How did the Great Migration reshape American cities, and what was the Harlem Renaissance?
Explain the causes and effects of the Great Migration of African Americans to northern cities and the cultural achievements of the Harlem Renaissance (Ohio's Learning Standards for Social Studies, American History, Prosperity, Depression and the New Deal).
A standard-level answer on the Great Migration and the Harlem Renaissance for Ohio's American History EOC: the push and pull factors that drew African Americans north, the growth of Black urban communities, the literary and musical flowering of the Harlem Renaissance, and the rise of jazz, with the migration to Ohio cities.
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What this topic is asking
This part of the Prosperity, Depression and the New Deal topic asks how the Great Migration of African Americans out of the South changed American cities, and what cultural flowering, the Harlem Renaissance, grew out of it. The Ohio standards (content statement on the movement of African Americans from the South and its cultural and social effects) want both the push and pull factors behind the migration and its cultural achievements.
Why people moved: push and pull
The migration was not a single event but a flow that grew during and after World War I and continued for decades.
What changed in the cities
The Great Migration transformed northern and midwestern cities:
- New Black urban communities grew rapidly, the largest in Harlem (New York) and on the South Side of Chicago.
- The arrival of large numbers of newcomers brought new churches, businesses, newspapers, and political strength, but also competition for jobs and housing and sometimes deadly racial tension (such as the 1919 race riots).
- African Americans escaped the formal Jim Crow laws of the South but still faced discrimination, segregated neighborhoods, and prejudice in the North.
The Harlem Renaissance
The concentration of talent in northern cities produced a remarkable cultural movement:
- Writers such as Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston captured the experiences, struggles, and pride of Black Americans.
- The movement built racial pride and pushed back against stereotypes, helping lay groundwork for later civil rights activism.
Jazz and the Jazz Age
Migration also carried a new music north:
- Jazz and the blues, born among Black musicians in the South (especially New Orleans), spread to Chicago, New York, and beyond as people moved.
- Stars like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington made jazz wildly popular with audiences of all races, giving the 1920s its nickname, the Jazz Age.
The Ohio connection
Ohio's industrial cities were major destinations of the Great Migration. Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton, and Akron all gained large Black communities drawn by factory work in steel, automobiles, and rubber. These communities reshaped Ohio's cities and would become important centers of the later civil rights movement.
Why this matters for the EOC
This topic rewards push-pull cause and effect (why people moved, what resulted) and the link between migration and culture (the Harlem Renaissance, jazz). Expect a map of migration routes, a photograph, or a short literary quotation that you read for its main idea. The big idea the standards want is that the Great Migration reshaped American cities and sparked a major flowering of African American culture.
Try this
Q1. Give one push factor and one pull factor of the Great Migration. [2]
- Cue. Push: Jim Crow, racial violence, or poor farm income. Pull: wartime factory jobs, higher wages, or greater freedom in the North.
Q2. What was the Harlem Renaissance? [2]
- Cue. A 1920s flowering of African American literature, art, and music centered in Harlem in New York City.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of ODEW exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
Ohio American History EOC1 marksThe Great Migration of the early 1900s refers to the movement of (A) European immigrants to American farms. (B) African Americans from the rural South to northern and midwestern cities. (C) settlers to the Great Plains. (D) Americans to the suburbs after World War II.Show worked answer →
A 1-point multiple-choice item on the Great Migration.
The correct answer is B. The Great Migration was the movement of hundreds of thousands of African Americans out of the rural, segregated South into northern and midwestern industrial cities such as Chicago, Detroit, New York, and Cleveland, looking for factory jobs and escape from Jim Crow.
A, C, and D describe different movements of different groups in different eras. The standards want the specific definition tied to its push and pull factors.
Ohio American History EOC2 marksThe Great Migration reshaped American cities. (a) State one reason (push or pull) African Americans moved north. (b) Explain one cultural effect of this movement, such as the Harlem Renaissance.Show worked answer →
A 2-point constructed-response item on causes and cultural effects.
(a) 1 point: any one push factor (Jim Crow segregation, racial violence and lynching, poverty in southern farming) or pull factor (factory jobs, especially during World War I, higher wages, more freedom in northern cities).
(b) 1 point: a clear cultural effect, such as the Harlem Renaissance, a flowering of African American literature, art, and music centered in Harlem in New York, or the spread of jazz and the blues from the South into northern cities. Scorers reward naming a movement or art form and tying it to the migration.
Related dot points
- Explain how the prosperity of the 1920s, mass production, consumer credit, the automobile, and new mass culture transformed American society (Ohio's Learning Standards for Social Studies, American History, Prosperity, Depression and the New Deal).
A standard-level answer on the Roaring Twenties for Ohio's American History EOC: the postwar economic boom, mass production and the assembly line, the automobile, consumer credit and advertising, radio and movies, and the new mass culture, with the Ohio rubber and auto-parts economy.
- Explain the cultural conflicts of the 1920s, including Prohibition, the Scopes trial, nativism and the revived Ku Klux Klan, and changing roles for women (Ohio's Learning Standards for Social Studies, American History, Prosperity, Depression and the New Deal).
A standard-level answer on 1920s cultural conflict for Ohio's American History EOC: Prohibition and bootlegging, the Scopes trial and fundamentalism versus modernism, nativism and the revived Ku Klux Klan, and the new roles of women and flappers, with the tension between rural and urban America.
- Explain the human impact of the Great Depression, including mass unemployment, Hoovervilles, the failure of Hoover's response, and the Dust Bowl on the Great Plains (Ohio's Learning Standards for Social Studies, American History, Prosperity, Depression and the New Deal).
A standard-level answer on the human impact of the Great Depression for Ohio's American History EOC: mass unemployment, breadlines and Hoovervilles, President Hoover's limited response, and the Dust Bowl that drove farm families from the Great Plains, with the regional differences the standards stress.
- Explain the World War I home front, including mobilization, propaganda, limits on civil liberties, and the Great Migration, and the failed peace through Wilson's Fourteen Points, the Treaty of Versailles, and the rejection of the League of Nations (Ohio's Learning Standards for Social Studies, American History, Foreign Affairs from Imperialism to Post-World War I).
A standard-level answer on the World War I home front and peace for Ohio's American History EOC: war mobilization and propaganda, limits on civil liberties (the Espionage and Sedition Acts, Schenck v. United States), the Great Migration, Wilson's Fourteen Points, the Treaty of Versailles, and the US rejection of the League of Nations.
- Explain the civil rights movement, including Brown v. Board of Education, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, nonviolent protest, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts (Ohio's Learning Standards for Social Studies, American History, Social Transformations in the United States).
A standard-level answer on the civil rights movement for Ohio's American History EOC: segregation and Jim Crow, Brown v. Board of Education, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, nonviolent protest and Martin Luther King Jr., the March on Washington, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965, and Black Power.
Sources & how we know this
- Ohio's Learning Standards for Social Studies — Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (2019)
- American History (High School State-Tested Courses Resources) — Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (2024)