which was also fueled by immigrants from the Caribbean, and the Chicago Black Renaissance . In her book The Warmth of Other Suns , Pulitzer Prize –winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson discusses the migration of "six million Black Southerners [moving] out of the terror of Jim Crow to an uncertain existence in the North and Midwest." The struggle of African-American migrants to adapt to Northern cities

2725-593: The Mississippi Delta to Chicago to escape racial discrimination. Muddy Waters , Chester Burnett , and Buddy Guy are among the most well-known blues artists who migrated to Chicago. Great Delta-born pianist Eddie Boyd told Living Blues magazine, "I thought of coming to Chicago where I could get away from some of that racism and where I would have an opportunity to, well, do something with my talent.... It wasn't peaches and cream [in Chicago], man, but it

2834-400: The southern United States . Under his nephew and chosen successor, John H. Sengstacke , the paper dealt with racial segregation in the United States , especially in the U.S. military , during World War II. Copies of the paper were passed along in communities, and it is estimated that at its most successful, each copy was read by four to five people. In 1919–1922, the Defender attracted

2943-525: The "most important" newspaper of its kind. Abbott's newspaper reported and campaigned against Jim Crow -era violence and urged black people in the American South to settle in the north in what became the Great Migration . Abbott worked out an informal distribution system with Pullman porters who surreptitiously (and sometimes against southern state laws and mores) took his paper by rail far beyond Chicago, especially to African American readers in

3052-582: The 14 states of the South, especially Alabama , Mississippi , Louisiana , Texas , and Georgia . The Great Depression of the 1930s resulted in reduced migration because of decreased opportunities. With the defense buildup for World War II and with the post-war economic prosperity, migration was revived, with larger numbers of Black Americans leaving the South through the 1960s. This wave of migration often resulted in overcrowding of urban areas due to exclusionary housing policies meant to keep African-American families out of developing suburbs. For example, in

3161-613: The 1920s and 1930s. Lastly, Cortor became famous for his delineation of the beauty of Black women. In 1946, Life Magazine published one of his seminude female figures. Archibald J. Motley graduated from the Chicago Art Institute in 1918 with a concentration in portraiture. While at the Institute, Motley studied under Karl Buehr. When reflecting on his time and studied spent with Buehr, the artist goes onto say about his mentor that  “a great influence on me not only as

3270-698: The 1920s, New York's Harlem became a center of Black cultural life, influenced by the American migrants as well as new immigrants from the Caribbean area. Second-tier industrial cities that were destinations for numerous Black migrants were Buffalo , Rochester , Boston , Milwaukee , Minneapolis , Kansas City , Columbus , Cincinnati , Grand Rapids and Indianapolis , and smaller industrial cities such as Chester , Gary , Dayton , Erie , Toledo , Youngstown , Peoria , Muskegon , Newark , Flint , Saginaw , New Haven , and Albany . People tended to take

3379-470: The 1930s and 1940s, increasing mechanization of agriculture virtually brought the institution of sharecropping that had existed since the Civil War to an end in the United States causing many landless Black farmers to be forced off of the land. As a result, approximately 1.4 million Black southerners moved north or west in the 1940s, followed by 1.1 million in the 1950s, and another 2.4 million people in

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3488-488: The 1950s, under Sengstacke's direction, the Bud Billiken Parade expanded and emerged as the largest single event in Chicago. Today, it attracts more than one million attendees with more than 25 million television viewers, making it one of the largest parades in the country. In 1928, for the first time, The Defender refused to endorse a Republican Party presidential candidate. Throughout the election it ran

3597-529: The 1960s and early 1970s. By the late 1970s, as deindustrialization and the Rust Belt crisis took hold, the Great Migration came to an end. But, in a reflection of changing economics, as well as the end of Jim Crow laws in the 1960s and improving race relations in the South, in the 1980s and early 1990s, more Black Americans were heading South than leaving that region. African Americans moved from

