US History · 11th Grade

Active learning ideas

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.

• Common Core State Standards
• C3: D2.Geo.7.9-12
• C3: D2.His.1.9-12

• 30–40 min
• Pairs → Whole Class
• 3 activities

Activity 01

• 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.

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.

What to look for

Provide students with a map of the US. Ask them to draw at least three arrows showing migration routes from Southern states to Northern cities. On the back, have them list one 'push' factor and one 'pull' factor that explains their chosen routes.

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

Activity 02

• 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?

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.

What to look for

Pose the question: 'How did racial tensions in the North, though different in form from Jim Crow, create similar barriers for African Americans?' Facilitate a discussion where students compare and contrast legal versus de facto segregation and violence.

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

Activity 03

• 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.

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.

What to look for

Present students with short primary source excerpts (e.g., a letter from a migrant, a newspaper clipping about a race riot, a housing covenant). Ask them to identify which aspect of the Great Migration experience (push factor, pull factor, Northern tension, cultural impact) the excerpt best represents and to explain their reasoning in one sentence.

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

A few notes on teaching this unit

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.

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.

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Watch Out for These Misconceptions

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

  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.

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

  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.

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Methods used in this brief

• Inquiry Circle
• Gallery Walk
• Case Study Analysis