The Great Migration Begins as Robert Abbott's Chicago Defender Drives Mass Movement North

Robert Abbott's Chicago Defender, the most widely circulated Black newspaper in the country, actively campaigned for Southern Black Americans to relocate north, publishing train schedules, job listings, and stories of opportunity. Between 1916 and 1919 approximately half a million Black Southerners migrated to Northern cities in what became known as the Great Migration, transforming American demography and culture.