Summary: The Second Great Migration

During WWII, African Americans on the Homefront primarily served in factories producing materials and goods for the nation-wide war effort. One of the most prominent employers was the Pullman company, which managed the Calumet Shipyard in Chicago. The shipyard was a wartime plant to build ships “under contract for the United States Navy” (“Black Workers”). In fact, about 25% of the production workforce at Calumet was made up of African Americans in 1941 (“Black Workers”). Beyond the Pullman Company, the shortage of men on the Homefront left company owners nationwide searching for skilled laborers. However, many young able bodied men were fighting overseas, leaving the jobs open to African American workers, who made up only a small percentage …show more content…
In fact, between 1940 and 1950, 1.5 million African Americans left the rural south and migrated towards the rapidly urbanizing north (“The Second Great”). Beyond the northeastern states, western cities experienced an explosive growth in African American populations. The cities of San Francisco, Portland, and Los Angeles alone collectively had their African American populations soar to around 254,120 (“The Second Great”). Although many factors contributed to this mass migration, the most prominent cause can be attributed to the collapse of the Southern agricultural industry. As a result of the global economic depression in the 1930’s, leading crops such as cotton and tobacco had their prices fall drastically, leading the landowners to sell farms and land. Additionally, the implementation of the Agricultural Adjustment Act, or AAA, which essentially paid farmers to cut production, led to the layoff of workers due to decreasing demand. Lastly, many African Americans left the south in search of more widespread racial tolerance and equality. Even into the 1930s and ‘40s racial injustice remained ingrained into southern society. The promise of a better quality of life in the north was alluring to oppressed African Americans in the southern states (“The Second Great”). All of these factors combined with a growing manufacturing industry in

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