The Great Migration was the mass internal movement of more than six million African Americans out of the rural South to industrial cities in the North and West (roughly 1916-1970), driven by Jim Crow segregation and sharecropping poverty as push factors and wartime factory jobs as pull factors.
The Great Migration was the largest internal migration in U.S. history. Starting around World War I and continuing through 1970, over six million African Americans left the rural South for cities like Chicago, Detroit, New York, Pittsburgh, and later Los Angeles and Oakland.
Think of it as a classic push-pull story, which is exactly how the CED frames it. The push factors were Jim Crow segregation, lynching and racial violence, disenfranchisement, and the dead-end economics of sharecropping. The pull factor was World War I, which did two things at once. It cranked up demand for industrial labor, and it cut off the flow of European immigrants who had been filling those factory jobs. Black Southerners moved north to take them. The migration kept going through the 1920s, paused during the Depression, then surged again during World War II (sometimes called the Second Great Migration), this time including West Coast defense industry cities.
The Great Migration is the textbook answer to learning objective APUSH 7.6.A, which asks you to explain the causes and effects of international and internal migration patterns over time. The CED's essential knowledge for Topic 7.6 states it directly: increased demand for war production and labor during World War I led many Americans to migrate to urban centers seeking economic opportunity. It also powers APUSH 7.8.A (by 1920, a majority of Americans lived in cities offering new opportunities to internal migrants) and APUSH 7.8.B, because the migration created the concentrated Black urban communities that produced the Harlem Renaissance.
What makes this term unusually valuable is its range. It starts in Period 6 (Topic 6.8, where African American migrants within and out of the South are part of the diversifying industrial workforce), peaks in Period 7, reshapes society in Period 8 (Topic 8.14), and gets reversed in Period 9 (Topic 9.5), when population shifted back toward the South and West after 1980. That makes it perfect evidence for the Migration and Settlement theme and for continuity-and-change essays that span periods.
Keep studying APUSH Unit 6
World War I Home Front (Unit 7)
WWI is the trigger. War production created a huge demand for factory labor at the exact moment European immigration collapsed, and Black Southerners filled the gap. If an exam question asks why the Great Migration accelerated around 1916, the answer is the war.
Harlem Renaissance (Unit 7)
The Great Migration is the cause; the Harlem Renaissance is the effect. Migrants concentrated in Northern neighborhoods like Harlem, and that critical mass produced an explosion of Black art, literature, and music expressing a new urban identity. The CED pairs these directly in Topic 7.8.
Jim Crow Laws (Units 6-7)
Jim Crow is the push factor. Segregation, disenfranchisement, and racial violence in the South made leaving rational even when Northern cities had their own discrimination (de facto segregation, redlining, race riots). Migrants escaped legal segregation but not racism.
Sunbelt Migration (Units 8-9)
Here's the twist worth knowing for continuity-and-change essays. After 1980, the population flow reversed, with Americans (including many African Americans) moving back toward the South and West as the Sunbelt's economic and political influence grew. The Great Migration and the Sunbelt shift bookend a century of internal migration.
The Great Migration appeared on the 2018 SAQ (Question 4), and migration causation is a recurring short-answer setup. You'll typically get a map, a chart of urban Black population growth, or an excerpt, and be asked to identify one cause and one effect. Have specifics ready on both sides. Causes include Jim Crow, sharecropping, lynching, and WWI labor demand. Effects include the Harlem Renaissance, Northern urban race tensions, and a majority-urban America by 1920.
In multiple choice, the Great Migration often shows up inside broader WWI home front questions alongside topics like the Red Scare and nativism, since all of them stem from the same wartime social upheaval. For the DBQ and LEQ, it's elite evidence for the Migration and Settlement theme, and it's especially strong for continuity-and-change prompts because you can trace it from Period 6 roots through its Period 9 reversal. Just don't be vague. "Black people moved north" earns nothing; "WWI labor shortages pulled Southern Black workers to Chicago and Detroit, where their communities fueled the Harlem Renaissance" earns points.
APUSH has two Great Migrations, and mixing them up is an easy way to bomb a question. The Puritan Great Migration (Period 2) was roughly 20,000 English Puritans crossing the Atlantic to Massachusetts Bay in the 1630s seeking religious community. The Great Migration tested in Periods 6-8 is six million African Americans moving within the United States, from the rural South to Northern and Western cities, starting around 1916. Check the period of the question. Colonial era means Puritans; 20th century means African Americans.
The Great Migration moved over six million African Americans from the rural South to Northern and Western cities between roughly 1916 and 1970.
Push factors were Jim Crow segregation, racial violence, and sharecropping poverty; the main pull factor was industrial jobs created by World War I labor demand and the wartime cutoff of European immigration.
The migration created the urban Black communities that produced the Harlem Renaissance, making it the direct cause behind that Period 7 cultural movement.
By 1920, a majority of Americans lived in urban centers, and the Great Migration was a major driver of that demographic milestone.
Migrants escaped legal segregation but faced de facto discrimination in the North, including housing segregation and race riots.
For continuity-and-change essays, remember the reversal: after 1980, population shifted back toward the South and West as the Sunbelt grew (Topic 9.5).
The mass movement of more than six million African Americans from the rural South to industrial cities in the North and West between about 1916 and 1970. It's core content for Topic 7.6 (WWI home front) and learning objective APUSH 7.6.A on internal migration patterns.
No. Migrants escaped the South's legal Jim Crow system, but Northern cities had de facto segregation, housing discrimination, and racial violence of their own. The exam rewards this nuance, since it's the difference between a basic and a sophisticated answer.
Same name, totally different events. The Puritan Great Migration was about 20,000 English settlers moving to Massachusetts Bay in the 1630s (Period 2); the 20th-century Great Migration was six million African Americans moving within the U.S. starting around 1916 (Periods 6-8).
The war created two conditions at once. Factories needed massive labor for war production, and European immigration (which had peaked just before the war) was cut off. Black Southerners filled the labor gap, pulled north by wages far above sharecropping income.
Migration concentrated African Americans in Northern neighborhoods like Harlem, and that critical mass of people, money, and shared experience produced a flowering of Black literature, art, and jazz in the 1920s. The CED explicitly links migration to new art and literature expressing ethnic and regional identities in Topic 7.8.