English Language Arts · 9th Grade · Voices of America: Identity and Culture · Weeks 28-36

The Great Migration: Ancestry and Identity

Exploring how the concept of 'ancestry' and historical roots is handled in narratives of the Great Migration.

• Common Core State Standards
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.3
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.2

About This Topic

Memory and ancestry are doing significant narrative work in Great Migration literature. Characters who have moved North carry the South with them in the form of family recipes, religious practices, speech patterns, and the stories told by grandparents who never left. This topic examines how writers like Toni Morrison, Colson Whitehead, and August Wilson construct the relationship between past and present, between a Southern heritage and a Northern present, as something neither fully recoverable nor fully left behind.

This topic addresses CCSS RI.9-10.3 and RL.9-10.2, requiring students to trace how concepts develop across a text and how theme emerges from recurring motifs. The concept of 'inherited memory', knowledge of historical trauma passed between generations, is particularly important here, as it helps students understand why characters born in the North still carry the weight of Southern experience.

Active learning strategies that surface students' own connections to family memory and oral history work well as entry points before moving to textual analysis. The personal connection enriches the analytical work without replacing it.

Key Questions

1. How is the concept of 'ancestry' handled in these narratives?
2. Analyze how characters maintain connections to their Southern roots while building new lives in the North.
3. Explain the significance of memory and oral history in preserving the legacy of the Great Migration.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze how literary devices, such as symbolism and imagery, are used to represent the concept of 'ancestry' in Great Migration narratives.
• Compare and contrast the ways characters maintain connections to their Southern heritage while adapting to Northern environments.
• Explain the role of inherited memory and oral history in shaping character identity and preserving the legacy of the Great Migration.
• Evaluate the significance of specific cultural elements (e.g., food, music, dialect) as markers of Southern ancestry within Northern settings.
• Synthesize information from primary and secondary sources to articulate the multifaceted impact of the Great Migration on individual and collective identity.

Before You Start

Introduction to Narrative Voice and Point of View

Why: Students need to understand how a narrator's perspective shapes the story to analyze how characters' internal connections to their past are presented.

Identifying Literary Themes

Why: Students must be able to identify central themes to analyze how the concept of ancestry develops across the narratives studied.

Key Vocabulary

Great Migration	The mass movement of approximately six million African Americans from the rural Southern United States to the urban Northeast, Midwest, and West between 1916 and 1970.
Ancestry	One's family or ethnic background; the origin and history of one's family.
Inherited Memory	The concept that historical trauma, experiences, and cultural knowledge can be passed down through generations, influencing present-day identity and behavior.
Oral History	A method of research that involves the collection and study of historical information as told by people, often through interviews and storytelling.
Cultural Retention	The practice of maintaining and preserving cultural traditions, beliefs, and practices, especially when moving to a new environment.

Watch Out for These Misconceptions

Common Misconception

Characters who were born in the North have no connection to the South.

What to Teach Instead

Great Migration literature frequently depicts second- and third-generation Northern characters who carry Southern identity through family stories, religious traditions, foodways, and what Morrison calls 'rememory', the experience of memories one did not personally live through. Students who assume only first-generation migrants carry this weight miss a central theme of post-migration texts.

Common Misconception

Oral history is less reliable than written historical record.

What to Teach Instead

Oral history and written record preserve different kinds of truth. Written history often omits the interior lives, emotional experiences, and community perspectives that oral history captures. Great Migration authors deliberately use oral history to recover what institutional records overlooked. Comparing both forms in active analysis helps students see each as a partial and purposeful account.

Active Learning Ideas

Think-Pair-Share: Objects of Ancestry

Students write about one object, food, phrase, or tradition in their own family that connects them to a place their family used to live. Pairs share and identify: what does this object preserve that couldn't be preserved any other way? Whole-class discussion links personal memory to how Great Migration characters hold onto Southern identity in Northern settings.

20 min·Pairs

Inquiry Circle: Memory vs. History

Groups receive a passage of family oral history from a Great Migration text alongside a brief historical account of the same events. They identify three differences: what the oral history includes that the historical account omits, what the historical account includes that the oral history omits, and what each form of record is designed to do. Groups present one key difference.

40 min·Small Groups

Gallery Walk: Roots in Northern Soil

Post six short passages from Great Migration narratives where characters reference their Southern roots while living in Northern cities. Students annotate each with: what does the character preserve? What have they lost? What is their emotional relationship to the Southern past, longing, ambivalence, or relief at distance? Post-walk debrief builds toward a class definition of 'inherited identity.'

35 min·Small Groups

Individual Writing: The Character's Memory Archive

Students choose one character from a Great Migration text and write a one-paragraph 'memory inventory', a list of everything the character carries from the South (people, places, practices, emotions) with one sentence explaining why each item matters to the character's identity. Students then circle the two most important items and write a claim connecting them to the text's larger theme.

30 min·Individual

Real-World Connections

• Genealogists and historical societies, such as the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, utilize archival records and oral histories to trace family lineages and document the experiences of African Americans during and after the Great Migration.
• Museum exhibits, like those found at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, often feature artifacts, photographs, and personal narratives that illustrate the challenges and triumphs of families migrating from the South to Northern cities.
• Authors and playwrights, such as August Wilson in his Pittsburgh Cycle plays, draw directly from the lived experiences and oral traditions of Great Migration participants to create authentic portrayals of identity and belonging.

Assessment Ideas

Discussion Prompt

Facilitate a class discussion using the prompt: 'How do characters in the texts we've read demonstrate a connection to their Southern roots? Provide specific examples of traditions, memories, or objects that serve as anchors to their past.' Encourage students to reference textual evidence.

Quick Check

Provide students with a short excerpt from a Great Migration narrative. Ask them to identify one instance where a character's actions or thoughts reveal a connection to their Southern ancestry and explain its significance in 2-3 sentences.

Exit Ticket

On an index card, ask students to write down one question they have about how memory or oral history helps preserve the legacy of the Great Migration. Collect these to gauge understanding and inform future lessons.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the concept of ancestry in Great Migration literature?

In Great Migration literature, ancestry refers to the cultural, emotional, and historical inheritance characters carry from their Southern origins. This includes family oral histories, religious traditions, foodways, speech patterns, and the memory of specific people and places. Ancestry functions as both resource and burden, connecting characters to their roots while complicating their adaptation to Northern life.

What role does memory play in Great Migration narratives?

Memory in these texts operates on multiple levels: personal recollection, family oral history, and what some scholars call cultural memory, the collective experience of a community's past transmitted through stories, rituals, and artifacts. Authors like Toni Morrison show memory as something that can be passed between generations, meaning characters who never lived in the South still carry its legacy.

How do characters maintain their Southern identity after moving North?

Characters often maintain Southern identity through domestic practices (cooking, church attendance, dialect), community networks with other migrants from the same region, the stories they tell their children, and the physical objects they bring with them. These practices are a form of cultural preservation that allows characters to remain connected to their origins while adapting to Northern urban life.

How does active learning deepen understanding of memory and ancestry themes?

Entry activities that invite students to reflect on their own family's relationship to place and heritage create an experiential bridge to the literary texts. When students articulate what a family object preserves before analyzing a character's memory practices, they bring genuine insight to the textual analysis. This approach builds empathy and analytical precision simultaneously.