| Lesson Plans For The Great Migration |
| Entrepreneurs and the African-American Dream Lesson Plan |
| Grade levels: Middle and high school, grades 6-12 |
| Concentration area: History, Economics |
| The narrative The Great Migration discusses how individuals and industries forged opportunities for themselves and African-American workers outside the South. The lesson Entrepreneurs and the African-American Dream should be used as a follow-up activity to or in conjunction with the narrative in either history or economics classes. Students will make a simple graph of labor supply and labor demand in the North and South in the early twentieth century. They then will conduct research using business journals, corporate reports, and the Internet to identify top contemporary African-American entrepreneurs.
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| Priorities and Power Lesson Plan: Migrants and Voting |
| Grade levels: Middle school, grades 6-8 |
| Concentration area: History, U.S. Government |
| The "Quest for Political Power" segment of the narrative, The Great Migration recounts African-American migrants' eager entry into the political process. Priorities and Power is a lesson plan that may be used with this narrative in history or political science/government classes. Students first will be polled on their plans to get a driver's license and drive, as well as their plans to register to vote and actually to vote. Once students have examined their own attitudes about voting, they will investigate the relationship between the increase in African-American voters and the increase in a) civil rights legislation and b) programs designed to help the African-American community.
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| To Move or Not to Move? Decision-Making and Sacrifice Lesson Plan |
| Grade levels: Middle school, grades 6-8 |
| Concentration area: History, Social Studies |
| The narrative The Great Migration raises questions involved in decision-making and recounts the sacrifices made by African-American migrants. Many students take for granted both mobility and instant gratification, so the lesson To Move or Not to Move? introduces them to the concepts of decision-making, cost-benefit analysis, deferred gratification, and sacrifice. Students will research and role-play African Americans in the South in the early twentieth century, seeking to balance their search for opportunity with the sacrifices they will have to make.
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| Two American Tales Lesson Plan: The Immigrants' Experiences |
| Grade levels: Middle school, grades 6-8 |
| Concentration area: History, Social Studies |
| The narrative The Great Migration describes the experiences of migrants to the cities of the United States. Two American Tales asks students to compare and contrast the nearly contemporaneous experiences of European immigrants and African-American migrants in U.S. cities. This lesson should be used in conjunction with reading the narrative or studying the European and Asian migration to the United States. Students will read both their textbook's account and the narrative, taking notes on a Venn diagram to organize the information they retrieve into similarities and differences.
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| What Does It Cost? Wages and Expenses in Historical Context Lesson Plan |
| Grade levels: Middle and high school, grades 6-12 |
| Concentration area: History, Economics |
| The segment "A New Industrial Landscape" of the narrative The Great Migration recounts how the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated in 1919 that $43 was the minimum weekly wage for a family of five. Students are often curious about how anyone can live on $43 per day, let alone a family of five for a week. So, this lesson, What Does It Cost?, is designed to help students understand the relative value of a historical dollar. Students will research through old newspaper ads to find prices for food, housing, clothing, transportation, and recreation. Then, they should calculate how many minutes, hours, or days a worker being paid about 91 cents an hour for a 47-hour workweek would have to work to purchase the five items they have priced and to rent an apartment.
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| The Great Migration Lesson Plan: Comparing/Contrasting Northern Life to Southern Life |
| Grade levels: Middle and high school, grades 6-12 |
| Concentration area: History |
| After Plessy v. Ferguson and the institutionalization of Jim Crow laws in the South, many African Americans migrated to the North in hope of a better life. After reading The Great Migration and viewing related videos/films on The Great Migration, students will create a chart comparing the lives of African Americans still residing in the South during this period with those who participated in The Great Migration. Students should make sure that materials used show the positive as well as the negative experiences of the African-American people during this migration. Students will then write a position paper stating whether or not The Great Migration was beneficial or detrimental to those who participated in it. Appropriate for middle and high school students, the culminating activity will entail students presenting and arguing their standpoints in front of an impartial panel.
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| Is this the Promised Land? |
| Grade levels: High school, grades 11-12 |
| Concentration area: History
: U.S. Government |
| The Great Migration is one of the largest population shifts in the history of the United States. The Great Migration details the factors contributing to the migration of African Americans to the North, the networks and media used to influence them to move, as well as the impact the migration had on the people, the country, and the culture. In this lesson, students will explore the "broken promises" such as overcrowding, poverty, housing, and broken wage promises that African Americans encountered as a result of moving north during the period of 1916-1930. Students will then create journal entries detailing the life of African Americans during this period. The journal entries will reflect upon the point of view and frame of reference, and detail the positive and negative aspects of moving north.
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| The Great Migration Lesson Plan |
| Grade levels: Middle and high school, grades 6-12 |
| Concentration area: History |
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This lesson focuses on the Great Migration, dating 1916-1930. Students will use a variety of resources from the Schomburg Center for the Study of Black Culture, including the narrative The Great Migration written by their scholars; external web sites that have been evaluated by teachers for their resource value; and maps and other visual resources. This lesson focuses on the pioneers who left the familiar South to move toward the promise of a better life, and those pioneers who paved the way for others to follow. Appropriate for middle school and high school students, the lesson's goal is to allow the student a well-rounded study of the migration.
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| The Great Migration Lesson Plan |
| Grade levels: Middle and high school, grades 6-12 |
| Concentration area: History
: U.S. Government |
| Students will use a variety of resources, including the narrative The Great Migration, maps, images, and external web sites. This lesson focuses on the pioneers who left the familiar South to move toward the promise of a better life, and those who paved the way for others to follow. Appropriate for middle school and high school students, the lesson's goal is to allow the student a well-rounded study of the migration.
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| Mapping Twentieth Century African-American Migration |
| Grade levels: High School, grades 9–12 |
| Concentration area: Geography |
| The website includes many maps among its resource materials. Maps bring the migration of African-Americans of the twentieth century to life, visually organizing statistical information for students. The lesson, Mapping Twentieth Century African-American Migration, is designed to help students develop their analytical skills when examining maps by comparing, contrasting, and sequencing information using : Principal States of Origin of the Migrants 1910–1930; Principal States of Origin of the Migrants 1940–1950; African-Americans Going South 1995–2000; The Great Migration; The Second Great Migration; Interstate Migrations 1955–1995; The Second Great Migration Gaines and Losses 1940–1970; and Reverse Migration 1975–2000. Students will use the activities in this lesson to compare and contrast states of origin and destination states at the beginning and end of the Great Migration, the Second Great Migration, and the Reverse Migration (in conjunction with their reading of the narratives The Great Migration, the Second Great Migration, Return South Migration.)Students will assess how geographical features such as the Appalachian Mountains and Mississippi River impacted settlement and evaluate whether modernized transportation (railroads, the interstate system) lessened the role of geography in migration.
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