First Wave of Great Migration Begins: 1.6 Million Black Americans Leave the South

Between 1910 and 1930, approximately 1.6 million Black Americans left the South for Northern and Midwestern cities — Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, New York. They were fleeing lynching, disenfranchisement, debt peonage, convict leasing, and economic exclusion, and seeking industrial wages and greater freedoms. The Chicago Defender, smuggled south by Pullman porters, advertised Northern opportunities and published letters from migrants. The demographic transformation reshaped American politics, culture, and race relations.