Livin’ for the city: African American ethnogenesis and depression era migration

Abstract

Urban ethnogenesis is a process by which a group creates and maintains social networks and communication patterns as the basis for institutional and communal life in urban areas. Ethnogenesis is a foundation upon which most historical, urbanward migrations have been built, including the “Great Migration” of African Americans during the first half of this century. Although a period of decreased migration, the Depression was marked by sizeable movement in which nearly 10% of the total African American population moved interregionally. Ethnogenic measures such as NAACP activism, the number of community newspapers directed at African Americans, and the longevity of a chapter of the National Urban League significantly increased migration flows.

News About Murder in an African American Newspaper: Effects of Relative Frequency and Race and Gender Typifications

“…As one of two "satellite editions" (Hollingworth 1975, p. 58) of the main Cleveland newspaper, the Call and Post's goal was to provide a platform and voice for Columbus's African American community. By the mid-1960s it is estimated that the Call and Post reached about one-quarter of Columbus's African American community on a weekly basis (Hollingsworth 1975, p. 109 (Hollingsworth 1975;La Brie 1978;Price-Spratlen 1999), focuses primary attention on issues involving the local African American community and on the activities of the people who compose that community. It does not attempt to be a comprehensive newspaper.…”

A Sense of Place: African Americans, Ethnogenesis and the Search for a “Black Mecca”

“…Between 1955 and 1960, over 300,000 people migrated to the North and Midwest. Driven by entrenched traditions of racism, segregation and scarcity of opportunity, African Americans moved north for freedom from Jim Crow, fairer wage labor and a fresh start (Price-Spratlen, 1998, 1999). Movement to the North was not however a freedom from racism as many Northern and Midwestern states began writing and enforcing discriminatory legislation to limit African American access to education, housing, home ownership as well as economic and social mobility.…”

“…To illustrate the historical and contemporary implications of this ethnogenesis, it is necessary to evaluate the migration consequences of African American efforts to sustain group identity and establish social and communal networks in everyday life. During the Great Migration, Price-Spratlen (1999, 1998) states that ethnogenesis created a sense of “place” whereby living conditions in urban destinations were enhanced. Support systems like the National Urban League (NUL) were instrumental in finding jobs for African Americans when they arrived in Northern and Midwestern metropolitan areas.…”

“…In other words, they are the children or grandchildren of those who left the South during the Great Migration and are returning back to settle. Price-Spratlen (1998, 1999) states that African American migrants-both return and non-return often follow familial paths linking them to established and new ethnogenic networks. Even for migrants who have never lived in the South, the history of the region is saturated with complexities and long-term multi-generational kinship bonds.…”

“…As such, movement is often based on the existence of community structures which provide "ethnogenic" support and structure. Price-Spratlen (1999, 1998 underscores the importance of regions with support systems such as the presence of a chapter for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), National Urban League, African American newspapers as well as churches. Likewise, Pendergrass (2017) states that while many African Americans stated that their migration to the South was rooted in economic concerns, it was also tied to strong "ethnogenic" connections to religion and the Black church in the South.…”