How the Great Migration Changed America unpacks the political, cultural, economic, and social dimensions of one of America’s most consequential migration events. With Davarian Baldwin at the helm, the Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of American Studies at Trinity College, you’ll evaluate the scale, scope, and role of the Great Northward Migration in US history. Learn about the harsh realities of life in the North, from redlining to Red Summer. Tour bustling Black neighborhoods in Chicago and New York City. Explore tensions between new migrants and established Black residents. Learn about the rise of betting, Black baseball leagues, gospel, and jazz. And evaluate the migration’s long-term ideological and political impact from the early 20th century to today.
How the Great Migration Changed America
Between 1910 and 1970, 6 million Black Americans migrated northward from a deeply segregated post-war South. Examine the history and impact of the Great Migration, from the rise of gospel music to the birth of state lotteries, and beyond.
Rated 5 out of
5
by
EngineerinVA from
Tough Subject but Must See
This course begins with a warning: “This content contains graphic descriptions and images of violence, which may be disturbing and may not be suitable for minors or other audiences.”
This course is an excellent companion course to African American History: from Emancipation through Jim Crow by Dr. Hasan Jeffries. Each is disturbing to hear. However, one cannot understand who one is without first understanding what one has been. These are important courses for every American, subject to the warning provided.
Interestingly, Dr. Baldwin chooses to tell the story largely through the arts, particularly music. He devotes lectures to jazz, gospel music, and the Negro baseball leagues. He shows how each reflects the challenges, conditions, and aspirations of the migrants (yes, even the Negro baseball leagues, which represent far more than just a pastime). This approach works well.
Dr. Baldwin is both an academic and also an accomplished speaker. I was impressed with his ability to address controversial, even explosive, topics in a calm, scholarly, factual, manner, never with personal animus or political agenda (although the last few minutes of the last lecture approach a political agenda). I am disappointed that this course is the only one that The Great Courses (TGC) provides from him and even this course is only 12 lectures long. I hope to hear much more from him in future TGC courses.
The course guide is slightly above average by TGC standards. It is well-written in paragraph format as opposed to bullet or outline format. The course guide averages about 8 pages per lecture, which is slightly more than TGC average. However, it lacks what could have been useful graphics such as maps of migration trails (Dr. Baldwin’s term). Further, there is no appendix containing a timeline or biographical notes, which would have been useful. There is no bibliography in an appendix but there is a reading list provided for each lecture.
I used the video streaming of this course. Although there are some useful graphics in the video, most content can be conveyed in audio-only mode such as while driving or exercising.
The course was published in 2024.
Date published: 2024-06-24
Rated 5 out of
5
by
Thanuja from
Interesting course!
This is an interesting course! I have seen a few documentaries touchbase the story of "Great Migration" before, but this course details the complete story from different perspectives: historical context, race, music, sports, commerce, politics, religion etc.
Professor has excellent, easy-to-follow delivery style and seems very knowledgeable about the subject. I'd recommend this to history buffs, history students and the like. Thanks Great Courses to produce this one!
Date published: 2024-06-23
Overview
About
Davarian L. Baldwin is the Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of American Studies and the founding director of the Smart Cities Research Lab at Trinity College. He is also the author of Chicago’s New Negroes: Modernity, the Great Migration, and Black Urban Life and a coeditor of Escape from New York: The New Negro Renaissance beyond Harlem. The Marguerite Casey Foundation awarded him its Freedom Scholar designation, and his commentaries have been featured in outlets such as NBC News, PBS, and The Washington Post.
Trailer
01: The Great Migration Is My Story and Yours
Between 1910 and 1970, 6 million Black men, women, and children left the South, during the Great Migration. Survey how Black resettlement changed American history and culture. Learn about the kinds of opportunities—economic but also existential—that pulled so many migrants northward.
28 min
02: Exodus: Why Migrants Quit the South
After Reconstruction collapsed, oppressive Black codes, extrajudicial killing, sexual violence, and segregation ruled in the South. See how Black Americans endured these evils. Unpack the uniquely dire economic, political, and social conditions that drove so many migrants away from “New South” cities and get to know the famous entrepreneur, Madam C. J. Walker.
28 min
03: Racial Violence in Migrant Cities
Beginning with the champion boxing match that foreshadowed it all, investigate the scale and scope of the racial violence that plagued cities across the United States in 1919. Evaluate the long-term impact of America’s “Red Summer” through housing covenants and city zoning policies in Chicago. Learn how Black Americans rallied against the threat.
29 min
04: How Chicago Became the Black Metropolis
Zero in on the great midwestern city of Chicago and its Bronzeville neighborhood. From theaters to newspapers, learn about Black civic life, art, journalism, recreation, leisure, and activism in the Windy City. Explore the tensions that emerged between established Black residents and new migrants within Chicago’s burgeoning Black community.
30 min
05: Harlem, the Mecca of the Great Migration
Turn your attention eastward toward the sights and sounds of New York City’s Harlem neighborhood. Survey Harlem’s transformation over the first half of the 20th century, touring its streets, newspapers, and cooperative organizations, before getting to know the controversial real estate developer who turned the ward into a major Black population center.
28 min
06: The New Negro and the Harlem Renaissance
The famous Harlem Renaissance served as the locus of the so-called “New Negro” movement, a global reawakening that stretched from the streets of Chicago to postwar peace conventions in France. Spend some time with the artists, writers, scholars, and activists—Black and white, radical and “respectable”—caught up in and influenced by the movement.
28 min
07: Blueswomen and Black Filmmakers Take the Stage
The Great Migration transformed popular culture. See how white racial resentment manifested in mainstream advertisements, shows, songs, and films. Get acquainted with a brand-new Black cultural aesthetic forged in the thick of population movement and mixing. Dive into the themes, personalities, and tensions present in Black media in the early 20th century.
28 min
08: Jazz as the Music of the Migration
Tracing Louis Armstrong’s journey from fish fries in New Orleans to famous clubs in Harlem, explore jazz in the 1920s. Unpack the clashes that emerged between established Black residents and migrant jazz performers in cinema orchestra pits and beyond. Understand how an ascendant musical genre reflected the joys and horrors of the migration experience.
28 min
09: How Migrants Made Gospel Music
Where did gospel music—new and controversial in the early 20th century—come from? How did its sound evolve as it leapfrogged across migration chains? Enter a world of slow-dragging sound, buffet flats, expressive worship, and lecherous record companies to see just how the Great Migration environment produced today’s soundtrack for sacred worship.
27 min
10: Negro League Baseball and Black Lotteries
Professional Black sports leagues proliferated in the wake of an unspoken color ban in 1887. Discover how the Negro Baseball League was founded. Get to know the characters—like Andrew “Rube” Foster and Josh Gibson—who propelled the league into national prominence. Explore the elusive lottery systems that financed it all.
27 min
11: The Depression Reshapes the Great Migration
The Great Depression hit Black Americans uniquely hard, compounding misery across tangled racial and class lines. Survey the scale of economic devastation from south to north. Reevaluate President Roosevelt’s New Deal program with Black Americans in mind. Explore the alternatives to capitalist democracy expressed in the so-called Proletarian Turn.
29 min
12: The Great Migration during World War II
As a second migrant wave washed up against Northern cities in the 1940s, Black America reached a breaking point. Why did wartime prosperity stall in Black neighborhoods, and why weren't respectability politics paying off? Explore the wartime home front landscape, from zoot suiters to the early Civil Rights movement.
33 min
