The Great Migration: Racial Violence in the Midwest and Northern Part of United States
by The oppressive weight of southern racism became a major push factor, as thousands – and later, millions – of African-Americans left the only homes they knew for new opportunities elsewhere. The growing tide of race riots and lynchings were key forces providing enormous impetus to these migrations.
In 1923, the all-black community of Rosewood, Florida, suffered a similar fate. After a white woman in a neighboring community claimed that she had been raped-apparently to hide an extramarital affair she was having-hundreds of whites descended on Rosewood. After a week of rioting, the entire town was destroyed and as many as 300 African Americans were killed. Again, a prosperous black community was razed at the hands of a white mob. What both of these cases prove is that economic competition and white supremacy were not the only provocation for race riots in the United States. Jealousy and the fear of African Americans acquiring wealth and property were also significant factors.
During a renewed effort to make the world safe for democracy, the country witnessed another wave of race riots in 1943. Major disturbances occurred in Detroit, Harlem, and Mobile. Again, labor competition was among the principal causes in these examples. Although there would be a number of white-on-black murders, civil rights assassinations, and at least two more lynchings-Emmett Till (1956) and Mack Charles Parker (1959)-the tide of racial violence shifted dramatically in the aftermath of World War II. With a handful of exceptions, the vast majority of race riots in the postwar era were urban revolts that involved black mobs attacking white business owners and police officers. White flight, which resulted in the creation of impoverished black urban ghettos, created a volatile powder keg. It was the frequent examples of police brutality and ”justifiable homicide” that often served as the spark. The result of these combined factors was massive and destructive riots in Los Angeles, California; Newark, New Jersey; and Detroit, Michigan, among others. These examples continue to epitomize race riots even in the twenty-first century.
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