3706-523: The African-American labor activism continued. In the late summer and autumn of 1919, racial tensions became violent and came to be known as the Red Summer . This period of time was defined by violence and prolonged rioting between Black and White Americans in major United States cities. The reasons for this violence vary. Cities that were affected by the violence included Washington D.C. , Chicago, Omaha , Knoxville, Tennessee , and Elaine, Arkansas ,

3815-463: The African-American population increased by about 40% in Northern states as a result of the migration, mostly in the major cities. The cities of Philadelphia , Detroit , Chicago , Cleveland , Baltimore , and New York City had some of the biggest increases in the early part of the twentieth century. Tens of thousands of Black workers were recruited for industrial jobs, such as positions related to

3924-573: The Albany Inter-Racial Council and churches, helped them, but de facto segregation and discrimination remained well into the late 20th century. Migrants going to Pittsburgh and surrounding mill towns in western Pennsylvania between 1890 and 1930 faced racial discrimination and limited economic opportunities. The Black population in Pittsburgh jumped from 6,000 in 1880 to 27,000 in 1910. Many took highly paid, skilled jobs in

4033-519: The Black identity. The Harlem Renaissance is recognized as the movement that originally popularized Black art and gave Black artists a name. Along with the surge of artists in Harlem, the same phenomenon happened in Chicago without the same popularity. This development of art in Chicago came from similar events similar to what happened in Harlem, “the inflow of Black southerners into Chicago; the creation of

4142-409: The Chicago Black Renaissance addressed the culture of Chicago, racial tensions, issues of identity, and a search for meaning. Prominent writers in the movement included Richard Wright , Margaret Walker , Gwendolyn Brooks , Arna Bontemps , Fenton Johnson , Lorraine Hansberry , and Frank London Brown . The South Side Writers Group was a writing circle of several authors and poets from the time of

4251-540: The Chicago Black Renaissance. Its members worked collaboratively to inspire one another and explore new themes. Newspapers and periodicals including the Chicago Defender , Chicago Sunday Bee , Negro Story Magazine , and Negro Digest also took part in supporting the literature of the Chicago Black Renaissance. These periodicals offered forums for writers of the movement to publish their work and also provided employment to many of these writers. Some of

4360-410: The Great Migration, eventually gaining a measure of class mobility , but the migrants encountered significant forms of discrimination. Because so many people migrated in a short period of time, the African-American migrants were often resented by the urban European-American working class (many of whom were recent immigrants themselves); fearing their ability to negotiate rates of pay or secure employment,

4469-539: The NNPA consists of more than 200 member black newspapers. One of Sengstacke's most striking accomplishments occurred on February 6, 1956, when the Defender became a daily newspaper and changed its name to the Chicago Daily Defender , the nation's second black daily newspaper. It immediately became the largest black-owned daily in the nation. It published as a daily until 2003, when new owners returned

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4578-567: The New York and northern New Jersey suburbs 67,000 mortgages were insured by the G.I. Bill , but fewer than 100 were taken out by non-whites. Big cities were the principal destinations of southerners throughout the two phases of the Great Migration. In the first phase, eight major cities attracted two-thirds of the migrants: New York and Chicago , followed in order by Philadelphia , St. Louis , Detroit , Kansas City , Pittsburgh , and Indianapolis . The Second great Black migration increased

4687-420: The North where other Black Americans had previously migrated. Per a 2021 study, "when one randomly chosen African American moved from a Southern birth town to a destination county, then 1.9 additional Black migrants made the same move on average." After moving from the environment of the south to the northern states, African Americans were inspired to be creative in different ways. The Great Migration resulted in

4796-567: The Renaissance, saw a resurgence in prominence during this time. The "Father of Gospel Music," Thomas Dorsey , brought hundreds of new gospel songs from the Southern Pentecostal Church to the public by blending the sound with urban style. Mahalia Jackson , the "Queen of Gospel Music," made many of these songs mainstream when she arrived in Chicago in 1927. Classical composers include Florence Price . The writing of

