In 1917s, the great migration of the black community from the South part of the U.S. caused over 1.5 million African Americans to move in just 25 years. People were running from poverty, peonage, stagnant wages, and violence they experienced in Jim Crow. Also, natural disasters such as floods, withering of crops forced African Americans to seek shelter in another area and a decently paid job. The economic depression of the South also initiated an escalated rate of migration in an attempt to have a better life. Nonetheless, some black people were firmly against moving since they considered the South their historical Motherland.
Some black businesspeople opposed migration as it had an apparent detrimental effect on their business. Nonetheless, the North presented a less biased community and greater job opportunities due to impending war. With the lack of white immigrant workers, Northern war industries had to hire black migrants. To conclude, despite an extensive migration pattern, nearly six million African Americans stayed in the South in fear of social hostility, unemployment and race riots.
In 1925, Zora Neale Hurston, an African American writer and anthropologist, challenged the famous and old belief that black people are intelligently inferior because of the smaller cranial capacity. Using a simple method of measuring a skull, the collected by Hurston data helped other academics to prove craniology to be a pseudoscience. Hurston started her career as a writer in the college where everything she wrote “was informed by anthropology and by the core belief inequality.” Despite the post-colonial regime and strong biases towards black people, Hurston was able to decolonize her mind and support the affirmative spirit of African Americans.
She was proud to carry her heritage and identity that was vibrant, unique, and, most importantly, equal to any other culture. The invaluable contribution of Hurston, as a person of color and a woman, is impressive and means a lot to the black community of modern America. Further input of black people, such as Hurston, and protests helped expand comprehension of African American lives and identity.
Work Cited
White, Deborah G, et al. Freedom on My Mind: A History of African Americans, with Documents. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2013.