Labor History Links

An estimated 28 million Black, White, Latino, Asian, and Native American southerners left the region in the 20th century, joining in the great migrations we call the Southern Diaspora. Many, especially Black migrants, settled in the big cities of the North and West. This page accompanies the main pages of the Southern Diaspora section. These interactive maps and charts show decade by decade the number of southerners living in northern and western metropolitan areas (central cities and surrounding country). Filter by racial categories

Illinois, like other midwestern states, experienced rapid population growth through migration in the 19th century and much slower growth since then. Recording a population of 851,000 in 1850, the state doubled its numbers by 1860, doubled again by 1880, and again before 1910. It has taken a century to double the 1910 total.

This is part 2 of the sequence on the Black Great Migration out of the South. It follows a short introduction to the several Black migrations. The interactive maps and data tables below provide detailed information about the movement of African Americans out of the South from 1900-2000. Use them to investigate volumes and directions. The first map reveals decade-by-decade the number of southerners living in northern and western states. Select a state of origin and see where people went. Another map shows similar data for each metropolitan area where Black southerners settled. A third allows us to highlight a northern or western state and see which southern states contributed the most migrants. Or start with a southern state and see where its people went. Finally an interactive table provides the data behind these visualizations

Here are interactive maps and charts that show various dimensions of the great migrations out of the South. They show decade by decade the number of southerners living in northern and western states. Select a state of origin and see where people went. Or select a state of residence and see the states of origin. Filter or compare by racial categories. The maps are hosted by Tableau Public. If slow, refresh the page.

Americans have always been a moving people, coming from other places, moving to new places. Not only has the nation long attracted people from beyond its borders, it also claims high rates of internal migration. Here are interactive graphics and maps that allow us to track the changing population of each state decade-by-decade since 1850. Select a state and see where people were born, both other countries and other states, filter by race. We have more detail on separate pages for Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, Utah, Washington. This visualization tool is hosted by Tableau Public and may take a few seconds to respond. If slow, refresh the page.

interactive maps and charts that show various dimensions of the great migrations out of the South. They show decade by decade the number of southerners living in northern and western states. Select a state of origin and see where people went. Or select a state of residence and see the states of origin. Filter or compare by racial categories.

The southern exodus and its impact on American life
Between 1900 and the 1970s, twenty million southerners migrated north and west. Weaving together for the first time the histories of these black and white migrants, James Gregory traces their paths and experiences in a comprehensive new study that demonstrates how this regional diaspora reshaped America by “southernizing” communities and transforming important cultural and political institutions.

Challenging the image of the migrants as helpless and poor, Gregory shows how both black and white southerners used their new surroundings to become agents of change. Combining personal stories with cultural, political, and demographic analysis, he argues that the migrants helped create both the modern civil rights movement and modern conservatism. They spurred changes in American religion, notably modern evangelical Protestantism, and in popular culture, including the development of blues, jazz, and country music.

In a sweeping account that pioneers new understandings of the impact of mass migrations, Gregory recasts the history of twentieth-century America. He demonstrates that the southern diaspora was crucial to transformations in the relationship between American regions, in the politics of race and class, and in the roles of religion, the media, and culture.

Here are the locations of eight shack towns that housed homeless people in the Seattle area in the 1930s. The largest, known as "Hooverville," was on Elliot Bay near the present site of Qwest stadium. Click to see this interactive google map and accompanying photos and descriptions of each site. https://depts.washington.edu/depress/Unemployed_Citizens_League.shtml Map: Unemployed Citizens League Branches, Seattle
Hoovervilles in Seattle: Map and Photoshttps://depts.washington.edu/depress/map_UCL.shtml
Here are the locations of eight shack towns that housed homeless people in the Seattle area in the 1930s. The largest, known as "Hooverville," was on Elliot Bay near the present site of Qwest stadium. Click the markers to see photos and descriptions of each site. See https://depts.washington.edu/depress/hooverville_map.shtml

"This project explores a number of consequential migrations--Great Migrations--that helped reshape culture, politics, or economic structures.
It has six units. . . (with) interactive maps, charts, and data:
(1) the Great Migration of African Americans out of the South 1900-2000; the reverse migration to the South 1970-2020; state by state Black migration histories
(2) the enormously consequential migrations of Latinx Americans, both from Latin America and inside the US (1850-2017);
(3) the diaspora of whites from the South to northern and western states;
(4) the Dust Bowl migration to California from Oklahoma and neighboring states in the 1930s.
(5) In addition, we provide migration histories for all fifty states showing decade-by-decade from 1850-2017 where residents have come from."
This site is based on published and unpublished work by James Gregory, Professor of History, University of Washington. It is part of the Civil Rights and Labor History Consortium of public history projects directed by Professor Gregory at the University of Washington.

This page introduces the history of Asian and Pacific Islanders migration to the United States and between states - a sequence of consequential migrations that have transformed the US. This introductory page leads to a set of interactive maps, charts, and tables found on the Mapping Asian American and Pacific Islander Migrations page. Those visualizations allow us to separately track the migration history of people from many nations in Asia and the Pacific. We also highlight the importance of internal migration by showing state of birth and state of residence for the millions of American born persons of Asian heritage.

