The Great Migration of the American West

1940- 1970 is an era of unprecedented economic growth and frequent social changes in the United States. For black Americans, this era is more important. During these 30 years, the geographical distribution of the black population in the United States has changed greatly-more than 4 million black people moved from the southern countryside to the northern and western industrial areas; A considerable number of blacks also moved to industrial cities in the south. By the end of 1960s, the black population in the south had dropped from 77. 1% to 53%, while the proportion of urban black population had increased from less than 50% to over 80%. [1] This long-lasting black population migration history is called the second black migration, which is longer, wider and more distinctive than the first black migration at the beginning of this century. Black immigrants leave rural areas in the south not only for economic opportunities. Since the second half of 1950s, the political color of black immigrants has become increasingly profound, and most black people moved out of the South for freedom, equality and other civil rights. Moreover, black immigrants are mostly young blacks with higher education level, which prompted them to awaken their national consciousness and thus became the basic force of the vigorous black civil rights movement in this period. Finally, due to the discriminatory segregation system and the physical and mental oppression caused by the poor living conditions in urban settlements, in the mid-1960s, they pushed the civil rights movement to the stage of violent struggle.