Why did millions of African Americans leave the South, and how did the Great Migration transform Black life?
Topic 3.16 The Great Migration: why millions of African Americans left the South for Northern and Western cities, and how the Great Migration reshaped Black political, cultural, and economic life.
A focused answer to AP African American Studies Topic 3.16, explaining why millions of African Americans left the South for Northern and Western cities between the 1910s and 1970s, the push and pull factors, and how the Great Migration transformed Black political, cultural, and economic life.
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What this topic is asking
Topic 3.16 covers the Great Migration, one of the largest internal movements of people in American history. The College Board wants you to know why millions of African Americans left the South (the push and pull factors) and how the migration transformed Black political, cultural, and economic life.
Push and pull factors
The scale and pattern
How it transformed Black life
The analytical task is to weigh push against pull: the escape from Jim Crow and violence and the lure of jobs and freedom worked together to drive the movement.
Try this
Q1. Name one push and one pull factor of the Great Migration. [Recall]
- Cue. Push: Jim Crow, disfranchisement, racial violence, or sharecropping poverty. Pull: industrial jobs (especially in the First World War), higher wages, or greater freedom in Northern cities.
Q2. Explain one way the Great Migration transformed Black life. [Short explanation]
- Cue. It urbanized Black America and built large city communities that fuelled the Harlem Renaissance and increased Black political power in the North, where African Americans could vote.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of College Board exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
AP 2024 (style)3 marksUsing a source about the Great Migration, complete the following. A) Identify ONE push factor driving African Americans out of the South. B) Describe ONE pull factor drawing them to Northern cities. C) Explain ONE way the Great Migration transformed Black life.Show worked answer →
A source-based Short Answer Question (SAQ), 3 points, one per part.
A. Push factors included Jim Crow segregation, disfranchisement, racial violence and lynching, and the poverty of sharecropping.
B. Pull factors included industrial jobs (especially during the First World War), higher wages, and the hope of greater freedom and opportunity in Northern and Western cities.
C. The migration urbanized Black America, built large Black communities in cities, fuelled movements like the Harlem Renaissance, and increased Black political power in the North.
Each part needs a specific, accurate claim.
AP 2025 (style)6 marksDevelop an argument that evaluates the most important factor driving the Great Migration. Use specific evidence to support your argument.Show worked answer →
An argument-style free-response question, scored on a rubric rewarding thesis, evidence, and reasoning.
Thesis: "The Great Migration was driven above all by the combination of intolerable Southern conditions and new Northern opportunities, with the escape from Jim Crow and violence as the decisive push and wartime jobs as the key pull."
Evidence: Jim Crow, disfranchisement, lynching, and sharecropping as push factors; industrial jobs and higher wages, especially during the First World War, as pull factors; the scale of the movement over decades.
Reasoning: weigh push against pull factors to identify the most important driver while showing how they worked together.
Related dot points
- Topic 3.11 The New Negro Movement and the Harlem Renaissance: how the New Negro movement and the Harlem Renaissance asserted Black pride, creativity, and a new cultural and political identity in the 1920s.
A focused answer to AP African American Studies Topic 3.11, explaining the New Negro movement and the Harlem Renaissance, the flowering of Black literature, art, and music in 1920s Harlem, and how they asserted a new, proud African American identity.
- Topic 3.6 White Supremacist Violence and the Red Summer: how lynching, massacres, and the violence of the Red Summer of 1919 enforced white supremacy, and how African Americans documented and resisted it.
A focused answer to AP African American Studies Topic 3.6, explaining how lynching, racial massacres, and the violence of the Red Summer of 1919 enforced white supremacy, and how figures like Ida B. Wells documented and resisted this terror.
- Topic 3.5 Disenfranchisement and Jim Crow Laws: how Southern states used poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses to disfranchise Black voters and imposed legal segregation upheld by Plessy v. Ferguson.
A focused answer to AP African American Studies Topic 3.5, explaining how Southern states disfranchised Black voters through poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses, and imposed legal segregation through Jim Crow laws upheld by the Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson.
- Topic 3.3 Black Codes, Land, and Labor: how Black Codes, sharecropping, and convict leasing constrained the freedom of formerly enslaved people and shaped the postwar Southern economy.
A focused answer to AP African American Studies Topic 3.3, explaining how Black Codes, the failure of land redistribution, sharecropping, and convict leasing constrained the freedom of formerly enslaved people and recreated forms of coerced labor in the postwar South.
- Topic 3.17 Afro-Caribbean Migration: how Afro-Caribbean migrants enriched African American communities, contributed to Black political and cultural life, and broadened the diaspora in the United States.
A focused answer to AP African American Studies Topic 3.17, explaining how Afro-Caribbean migrants in the early twentieth century enriched African American communities, contributed to Black political and cultural movements, and broadened the African diaspora within the United States.
Sources & how we know this
- AP African American Studies Course and Exam Description — College Board (2024)