impact of blacks on this country

“ The North was the promised land. It was the land of hope. But it was not quite the fulfillment of the promised land as we had anticipated. Yes, they had better jobs, your children could go to better schools, and they could vote. But there were so many other obstacles, like racism: the transfer of the Jim Crow of the South, to the racism of the North.”


-Timuel Black, historian


In 1863 the black population experienced the abolition of slavery by the Emancipation Proclamation, but slavery lasted many years until their arrival in urban America. To understand why they left the rural South we first must go back and review the harsh and unbearable conditions that forced them to migrate.

Even before the Civil War, the Dred Scott Decision showed the situation of African Americans in the United States society. Immediately after the war and after two centuries of slavery white southerners resented not only the emancipation, but also any behavior, words, or attitude...