The Great Migration and the power of a single decision | Isabel Wilkerson

Summary

Isabel Wilkerson's TED Talk takes us through the momentous journey known as the Great Migration, where six million African Americans moved from the Jim Crow South to the North and West from World War I to the 1970s. This migration was not just a geographical move but a quest for freedom and recognition, akin to seeking asylum within one’s own country. Wilkerson highlights the profound sacrifices and the immense impact this historical migration had on reshaping American society, culture, and history. The Great Migration paved the way for numerous artists, musicians, and influential figures like Toni Morrison and Diana Ross, who were descendants of this determined group of individuals. Their collective journey demonstrated the power of leaving behind an oppressive system to forge a new path of possibility, ultimately contributing to the civil rights movement and changing the nation.

Highlights

• The Great Migration changed the course of American history, involving six million African Americans seeking freedom 🌟.
• A quest for political asylum within the U.S., breaking ties with the oppressive Jim Crow South 📜.
• The migration prompted cultural shifts, birthing new music and art, and nurturing talents like Toni Morrison and Diana Ross 🎨.
• Migrants faced challenges in the North but were pivotal in the civil rights movement's emergence 🚀.
• Their decision to leave highlighted a profound act of self-liberation, showing more power in departure than in staying 🗝️.

Key Takeaways

• The Great Migration was a significant movement of six million African Americans from the Jim Crow South to the North and West from WWI to the 1970s 🌍.
• This migration was a pursuit of freedom within one's own country, akin to seeking asylum 🇺🇸.
• The migration led to cultural transformations, giving rise to new music genres and prominent artists like Toni Morrison, Diana Ross, and more 🎶.
• Migrants faced resistance in the North but became instrumental in initiating the civil rights movement ✊.
• The decision to migrate demonstrated a powerful assertion of agency and reshaped American society and history 📜.

Overview

Isabel Wilkerson paints a vivid picture of the Great Migration, a monumental exodus of six million African Americans moving from the oppressive Jim Crow South in search of freedom in the North and West. This mass migration was not just a move but a profound quest for civil rights and autonomy, akin to seeking asylum within one's own country.

This migration wasn't just about geography; it uprooted an entire way of life, sparking cultural transformations that rippled through the nation. The Great Migration not only facilitated the rise of new music and art forms but also allowed individuals like Toni Morrison and Diana Ross to shine on the national stage, underscoring the transformative power of the migration.

