The Great Migration is a term that refers to the movement of African Americans from the South to large cities in the North between approximately
1916 to 1940 in its first wave. World War I cut off the flow of European immigrants to the United States. Northern factories were growing and
needed more workers. They recruited African Americans from the South to help make up for the shortage of workers. African Americans were
eager to leave the South because of Jim Crow laws that led to mistreatment and violence against them. Many were sharecroppers who had
difficulty surviving economically, especially due to the loss of cotton crops during the war. Harlem also attracted black immigrants from the
Caribbean, promising greater prosperity and economic opportunity.