"This page introduces the history of European immigration--one of the "great migrations" that have transformed America. It utilizes the interactive maps, charts, and tables found on the Mapping European Immigration and Ancestry page. Those visualizations allow us to separately track the migration history of people from every part of Europe since 1820. We also report on the state-to-state population of persons born in Europe and separately on census information on ancestry. GO TO MAPPING PAGE"

This page introduces the history of Latinx migration--a sequence of "great migrations" that have transformed the Americas-- and accompanies the interactive maps, charts, and tables found on the Mapping the Latinx Great Migrations page. Those visualizations allow us to separately track the migration history of people from every nation in Latin America. We can also explore internal migration. Most Latinx Americans, now and in every decade since 1850, were born in the United States, and their relocations have been consequential, especially the northward relocations of Tejanos and other Southwesterners.
See the Maps at Mapping the Latinx Great Migrations

"These maps reveal the migration history of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders both into the United States and from state to state within US borders. Filters allow you to separately track the migrations of people from many nations. Because these are based on US census data they are incomplete and subject to the definitions and categories that the Census Bureau imposes each decade.:

This is part 2 of the sequence on the European immigration. It follows Part 1 short essay which explains the history and geography of this world changing migration.
Here we track European immigrants and European ancestries by country of origin using three kinds of data.
(1) Ship passenger records and federal immigration tallies, 1820-2020;
(2) Census counts of birthplaces 1850-2023; and census counts of declared ancestry 1980-2023.
Filters allow you to specify countries of origin and select particular states to see birthplace and ancestry distributions.
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Here are six maps and charts that allow you to explore the history of Latinx migration both into the United States and within its borders.Map shows the number of Latinx Americans born in each Latin American nation. The map numbers do not include US born of the same heritage.
1) US born and those born abroad for each national heritage. Click red buttons to move through the decades.
2)Latinx population showing national backgrounds by state and decade
3)US born and non US born Latinx Americans 1850-2022
4)Latinx Americans living in the US who were born outside the 50 states by decade 1850-2022.
5) Latinx population in United States by decade

Americans have always been a moving people, coming from other places, moving to new places. Not only has the nation long attracted people from beyond its borders, it also claims high rates of internal migration. Here are interactive graphics and maps that allow us to track the changing population of each state decade-by-decade since 1850. Select a state and see where people were born, both other countries and other states, filter by race. Be advised that the America's Great Migration Project also has more detail on separate pages for California, Florida, Illinois, Texas, New York, Virginia, Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Oregon, Utah, Washington.

The press called them Dust Bowl refugees, although actually few came from the area devastated by dust storms. Instead they came from a broad area encompassing four southern plains states: Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri. More than half a million left the region in the 1930s, mostly heading for California. In a decade when migration rates dropped nationwide, the families leaving the southern plains attracted a great deal of attention. Even before John Steinbeck translated the experience into one of the classic American novels of the twentieth century, the migration had become a media event, tracked by journalists, documented by photographers like Dorothea Lange. Here are resources for exploring the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and the longer story of migration between the southern plans and the West Coast.

Over the course of the 20th century, more than seven million African Americans left homes in the South to resettle in northern and western states. Historians have long described this exodus as the Great Migration, great not just because of the numbers of people who moved but also because of the social and political consequences. Once a people of the South, Black Americans became increasingly part of the big cities of all regions and in those urban settings steadily gained political and cultural influence. The Great Migration was thus key to the struggles and accomplishments of the long civil rights movement. This page introduces resources for exploring the Great Migration, including several sets of interactive maps and tables showing where people settled and where they came from decade by decade.
Map-Migration from South 1900-2000
Map-Reverse Migration to South 1970-2022
Map-State to State Migration 1850-2020

For as long as there has been something called the American South, southerners in significant numbers have been leaving. The region itself expanded through migration as white southerners in the early 1800s carved out new states for cotton and slavery. Others moved to places that today are understood to be regionally separate from the South. White out-migration grew especially heavy in the two decades after the Civil War, with many leaving for farming opportunities and others heading for the Norths big cities—New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Chicago— where the nation's commerce concentrated. Census takers at the end of the century counted over one million southern-born whites living outside their birth region.

The Southern Diaspora may have been the most momentous American population movement of the twentieth century. Between 1900 and 1980 more than 20 million southerners left their home region looking for jobs in the cities, suburbs, and farms of the North and West. Most visible were the African American southerners whose migration transformed urban America and set the stage for important changes in racial understandings and the rights of people of color. White southern migrants outnumbered black migrants and in some settings were almost as controversial. Called "hillbillies" in the North and "Okies" out West, the whites faced challenges different than most Americans who move across state lines. This site introduces the history of the Southern Diaspora and serves as a companion to the prize-winning book by James N. Gregory, The Southern Diaspora: How The Great Migrations of Black and White Southerners Transformed America (University of North Carolina Press, 2005). Historians usually separate the stories of the Great Migration of black southerners from the Dust Bowl and Appalachian migrations of whites. The Southern Diaspora brings them together to show the connections and differences. Here you will find information about the experiences of migrating southerners of both races. You will also find information on the impact and legacy of the dual migrations.

Digitized access to conventions, and other sources for the study of the IWW -link broken

Some of the most inventive and persuasive political cartoons of the 20th century were directed at Upton Sinclair and his End Poverty in California plan. Sinclair's long and colorful record as a crusader for radical causes and the utopian dimensions of the EPIC plan made easy targets for newspaper cartoonists. Sinclair compiled some of the best of the Anti-EPIC cartoons in his book, I, Candidate for Governor of California: And How I Got Licked. Here are 33 of them.

A bibliography detailing key primary and secondary source materials for those wishing to investigate Upton Sinclair's 1934 EPIC Campaign beyond what can be found on the Upton Sinclair's End Poverty in California Campaign Project website.

From August through November 1934, EPIC was covered in newspapers and magazines across the country, earning story after story and almost as many political cartoons. Here is a sample of articles from influential news magazines and newspapers.

Here are examples of campaign literature for and against 1934 California gubernatorial candidate Upton Sinclair.