During the Great Migration, African Americans left their southern homes and headed north to start a new life. Although this movement was seen as a triumph in most of the black community, it was not seen as positive in the southern white community. Most Southern whites had a negative response to the participation of African Americans in the Great Migration. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay From previous knowledge, I know that African Americans had left the South for many reasons. At that time the South was a dangerous place for an African American, while the North offered a more hospitable environment. In the north there were far fewer lynchings, beatings and discrimination than in the south. With African Americans leaving in large numbers for the North, Southern whites were losing a race over which they had dominant control. Additionally, employment was running fast in the North, and African Americans in the South wanted to take advantage of jobs that had higher pay and did not include farm work. This movement of African Americans northward resulted in a decrease in the labor force in the South. Labor agents would come to Southern communities to recruit African Americans to come North and work for them. With the promise of higher pay and a less hostile environment, the offer seemed more than attractive to most African Americans. Southern whites who held political power and police officers harassed these labor agents and affected African Americans, fearing that their workforce would begin to dwindle. In my opinion, I find this reaction from Southern whites strange. While I understand that they didn't want to lose their workforce, I think by then they would have realized how distorted their system was. Most labor-intensive jobs were performed by African Americans for low pay. I would think that Southern whites might have realized how unfair this really was. Also, it would be a time for them to realize how horribly they were treating African Americans. Why would a person want to live in a place where they are not accepted as a human being and are constantly in fear for their life? But narrow-minded Southern whites had such a twisted view of the African Americans who lived in the South with them, that they could never see that point of view. African Americans knew that by moving north they could start a new and better life. They might be trained in fields other than agriculture or personal servitude. And those who couldn't afford to bring their families with them could use their new jobs to send money and even send for pick-ups once they were in a financially stable state. This uplifting idea was seen as an unacceptable action for white Southerners, considering they only wanted African Americans to stay just so they could continue to work for them, for little or no wage. For example, the cotton industry was popular in the South and was labor intensive. It required numerous hours of work and adequate care. During the period of American slavery through the Great Migration, the cotton industry employed primarily African Americans to perform work too hard for Southern whites. With the Great Migration underway. Southern whites were angry and feared that their workforce in industries like this would be diminished. The Great Migration opened new opportunities for African Americans living in the South andhe gave them the chance to experience true happiness. As African Americans slowly moved into Northern states, Southern whites saw a possible collapse of their economy. Southern whites did everything in their power to keep Southern African Americans from leaving for a better life and keep them trapped in the South doing backbreaking, unjust work. They fled as if under a spell or with a high fever. “They left as if fleeing a curse (Wilkerson 8).” It would become perhaps the greatest underreported story of the twentieth century. It was vast. It was leaderless. It crept along so many thousands of streams over such a long period of time that the press could hardly catch it while it was in motion. Historians would call it the Great Migration. (Wilkerson 9) The Great Migration or better said the beginning of a new beginning was an event that happened in the 19th century where African Americans moved from the south to the north after the First World War. After reading part 1 of The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson I was able to answer: what were the main economic, social and historical forces that triggered the Great Migration? Why did blacks leave in such large numbers from 1915 to 1970? After reading the chapter The Great Migration, 1915-1970 and doing some research, I believe that job opportunities, unjust legal systems, lynchings, and education triggered the great migration. In the chapter The Great Migration, 1915-1970 Wilkerson talks about how the South's legal system. Based on the description in this chapter, it leads me to believe that this is one of the reasons why blacks left the south due to an unjust legal system. It talks about Jim Crow laws and how every stage of African American life was controlled by the laws as such. Another form of unjust legal system was also featured in the video Slavery by Another Name on PBS. After the ruling of the Emancipation Proclamation, which is a law stating that all persons held as slaves" within rebellious states "are, and hereafter shall be free." Because of the legal system free slaves were taken prisoner and thrown back into slavery.job opportunities are another reason I believe African Americans migrated from the South to the North more work as sharecroppers, farm tenants, etc. mentioned in the book, African Americans picked up and left the tobacco plantations of Virginia, the rice plantations of South Carolina, the cotton fields in East Texas and Mississippi, and the villages and the forests of the remaining Southern states World War I required northern factory workers to leave states like the ones mentioned above and many others behind, then head to cities like New York, Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and many others to better job opportunities. In our homes, in our churches, wherever two or three are gathered, there is discussion about what is best to do. Should we stay in the South or go elsewhere? Where can we go to feel the security that others feel? Is it better to go with many or just several families? These and many other things are talked about again and again,” words of a black woman in Alabama in 1902. The great migration was the beginning of a positive movement and a step towards freedom among African Americans then and today . Having the courage and strength to finally leave not only benefited past and present generations, but also broke laws such as Jim Crow laws for continuing to harm generations as it had already done with at least four generations. Leave the states as....