Great Migration, the

This was a post-Reconstruction move within the United States from the South to the North. From about 1916 to 1970, some 6 million African Americans moved out of the rural South to cities in the Northeast, Midwest and West. People fled lynchings and other forms of violence and segregation. They sought opportunity. After moving, they faced some of the same issues and met new forms of segregation in housing, education, employment and more.