This exodus, sometimes referred to as the Great Migration, was far enough under way by 1940 (1.5 million moved) to have created large black communities in Northern cities-New York's Harlem and Chicago's South Side being the most famous examples. The outbreak of World War I in 1914 accelerated the black migration rate dramatically, as Northern industries striving to keep production in step with wartime demand encountered labor shortages; Southern black workers, responding to the need, welcomed the chance to trade their old lives (most often as impoverished field hands or tenant farmers) for new ones as factory workers.
African Americans raised in the South continued to find this bargain attractive for decades to come. While the move fell far short of gaining for them a life of economic and social justice, it undeniably offered a leap forward in personal freedom, earning power, and, over the long term, political power. The movement north put the issue of race-formerly regarded as a primarily Southern concern-on the national political agenda, setting the stage for the national civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
Ellison's nameless protagonist participates in this historic migration, much as the author himself did: the character in the novel hopes to make college tuition money by finding a comparatively well-paying job in Harlem.
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