4905-467: The South in 1916 through 1918 to take advantage of a labor shortage in industrial cities during the First World War. In 1910, the African-American population of Detroit was 6,000. The Great Migration, along with immigrants from southern and eastern Europe as well as their descendants, rapidly turned the city into the country's fourth-largest. By the start of the Great Depression in 1929,

5014-504: The South, while a little less than half lived in the North and West. Moreover, the African-American population had become highly urbanized. In 1900, only one-fifth of African Americans in the South were living in urban areas. By 1960, half of the African Americans in the South lived in urban areas, and by 1970, more than 80% of African Americans nationwide lived in cities. In 1991, Nicholas Lemann wrote: The Great Migration

5123-402: The South. The rhetoric and art exhibited in the Defender demanded equality of the races and promoted a northern migration. Abbott published articles that were exposés of southern crimes against blacks. The Defender consistently published articles describing lynchings in the South , with vivid descriptions of gore and the victims' deaths. Lynchings were at a peak at the turn of the century, in

5232-562: The Southern states. The defense industry in Louisville reached a peak of roughly over 80,000 employment. At first, job availability was not open for African Americans, but the growing need for jobs in the defense industry and the Fair Employment Practices Committee sign by Franklin D. Roosevelt , the Southern industries began to accept African Americans into the workplace. Migration patterns reflected network ties. Black Americans tended to go to locations in

5341-428: The United States; there, African Americans established culturally influential communities of their own. According to Isabel Wilkerson , despite the loss of leaving their homes in the South, and the barriers faced by the migrants in their new homes, the migration was an act of individual and collective agency , which changed the course of American history, a "declaration of independence" written by their actions. From

5450-630: The WPA’s Federal Art Project (FAP) administered by the Illinois Art Project (IAP); the founding of the South Side Community Art Center (SSCAC); and the artistic production and promotion of Chicago Black arts scene by predominant artists.” One of these artists being Archibald Motley. After thousands of people moved into the areas, communities were built. In these communities, young artists were using

5559-414: The belief that having Blacks in the studio would deter future members from joining was held among many of the organization’s board members. Due to this exclusion, the homes of elite Black families became galleries and this gave Black Chicagoans a space finally show what they had been creating. Following these in-home galleries, the need for an institution where African American artists could be taught formally

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5668-567: The cause of Black art could not be served ‘if all Negro artists painted simply Negro types’; rather ‘give the artist of the Race a chance to express himself in his own, individual way, but let him abide by the principles of true art, as our [white] brethren do.”. Portraiture was thought be a safe space for artists but Motley’s own artistic process forced him outside of this space. The move from portraits to genre scenes came because of Motley’s need to make money from his art.  Although his portraits gave

5777-561: The cheapest rail ticket possible and go to areas where they had relatives and friends. For example, many people from Mississippi moved directly north by train to Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Louis, from Alabama to Cleveland and Detroit, from Georgia and South Carolina to New York City , Baltimore , Washington D.C. and Philadelphia , and in the second migration, from Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi to Oakland , Los Angeles , Portland , Phoenix , Denver , and Seattle . Educated African Americans were better able to obtain jobs after

5886-403: The city of Chicago." The "Black Belt" geographical and racial isolation of this community, bordered to the north and east by whites, and to the south and west by industrial sites and ethnic immigrant neighborhoods, made it a site for the study of the development of an urban Black community. For urbanized people, eating proper foods in a sanitary, civilized setting such as the home or a restaurant

5995-412: The city's African-American population had increased to 120,000. In 1900–01, Chicago had a total population of 1,754,473. By 1920, the city had added more than 1 million residents. During the second wave of the Great Migration (1940–60), the African-American population in the city grew from 278,000 to 813,000. The flow of African Americans to Ohio, particularly to Cleveland , changed the demographics of

