Research, Citation, & Class Guides: History 321: The History of Black Migration: Secondary Sources

Library Article Databases

The databases below contain articles from scholarly journals and magazines and cover content related to the subject of history.

America History & Life with Full Text
A complete bibliographic reference to the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. Indexes over 2,000 English-language journals published worldwide.
Partial funding provided by UW System Shared Electronic Collection.
JSTOR
An archival full-text multi-disciplinary journal database, covering over 60 academic disciplines in more than 2400 scholarly journals.
Coverage varies by publication but typically begins with volume one of each title and continues to within 3 to 5 years of the most current issue.

Partial funding for Collections V and VI from the Russell Moratz estate. Partial funding for Collection VII provided by Student Technology Fees.
Project Muse
Full text of over 600 scholarly journals and over 30,000 books in the humanities, social sciences, and mathematics.
Partial funding provided by UW System Shared Electronic Collection.

Find the Full Text

Most databases have both full text articles and article citations. When an article is not available in full text, use the button to determine if Andersen Library has the article.

Click the Find It button displayed near article citation.

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Simply click on the link provided, and you will be linked to the full text article to view in a library database.

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Simply login with your Net ID, and click request. We will do our best to find the article for you by requesting a copy from another library. This is available free of charge to students and faculty. Please allow up to 3-4 days for your request to be filled. Articles can be accessed by logging into My ILLiad located on the library homepage. You will receive an e-mail to your UWW e-mail account when the article becomes available.

Books from Andersen Library

Books from Andersen Library can be both secondary or primary. The books listed below focus on the secondary variety and represent just a small number of what is available.

For a broad sampling of books related to the Great Migration try doing a search for:

"African Americans -- Migrations -- History -- 20th century"

Note: "Great Migration" is not the only way to phrase this topic. Authors also refer to it as "Black Migration"; "Great Black Migration"; "Black Exodus" to name a few.

Black Exodus by Alferdteen Harrison
Call Number: 3rd Floor E185.6 .B625 1991 (and eBook)
ISBN: 1604738219
Publication Date: 2012-02-20
What were the causes that motivated legions of black southerners to immigrate to the North? What was the impact upon the land they left and upon the communities they chose for their new homes? Perhaps no pattern of migration has changed America's socioeconomic structure more than this mass exodus of African Americans in the first half of the twentieth century. Because of this exodus, the South lost not only a huge percentage of its inhabitants to northern cities like Chicago, New York, Detroit, and Philadelphia but also its supply of cheap labor. Fleeing from racial injustice and poverty, southern blacks took their culture north with them and transformed northern urban centers with their churches, social institutions, and ways of life. In "Black Exodus" eight noted scholars consider the causes that stimulated the migration and examine the far-reaching results.
Knock at the Door of Opportunity by Christopher Robert Reed
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 0809333341
Publication Date: 2014-06-01
Disputing the so-called ghetto studies that depicted the early part of the twentieth century as the nadir of African American society, this thoughtful volume by Christopher Robert Reed investigates black life in turn-of-the-century Chicago, revealing a vibrant community that grew and developed on Chicago's South Side in the early 1900s. Reed also explores the impact of the fifty thousand black southerners who streamed into the city during the Great Migration of 1916-1918, effectively doubling Chicago's African American population. Those already residing in Chicago's black neighborhoods had a lot in common with those who migrated, Reed demonstrates, and the two groups became unified, building a broad community base able to face discrimination and prejudice while contributing to Chicago's growth and development. Reed not only explains how Chicago's African Americans openly competed with white people for jobs, housing and an independent political voice but also examines the structure of the society migrants entered and helped shape. Other topics include South Side housing, black politics and protest, the role of institutionalized religion, the economic aspects of African American life, the push for citizenship rights and political power for African Americans, and the impact of World War I and the race riot of 1919. The first comprehensive exploration of black life in turn-of-the-century Chicago beyond the mold of a ghetto perspective, this revealing work demonstrates how the melding of migrants and residents allowed for the building of a Black Metropolis in the 1920s. 2015 ISHS Superior Achievement Award