DOCUMENT SET 1Document A: Cartoon, “The Reason” Document B: New Orleans States Newspaper

Document C: Image of lynching victim

Document D: A Sharecropping Contract: Agreement between Landlord and Sharecropper

This agreement, made and entered into this 18th day of January, 1879, between Solid South, of the first part, and John Dawson, of the second part.

Witnesseth: that said party of the first part for and in consideration of eighty-eight pounds of lint cotton to be paid to the said Solid South, as hereinafter expressed, hereby leases to said Dawson, for the year A. D. 1879, a certain tract of land, the boundaries of which are well understood by the parties hereto, and the area of which the said parties hereby agree to be fifteen acres, being a portion of the Waterford Plantation, in Madison Parish, Louisiana.

The said Dawson is to cultivate said land in a proper manner, under the general superintendence of the said Solid South, or his agent or manager, and is to surrender to said lessor peaceable possession of said leased premises at the expiration of this lease without notice to quit. All ditches, turn-rows, bridges, fences, etc. on said land shall be kept in proper condition by said Dawson, or at his expense. All cotton-seed raised on said land shall be held for the exclusive use of said plantation, and no goods of any kind shall be kept for sale on any said land unless by consent of said lessor.

If said Solid South shall furnish to said lessee money or necessary supplies, or stock, or material, or either or all of them during this lease, to enable him to make a crop, the amount of said advances, not to exceed $475 (of which $315 has been furnished in two mules, plows, etc.), the said Dawson agrees to pay for the supplies and advances so furnished, out of the first cotton picked and saved on said land from the crop of said year, and to deliver said cotton of the first picking to the said Solid South, in the gin on said plantation, to be by him bought or shipped at his option, the proceeds to be applied to payment of said supply bill, which is to be fully paid on or before the 1st day of January, 1880.

After payment of said supply bill, the said lessee is to pay to said lessor, in the gin of said plantation, the rent cotton herein before stipulated, said rent to be fully paid on or before the 1st day of January, 1880. All cotton raised on said land is to be ginned on the gin of said lessor, on said plantation, and said lessee is to pay $4 per bale for ginning same.

To secure payment of said rent and supply bill, the said Dawson grants unto said Solid South a special privilege and right of pledge on all the products raised on said land, and on all his stock, farming implements, and personal property, and hereby waives in favor of said Solid South the benefit of any and all homestead laws and exemption laws now in force, or which may be in force, in Louisiana, and agrees that all his property shall be seized and sold to pay said rent and supply bill in default of payment thereof as herein agreed. Any violation of this contract shall render the lease void.

Solid SouthSolid South

John Dawson

X (his mark)

Document E: Examples of Jim Crow Laws

“It shall be unlawful for a negro and white person to play together or in company with each other in any game of cards or dice, dominoes or checkers.”—Birmingham, Alabama, 1930

“It shall be unlawful for any white prisoner to be handcuffed or otherwise chained or tied to a negro prisoner.”—Arkansas, 1903

“No colored barber shall serve as a barber to white women or girls.”—Atlanta, Georgia, 1926

“Marriages are void when one party is a white person and the other is possessed of one-eighth or more negro, Japanese, or

Chinese blood.”—Nebraska, 1911

“Any person...presenting for public acceptance or general information, arguments or suggestions in favor of social equality or of intermarriage between whites and negroes, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and subject to a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars or imprisonment not exceeding six months or both fine and imprisonment in the discretion of the court.”—Mississippi, 1920

“Separate free schools shall be established for the education of children of African descent; and it shall be unlawful for any colored child to attend any white school, or any white child to attend a colored school.”—Missouri, 1929

“Any white woman who shall suffer or permit herself to be got with child by a negro or mulatto...shall be sentenced to the penitentiary for not less than eighteen months.”—Maryland, 1924