6104-547: The colors of Fauvism and Expressionism, and the use of space in Cubism. Motley became more expressive in his works. His use of a vibrant color palette, distorted perspective, and the condensing of space breathed new life into his style of painting. These elements can be seen in Motley’s 1934 painting, “Blackbelt”. Many people have critiqued both Motley and other artists paintings from the Harlem and Chicago Black Renaissance. One reason

6213-612: The commission to study this proposal and plan the process, which was initiated by the military in 1949. Sengstacke also brought together for the first time major black newspaper publishers and created the National Negro Publishers Association, later renamed the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA). Two days following the associations first meeting in Chicago, Abbott died. In the early 21st century,

6322-548: The earliest U.S. population statistics in 1780 until 1910 , more than 90% of the African-American population lived in the American South , making up the majority of the population in three Southern states, namely Louisiana (until about 1890 ), South Carolina (until the 1920s ), and Mississippi (until the 1930s ). But by the end of the Great Migration, just over half of the African-American population lived in

6431-471: The ethnic whites felt threatened by the influx of new labor competition. Sometimes those who were most fearful or resentful were the last immigrants of the 19th and new immigrants of the 20th century. African Americans made substantial gains in industrial employment, particularly in the steel, automobile, shipbuilding, and meatpacking industries. Between 1910 and 1920, the number of Black workers employed in industry nearly doubled from 500,000 to 901,000. After

6540-508: The expansion of the Pennsylvania Railroad . Because changes were concentrated in cities, which had also attracted millions of new or recent European immigrants, tensions rose as the people competed for jobs and scarce housing. Tensions were often most severe between ethnic Irish, defending their recently gained positions and territory, and recent immigrants and Black people. With the migration of African Americans northward and

6649-639: The face, and texture can be attributed to his mentor. The tools and techniques Motley learned under Buehr can be seen in this early work. Motley graduated from the Art Institute in Chicago with the highest possible grades as well as recognition  for “general excellence” in his work. As Motley began to paint and advance in his career, his artwork grew as well and transformed into a style much different than his earlier one. Motley began his artistic career with portraiture but as his career progressed, he moved into genre paintings. These later paintings depicted

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6758-491: The first Great Migration, for example, ended up in Chicago , while those from Virginia tended to move to Philadelphia . For the most part, these patterns were related to geography (i.e. longitude), with the closest cities attracting the most migrants (such as Los Angeles and San Francisco receiving a disproportionate number of migrants from Texas and Louisiana). When multiple destinations were equidistant, chain migration played

6867-505: The foundation of Chicago's African American industrial working class. When the stock market crashed in 1929 and the Great Depression resulted, thousands of people lost their jobs. African Americans were hit particularly hard. This catastrophe allowed for an emergence of new ideas and institutions among the Black community. With a revitalized community spirit and sense of racial pride, a new Black consciousness developed resulting in

6976-521: The groundwork upon which Abbott would build his explicit critiques of society. At the same time, the NAACP was publicizing the toll of lynching at its offices in New York City. The art in the Defender , particularly its political cartoons by Jay Jackson and others, explicitly addressed race issues and advocated northern migration of blacks. After the movement of southern blacks northward became

7085-464: The hottest night clubs. The Defender featured letters and poetry submitted by successful recent migrants; these writings "served as representative anecdotes, supplying readers with prototype examples   ... that characterized the migration campaign". To supplement these first-person accounts, Abbott often published small features on successful blacks in Chicago. The African American mentalist Princess Mysteria had from 1920 to her death in 1930

7194-502: The jobs of white men who went to go fight in World War I. As the war ended in 1918, many men returned home to find out their jobs had been taken by Black men who were willing to work for far less. By the time the rioting and violence had subsided in Chicago, 38 people had lost their lives, with 500 more injured. Additionally, $ 250,000 worth of property was destroyed, and over a thousand persons were left homeless. In other cities across