Despite facing immense challenges and resistance in their new homes, these individuals collectively contributed to the civil rights movement, proving that their resolve and decision to migrate were a powerful act of self-determination. Their journey reshaped American society and inspired generations to challenge injustice and strive for a more equitable world.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: The Scene of Departure The chapter titled 'The Scene of Departure' opens with a vividly imagined scenario that is relatable to the majority of families. It describes a common occurrence where a young individual from our family tree, somewhere down our lineage, embarks on a journey, marking a significant moment of departure. This moment is given life and context, serving as a universal experience shared across generations.
• 00:30 - 01:00: The Difficult Decision The chapter titled 'The Difficult Decision' focuses on a poignant moment where a person faces the challenging choice to leave behind everything familiar, including their loved ones, in pursuit of a potentially better life in an unknown distant place. It underscores migration as an endeavor typically undertaken by the young, at a pivotal life juncture.
• 01:00 - 01:30: Historical Background The chapter titled 'Historical Background' begins by painting a vivid picture of the courageous journeys undertaken by young individuals in the past. It emphasizes the universal scene found in many family histories: a youth on the brink of departure, poised to embark on a significant voyage. This could involve boarding a ship to traverse vast oceans, like the Atlantic or the Pacific, or loading a truck to cross borders like the Rio Grande. These moments mark the beginning of their adventure into new lands, symbolizing hope and new beginnings embedded in the family narrative.
• 01:30 - 02:00: Bidding Farewell In the chapter titled 'Bidding Farewell', the scene is set at a railroad platform where individuals are preparing to board a train. This journey signifies a departure from the Jim Crow South, across rivers and mountains, in pursuit of freedom in the North. Accompanying the departing individuals are those who raised them, marking a poignant moment of parting and transition.
• 02:00 - 02:30: The Uncertainty of Communication The chapter highlights the uncertainty inherent in communication, particularly focusing on the emotional impact and the challenges that can arise when it involves leaving family members behind. It opens with the poignant scene of young individuals having to part ways with their older family members—parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles—as they embark on a significant journey. The narrative captures the emotional intensity of this separation, underscoring the lack of assurance that they will ever reunite with their loved ones. The chapter emphasizes the deep emotional bonds and the sense of loss and uncertainty that accompany such farewells, showcasing how communication, particularly in such life-altering moments, can be fraught with emotions and unpredictability.
• 02:30 - 03:00: The Sacrifice Made In "The Sacrifice Made," the characters are highlighted dealing with their impending departure to a place where modern communication is non-existent. The chapter captures the emotional weight of leaving without the technology that connects people today—no Skype, emails, or cell phones, not even reliable long-distance service. This journey represents a total severance from their familiar world and loved ones, underscoring the profound nature of their sacrifice and the uncertainty of when or if they will hear from those they've left behind.
• 03:00 - 03:30: The Great Migration The chapter titled 'The Great Migration' discusses the significant sacrifices made by families, often involving the separation from loved ones and possible tragic events back home, such as the death or illness of parents. This highlights the emotional and personal costs faced by those involved.
• 03:30 - 04:00: Seeking Asylum Within Home Country The chapter titled 'Seeking Asylum Within Home Country' discusses significant migratory movements, particularly the Great Migration, where six million African Americans relocated. This exodus signals pivotal decisions that have shaped families, lineages, and countries, influencing historical trajectories leading to the modern day.
• 04:00 - 05:00: Jim Crow's Arcane Restrictions The chapter titled 'Jim Crow's Arcane Restrictions' explores the historical period from the Jim Crow South to the migration of African Americans to northern and western cities, spanning from World War I to the 1970s. It highlights the unprecedented situation where American citizens were forced to leave their birthplace to seek recognition and rights as citizens, a unique challenge faced by African Americans during this era.
• 05:00 - 06:00: Maintaining the Caste System This chapter explores the concept of 'maintaining the caste system' within the context of Jim Crow laws in the United States. It describes how African Americans were forced to migrate within their own country, akin to seeking political asylum, in order to be recognized as citizens and escape the oppressive Jim Crow caste system. The chapter delves into the artificial hierarchies created by these laws, detailing the restrictions imposed on black Americans and their quest for civil recognition and equality.
• 06:00 - 07:00: Economic Factors The chapter discusses the racial caste system that existed in Birmingham, which imposed strict segregation by race. An example of this is the law that prohibited black and white people from playing checkers together, highlighting the extreme measures of racial separation and control. The consequences of such a simple interaction could lead to imprisonment, illustrating the systemic racial inequalities embedded in the social and legal framework of the time.
