Both my parents and in-laws were part of the great migration. My father came from Cleveland, Tennessee to Harlem in 1959; he was 20 years old. He had 8 dollars in his pocket, a couple of Miles Davis records, and only a name of a friend of his mother's who let him stay with her until he got a job and a room. My mother came in 1942, she was 6. My Grandparents were driven from their home in Branchville, South Carolina because as farmers, the ruling caste refused to pay fair shares on their produce. My grandfather had a temper, and my great grandmother urged him to move out of the south before he was lynched. He left first, leaving my grandmother with a 6 year old, a 2 year old (who had polio) and an infant. He found work first in Philadelphia, and then moved in with his sisters in the Bronx, and sent for his family. My in-laws were from the same plantation in Sunflower Mississippi, they were sharecroppers. One night they just left, my mother-in-law says that if they didn't the white people who owned the plantation would never have let them leave. They took the train to Chicago where my husband's extended family had moved to.

My family have just begun talking about these events. After my grandfather died. While he was alive, he didn't want to talk about the horrors of the south. He didn't want his family to ever know he had been scared for his life then. He didn't want his family to know he had to run, he didn't want to appear weak. Little did he know, we all think his actions were probably the most courageous thing that he could have done.

I am native Texan who is white. I experienced something similar to the Great Migration that was experienced by African Americans. I believe one of the main reasons for this was my lack of education and documentation of such. I graduated High School under my own strength. However I did not recieve any scholarships. Just a Pell Grant. I attended one semester in the Fall of 1999. Afterward I whent back to work and have been doin so ever since; if possible. Now here is my point. In 2005 I began to have bouts with homelessness; my greatest fear. I was raised by a man who was very conservative. Not that strong morals is a bad thing. It is just that he had strong underlying prejudices toward anything different than the "white" way of doing things. In his opinion I was given all that I was needed to "make it" in this world. This same attitude permeated from the members of my church. These people being 100% white, and 100% conservative. After I began to be homeless off and on. I did not recieve any tangible help from my church, church members, and family. This being understandable. Yet I also did not recieve any moral support. In fact I was driven out of my church because, it seemed, now I was considered to be a piece of trash that was a blemish on the reputation of the other members. So this led to me becoming chronically homeless. And the church that I had put so much trust in turned its back on me. Here is the second part to my point. This attitude toward homeless people and people with certain illnessess that were considered to be "the hand of God," was also the general attitude of the upper middle class, and upper class. And so very little effort was given, in Texas, to helping homeless and seriously ill people. There was vitually no social service programs except for SSI and the basics such as Food Stanps. And especially if you were white and suposedly, "not making it," then you were considered a worst failure than the black homeless because it was obvious that if you were white then you squandered your chances in life. As if White people should have better chances in life than Black. Which actually in Texas that is the case because of the underlying, unsaid trend of White People having more money and better opportunities. So as I went through my mid 20's I continued to have problems with keaping a job due to some schizophrenic problems. I eventually left Texas to be able to find better opportunities. I have been in homeless shelters and mental hospitals throughout OK, KS, NE, and CO. Finally in Colorado where there is a great movement to help the homeless and downtroden I have been able to find a program that is very beneficial.

My grandmother came to Detroit in 1918 at 3 years old with her Mother, who at the time, (as I understand it/have seen a photo) was a college student in south Georgia. My Greatgranny came with her husband, sisters, (some married, some too young) and with parents, all journeyed to Detroit. I agree with the speaker who compared it to a "seeking of asylum" from the south. No stopping in certain areas, traveling with your own food, praying that your transportation held together until you arrived at your destination...sounds like what has and is happening all around the world as people move toward life and perhaps life with promise, with meaning.

I do suppose having African Americans, who migrated from the south, who can remember the reason for soing so may be quite titillating for others. KKK Cross burnings, rapings, lynchings, castratings, and generally speaking, killings of other various kinds, to start with. Being considered a non citizen, not being able to vote or start a business. Really, we could go on all day with the reasons why.. Additionally, it wasn't like we came into a world in the North without its unpleasantries specifically adapted for the "negro".

I find this question amusing and insulting: why do you think black people left the South?!? Oh LET'S JUST HANG AROUND AND TOLERATE SEGREGATION! Blacks left the South to be safer. The fact that you had to ask this question shows severe misunderstanding of what black Americans went through during the early 20th Century, leading into the Civil Rights Movement.

My great-grandparents made their migration from Grand Cane, Louisiana to River Rouge, Michigan the between the 1920s & 1930s along with several of their brothers and sisters. I am sure this move was to done to make a better living. My great grandfather built the home my family still lives in today on Beechwood in the 1930s. He also was one of the first two African American police officers the City of River Rouge.

My parents left South Carolina and came North in 1939 for the chance to make a better life and because my father would not live where he was not treated like a man. My father, his mother and brothers and sisters all came north. My mother was the only one out of her family (9 sisters and brothers) to come north.

I remember our trips down South every year for our visits