7303-434: The lives of African Americans from areas like “the streets of Bronzeville” which is described as “the assorted African neighborhoods of Chicago’s South Side”. Motley got into the world of portrait painters because it was believed that due to the commercialism moving into art, portraits would always be in demand. Motley ran into trouble when he refused to conform to using his racial identity in his artistic work, “He insisted that

7412-519: The main cash crop — but had been devastated by the arrival of the boll weevil . In 1910, African Americans constituted the majority of the population of South Carolina and Mississippi, and more than 40% in Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas; by 1970, only in Mississippi did the African-American population constitute more than 30% of the state's total. "The disappearance of the 'black belt'

7521-423: The main patrons during the Chicago Black Renaissance. He implemented certain caricature and stereotypes in his paintings to extend to this wider range of artists. By playing into these stereotypes, it could be seen as problematic as he was enforcing stereotypes that had been generalized by the white public. However, on the other hand it was a Black artist painting these elements and in a way could be seen as reclaiming

7630-502: The migrants concentrated in the big cities of the north and west, their influence was magnified in those places. Cities that had been virtually all white at the start of the century became centers of Black culture and politics by mid-century. Residential segregation and redlining led to concentrations of Black people in certain areas. The northern "Black metropolises" developed an important infrastructure of newspapers, businesses, jazz clubs, churches, and political organizations that provided

7739-485: The mixing of White and Black workers in factories, the tension was building, largely driven by White workers. The AFL, the American Federation of Labor , advocated the separation between European Americans and African Americans in the workplace. There were non-violent protests such as walk-outs in protest of having Blacks and Whites working together. As tension was building due to advocating for segregation in

7848-439: The move to Western Pennsylvania. They formed migration clubs, pooled their money, bought tickets at reduced rates, and often moved ingroups. Before they made the decision to move, they gathered information and debated the pros and cons of the process.... In barbershops, poolrooms, and grocery stores, in churches, lodge halls, and clubhouses, and in private homes, Black people who lived in the South discussed, debated, and decided what

7957-714: The nation many more had been affected by the violence of the Red Summer . The Red Summer enlightened many to the growing racial tension in America. The violence in these major cities prefaced the soon to follow Harlem Renaissance , an African-American cultural revolution, in the 1920s. Racial violence appeared again in Chicago in the 1940s and in Detroit as well as other cities in the Northeast as racial tensions over housing and employment discrimination grew. James Gregory calculates decade-by-decade migration volumes in his book The Southern Diaspora. Black migration picked up from

8066-417: The next year. The enlistment of workers into the military had also affected the labor supply. This created a wartime opportunity in the North for African Americans, as the Northern industry sought a new labor supply from the South. There were many advantages for Northern jobs compared to Southern jobs including wages that could be double or more. The southern sharecropping system, an agricultural depression,

8175-524: The north was strengthened by the efforts of labor agents sent by northern businessmen to recruit southern workers. Northern companies offered special incentives to encourage Black workers to relocate, including free transportation and low-cost housing. During World War I , there was a decline in European immigrants, which slowed the supply of workers for Northern factories. Around 1.2 million European immigrants arrived during 1914 while only 300,000 arrived

8284-513: The number of Black people in managerial and administrative occupations doubled, along with the number of Black people in white-collar occupations, while the number of Black agricultural workers in 1960 fell to one-fourth of what it was in 1940. Also, between 1936 and 1959, Black income relative to white income more than doubled in various skilled trades. Despite employment discrimination , Black people had higher labor force participation rates than whites in every U.S. Census from 1890 to 1950. As

8393-401: The path built by the older generation of artists. Since the younger artists in the city were using artists like Motley, William Scott, and Charles Dawson as inspiration and as role models, the older generation’s work never died. Motley and other’s art became trans-generational. Chicago was a mecca. There was a period of regrowth, which came from the city wide fire in 1871. The fire gave the city