“All railroads carrying passengers in the state (other than street railroads) shall provide equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races, by providing two or more passenger cars for each passenger train, or by dividing the cars by a partition, so as to secure separate accommodations.”—Tennessee, 1891

“The Corporate Commission is hereby vested with power to require telephone companies in the State of Oklahoma to maintain separate booths for white and colored patrons when there is a demand for such separate booths.”—Oklahoma, 1915

Document F: Article in the African American newspaper the Cleveland Advocate, March 6, 1920

Document G: Cartoon depicting the argument over conditions in the North

DOCUMENT SET 2Document H: A Tenant Farmer’s Daughter Remembers Leaving Mississippi

In 1917, ten-year-old Rubie Bond left Mississippi with her parents and migrated to Beloit, Wisconsin. Her father, who worked as a tenant farmer in the South, had been recruited to work at a factory in Beloit. In 1976, she was interviewed as part of an oral history project documenting the experiences of African-American migrants who moved to Wisconsin between the 1910s and 1950s. In this excerpt, Bond describes why her parents decided to leave the South.

I'm wondering why your family decided to leave Mississippi. How was that decision made and why was it made? Well, the North offered better opportunities for blacks…. I've heard that recruiters were often in danger in Mississippi if they came down to get workers for northern companies.

Do you recall him ever expressing any fear about this job that he was doing? Yes. I know that many of the blacks would leave the farms at night and walk for miles. Many of them caught the train to come North…Usually they would leave with just the clothes on their backs. Maybe the day before they would be in the field working and the plantation owner wouldn't even know that they planned to go and the next day he would go and the little shanty would be empty. These people would have taken off and come up here.

Was there a fear that the plantation owner wouldn't let them go or that they couldn't leave? That's very true. They wouldn't. Plantation owners had much to lose. [African-American farmers] were illiterate and they had to depend on the plantation owner. He would give them so much flour for use during the year, cornmeal or sugar or that sort of thing and then at the end of the year you would go to settle up with him and you would always be deeply in debt to him. That was his way of keeping people. You never got out of debt with him….

Now, as a young girl, did you agree with this decision to move North? Did you think it was a good idea? Yes. I think I did. Because even as a child I think I was pretty sensitive to a lot of the inequalities that existed between blacks and whites, and I know that after we came here my mother and dad used to tell me that if I went back to Mississippi, they would hang me to the first tree.

What role did the church play in your early life in Mississippi? Well, I think the church played a very important part in the life of all blacks in Mississippi because it was religious center as well as social. That was one place that they could go and meet and discuss their problems. Relax. So just the--their big picnics and big church meetings they used to have….

Given the opportunities that were available in the North, why did anyone decide to stay in Mississippi?

Well, I think that it was a lack of knowledge of about what the North had to offer until these agents came there to get them to come up here to work.

You were leaving at least a few of your relatives and friends behind. How did you feel about those people that you left behind and weren't ever going to see again? Well, I think it comes back to a matter of trying to exist, really, and trying to improve your own lot.

Document I: Mahalia Jackson Remembers Chicago

Gospel singer Mahalia Jackson (1911-1972), the granddaughter of former slaves, was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, where she learned to sing in her family's Baptist church. In 1927, at the age of sixteen, Jackson migrated to Chicago where she found a job as a domestic. She joined a gospel choir and earned money as a soloist at churches and funerals. In 1937, she began recording gospel music professionally. Jackson became a strong supporter of the civil rights movement and performed at many rallies, including the 1963 March on Washington. In her autobiography Movin' On Up, she remembers her early years in Chicago.

I can still remember the darkness and cold of those days. The winter wind in Chicago just takes your breath away and, while I was saving up to buy a warm coat, all I had to cut that wind was sweatshirts and sweaters. Shivering in that elevated train, watching the snow blow and swirl in the streetlights and the sun just starting to come up—those were the days when I was low and lonely and afraid in Chicago. The cold and the noise seemed to beat on me and the big buildings made me feel as if I'd come to live in a penitentiary. Oftentimes, I wished I could run away back home to New Orleans.

