Around 1916, when the Great Migration began, a factory wage in the urban North was typically three times more than what blacks could expect to make working the land in the rural South
http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/great-migration
After the war broke out there was a shortage of industrial workers, this provided new jobs for the former feild hands
By the end of 1919, some 1 million blacks had left the South
Racist Attitudes
Annotations:
The South of the U.S. was more racist than the North -
Jim Crow Laws
Annotations:
Jim Crow laws & ettiquet operated mainly in the south of America but less severly in the northern states
http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/what.htm
Initiated a
'renaissance' of black
culture
Civil Rights
Leaders
Booker T. Washington
W.E.B. DuBois
Annotations:
"one simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon"
Marcus Gravey
Universal Negro
Improvement
Association
Dedicated to racial uplift
Influence
Church
Workers
Encouraged racial pride
Black is beautiful
Large focus on
racial
advancement
Nannie H. Burroughs
Annotations:
"a true woman wouldn't give a cent...for bleached skin and straightened hair...superficial nothing..."
"If Negro women would use half the time they spend in trying to get white in trying to get better, the race would move forward apace, but the production of more white Negroes, whether home-made or born that way, that does not bring to the race more character and worth, are unwelcomed guests that may be excused at any time"
Baptist
Organiser
+ NACW
member
The "New Negro"
New rules of black ettiquete
Black Hair
Care
Industry
White Owned
Occasionally
degrading of
black features
Annotations:
See sources 29, 12
Madame CJ Walker ad & Crane & Company
Alteration, not refinement
Black owned
Madame CJ Walker
First self-made
female millionaire
Wonderful hair grower
Provided
solutions to
common issues
Provided jobs
Racial Uplift
Annotations:
"My desire is to do more than ever for my race"
"my desire is to do more than ever for my race. I've caught the vision. I have what they need."
"I want the great masses of my people to take pride in their appearance."
Appearance was key
Ad's focussed on
fixable issues - not
demonizing black hair
Annotations:
"Black women were trying to move away from white definitions that trapped African-American women into language that condemmed black hair as a handicap - something that needed to be altered from its natural state to be attractive and to allow for a normal life as a regular part of society" source 78