Lesson 5: Blues Travelers

Unit 4 Lesson 5

BLUES TRAVELERS

The Great Migration

LESSON TARGET

I can analyze the impact of the Great Migration on American society and culture.

READ ABOUT IT!

Directions: The first thing you need to do is read about the Great Migration. Make sure that you are looking for the impacts of the Great Migration on American society and culture during the reading.

The Great Migration

“If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”

~ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ~

At least six million African Americans relocated their lives and families in the Great Migration from 1916 to 1970, settling in cities like New York, Chicago, and Detroit.

Between 1910 and 1940, African Americans left the rural South in great numbers looking for jobs in the big cities of the North and the West. During this time, known as the “Great Migration”, approximately 1.7 million African Americans headed north, doubling the black population outside the South. By 1910, the majority of African Americans in New York City were southern-born.

Even those who had migrated West during the Homestead Act, began looking for work in the city, when the farming industry began to decline.

Several things caused this great move of African Americans from their homes in the rural South. Many of those migrating were young people who hoped for greater opportunities in the North. As the farming industry declined in the 1900's, it forced many black Americans to look for other kinds of jobs and to question why they still lived in the South.

Blacks and Whites had all separate facilities in the South. The laws that allowed this were called Jim Crow Laws.

Jim Crow Laws were another issue that made many African Americans want to leave the South. Jim Crow laws enforced segregation in the South. Segregation was the act of separating white and black people in public places such as schools, busses, trains, restrooms, and restaurants. They also made it difficult for black people to vote. African Americans in the South were denied basic civil rights. Civil rights are the rights that every person should have regardless of his or her sex, race, or religion.

African-American factory workers

Labor recruiters from Northern industries came to the South to convince African Americans to move north. The recruiters offered free transportation and high wages to black people who were willing to work in the industries of the North. Most recruiters worked for the growing auto, railroad, and steel-making industries.

King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band

African Americans moved North using trains, busses, boats, and cars and when they moved, they brought their culture with them. African Americans living in New Orleans, Louisiana had developed a type of music called the Blues. The Blues was a style of music that was created by African-Americans in the southern U.S. and that often expresses feelings of loss or sadness. From the Blues, they created a new type of music called Jazz. Jazz is a type of music with lively rhythms and melodies that are often made up by musicians as they play.

TOOLBOX

Blues:  a style of music that was created by African-Americans in the southern U.S. and that often expresses feelings of loss or sadness

civil rights:  the rights that every person should have regardless of his or her sex, race, or religion

Dixieland:  the earliest form of Jazz that developed in New Orleans, Louisiana and was a mixture of the blues and spirituals and used a technique called improvisation

Great Migration: the time period from roughly 1910 - 1940 where African Americans left the rural south in great numbers looking for jobs in the big cities of the North and West

Harlem Renaissance: a period of rapid growth of African American art, drama, literature, and music that occurred in the 1920s and began in a neighborhood in New York City called Harlem

Improvisation: when a musician makes up the music as the band plays

Jacob Lawrence: an African - American artist born during the Great Migration, who painted a series of paintings telling the story of African - American migration from the South

Jazz: a type of music that developed from the Blues in New Orleans, Louisiana that used lively rhythms and melodies that are often made up by musicians as they play

Migration Series: a series of 60 paintings by Jacob Lawrence that tell the story of the African American migration from the South to the North and West in the first half of the twentieth century

recruiters: a person who's job is to find people to work for industries

rural: places that are not highly populated; the country

segregation:  the practice of keeping people of different races separated

The Great Migration of African Americans to the North took many paths. Jazz began in the South in New Orleans, Louisiana with a type of jazz called Dixieland. Dixieland Jazz was a mixture of the blues and spirituals and used a technique called improvisation. Improvisation is when a musician makes up the music as the band plays. The major path of African Americans leaving the South was along the Mississippi River. As they settled in Memphis, Kansas City, St. Louis, and Chicago new styles of Jazz evolved. Another path African Americans took was to New York City. Musicians passed through larger Southern towns such as Birmingham, Alabama and Atlanta, Georgia and decided to stay. Others moved on to Washington D.C. and New York. In New York many musicians moved to an area called Harlem. Jazz in Harlem inspired African Americans to develop other art forms. African Americans became authors, actors, artists, and activists. In New York, all the new forms of art created by African Americans in the 1920s became known as the Harlem Renaissance.

Jacob Lawrence

One artist named Jacob Lawrence pulled the Great Migration together in what he called the Migration Series. The Migration Series was a collection of paintings that illustrated the feelings and emotional hardships of participants in the Great Migration. Lawrence drew his inspiration from the many real life struggles of African Americans who chose to move north and better their lives and the lives of their families. Lawrence was born in 1917 in the midst of this great mass movement of African Americans. He studied at the Harlem Art Workshop in New York City and at the American Artists School in New York. He taught at Pratt Institute and at the University of Washington in Seattle. His work has been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City; The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C.; and at other major museums in the United States and in foreign countries. No other artist has captured the fullness of the Great Migration as Jacob Lawrence did. Lawrence died in 2000 but his art is still enjoyed by people all over the world.

EXPLAIN IT!

Directions: The second thing you need to do is show that you understand what you have just read. In your small groups, answer the questions below. We will discuss these as a whole group when you have completed these in your small groups.

ANALYZE IT!

Directions: The third thing you need to do is break down what you have read. In your small groups, look at the gallery of paintings below by Jacob Lawrence. Based on his paintings, what did African Americans experience during the Great Migration? Be ready to discuss it in whole group.

The Great Migration Series

CREATE IT!

Directions: The fourth thing you need to do is create something with what you learned. In this activity, you will create a fictional story about the Great Migration using the paintings from Jacob Lawrence's Great Migration Series. Use your imagination. You will create your story in a Keynote Presentation. Use the rubric below to create your story.

PROVE IT!

Directions: The last thing you need to do is to prove that you have met the lesson target. Click on the lesson target icon below to complete the Prove It Activity.

LESSON REFLECTION

Congratulations!

You have completed the Unit 4 Lesson 5 - Blues Travelers.