8502-511: The people he painted a voice to express their own story, like “Mending Socks”, 1924, he was able to give a voice to those in the scenes of cabarets, pool halls, and the streets of African American neighborhoods with the added incentive of making money from these scenes. After spending a year in Paris, the style of modernism moved into his work. Along with his new knowledge of European modernism, he also started to incorporate elements of Impressionism,

8611-493: The period when southern state legislatures passed new constitutions and laws to disenfranchise most blacks and exclude them from the political system. Legislatures dominated by conservative white Democrats established racial segregation and Jim Crow . Abbott openly blamed the lynching violence on the white mobs who were typically involved, forcing readers to accept that these crimes were "systematic and unremitting". The newspaper's intense focus on these injustices implicitly laid

8720-413: The population in 1910 to about 30% by 1970. The growing Black presence outside the South changed the dynamics and demographics of numerous cities in the Northeast, Midwest, and West. In 1900, only 740,000 African Americans lived outside the South, just 8% of the nation's total Black population. By 1970, more than 10.6 million African Americans lived outside the South, 47% of the nation's total. Because

8829-487: The population moved north, the sound developed and grew in popularity. In 1922, Louis Armstrong followed his band leader Joe "King" Oliver to Chicago from New Orleans. He showed a unique talent for improvisation and quickly became a jazz sensation. For 30 years, he defined jazz in Chicago. During that time, Chicago heard a number of jazz greats such as Earl "Fatha" Hines , Jelly Roll Morton , Erskine Tate , Fats Waller , and Cab Calloway . Blues also came to Chicago from

8938-523: The populations of these cities while adding others as destinations, including the Western states . Western cities such as Los Angeles , San Francisco , Oakland , Phoenix , Denver , Seattle , and Portland also attracted African Americans in large numbers. There were clear migratory patterns that linked particular states and cities in the South to corresponding destinations in the North and West. Almost half of those who migrated from Mississippi during

9047-432: The publication in its new form. The Chicago Defender's editor and founder Robert Sengstacke Abbott played a major role in influencing the Great Migration of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North by means of strong, moralistic rhetoric in his editorials and political cartoons, the promotion of Chicago as a destination, and the advertisement of successful black individuals as inspiration for blacks in

9156-567: The southeast during this period. In contrast to jazz, blues brought a somber tone of life and work in the Mississippi Delta. Towards the end of the Chicago Black Renaissance, Chicago started to change the sound of blues, adding drums, piano, bass, harmonica, and switching the acoustic guitar for electric. The new style was called Chicago Blues . Greats such as Chester Burnett , Willie Dixon , Muddy Waters , and Koko Taylor were prominent during this time. Gospel, though popular before

9265-429: The spread of racist ideology, widespread lynching (nearly 3,500 African Americans were lynched between 1882 and 1968 ), and lack of social and economic opportunities in the South. Some factors pulled migrants to the north, such as labor shortages in northern factories brought about by World War I, resulting in thousands of jobs in steel mills, railroads, meatpacking plants, and the automobile industry. The pull of jobs in

9374-421: The staging ground for new forms of racial politics and new forms of Black culture. As a result of the Great Migration, the first large urban Black communities developed in northern cities beyond New York, Boston, Baltimore, Washington D.C., and Philadelphia, which had Black communities even before the Civil War, and attracted migrants after the war. It is conservatively estimated that 400,000 African Americans left

9483-404: The start of the new century, with 204,000 leaving in the first decade. The pace accelerated with the outbreak of World War I and continued through the 1920s. By 1930, there were 1.3 million former southerners living in other regions. The Great Depression wiped out job opportunities in the northern industrial belt, especially for African Americans, and caused a sharp reduction in migration. In

9592-582: The state and its primary industrial city. Before the Great Migration, an estimated 1.1% to 1.6% of Cleveland's population was African American. By 1920, 4.3% of Cleveland's population was African American. The number of African Americans in Cleveland continued to rise over the next 20 years of the Great Migration. Other northeastern and midwestern industrial cities, such as Philadelphia, New York City, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Omaha, also had dramatic increases in their African-American populations. By

