Non-Fiction
1 Best Non-Fiction Book About the Great Migration and Black urban America
Histories, biographies and reference works are listed separately from the historical novels above.
Phase
Great Migration and Black Urban America
c. 1916–1970 CE
From the First World War through the later twentieth century, millions of African Americans left the South in search of industrial employment, education and greater personal freedom. Migrants established and expanded Black communities in cities including New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit and Los Angeles.
Migration did not eliminate racism. Housing discrimination, segregated schools, unequal employment and police violence constrained urban life, while churches, newspapers, mutual-aid organisations and extended families provided resources for community survival and political action.
The Color of Water places James McBride’s large interracial family within Black communities in New York and later Delaware.