But after I got up to Chicago, I stuck. I didn't go back to New Orleans for fifteen years. And whatever I am today I owe to Chicago, because in Chicago the Negro found the open door.

In Chicago, our people were advancing. Not only were they making money they were active in clubs and all sorts of organizations. And I don't mean this was just organizations like the NAACP. There were all kinds of civic organizations and social clubs. The people were church people, but they were talking about different things than we ever did down South—things like getting educated and going into business. The Negro was doing more than just singing and praying, and I began to see a new world.

Document J: Card offering services for newly arrived migrants

Document K: Advertisement offering advice for newly arrived migrants

Document L: “Can I Scrub Your White Marble Steps?”A Black Migrant Recalls Life in PhiladelphiaIn the 1910s hundreds of thousands of African Americans headed North in the Great Migration. Arthur Dingle was one of them. Dingle was born in the small town of Manning, North Carolina, in 1891. After holding hotel jobs in several cities, he took a job with the Pennsylvania Railroad in Philadelphia. Promised his job back if he enlisted in World War I, the company made good on its promise when Dingle remained in Philadelphia after the war. This interview with Arthur Dingle was conducted by Charles Hardy in 1983 for the Goin’ North Project.

Arthur Dingle: I came out of school pretty early, and I worked for the stores around town there, and then I worked in the little hotel. So when I was about 19, I got the idea that I liked hotel work. So I left home and went to Wilmington, North Carolina, worked at Oraton… Hotel. Then the next year, I went on to Norfolk.

In 1913, when Woodrow Wilson’s first inauguration, another friend of mine and I left Norfolk and went to Washington, and I got a job in the New Raleigh Hotel there, and I was a waiter there during Wilson’s first inauguration. And I worked around back and forth all over the country, you might say. I worked in the Saratoga in New York. Then I went to Scranton. I worked in the Casey Hotel there. And I went to school in Scranton, the International Business School. I didn’t get much education down South, so I tried to, you know, improve myself by working and going to school at night. So I stayed there quite a while.

Charles Hardy: What was it like then with all these new blacks up from the South in the city?

Dingle: Well, it was all right because everybody was working. They was coming up to get jobs. And there was the Navy Yard, there was Sun Shipyard, and there was Midvale’s and this big steel plant up here in the North, toward—I’ve forgotten the name of it—Allenwood. And all these big places was hiring people as fast as they came up. And everybody was working and everybody got money. Why, things seemed to be all right.

When they got pretty close behind me to go to the Army, I came to Philadelphia and went to working for the railroad. And I worked here twenty-three days and they called me to the Army. Well, the luck was that they said that everybody at Pennsylvania Railroad said everybody that worked for the railroad and had to go to the Army, they had their job when they came back.

Well, in 1919, when I came back from France, you couldn’t—it’s worse than it is now—you couldn’t buy a job because of all those fellows, you know, being discharged. So when I was discharged at Fort Meade—Camp Meade they called it then—I came right back to Philadelphia because I knowed that I had my job when I came back. I stayed there twelve years.

In those days, there was no welfare and there was no Social Security, and people was actually suffering. I know when I was living in North Philadelphia, I was working, but there was plenty of people around there that had no job, no income, no nothing. It was very hard for them.

Hardy: What did they do? Did they go back South? Did they stay in the city?

Dingle: [laughter] I can’t remember anybody going back South.

Hardy: No?

Dingle: No. I can’t remember any of them going back South. But they made out somehow or another. They’d go around and hustle. And people had these white marble steps, and there was people who’d go around, ring your bell, asking, “Can I clean your steps, scrub your steps?” and they’d say, “Yeah,” give them twenty-five cents, and they’d scrub your steps. And there’s all kind of ways of making a few pennies.

Source: Interview done by Charles Hardy for the radio program Goin North, 1983, West Chester University.

