Negro Migration During the War

Written in 1920 by Emmett J. Scott, this is the first comprehensive historical account of what would become known as the Great Migration. Scott documents the unprecedented movement of over 400,000 African Americans from the rural South to industrial cities in the North during World War I, a demographic shift that would reshape America forever. With the precision of a journalist and the urgency of someone who lived through it, Scott lays bare the forces that drove this exodus: the stranglehold of sharecropping, the constant threat of racial violence, the denial of basic political rights, and the lure of steady wages in Northern factories. But this is more than data. Scott gives voice to the human desperation and determination behind the statistics, capturing what it meant to leave behind everything familiar in search of dignity and opportunity. A vital primary source that illuminates a pivotal moment in American history, essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the roots of modern Black urban life and the ongoing legacy of this great movement.