• 07:00 - 08:00: Streams of Migration The chapter explores a historical incident highlighting the racial tensions in the South. A seemingly innocuous event of a black person and a white person playing checkers together in a town square was perceived as a threat to the Southern societal structure. This incident prompted the creation of laws to uphold racial segregation. The narrative underscores the extent of racial discrimination, illustrated by the existence of a 'black Bible' used in courtrooms, symbolizing the deeply entrenched caste system.
• 08:00 - 09:00: Redistribution of Population The chapter discusses the social and racial dynamics of the Jim Crow South, emphasizing how segregation permeated even the most sacred aspects of life, such as the use of the Bible in courtrooms. It highlights the absurdity and extremity of the caste system, where even holy objects like the Bible were subject to racial segregation, reflecting the deeply ingrained racism of the period.
• 09:00 - 10:00: First Time Exercising Options This chapter delves into the oppressive caste system in the American South that severely restricted African American freedoms. The system was upheld through extreme violence, with lynchings occurring roughly every four days for perceived breaches of protocol, especially in the decades preceding the Great Migration.
• 10:00 - 11:00: Pursuing Talents The chapter "Pursuing Talents" discusses the establishment of a caste system in the South primarily to maintain its economic order by ensuring a steady supply of cheap labor. This arrangement sustained the demand for inexpensive labor crucial for the agricultural economy. However, the onset of the Great Migration was driven by the North's labor shortages, which previously relied on European immigrants for cheap labor.
• 11:00 - 12:00: Access to Education The chapter 'Access to Education' discusses migration patterns during World War I, highlighting how European immigration slowed and Northern industries faced labor shortages. To address this, Northern employers turned to African American laborers from the South, many of whom were not compensated for their work, as they often labored merely for the right to reside on the lands they farmed.
• 12:00 - 13:00: Cultural Impact of Migration The chapter discusses the exploitation of sharecroppers in the South who were not adequately compensated for their labor, making them susceptible to recruitment for better opportunities elsewhere. However, the Southern states strongly resisted losing their cheap labor force. They took drastic measures such as arresting individuals from railroad platforms and even directly from train seats to prevent them from leaving, despite these individuals being free American citizens.
• 13:00 - 14:00: Motown's Genesis The chapter 'Motown's Genesis' discusses the journey of people escaping the oppressive Jim Crow laws in the South. It highlights the desperate measures they took to seek freedom and the hope and prayers that guided them. The narrative follows the paths they took, which aligned with three predictable streams typical of historical migrations.
• 14:00 - 16:00: Jazz and the Great Migration The chapter discusses the Great Migration, highlighting three major streams of movement. The first migration path was along the East Coast, starting from Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, and Virginia, moving northwards to destinations such as Washington DC, Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York, and further up the coast. The second path was the Midwest stream, which involved people migrating from Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, and Arkansas to cities like Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland. The chapter details the geographic and demographic shifts during this period, as part of the broader socioeconomic trends.
• 16:00 - 17:00: Influential Figures The chapter on 'Influential Figures' discusses the migration patterns of individuals moving from the southern United States to the West Coast, including California, Seattle, and Alaska, as a means of escaping the oppressive Jim Crow laws. This migration, part of what is known historically as the Great Migration, represents a significant shift in the demographic landscape of the United States as people sought freedom and new opportunities away from the South.
• 17:00 - 18:00: Resistance and Resilience This chapter discusses the Great Migration, a significant historical movement where about 90% of African Americans, who were originally living almost like captives in the South, relocated to various parts of the country. This migration resulted in what was nearly a complete redistribution of an entire people within the United States, marking the first time in American history that the people from the lowest caste embarked on such a massive move.
• 18:00 - 19:00: Collective Impact The chapter titled 'Collective Impact' discusses a significant shift in the agency and empowerment of African Americans. It highlights that, historically, African Americans lacked options and were entrapped through centuries of enslavement followed by the oppressive Jim Crow era. The narrative emphasizes the breakthrough moment when African Americans began to have and acknowledge their options, marking a pivotal change not seen in generations.
• 19:00 - 20:00: Achieving Self-Freedom This chapter discusses the long duration of enslavement in the United States and examines the significance of the Great Migration. It highlights how the migration was the first major opportunity for people of the lowest caste to exercise self-determination and utilize their inherent talents to pursue chosen paths, contrasting their previous life of labor in the cotton fields.

