Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series sets the stage for an inquiry study that explores migrants’ hopes and hurdles.

Before launching an inquiry study it is important to have students experience a work of art on their own terms. Use this opportunity to build background knowledge, engage empathy, and spark wonderings. This link offers teaching moves and language for introducing students to Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series. Through this art analysis you will learn that this series of painting grew out of Lawrence’s own archive research and inquiry study so it is fitting that it in turn inspires inquiry studies. In their rush to World War I, American history textbooks and courses race past this history. This inquiry study can begin to address that failing. As a history major I was aghast at my own ignorance of this history. The galvanizing of hate and fear, the widespread race riots, the manipulation of organized labor, and the rampant corruption of justice? Could this really happen in my modern America? Then I reflect on the current punitive immigration policies and associated social unrest. The arts have the wonderful ability to foster empathy. May this art-based inquiry study combine that empathy with an inquiry study’s illuminating historical perspective.

Jacob Lawrence chronicles the hopes and hurdles that shaped the Great Migration. At a basic level, these are the same hopes and hurdles migrants face today. Use Lawrence’s The Great Migration and firsthand accounts from the mainstream and black press to explore these dynamic push-pull forces and have students consider how they would respond to them then and now.

These articles are organized around the Great Migration’s causes and conflicts. Have students explore themes of their choice and share their new learning through class presentations. As historical artifacts, these articles also offer students opportunities to read for point of view. Have students note how the white and black media report the same events.

The Question Formulation Technique (QFT) can help turn art observations and wonderings into inquiry-based research questions that build on student insights and interests. For ideas on how to structure inquiry circle see Stefanie Harvey and Smokey Daniels Comprehension and Collaboration: Inquiry Circles for Curiosity, Engagement, and Understanding.

General Information and Archives

• The Negro Migration During the War, by Emmett J. Scott, 1919. Project Gutenberg is awesome. This history gives you insight into a resource that Jacob Lawrence drew heavily on for his research, though Lawrence gives a more positive spin to Scott’s topics. Note: The readability level of this resource is higher than the other resources below.
• The Chicago Race Riots, July, 1919 by Carl Sandburg. These are reprinted articles from the Chicago Daily News. Addressing many of the topics Lawrence depicts, these firsthand accounts can be used as a shared text to explore the causes and conflicts around the Great Migration. While well intentioned, Sandburg’s account has been criticized for being paternalistic and racially shortsighted so it may be beneficial to supplement with articles from the black media. (And yes, this is the same Carl Sandburg who won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for Cornhuskers that same year. He went on to win two more Pulitzers. What a show off.)
• “The Negro Migration of 1916–1918,” by Henderson H. Donald, Journal of Negro History 6, no 4 October 1921. This scholarly essay offers an analytical survey of the dynamic push-pull factors that drove the Great Migration. Further proof that Project Gutenberg is awesome. Check out this archive.
• “The Success of Negro Migration,” by Walter F. White, The Crisis, January 1929 (Vol. 19 No. 3), pages 112–115. This article offers a firsthand account of the great migration from the perspective of the NAACP. This archive affords hours of valuable sifting, the heart of any research.
• Visualize the Great Migration uses U.S. Census Data and infographics to describe and quantify the migration.

Employment Opportunities (Panels 2, 4, 17, 28, 29, 37, 38, 45, 50, 56, 57, 60)

