Question

11th RCT1 Q3

DBQ Source 1

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The Migration Series, Panel 1: Jacob Lawrence , painter, 1941
11th RCT1 Q3

DBQ Source 2

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11th RCT1 Q3

DBQ Source 3

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11th RCT1 Q3

DBQ Source 4

The following is letter to the editor of the Chicago Defender, an African-American newspaper with a wide readership across the United States:

DALLAS, TEX.,
April 23, 1917.
Dear Sir: Having been informed through the Chicago Defender paper that I can secure information from you. I am a constant reader of the Defender and am contemplating on leaving here for some point north. Having your city in view I thought to inquire of you about conditions for work, housing, wages and everything
necessary. I am now employed as a laborer in a structural shop, have worked for the firm five years.

I stored cars for Armour packing co. 3 years, I also claims to know something about candy making, am handy at most anything
for an honest living. I am 31 yrs. old have a very industrious wife, no children. If chances are available for work of any kind let me know. Any information you can give me will be highly appreciated.
3

Review the three sources and then write a 2-3 paragraph response to the following prompt:



What were the most important causes that led to thousands of Black Americans leaving the post-Reconstruction South?



Be sure to reference the sources and your background knowledge in your response, as needed.

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Teachers should read the student response and score up to 4 points for each of the criteria. The Social Studies Content Mastery should be scored based on the accuracy of the response based on the content standards. The De

Answer 1

The most important causes of the large migration of Black Americans out of the post‑Reconstruction South were a mix of economic hardship and racial oppression. Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series, Panel 1 (Source 1) visually captures families leaving the South, signifying that migration was a mass response to untenable conditions at home. The letter to the Chicago Defender from a Dallas laborer (Source 4) makes the economic motive explicit: he asks about “conditions for work, housing, wages” and lists only low‑paid, insecure jobs he has been forced to take. In the post‑Reconstruction South many Black families were trapped in sharecropping and tenant farming, faced declining cotton prices and boll weevil crop failures, and had little hope of stable, higher‑paying work. At the same time Jim Crow laws, disenfranchisement, segregation, and frequent racial violence (including lynching) made daily life dangerous and politically hopeless, pushing people to leave.

Pull factors in the North and Midwest completed the cause-and-effect dynamic. World War I and industrial expansion created labor shortages and offered higher wages and more steady factory employment; Northern cities also offered comparatively greater political freedom, schooling, and urban Black communities that could receive newcomers. The Chicago Defender and other Black newspapers (mentioned in Source 4) actively promoted northern opportunities and helped spread information, encouraging chain migration. In short, economic opportunity in the North combined with the push of racial oppression and economic exploitation in the South were the decisive reasons thousands of Black Americans migrated.