19.2 The African American “Great Migration” and New European Immigration

The African American "Great Migration"

Between 1870 and 1900, the foundations were laid for one of the largest internal migrations in American history. African Americans began leaving the rural South for Northern cities, driven by a combination of desperate conditions at home and genuine opportunity elsewhere. At the same time, a massive wave of European immigrants was reshaping the country's cities, economy, and culture.

Push and Pull Factors

Push factors in the South:

• Racial violence and lynchings terrorized African American communities. Between 1880 and 1900, thousands of lynchings were recorded across the South, and local authorities rarely intervened.
• Jim Crow laws institutionalized segregation in schools, transportation, and public spaces, severely limiting economic and social opportunities.
• The sharecropping system trapped many African American families in cycles of poverty and debt. Landowners structured contracts so that sharecroppers rarely broke even, let alone got ahead.
• The boll weevil infestation, which began spreading across the South in the 1890s, devastated cotton crops and destroyed the already fragile economic base that most Black farmers depended on.

Pull factors in the North:

• Factory jobs and labor shortages drew African American workers northward. Industrial cities like Chicago, Detroit, and Pittsburgh needed labor to keep up with rapid growth.
• Higher wages compared to agricultural work in the South offered a real chance at economic advancement.
• Less rigid (though still present) racial segregation made Northern cities a more tolerable environment. Discrimination existed, but it wasn't codified into law the way Jim Crow was.
• Established African American communities in cities like New York provided social networks, churches, and cultural institutions that helped newcomers find footing. These communities would later give rise to movements like the Harlem Renaissance.

New European Immigration

Southern vs. Northern European Immigrants

Between 1870 and 1900, the source of European immigration shifted dramatically. Earlier waves had come mostly from Northern and Western Europe (Ireland, Germany, Britain, Scandinavia). By the 1880s and 1890s, the majority of newcomers were arriving from Southern and Eastern Europe: Italy, Poland, Russia, Greece, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

What they had in common:

• Both groups came seeking economic opportunity and, in many cases, religious freedom.
• Both faced nativist hostility from Americans who saw immigrants as threats to jobs and culture.
• Both settled in ethnic enclaves, tight-knit neighborhoods where they could speak their own language, attend familiar churches or synagogues, and support one another.
• Both relied on chain migration, where established immigrants helped relatives and friends make the journey and find work.

Where they differed:

Southern and Eastern European immigrants were predominantly Catholic, Jewish, or Eastern Orthodox. Nativists viewed them as fundamentally different from the Protestant mainstream and "less desirable." They faced harsher scrutiny, including literacy tests designed to reduce their numbers. (The most restrictive quotas, like the Immigration Act of 1924, came later but grew directly from attitudes forming in this period.) Language barriers and unfamiliar customs made assimilation harder, and these groups bore the brunt of anti-immigrant sentiment.

Northern and Western European immigrants, by contrast, were mostly Protestant and were seen as culturally closer to the existing American population. They faced less intense discrimination and fewer legal restrictions, though earlier groups like the Irish had dealt with severe prejudice of their own in prior decades.

Immigration's Impact on American Cities

The sheer volume of newcomers transformed urban America. Cities like New York, Chicago, and Boston grew at staggering rates, and infrastructure couldn't keep up.

Housing and public health:

• Immigrants packed into tenement buildings with poor ventilation, no running water, and minimal sanitation. A single tenement block might house hundreds of people.
• Overcrowding fueled the spread of diseases like cholera, typhoid, and tuberculosis. Public health systems were overwhelmed.

Labor and the economy:

• The flood of new workers expanded the labor pool, which drove down wages and intensified competition for jobs. This was a major source of tension between immigrant groups and between immigrants and African Americans.
• At the same time, immigrant labor fueled industrial expansion. Factories, railroads, and construction projects depended on cheap labor to grow.
• Immigrants also started small businesses that became economic anchors in their communities. The Jewish garment industry in New York and Chinese laundries on the West Coast are well-known examples.

Social and political effects:

• Ethnic neighborhoods like Little Italy and Chinatown became distinct cultural zones within cities, enriching urban life with new foods, traditions, and institutions.
• Political machines like Tammany Hall in New York recognized immigrants as a powerful voting bloc. They offered jobs, housing assistance, and help navigating bureaucracy in exchange for political loyalty.
• Nativist backlash intensified. Groups like the American Protective Association (1880s–1890s) campaigned against Catholic immigrants, echoing the earlier Know-Nothing movement of the 1850s.

Labor and Social Movements

The harsh conditions in factories and tenements pushed both immigrants and African American migrants toward collective action. Labor unions formed to fight for better wages, shorter hours, and safer workplaces. Immigrants were active participants in strikes and organizing efforts, despite the risk of being fired or deported.

Beyond the workplace, social reform movements emerged to tackle urban poverty and exploitation. Settlement houses like Jane Addams's Hull House in Chicago offered education, childcare, and social services to immigrant communities. These efforts laid the groundwork for the broader Progressive movement that would gain momentum after 1900.