The Great Migration and the power of a single decision | Isabel Wilkerson Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 Imagine with me this scene. It's a scene that played out in nearly all of our families. It's a scene in which a young person, somewhere in our family tree, somewhere in our lineage
• 00:30 - 01:00 had a heartbreaking decision to make. It was a decision to leave all that they had known. And all of the people that they had loved and to set out for a place far, far away that they had never seen in hopes that life might be better. Migration is usually a young person's endeavor. It's the kind of thing that you do when you're on the cusp of life.
• 01:00 - 01:30 And so, there is, in all of our families, this young person somewhere in our background. That person is standing at a dock, about to board a ship that will cross the Atlantic or the Pacific Ocean. That person is loading up a truck that will cross the Rio Grande. Or that person is standing
• 01:30 - 02:00 at a railroad platform about to board a train that will cross rivers and mountains out of the Jim Crow South to what they hope will be freedom in the North. And there, with this young person as they are about to board that ship, that boat, that truck, that train, are the people who raised them.
• 02:00 - 02:30 Their mother, their father, their aunt, their uncle, their grandparents, whoever it might have been who had gotten them to this point. Those older people were not going to be able to make the crossing with them. And as they looked into the eyes of the people who had raised them, there was no guarantee that they would ever see them alive again.
• 02:30 - 03:00 Remember, there was no Skype, no e-mail, no cell phones not even reliable long-distance telephone service. And even if there had been, many of the people that they were leaving did not even have telephones. This was going to be a complete break from all that they knew and all of the people that they loved. And the very next time that they might hear anything about the people who had raised them
• 03:00 - 03:30 might be a telegram saying, "Your father has passed away." Or, "Your mother is very, very ill. You must return home quickly if you are to see her alive again." That is the magnitude of the sacrifice that had to have happened in nearly all of our families
• 03:30 - 04:00 just for us to be here. A single decision that changed the course of families and lineages and countries and history to the current day. One of these migration streams stands out in ways that we may not realize. It was called the Great Migration. It was the outpouring of six million African Americans
• 04:00 - 04:30 from the Jim Crow South to the cities of the North and West, from the time of World War I until the 1970s. It stands out because this was the first time in American history that American citizens had to flee the land of their birth just to be recognized as the citizens that they had always been. No other group of Americans
• 04:30 - 05:00 has had to act like immigrants in order to be recognized as citizens. So this great migration was not a move. It was actually a seeking of political asylum within the borders of one's own country. They were defecting a caste system known as Jim Crow. It was an artificial hierarchy in which everything that you could and could not do
• 05:00 - 05:30 was based upon what you looked like. This caste system was so arcane that it was actually against the law for a black person and a white person to merely play checkers together in Birmingham. You could go to jail if you were caught playing checkers with a person of a different race. Someone must have seen a black person and a white person
• 05:30 - 06:00 playing checkers with someone in some town square. And maybe the wrong person was winning or they were having too good of a time, but whatever it was that this person saw, with this black person and this white person playing checkers, they felt the entire foundation of Southern civilization was in peril. And decided that it was worth taking the time to write this down as a law. This caste system was so arcane that in courtrooms throughout the South there was actually a black Bible
• 06:00 - 06:30 and an altogether separate white Bible to swear to tell the truth on in court. The very word of God was segregated in the caste system of the Jim Crow South. The same sacred object could not be touched by hands of different races. This artificial hierarchy,
• 06:30 - 07:00 because it goes against human desires to be free, required a tremendous amount of violence to maintain. Such that every four days, somewhere in the American South, every four days an African American was lynched for some perceived breach of protocol in this caste system in the decades leading up to the start of the Great Migration.
• 07:00 - 07:30 This caste system had been put in place for many, many reasons. But one of them was to maintain the economic order of the South, which required not just a supply of cheap labor but an oversupply of cheap labor to work at the will of the land. This Great Migration began when the North had a labor problem. The North had a labor problem because it had been relying on cheap labor from Europe --
• 07:30 - 08:00 immigrants from Europe -- to work the factories and the foundries and the steel mills. But during World War I, migration from Europe came to a virtual halt. And so the North had a labor problem. And so the North decided to go and find the cheapest labor in the land which meant African Americans in the South, many of whom were not even being paid for their hard work. Many of them were working for the right to live on the land that they were farming.
• 08:00 - 08:30 They were sharecroppers and not even being paid. So they were ripe for recruitment. But it turned out that the South did not take kindly to this poaching of its cheap labor. The South actually did everything it could to keep the people from leaving. They would arrest people from the railroad platforms. Remember, putatively free American citizens. They would arrest them from their train seats. And when there were too many people to arrest,
• 08:30 - 09:00 they would wave the train on through so that people who had been hoping and saving and praying for the chance to get to freedom had to figure out: How now will we get out? And as they made their way out of the South, away from Jim Crow, they followed three beautifully predictable streams as is the case in any migration throughout human history.
