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 * The Jazz Age**

__Great Migration__ The racial makeup of the nation's cities underwent a major change during and after World War I. In the years following WWI, 1.5 million Southern blacks moved from Southern farms to Northern cities.

Conditions worsened greatly for African Americans in the South after Reconstruction ended in 1877. The Ku Klux Klan grew when Federal troops left the South. In efforts to try to maintain their social lifestyle, the Klan used fear tactics against African Americans. Jim Crow laws, in the South, stripped African Americans of freedoms and equality. By removing their right to vote, one of the most important rights was taken away from African-Americans. Without representation in government, African Americans in the South did not have a voice working for their interests.
 * Reasons for the migration**

After the 13th amendment ended slavery, many freed African Americans still were subjected to slave like conditions working as sharecroppers under white land owners. In the early 1900s, floods and an infestation of boll weevils (beetles) destroyed millions of acres of cotton. Southern states of Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi were hit the hardest and as a result, these states had the greatest number of African Americans who chose to move to the North. African Americans also had to work terribly long hours in the South-many worked seventy-five hours a week and were looking for change.

Employers in the North were interested in African-American labor from the South because our nation was growing industrially as more factories opened and were supplying the US and the world. They were willing to pay wages much greater than African Americans earned in the South working on farms. In fact, African Americans could earn $6-$8 per day in the Northern cities, doing what would take them a week to earn in the South. The African Americans who migrated from the South to the North typically found jobs as construction workers, teamsters, and janitors. As African Americans moved north, cities like Detroit, New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia grew tremendously.

Manufacturing increased dramatically in the Northern factories during World War I in order to produce war supplies for the Allies. Factories often doubled or tripled their labor force. Although African Americans received some of the lowest wages possible at the time in northern factories, they often viewed it as an advance compared to their former lifestyle in the South.



__Harlem__ __Renaissance__

It was time for a cultural celebration. Many African Americans discovered they had shared common experiences in their past histories and their uncertain present circumstances as they migrated North and settled in cities. Instead of wallowing in self-pity, the recently dispossessed ignited an explosion of cultural pride. Indeed, African American culture was reborn in the Harlem Renaissance.

The movement for black pride found its cultural expression in the Harlem Renaissance--the first major literary and artistic movement in African American history. The Harlem Renaissance promoted African American literature, arts, music, and history. A growing spirit of racial pride was evident. A group of talented writers, artists, dancers and musicians like Duke Ellington, Paul Robeson, Zora Neale Hurston, Claude McKay expressed pride in their culture and heritage despite Jim Crow laws. They created works like Hurston’s //Their Eyes Were Watching God//, performed at the Apollo theatre, and played songs like Louis Armstrong’s //What a Wonderful World//. No aspect of the Harlem Renaissance shaped America and the entire world as much as jazz.

__Jazz__ New Orleans played a great role in the evolution of jazz music in the 20th century. At this time, the people of New Orleans hailed from many different cultures. As new settlers arrived in New Orleans, musical traditions from all over the world began to unite. African American musicians merged European musical tradition with such music as blues, ragtime, and marching band to create a new style of music—jazz. As African Americans began migrating to northern cities like Chicago and New York in search of better opportunity, they brought with them the sounds of blues and jazz. Harlem Renaissance artists expressed their emotions through the jazz instruments like the trumpet, saxophone, trombone, piano and drums, as popular dances like the Charleston, Bees Knees, and Pedal Pusher were all the rage of flappers in the speakeasies and night clubs of the 1920s and 1930s. Jazz grew in popularity with the invention of the radio allowing the sound to be exposed to more Americans.



Works Cited: Marks, C. (1989). //Farewell-We’re good and gone.// Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

Scheuerell, S. //The Great Migration:Using a Problem-Based Learning Approach and the Internet//. Dubuque, IA.

http://www.historyjazz.com/jazzhistory.html