9701-660: The steel mills. Pittsburgh's Black population increased to 37,700 in 1920 (6.4% of the total) while the Black element in Homestead, Rankin, Braddock, and others nearly doubled. They succeeded in building effective community responses that enabled the survival of new communities. Historian Joe Trotter explains the decision process: Although African-Americans often expressed their views of the Great Migration in biblical terms and received encouragement from northern Black newspapers, railroad companies, and industrial labor agents, they also drew upon family and friendship networks to help in

9810-566: The thrills and grit of Black life. Photographers also displayed daily life of south side Chicago through a variety of iconic American images. Four Black artists, all of whom attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago , are famous for sharing the vibrant spirit of Black Chicago through their art: William Edouard Scott , Charles Wilbert White , Archibald John Motley, Jr. , and Eldzier Cortor . Scott painted impressionist landscapes, portraits, and murals depicting Black achievement, while White

9919-539: The time of World War I, became known as the Great Migration , in which 1.5 million blacks moved out of the rural South in early 20th century years up to 1940, and another 5 million left towns and rural areas from 1940 to 1970. Abbott used the Defender to promote Chicago as an attractive destination for southern blacks. Abbott presented Chicago as a promised-land with abundant jobs, as he included advertisements "clearly aimed at southerners," that called for massive numbers of workers wanted in factory positions. The Defender

10028-659: The trend has reversed, with more African Americans moving to the South, albeit far more slowly. Dubbed the New Great Migration , these moves were generally spurred by the economic difficulties of cities in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States, growth of jobs in the " New South " and its lower cost of living , family and kinship ties, and lessening discrimination. The primary factors for migration among southern African Americans were segregation, indentured servitude , convict leasing , an increase in

10137-430: The viewer. Not only is the subject matter different in Motley’s earlier paintings compared to his later, but as is his style. In his portrait of this fisherman, the brushstrokes are extremely visible and the man is very naturalistic unlike his later paintings where it is very animates and appears to look saturated. It can be seen in this early portrait the influence Buehr had on Motley. The artists focus on light, contours in

10246-470: The war effort, such as Ford Motor Company converting its plant to produce military jeeps. The company Hillerich & Bradsby initially made baseball bats and then converted their production into making gunstocks. During the war, there was a shortage of workers in the defense industry. African Americans took the opportunity to fill in the industries' missing jobs during the war, around 4.3 million intrastate migration and 2.1 million interstate migration in

10355-466: The well known literary works that emerged from the Chicago Black Renaissance include Wright's Native Son , Brooks' A Street in Bronzeville , St. Clair Drake and Horace R. Cayton's Black Metropolis , and Frank Marshall Davis' Black Man's Verse and 47th Street: Poems . In addition to musicians and writers, several visual artists emerged during the Chicago Black Renaissance. Painters used different styles from portraiture to abstraction to reveal

10464-465: The widespread infestation of the cotton boll weevil , and flooding also provided motivation for African Americans to move into the Northern Cities. The South's pervasive exclusion of African Americans from political power, their lack of representation, and a dearth of social opportunities - in a culture regulated by Jim Crow laws - also motivated African Americans to migrate Northward. When

10573-716: The workplace, violence soon erupted. In 1917, the East St. Louis riot , known for one of the bloodiest workplace riots, had between 40 and 200 killed and over 6000 African Americans displaced from their homes. The NAACP, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People , responded to the violence with a march known as the Silent March . More than 10,000 African-American men and women demonstrated in Harlem, New York. Conflicts continued post World War I, as African Americans continued to face conflicts and tension while

10682-422: The writing talents of Langston Hughes ; from the 1940s through 1960s, Hughes wrote an opinion column for the paper. Washington, D.C., and international correspondent Ethel Payne , poet Gwendolyn Brooks , author Willard Motley , music critic Dave Peyton , journalists Ida B. Wells , L. Alex Wilson and Louis Lomax wrote for the paper at different times. During the height of the civil rights movement era, it

