The Great Migration of African Americans was a necessary precondition for the civil-rights movement. These Americans moved from the Southern states to northern cities in hope of finding racial equality that was not present in the post-civil war South. Places like Memphis, Tennessee saw inequality the worst. “This time the white man must make some intelligent and courageous adjustment in the Negro’s behalf; or he must be prepared, at a greater social cost, to sink to levels of brute force in confronting the Negro.” (Trouble in Dixie, Sancton p. 13-14) These Americans were denied basic constitutional rights such as due process and the right to participate in the electoral system by restricting the right to cast a vote. It was the migration …show more content…
Blacks registered to vote at higher rates than whites throughout the 1920s. In 1930, 77 percent of eligible adults in the city’s black Second Ward were registered, compared to 68 percent of white voters citywide. (How the Great Migrations of Black and White Southerners Transformed America Gregory p.242) This influence was made possible because “the diaspora was fortuitously aimed at a select set of cities that were uniquely situated as centers of American culture and political influence and that had resources available nowhere else. (How the Great Migrations of Black and White Southerners Transformed America Gregory p. 239) These cities were cultural melting pots and the varied political ideology and intelligentsia that lead to productive influence on public policy. “By 1920, Negroes had more political power in Chicago than anywhere else in the country.” (Gregory p.241) Mayoral candidate William Hale Thompson solicited the black community for votes in exchange for influence. As a result, the black voter was able to gain political representation not see since the last of the southern Reconstruction seats fell to Jim Crow in 1901. (How the Great Migrations of Black and White Southerners Transformed America Gregory p. 241) Oscar DePriest was the first African American to ever win election from the North. (How the Great Migrations of Black and White Southerners Transformed America Gregory