DOCUMENT SET 3Document M: “Don[’]t Have to Mister Every Little White Boy. . .”: Black Migrants Write HomeThe experiences of the half million Africans Americans from the South who headed North between 1916 and 1921 varied widely among individuals. Four letters by southern migrants who had settled in Philadelphia, Chicago, and East Chicago, Indiana, provided some insights into the diverse experiences migrants had in the North. Resettled southerners wrote to folks back home about “the true facts of the present condition of the north.” These “facts” ranged from salaries, living conditions, and recent births and deaths, to the score of the latest Chicago White Sox baseball game. The letters, which were originally published in the Journal of Negro History, also described what it feels like to be out of the South: "don[']t have to mister every little white boy comes along." (Source: The Journal of Negro History. Vol. IV, 1919, pp. 461–62, 458–59, 464)

PHILADELPHIA, PA., Oct. 7, 1917

Dear Sir: I take this method of thanking you for yours early responding and the glorious effect of the treatment. Oh. I do feel so fine. Dr. the treatment reach me almost ready to move I am now housekeeping again I like it so much better than rooming. Well Dr. with the aid of God I am making very good I make $75 per month. I am carrying enough insurance to pay me $20 per week if I am not able to be on duty. I don’t have to work hard. Don’t have to mister every little white boy comes along I haven’t heard a white man call a colored a nigger you no now—since I been in the state of Pa. I can ride in the electric street and steam cars any where I get a seat. I don’t care to mix with white what I mean I am not crazy about being with white folks, but if I have to pay the same fare I have learn to want the same [accommodation]. and if you are first in a place here’s hoping you don’t have to wait until the white folks get thro tradeing yet amid all this I shall ever love the good old South and I am praying that God may give every well wisher a chance to be a man regardless of his color, and if my going to the front would bring about such conditions I am ready any day—well Dr. I don’t want to worry you but read between lines; and maybe you can see a little sense in my weak statement the kids are in school every day I have only two and I guess that all. Dr. when you find time I would be delighted to have a word from the good old home state. Wife join me in sending love you and yours.

I am your friend and patient. * * *

CHICAGO, ILL.

Dear Partner: You received a few days ago and I was indeed glad to hear from you and know that you was well. How is the old burg and all of the boys. Say partner is it true that T———— M—————— was shot by a Negro Mon. It is all over the city among the people of H’burg if so let know at once so I tell the boys it true. Well so much for that. I wish you could have been here to have been here to those games. I saw them and believe me they was worth the money I pay to see them. T.S. and I went out to see Sunday game witch was 7 to 2 White Sox and I saw Satday game 2 to 1 White Sox. Please tell J————— write that he will never see nothing as long as he stay down there behind the sun there some thing to see up here all the time. (tell old E——— B——— to

go to (H——-) Tell B———— he dont hafter answer my cards. How is friend Wilson Wrote him a letter in August. Tell him that all right I will see him in the funny paper. Well Partner I guess you hear a meny funey thing about Chicago. Half you hear is not true. I know B———- C———- hav tole a meny lie. Whenever you here see them Pardie tell them to write to this a dress. Say Pardie old H————- is moping up in his Barber shop. Guess I will come to you Boy Xmas. I must go to bed. Just in from a hard days work.

Your life long friend. * * *

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, 11/13/17

Dear M—————: Yours received sometime ago and found all well and doing well. hope you and family are well.

I got my things alright the other day and they were in good condition. I am all fixed now and living well. I certainly appreciate what you done for us and I will remember you in the near future.

M—————, old boy, I was promoted on the first of the month I was made first assistant to the head carpenter when he is out of the place I take everything in charge and was raised to $95. a month. You know I know my stuff.

