The Great Black Migration: A Historical Encyclopedia of the American Mosaic

Treating broad themes as well as specific topics, this guide to the Great Black Migration will introduce high school students to a touchstone critical to shaping the history of African Americans in the United States. The movement of Southern blacks to the urban North and West over the course of the 20th century had a profound impact on black life, affecting everything from politics and labor to literature and the popular arts. This encyclopedia provides readers and researchers with a comprehensive reference work on this central topic of African American history, exploring the breadth of the black migration experience from its origins in the agricultural economy of the post–Civil War South to the return migration of the late 20th century. Entries cover such topics as the destinations that attracted black migrants, the impact of the Great Migration on black religion, the relationship between migration and black politics, and the patterns of discrimination and racial violence migrants encountered. Unlike more general reference works on African American history, each entry in the encyclopedia situates its subject within the context of black migration and articulates connections between the subject of the entry and the overall history of the migration.

Table of Contents:
List of Entries, List of Primary Documents, Guide to Related Topics, Preface, Acknowledgments, Introduction, The Great Migration Chronology, The Encyclopedia, Primary Documents, Selected Bibliography, Index, About the Editor,

About the Author :
Steven A. Reich, PhD, is professor of history at James Madison University.

Review :
This encyclopedia serves as a broad introduction to black migration in the United States between the 1870s and 1970s, primarily exploring the two massive-scale migrations during and after the two world wars. . . . Appropriate for high school students and teachers planning lessons on black migration in the United States. The Great Black Migration: A Historical Encyclopedia of the American Mosaic is a superior reference book on African Americans leaving the south to reside in northern United States around the World War I (1915–1930) and World War II (1940–1970) eras for lucrative positions in industry rather than the southern field work positions and then for a second time taking up residence in the south in the 1990s when the South offered more opportunities for them. . . . This impressive encyclopedia will be useful to academic, public, middle, and high school library users. In this single-volume encyclopedia, Reich offers the reader a rich collection of articles that can guide and support curriculum design and lesson planning, as well as support student research. . . . Reich's encyclopedia is highly recommended for high school (US) and secondary school (UK) students and for those who teach or assist at these levels. This work is also appropriate for the general reading audience who desire an easily accessible but comprehensive introduction to the subject matter.