Great Migration & Northern Racial Tensions

Active learning turns the Great Migration into a lived experience for students. By analyzing primary sources, examining visual art, and studying specific historical events, students connect abstract push-pull factors to real human stories. This approach helps them see how historical forces shaped individual lives and communities over decades.

• 11th Grade
• US History
• 3 activities
• 30 min–40 min

Learning Objectives

1. Analyze the primary push and pull factors that motivated African Americans to migrate from the rural South to Northern cities between 1910 and 1970.
2. Explain how the demographic shifts caused by the Great Migration altered the political and social landscape of major Northern urban centers.
3. Evaluate the new forms of racial discrimination and tension that emerged in Northern cities as a result of increased Black populations.
4. Compare and contrast the nature of racial segregation and violence in the Jim Crow South with that experienced by migrants in Northern cities.

Inquiry Circle

⏱ 35 min·Pairs

Document Analysis: Letters from Migrants

Students read two or three authentic letters sent by Great Migration participants to family in the South, drawn from the Chicago Defender archive. Students identify what each writer hoped to find, what challenges they actually encountered, and whether their expectations matched their experience. Pairs compare letters and identify patterns across individual accounts.

Prepare & details

Analyze the primary 'push' and 'pull' factors that drove the Great Migration.

Facilitation Tip: During the Document Analysis activity, have students work in pairs to annotate one letter with codes for push factors, pull factors, and reactions to Northern life.

Setup: Groups at tables with access to source materials

Materials: Source material collection, Inquiry cycle worksheet, Question generation protocol, Findings presentation template

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Self-Management
• Self-Awareness

Gallery Walk

⏱ 30 min·Pairs

Gallery Walk: Jacob Lawrence's Migration Series

Post six panels from Jacob Lawrence's Migration Series with their original titles. Students write a one-sentence interpretation of each panel, then the class assembles these interpretations into a collective narrative of the migration. A debrief discussion asks: what choices did Lawrence make in representing the migration, and what did he emphasize or omit?

Prepare & details

Explain how the migration changed the demographic and political landscape of Northern cities.

Facilitation Tip: For the Gallery Walk, arrange the panels in chronological order and ask students to record how Lawrence’s use of color and composition changes as the series progresses.

Setup: Wall space or tables arranged around room perimeter

Materials: Large paper/poster boards, Markers, Sticky notes for feedback

• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Create
• Relationship Skills
• Social Awareness

Case Study Analysis

⏱ 40 min·Small Groups

Case Study Analysis: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919

Students read a brief primary source account of the 1919 riot and work in small groups to identify the immediate trigger, the underlying racial tensions in housing and employment, and the long-term structural causes. Groups then categorize each cause as a push factor, pull factor, or Northern racial hostility, and the class discusses which category was most responsible.

Prepare & details

Evaluate the new forms of racial tension and discrimination that emerged in the North.

Facilitation Tip: During the Case Study, assign each student one role (journalist, city official, Black migrant, white resident) to prepare a one-minute statement from that perspective.

Setup: Groups at tables with case materials

Materials: Case study packet (3-5 pages), Analysis framework worksheet, Presentation template

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Decision-Making
• Self-Management

Teaching This Topic

Teachers should pair the broad narrative of migration with specific local stories to avoid flattening the experience into a single movement. Avoid presenting the North as a monolith of progress. Instead, use comparative data (housing maps, employment statistics) to show how Northern racial hierarchies operated differently but persistently. Research shows students retain more when they analyze visual and written sources together, building multiple entry points into the same historical moment.

What to Expect

Students will demonstrate understanding by tracing migration patterns, identifying structural inequalities in the North, and explaining how racial tensions persisted despite geographic movement. They will use evidence from multiple sources to argue how freedom and constraint coexisted for Black migrants.

Watch Out for These Misconceptions

Common Misconception

Students often assume that Northern cities welcomed Black migrants with open arms and offered full equality.

What to Teach Instead

During the Document Analysis activity, compare the hopeful language in migrants’ letters with descriptions of housing discrimination or job refusal found in the same letters. Ask students to note when migrants express new freedoms versus new barriers.

Common Misconception

Students think the Great Migration happened quickly and ended before World War II.

What to Teach Instead

During the Gallery Walk, pause at Panel 20, which shows a crowded train platform with the caption '1919.' Ask students to locate the first and second waves on Lawrence’s timeline and estimate the number of years between them using the panel dates.

Assessment Ideas

Exit Ticket

After the Document Analysis activity, provide students with a Venn diagram template to compare one push factor and one pull factor from the letters they analyzed, then write a sentence explaining which factor had a stronger impact on migration decisions.

Discussion Prompt

After the Gallery Walk, facilitate a discussion where students use Jacob Lawrence’s panels to support arguments about whether Northern racial tensions resembled or differed from Southern Jim Crow, citing specific visual evidence.

Quick Check

During the Case Study, distribute primary source excerpts related to the Chicago Race Riot. Ask students to identify whether each excerpt reflects a push factor, pull factor, Northern racial tension, or cultural impact, and justify their choice in a one-sentence response.

Extensions & Scaffolding

• Challenge: Have students create a social media profile for a fictional migrant family, posting entries that reflect the challenges and small victories of relocation over 20 years.
• Scaffolding: Provide sentence stems for the Case Study discussion, such as 'One way the Chicago Race Riot shows Northern racial tension is...' to support hesitant speakers.
• Deeper exploration: Ask students to research a contemporary city’s redlining maps and compare them to 1940 census data, noting continuities in neighborhood segregation.

Key Vocabulary

Great Migration	The large-scale movement of millions of African Americans from the rural South to urban centers in the North, Midwest, and West between the early 20th century and the 1970s.
Push Factors	Conditions in the South, such as Jim Crow laws, racial violence, and economic hardship, that compelled African Americans to leave their homes.
Pull Factors	Opportunities in the North, including industrial job availability, higher wages, and the promise of greater social and political freedoms, that attracted African Americans.
Restrictive Covenants	Legal clauses in property deeds that prohibited the sale or lease of land to certain racial or ethnic groups, used to maintain segregated neighborhoods in the North.
Redlining	A discriminatory practice by which services (financial and otherwise) are withheld from potential customers who reside in neighborhoods classified as 'high-risk,' often based on racial demographics.