Whats the news generally around H’burg? I should have been here 20 years ago. I just begin to feel like a man. It’s a great deal of pleasure in knowing that you have got some privilege. My children are going to the same school with the whites and I dont have to umble to no one. I have registered—Will vote the next election and there isnt any ‘yes sir’ and ‘no sir’—its all yes and no and Sam and Bill.

Florine says hello and would like very much to see you.

All joins me in sending love to you and family. How is times there now? Answer soon, from your friend and bro. * * *

EAST CHICAGO, IND., June 10, 1917

Dear Old Friend: These moments I thought I would write you a few true facts of the present condition of the north. Certainly I am trying to take a close observation—now it is tru the (col) men are making good. Never pay less than $3.00 per day or (10) hours—this is not promise. I do not see how they pay such wages the way they work labors. they do not hurry or drive you. Remember this is the very lowest wages. Piece work men can make from $6 to $8 per day. They receive their pay every two weeks. this city I am living in, the population 30,000 (20) miles from Big Chicago, Ill. Doctor I am some what impress. My family also. They are doing nicely. I have no right to complain what ever. I rec. the papers you mail me some few days ago and you no I enjoyed them reading about the news down in Dixie. I often think of so much of the conversation we engage in concerning this part of the worl. I wish many time that you could see our People up there as they are entirely in a different light. I witness Decoration Day on May 30th, the line of march was 4 miles. (8) brass band. All business houses were close. I tell you the people here are patriotic. I enclose you the cut of the white press. the chief of police drop dead Friday. Burried him today. The procession about (3) miles long. Over (400) auto in the parade—five dpt—police Force, Mayor and alderman and secret societies; we are having some cold weather—we are still wearing over coats—Let me know what is my little city doing. People are coming here every day and are finding employment. Nothing here but money and it is not hard to get. Remember me to your dear Family. Oh, I have children in school every day with the white children. I will write you more next time. how is the lodge.

Yours friend,

Document N: Letter from Mrs. J. H Adams, Macon, Georgia, to the Bethlehem Baptist Association in Chicago, Illinois, 1918 Holograph Carter G. Woodson Papers

Document O: "Sir I Will Thank You with All My Heart": Seven Letters from the Great Migration

Migrants’ letters to northern newspapers were among the best and most voluminous sources for understanding the migration process and interpreting the migrants’ motivations for leaving. Seven letters to the Chicago Defender attest to migrants' strong desire to “better their condition,” often risking their lives and possessions to make the trip north. (Source: Journal of Negro History, Vol. IV, 1919, pp. 417, 302, 317, 327, 307, 59)

LUTCHER, LA., May 13, 1917

Dear Sir: I have been reading the Chicago defender and seeing so many advertisements about the work in the north I thought to write you concerning my condition. I am working hard in the south and can hardly earn a living. I have a wife and one child and can hardly feed them. I thought to write and ask you for some information concerning how to get a pass for myself and family. I dont want to leave my family behind as I cant hardly make a living for them right here with them and I know they would fare hard if I would leave them. If there are any agents in the south there havent been any of them to Lutcher if they would come here they would get at least fifty men. Please sir let me hear from you as quick as possible. Now this is all. Please dont publish my letter, I was out in town today talking to some of the men and they say if they could get passes that 30 or 40 of them would come. But they havent got the money and they dont know how to come. But they are good strong and able working men. If you will instruct me I will instruct the other men how to come as they all want to work. Please dont publish this because we have to whisper this around among our selves because the white folks are angry now because the negroes are going north. * * *

NATCHEZ, MISS., Sept. 22–17MR. R. S. ABBOTT, Editor.

Dear Sir: I thought that you might help me in Some way either personally or through your influence, is why I am worrying you for which I beg pardon.

I am a married man having wife and mother to support, (I mention this in order to properly convey my plight) conditions here are not altogether good and living expenses growing while wages are small. My greatest desire is to leave for a better place but am unable to raise the money.