• “Causes of the Migration,” Chapter III from The Negro Migration During the War by Emmett J. Scott. This chapter reads like a companion to Lawrence’s series and offers poignant firsthand accounts on the push-pull factors that drove the migration. If you need one concise chapter for shared reading and research this may meet your needs. Wow!
• “Additional Letters of Negro Migrants of 1916–1918: Letters Stating that Wages Received are not Satisfactory,” Journal of Negro History 4, no 4 October 1919. 60 letters to the Chicago Defender seeking employment express the troubles the migrants are leaving behind and their hopes in moving north.
• Seven letters to the Chicago Defender—a black newspaper published in Chicago that strongly urged southern blacks to migrate to the North—attest to migrants’ strong desire to “better their condition,” often risking their lives and possessions to make the trip north.
• “After Each Lynching,” Chapter 7 in The Chicago Race Riots, July, 1919 by Carl Sandburg describes how letters to the Chicago Defender highlight the push-pull forces that drove the Great Migration.
• “Demand for Negro Labor,” Chapter 5 in The Chicago Race Riots, July, 1919 by Carl Sandburg  describes how dramatic post-World War I population shifts back to Europe and a burgeoning economy in northern cities created a demand for labor from the South.
• “New Industrial Opportunities,” Chapter 6 in The Chicago Race Riots, July, 1919 by Carl Sandburg provides an overview of the kinds of jobs and training that opened to black labor.
• “The Colored Woman in Industry” by Mary E. Jackson, The Crisis, May 1918 (Vol. 17 No. 1, pgs 12–17) describes the different opportunities and wages African American women received as they filled the industrial jobs vacated as soldiers left the work force for World War I.
• “Trades for Colored Women,” Chapter 8 in The Chicago Race Riots, July, 1919 by Carl Sandburg includes a clear recitation of employment facts as well as a letter between sisters that personalizes the statistics.
• “Unions and the Color Line,” Chapter 10 in The Chicago Race Riots, July, 1919 by Carl Sandburg explores the role organized labor played in addressing racial discrimination.

Race Riots (Panels 50 and 52)

The firsthand accounts of the race riots Lawrence depicts in panels 50–52, especially the East St, Louis race riot he specifically references, are ugly and may not be suitable for general classroom use. This fitting disclaimer accompanies the articles from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “The accounts hold back nothing in terms of graphic detail and gore. Even today, this reporting must run with a disclaimer cautioning readers to the violence contained herein. So too, must readers be warned of ugly racial terminology of the era, including the use of a racial epithet.”

Even with this brutality, the role big business, organized labor, politicians, the police, and the military played in inflaming the mob violence and racial discord should not go ignored. This history has many lessons for modern times. Consider more sanitized retellings. The Time’s History website describes the East St. Louis Riots and how it launched the national civil rights movement. The History Channel’s website chronicles the Chicago race riot of 1919. PBS’s The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow website offers information on the Wilmington Riots, Atlanta Riots, The Red Summer, and the Tulsa Riots.

If, however, you think your students could benefit from reading raw firsthand accounts, here are a few resource to consider.

• Offering pdfs of original articles, interactive maps, and an oral history of the riots, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s archives of the East St. Louis riot are a poignant historical resource and a powerful teaching tool. An introductory editor’s note states, “It is said that newspapers are a first draft of history. Historians take it from there. But on this day, the first and rawest words may speak the most powerfully of those bloody events precisely a century ago.”
• “Riot a National Disgrace.” The St. Louis Argus, Friday, July 6, 1917. Vol. VI, No. 12, page 1. This newspaper article from a black weekly describes the riots from multiple angles.
• “The Massacre of East St, Louis,” edited by W.E.B. Du Bois, The Crisis, September 1917 (Vol. 14 No. 5), pages 219–238. This collection of lengthy firsthand accounts vividly describes the riot’s victims and survivors, including photographs of their injuries.
• “Report of the Special Committee Authorized by Congress to Investigate the East St. Louis Riots,” Congressional Edition, Volume 7444, House of Representatives 65th Congress 2nd Session document #1231, 1918, pp. 1–22. This congressional report chronicles the role community, business, and political leaders played in the riots and describes, and even exhibits, the bias and institutional racism that inflamed the mob.
• “The Congressional Investigation of East St. Louis,” by Lindsey Cooper, The Crisis, January 1918 (Vol. 15 No. 3), pages 116–121. This news account on the Congressional investigation that lead to the report above is illuminating about how black laborers was used to undermine organized labor and thus exacerbated racial tensions.
• “The Situation in St. Louis,” Chapter IX from The Negro Migration During the War by Emmett J. Scott.
• The Tulsa race riots occurred four years after the East St. Louis riots. Walter White, an official of the NAACP, traveled to Tulsa in disguise to survey the damage caused by the riots. The recurring themes in White’s report “The Eruption in Tulsa” shows that the violence and its causes were more pattern than anomaly.

