The Great Migration was the relocation of the United States’ Black population out of Southern cities and primarily toward the North. This migration was commonly in response to the Jim Crow laws and social structure that was present in the South, and the North was viewed as a place with better opportunities. Whether the North really was a better place for Black people can be debated, but it is clear that there was a shift of the Black population to the North. Atlanta, like most cities throughout the South, saw changes in its population, primarily in the 1940s. The decline in the Black population in Atlanta in the 1940s could be tied to the increase in hate groups and the rise in modern conservatism as Black people pushed for their civil rights.
1 As previously discussed in my past projects, Atlanta’s population quickly grew, surpassing Savannah’s population by the 1880s. Atlanta’s population did not see a decrease in overall population until the 1970s when Atlanta’s population began to deteriorate. The above graph is a depiction of Atlanta’s overall population change from the 1850s to the 2010s, but it does not show the changes in specific groups of people. Because of this, the above graph does not clearly show how the Great Migration impacted Atlanta.
2 By looking at the official Census Data, one can see that the growth of the Black population was beginning to slow down in comparison to the white population between the 1910s and 1920s. This likely shows the beginning of the Great Migration in Atlanta, Georgia.
3 In this map, one can see the beginnings of the population shift, starting primarily in places like Alabama, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Atlanta's Black population during this time increased by 16.7%. This growth does make sense when compared to the earlier graph depicting Census Data from 1910 to 1920. The 1910s saw the reintroduction of the Ku Klux Klan, and the growth of the second-KKK inspired more hate groups to spawn in the US. Despite Atlanta being seen as an example of the New South and later a hub for civil rights protests, the city was home to hateful and violent groups that worked to uphold white supremacy.
The Great Migration was in full effect by the 1940s as many large Southern cities saw a significant decrease in their Black population. Even in this time when many cities were experiencing a decrease in their Black population, Atlanta actually saw an increase by a mere 1.1%. Despite Atlanta still seeing a slight increase in its Black population, it is clear that growth was rapidly stalling. During the 1940s, groups like the Columbians were active in the city as vigilante police forces attempting to maintain the white status quo. These hateful groups made it difficult for Atlanta to maintain their reputation as the city of the New South, a hub of peaceful race relations. The push for civil rights created an inverse effect of hate groups that complicated life in Atlanta. The 1940s marks a shift in the perception of Atlanta, Georgia that would continue to worsen into the 1990s.
Atlanta, Georgia was and continues to be a successful Southern city with a complex past. Atlanta contains a diverse culture in spite of the hate that existed within the city in the 1900s. Looking at how the population boomed in the late 1800s only for the Black population to stall between 1910 and 1940 shows that there were forces at play within the city to cause outward migration. The increase in hateful groups likely played a large part in the decrease in the Black population as they sought safer environments. While at first glance, it may look as though Atlanta was not hit heavily by the Great Migration because its population increased in both the 1910s and 1940s, it is important to acknowledge the stalling of growth. Atlanta's population until the 1980s was on a steep increase; therefore, the stalling of the growth of the Black population is significant even if it was not a drastic decrease like in other Southern cities. Atlanta is a unique city in the South that worked to market itself as a progressive alternative to other cities, but through data, one can see that Atlanta was affected by the Great Migration like all other Southern cities.
- U.S. Census Bureau and Erik Steiner, Spatial History Project, Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis, Stanford University. [↩]
- US Census Bureau; Census 1910, “Composition and Characteristics of the Population,” Georgia, Table IV, https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1910/volume-2/volume-2-p4.pdf (1910). [↩]
- This map and the one for 1940 pinpoints specific cities and shares the percent of change of the Black population across the United States. I chose the mountain range for the pointers because their height more clearly shows the drastic changes in the population while still being able to see where they are on the map. I chose the blue and yellow design in case someone was colorblind. The variation in value of the colors should still be readable for those that do not see a full range of colors. It must be noted that some cities may be in the wrong states because the coordinates of the cities were autogenerated, but I have done my best to go through and fix all errors that I was able to find. [↩]