• 09:00 - 09:30 In this particular case, there were three streams. One was the migration along the East Coast from Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia to Washington DC, to Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York and on up the East coast. There was the Midwest stream, which carried people from Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Arkansas to Chicago, to Detroit, to Cleveland and the entire Midwest.
• 09:30 - 10:00 And then there was the West Coast stream, which carried people from Louisiana and Texas out to California. And when they really wanted to get away, they went to Seattle. And when they really, really wanted to get away, they went to Alaska, the farthest possible point within the borders of the United States from Jim Crow South. Before the Great Migration began,
• 10:00 - 10:30 90 percent of all African Americans were living in the South. Nearly held captive in the South. But by the time this Great Migration was over, nearly half were living all over the rest of the country. So this ended up being nearly a complete redistribution of part of an entire people. This Great Migration was the first time in American history that the lowest caste people
• 10:30 - 11:00 signaled that they had options and were willing to take them. That had not happened in the three centuries in which African Americans had been on that soil at that time. It had not happened in 12 generations of enslavement that preceded nearly a century of Jim Crow. How many "greats" do you have to add to the word "grandparent"
• 11:00 - 11:30 to begin to imagine how long enslavement lasted in the United States? Secondly, this Great Migration was the first time in American history that the lowest caste people actually had a chance to choose for themselves what they would do with their God-given talents and where they would pursue them. Think about those cotton fields
• 11:30 - 12:00 and those rice plantations and those tobacco fields and those sugar plantations. On those sugar plantations, and on those tobacco fields, and on those rice plantations, and on those cotton fields were opera singers, jazz musicians, playwrights, novelists, surgeons, attorneys, accountants,
• 12:00 - 12:30 professors, journalists. And how do we know that? We know that because that is what they and their children and now their grandchildren and even great-grandchildren have often chosen to become once they had the chance to choose for themselves what they would do with their God-given talents. Without the Great Migration, there might not have been a Toni Morrison as we now know her to be.
• 12:30 - 13:00 Her parents were from Alabama and from Georgia. They migrated to Ohio, where their daughter would get to do something that we all take for granted at this point, but which was against the law and against protocol for African Americans at the time that she would have been growing up in the South, had they stayed. And that is just to walk into a library and take out a library book. Merely by making the single decision to leave,
• 13:00 - 13:30 her parents assured that their daughter would get access to books. And if you're going to become a Nobel laureate, it helps to get a book now and then. You know, it helps. Music as we know it was reshaped by the Great Migration. As they came North, they brought with them, on their hearts and in their memories, the music that had sustained the ancestors -- the blues music, the spirituals and the gospel music
• 13:30 - 14:00 that had sustained them through the generations. And they converted this music into whole new genres of music. And got the chance to record this music, this new music that they were creating, and to spread it throughout the world. Without the Great Migration, "Motown" would not have existed. The founder, Berry Gordy, his parents were from Georgia. They migrated to Detroit. And when he got to be a grown man, he decided he wanted to go into music.
• 14:00 - 14:30 But he didn't have the wherewithal to go all over the country looking for the best talent, and it turned out he didn't have to. It turned out that there he was, surrounded by children of the Great Migration whose parents had brought this music up with them during the journey. And among those children were these three girls, there was Mary Wilson, Florence Ballard and there was a third one: Diana Ross. We might not know Diana Ross' name had there been no Great Migration.
• 14:30 - 15:00 Because like a lot of Americans and a lot of human beings in general, she might not have existed because her parents might not have met. Her mother was from Alabama, father from West Virginia, they migrated to Detroit, different years, met, married, had her and her siblings, and thus a legend was born. Jazz was a creation of the Great Migration. And one of the greatest gifts of the Great Migration.
• 15:00 - 15:30 Starting with Louis Armstrong, who was born in Louisiana and migrated on the Illinois Central Railroad to Chicago, where he got the chance to build on the talent that was within him all along. Miles Davis. His parents were from Arkansas. They migrated to southern Illinois, where he would get the chance to build on the talents that were within him all along but which could have gone fallow in the cotton country of Arkansas.
• 15:30 - 16:00 John Coltrane. He migrated at the age of 16 from North Carolina to Philadelphia, where, upon arrival in Philadelphia, he got his first alto sax. And there are lovers of jazz who cannot imagine a world without John Coltrane having gotten a hold of a saxophone. Thelonious Monk. Michael Jackson.
• 16:00 - 16:30 Jesse Owens. Prince. August Wilson. Richard Wright. Ralph Ellison. Michelle Obama. These are all a few of the millions of people who were products of the single decision to migrate. The people of the Great Migration met with tremendous resistance in the North. And they were not able to defeat all social injustice.
• 16:30 - 17:00 But one person added to another person, added to another person, multiplied by millions, were able to become the advance guard of the civil rights movement. One person added to another person, added to another person, multiplied by millions, acting on a single decision, were able to change the region that they had been forced to flee.
• 17:00 - 17:30 They had more power in leaving than by staying. By their actions, these people who had absolutely nothing were able to do what a president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, was not able to do. These people, by their actions, were able to do what the Emancipation Proclamation could not do. These people, by their actions,
• 17:30 - 18:00 were able to do what the powers that be, North and South, could not or would not do. They freed themselves. Thank you. (Applause) Thank you. (Applause)