Fly away : the great African American cultural migrations
Peter M. Rutkoff (Author), William B. Scott (Author)
The Great Migration, the mass exodus of blacks from the rural South to the urban North and West in the twentieth century, shaped American culture and life in ways still evident today. The authors trace the ideas that inspired African Americans to abandon the South for freedom and opportunity elsewhere. Black Southerners fled the Low Country of South Carolina, the mines and mills of Birmingham, Alabama, the farms of the Mississippi Delta, and the urban wards of Houston, Texas, for new opportunities in New York, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Los Angeles. They took with them the South's rich tradition of religion, language, music, and art, recreating and preserving their Southern identity in the churches, newspapers, jazz clubs, and neighborhoods of America's largest cities. This study explores the development and adaptation of African American culture, from its West African roots to its profound and lasting impact on mainstream America. It illuminates the origins, development, and transformation of national culture during an important chapter in twentieth-century American history
Print Book, English, 2010
Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore [Maryland], 2010
History
xv, 408 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm
9780801894770, 9781421418476, 0801894778, 1421418479
431935579
Out of Africa : West African origins
New Africa : South Carolina low country
Negro capital of the world : Harlem
Mules and men : Birmingham
Blues pianos and tricky baseballs : Pittsburgh
Walkin' Egypt : Mississippi Delta
Bronzeville's Pinkster Kings : South Side Chicago
Dixie special : Houston
California dreaming : South Central LA
Circle unbroken : three stories and a conclusion