Southern lynch mobs, Kkk terrorism, oppression, segregation, deprivation and other gross indignities and acts of violence sent Blacks fleeing across the Mason Dixon line. Known as the Great Migration, it was the largest movement of citizen in this country. The majority of migrants from Mississippi fled to Chicago where some found work in factories, steel mills and the stockyards. Chicago and the captains of industry benefited enormously from this large pool of cheap labor. Straight through his newspaper "The Chicago Defender," Robert Abbott lured blacks to the North. Abbott had migrated to Chicago in 1897 and was on a mission to get as many Blacks out of the South as humanly possible. In general romanticizing the North, he failed to disclose that in many ways Chicago was as hostile as the South. Migrants who did find work in the factories were relegated to the dirtiest and most risky jobs.
The congested housing situation was truly horrible. Blacks were confined by restrictive covenants and other discriminatory policies to an area eight miles long and two and a half miles wide. The question for housing was overwhelmed by the relentless arrival of migrants. Apartments originally designated for one family units were divided into kitchenettes. Many families rented one room and shared the kitchen and bath with five or six families.
MISSIONS TRIPS TO AFRICA
Totally unaware of these conditions, I became a participant in The Great Migration in the summer of 1945. After graduation from Xavier University in New Orleans, my graduation gift from my Grandmother Julia was a two-week trip to visit my Xavier roommate Vivian Tillman and her family.
Vivian's father Papa T and his parents had migrated to Chicago from Georgia and her mother Mama T had migrated with her family from Tennessee. Both families had established roots in Chicago long before the steady rush of migrants.
The mid August day of my arrival Vivian and her Uncle Jack met me at the Santa Fe train station. Uncle Jack, level brown handsome, was outfitted in a sharply tailored white suit. He wore a solitaire stickpin in his tie and a sparkling big solitaire ring on his manicured finger. He drove a late model shiny black Buick and we cruised south on South Parkway (now King Drive), the same route all newly arrived migrants traveled. I got my first note of Bronzeville, also referred to as the Black Belt, Black
Mecca, Black Metropolis and Black Ghetto.
They showed me the grand greystone house of Ida B. Wells, journalist and anti-lynching crusader. The supreme Life insurance construction was in the same block and housed the gorgeous Parkway Ballroom and a estimate of black owned businesses. John Johnson, founder of Ebony and Jet magazines occupied his first office there. Oscar Depriest, Joe Louis, Louis Armstrong and Carl Hansberry (Lorraine Hansberry's father ) all lived along the boulevard. At the time, Carl Hansberry was noted for his joint suit with the Naacp to end restrictive ageement laws. I was awe stricken to see so many gorgeous buildings on one street occupied by black people.
At 47th street there was a sea of performance and Uncle Jack said," You have to drive real right Straight through this intersection because a lot of these Negroes have never seen a traffic light before." Newly arrived migrants stumbled across the street carrying their belongings in battered suitcases, cardboard boxes tied in string and stuffed pillow cases.
Bronzeville ended at 63rd street and we entered an all white neighborhood of modest brick one family homes. Not a particular black person lived in that neighborhood. After about fifty more blocks we arrived at our destination. Mama and Papa T lived in Morgan Park, an all black neighborhood on Chicago's far South Side.
Bronzeville: My Personal Story MISSIONS TRIPS TO AFRICA
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