I can write short stories all of which portray negro characters but no burlesque can also write poems, have a gift for cartooning but have never learned the technicalities of comic drawing. these things will never profit me anything here in Natchez. Would like to know if you could use one or two of my short stories in serial form in your great paper they are very interesting and would furnish good reading matter. By this means I could probably leave here in short and thus come in possession of better employment enabling me to take up my drawing which I like best.

Kindly let me hear from you and if you cannot favor me could you refer me to any Negro publication buying fiction from their race. * * *

BESSEMER, ALA., 5/14/17

Sirs: Noticing and ad in Chicago Defender of your assitance to those desiring employment there I thought I mayhaps you could help me secure work in your Windy

City. I’m a married man have one child. I have common school education, this is my hand write. I am presently employed as a miner has been for 14 years but would like a Change. I’m apt to learn would like to get where I could go on up and support myself and family. You know more about it than I but in your opinion could I make anything as pullman porter being inexsperienced? I’d be so grateful to U. to place me in something I’ve worked myself too hard for nothing. I’m sober and can adjust my life with any kind and am a quiet christian man. * * *

SELMA, ALA., May 19, 1917

Dear Sir: I am a reader of the Chicago Defender I think it is one of the Most Wonderful Papers of our race printed. Sirs I am writeing to see if You all will please get me a job. And Sir I can wash dishes, wash iron nursing work in groceries and dry good stores. Just any of these I can do. Sir, who so ever you get the job from please tell them to send me a ticket and I will pay them. When I get their as I have not got enough money to pay my way. I am a girl of 17 years old and in the 8 grade at Knox Academy School. But on account of not having money enough I had to stop school. Sir I will thank you all with all my heart. May God Bless you all. Please answer in return mail. * * *

PORT ARTHUR, TEXAS, 5/5th/17

Dear Sir: Permitt me to inform you that I have had the pleasure of reading the Defender for the first time in my life as I never dreamed that there was such a race paper published and I must say that its some paper. However I can unhesitatingly say that it is extraordinarily interesting and had I know that there was such a paper in my town or such being handled in my vicinity I would have been a subscriber years ago.

Nevertheless I read every space of the paper dated April 28th which is my first and only paper at present. Although I am greatfully anticipating the pleasure of receiving my next Defender as I now consider myself a full fledged defender fan and I have also requested the representative of said paper to deliver my Defender weekly.

In reading the Defenders want ad I notice that there is lots of work to be had and if I havent miscomprehended I think I also understand that the transportation is advanced to able bodied working men who is out of work and desire work. Am I not right? with the understanding that those who have been advanced transportation same will be deducted from their salary after they have begun work. Now then if this is they proposition I have about 10 or 15 good working men who is out of work and are dying to leave the south and I assure you that they are working men and will be too glad to come north east or west, any where but the south.

Now then if this is the proposition kindly let me know by return mail. However I assure you that it shall be my pleasure to furnish you with further or all information that you may undertake to ask or all information necessary concerning this communication.

Thanking you in advance for the courtesy of a prompt reply with much interest. * * *

NEW ORLEANS, April 22, 1917

under the head lines in the Chicago Defender of Saturday April 22–17 I red how some of us that goes up north are being treated. there is a few that have gone from this city north, and came back a few weeks. some say they came back on account of being to cold “The ohters Say they ware to pay so much to get work etc” I would like to go north. and would rather be in some place. other then Chicago or near Chicago. I am a union man“ but dont exspect to work at union only” there is a few of us union men that are planning to go north and Kindly please write me" all so I mail you one of my union cards hoping to heare from you soon I am respectfully, Yours. * * *

MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE April 23, 1917

Gentlemen: I want to get in tuch with you in regard of good location & a job i am for race elevation every way. I want a job in a small town some where in north where I can receive verry good wages and where I can educate my 3 little girls and demand respect of intelegence. I prefer a job as cabinet maker or any kind of furniture mfg. if possible.

Let me hear from you all at once please. State minimum wages and kind of work.Yours truly.