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After the end of the Civil War and the end of slavery in the southern United States, large numbers of people of African descent fled plantations in search of better opportunities in the northern United States. The African American great migration is characterized as a mass exodus of former slaves and their descendents from southern rural states such as Georgia, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas to urban centers such as Chicago, New York, Detroit, and Washington, D.C., from approximately the turn of the twentieth century through the 1930s (Trotter, 1991). Although it seemed like an ideal plan, many found that they continued to face job, housing, and social discrimination even after relocating. Furthermore, although social welfare policies and programs were extended to the majority of those in the nation, Blacks were systematically disenfranchised (Tice & Perkins, 2001).

DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4614-0565-8_9

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