Lynchings and Injustice (Panels 14, 15, 16, 42)

• “About Lynchings,” Chapter 11 in The Chicago Race Riots, July, 1919 by Carl Sandburg describes how racial discrimination in the South and the black press compelled rural blacks to pursue the unknown in industrial centers in the North.
• Thirty years of lynching in the United States, 1889-1918. by National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is a comprehensive and influential study that drove anti-lynching laws. This gruesome data is really unfathomable. The opening summation of facts is especially compelling.

Housing (Panels 31, 46, 47, 48, and 51)

• “Chicago and Its Environs,” Chapter X from The Negro Migration During the War by Emmett J. Scott. This chapter describes the challenges of housing the migrants and the tensions it caused in Chicago.
• “The Housing Crisis in New York City” by Victor Daly pages 61–62, The Crisis, December 1920 (Vol. 21 No. 2). This article looks at the housing challenges the Great Migration caused and how black leaders coped.
• “The Problem” and “Family Histories” by Charles Johnson dissects Chicago’s racial problems, including black and white antagonism over housing, jobs, and crime. (An excerpt from the influential report The Negro in Chicago.)
• “Real Estate,” Chapter 4 in The Chicago Race Riots, July, 1919 by Carl Sandburg chronicles how housing segregation spawned a series of bombings in neighborhoods across Chicago.
• “Negroes and Rising Rents,” Chapter 9 in The Chicago Race Riots, July, 1919 by Carl Sandburg  explains how the rapid increase of the black population drove up rents while depressing property values. In addition, this article summarizes ways these challenges should be addressed.

Education (Panels 24, 58)

• “Additional Letters of Negro Migrants of 1916–1918: Letters About Better Educational Facilities,” (Scroll past the first 60 letters on seeking employment.) Journal of Negro History 4, no 4 October 1919. 16 letters to the Chicago Defender seeking better schooling for their children highlight a motivation that drew African American families north.
• “Editorial: The Common School” pages 111–12 and “Education: A Brief Confession of Faith”, by James Dillard, pages 115–116, and “The Year in Negro Education” pages 116–122, The Crisis, July 1918 (Vol. 16 No. 3). These essays highlight the recognized importance of education at a variety of levels. In addition to these essays, note the education-based advertisements. Also note the recurring “Horizon” feature in The Crisis chronicles educational events and advances around the country.
• “Mr. Julius Rosenwald Interviewed,” Chapter 15 in The Chicago Race Riots, July, 1919 by Carl Sandburg, a conversation with the president of Sears, Roebuck & Co., describes the importance of education in gaining blacks their rights and recognition.

The Church (Panel 54)

• “The Negro Church,” pages 9–11; “The Baptist” by John Snyder, pages 12–14; “The Union of White Methodists” by James Simms, pages 116–122; “The Negro and the Roman Catholic Church” pages 17–22, The Crisis, May 1920 (Vol. 20 No. 1). This issue of The Crisis is dedicated to the growth and the role of the “Black Church” during the Great Migration. Also note the recurring “Horizon” feature in The Crisis chronicles the establishment of congregations and the building of black churches around the country.
• “African American Christianity” summarizes the development of African American religion during the Great Migration and provides a wealth of primary texts.

Tensions between Longtime Residents and Newly Arrived Migrants (Panel 53)

• “The Situation at Points in the East,” Chapter XII from The Negro Migration During the War by Emmett J. Scott. This chapter describes the strains the massive influx of migrant workers had on the social fabric of norther communities.
• This cartoon by Leslie Rogers published in the Chicago Defender, a weekly newspaper for the city’s African-American community, conveys some of the day-to-day tensions that existed between recently-arrived southern migrants and longtime residents. Rogers’ “Bungleton Green” comic strip featured the misadventures of a naive migrant from the South.