The Great Migration northward began before World War I

Evidence

Between 1900 and 1910 the black population grew significantly in southern cities as blacks forsook agriculture for better economic opportunity. The most dramatic increases occurred in Birmingham, which tripled its black population from 16,575 to 52,305; Atlanta, which grew from 35,727 to 51,902; Richmond, which rose from 32,230 to 46,733; and Jacksonville, Florida, which increased from 16,236 to 29,293. … After the turn of the century, economic factors together with pervasive racial restrictions and violence in the South accentuated the relative attractiveness of northern cities. World War I accelerated the migration already under way. The cessation of foreign immigration and wartime demands for labor pulled waves upon waves of black migrants northward. — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 787

Categorization

• XREF: Counters the common shorthand identifying the Great Migration with WWI’s wartime labor demand, when the shift to southern cities was already dramatic by 1910. — connects to: Cotton collapse, war industry, and immigration cuts triggered the Great Migration — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 906; World War I labor scarcity drove northern industry to recruit Black workers — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 997

Broader Connections

• Cotton collapse, war industry, and immigration cuts triggered the Great Migration #complicates (0.85) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 906
• World War I labor scarcity drove northern industry to recruit Black workers #complicates (0.78) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 997