10791-476: Was a hell of a lot better than down there where I was born." The Great Migration drained off much of the rural Black population of the South, and for a time, froze or reduced African-American population growth in parts of the region. The migration changed the demographics in a number of states; there were decades of Black population decline, especially across the Deep South " black belt " where cotton had been

10900-710: Was a prominent graphic artist and worked with the mural division of the Illinois Federal Art Project . He was an active member of the South Side Community Art Center , which was founded by Margaret Burroughs , and his work, "There Were No Crops This Year," won a first prize at the Negro Exposition in 1940. Motley's paintings, on the other hand, created controversy with his depictions of jazz culture and Black sensuality, providing vivid images of urban Black life in

11009-417: Was a social ritual that indicated one's level of respectability. The people native to Chicago had pride in the high level of integration in Chicago restaurants, which they attributed to their unassailable manners and refined tastes. Chicago Defender The Chicago Defender is a Chicago -based online African-American newspaper . It was founded in 1905 by Robert S. Abbott and was once considered

11118-641: Was developing in the outskirts. Mortgage discrimination and redlining in inner city areas limited the newer African-American migrants' ability to determine their own housing, or obtain a fair price. In the long term, the National Housing Act of 1934 contributed to limiting the availability of loans to urban areas, particularly those areas inhabited by African Americans. Migrants going to Albany, New York found poor living conditions and employment opportunities, but also higher wages and better schools and social services. Local organizations such as

11227-523: Was filled with advertisements for desirable commodities, beauty products and technological devices. Abbott's paper was the first black newspaper to incorporate a full entertainment section. Chicago was portrayed as a lively city where blacks commonly went to the theaters, ate out at fancy restaurants, attended sports events, including "cheering for the American Black Giants , black America's favorite baseball team", and could dance all night in

11336-432: Was good and what was bad about moving to the urban North. In cities such as Newark, New York and Chicago, African Americans became increasingly integrated into society. As they lived and worked more closely with European Americans, the divide became increasingly indefinite. This period marked the transition for many African Americans from lifestyles as rural farmers to urban industrial workers. This migration gave birth to

11445-434: Was met. The School of the Art Institute of Chicago was one of the few schools that allowed Black attendance. This acceptance drew in even more Black artists into the city and educated well known Black artists, like Motley. Having the Institute in Chicago helped grow the artistic community by drawing artists in and keeping them in the city. Great Migration (African American) The Great Migration , sometimes known as

11554-414: Was one of the largest and most rapid mass internal movements in history—perhaps the greatest not caused by the immediate threat of execution or starvation. In sheer numbers, it outranks the migration of any other ethnic group— Italians or Irish or Jews or Poles —to the United States. For Black people, the migration meant leaving what had always been their economic and social base in America and finding

11663-488: Was one of the striking effects" of the Great Migration, James Gregory wrote. In Mississippi, the Black American population decreased from about 56% of the population in 1910 to about 37% by 1970, remaining the majority only in some Delta counties. In Georgia, Black Americans decreased from about 45% of the population in 1910 to about 26% by 1970. In South Carolina, the Black population decreased from about 55% of

11772-476: Was published as The Chicago Daily Defender , a daily newspaper, beginning in 1956. It became a weekly paper again in 2008. In 2019, its publisher, Real Times Media Inc., announced that the Defender would cease its print edition but continue as an online publication. The editorial board of the Chicago Tribune , observing the impact The Defender has had in its 114 years, praised the continuation of

11881-471: Was the subject of Jacob Lawrence 's Migration Series of paintings, created when he was a young man in New York. Exhibited in 1941 at the Museum of Modern Art, Lawrence's Series attracted wide attention; he was quickly perceived as one of the most important African-American artists of the time. The Great Migration had effects on music as well as other cultural subjects. Many blues singers migrated from

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