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Great Migration
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Map of the United States showing the major migration routes taken by African Americans during the Great Migration from 1916 to 1970. Southern states are shaded in orange, with wide green arrows illustrating movement from the South to northern, midwestern, and western destination cities such as Chicago, Detroit, New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Oakland. Major receiving cities are marked with blue dots. Scott and Violet Arthur with their family, including children and grandson, stand in a row wearing coats and hats with suitcases at their feet at Chicago's Polk Street Depot in 1920. An African American family gearing up for a life-changing road trip The Chicago Defender reports on race riots
Rapper Roy Kinsey on the Great Migration
The influential Chicago Defender Map of the United States showing the Great Migration, with major routes depicted as wide green arrows moving from Southern states, highlighted in orange, to cities in the North and West such as Chicago, Detroit, New York City, Los Angeles, and Oakland. Black dots mark key destination cities, illustrating the movement of about six million African Americans from the rural South to urban centers between 1916 and 1970.
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Map of the United States showing the major migration routes taken by African Americans during the Great Migration from 1916 to 1970. Southern states are shaded in orange, with wide green arrows illustrating movement from the South to northern, midwestern, and western destination cities such as Chicago, Detroit, New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Oakland. Major receiving cities are marked with blue dots.
The Great Migration Between 1916 and 1970 about six million Black Americans relocated from the South to cities in the North and West, a mass movement known as the Great Migration. This map shows the major routes and destination cities for those Americans.

Great Migration

African American history
Written by
Aaron Wright
Aaron Wright was an Editorial Intern at Encyclopaedia Britannica. He graduated from the University of Maryland in 2024 with a bachelor's degree in journalism and a certificate in African American and Africana...
Aaron Wright
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Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
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•History

Great Migration, in U.S. history, the movement of millions of African Americans from rural communities in the South to urban areas in Northern and Western states during the 20th century. In 1900 nearly eight million Black people—about 90 percent of all Black Americans—lived in the South. From 1916 to 1970 an estimated six million Black Southerners relocated to the North and West in search of economic opportunities and an escape from racial violence. On April...

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