Racism & The Great Migration In 1920s, racism was big in the south. Blacks weren’t allowed any of the rights whites had due to segregation and all the laws preventing them from being equal. The Great Migration affected the location of racism because when blacks moved north, racism followed. Blacks moved north to escape poverty caused by sharecropping and Jim Crow laws.
When slavery was abolished, whites rented land to blacks to grow crops in return for a percentage of the crop. It sounds like a good idea for blacks to make money for themselves, but what actually happened was during off seasons, blacks wouldn’t be able to pay rent for the land because they didn’t have any crops to sell. This continued for years, and pretty much making them
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Sometimes whites would fail at keeping blacks out of their neighborhoods and would completely pack up and move themselves to a different neighborhood. Other times the electricity would be turned off just to make them move somewhere else. The forced moving of blacks out of white neighborhoods into black neighborhoods was called “ghettoization”. Living in black neighborhoods was probably better for blacks because they couldn’t be racist towards each other and they were able to help each other out (Black Ghetto).
The ghettos were filled of African-American culture which is what started the Harlem Renaissance. Blacks created their own form of music, literature, and art. From Jazz to Blues to traditional music, literature and poetry, their racial pride challenged racism. White folk loved their style of music and were performed for in clubs. Poets wrote about experiences they’ve had in in their lives. Even though blacks were the ones who were performing, they weren’t allowed in the audience in white clubs. It was really unfair to blacks because it was their own style that whites weren’t letting them join in on (Art