World War I was a transformative moment in African-American history. The American industrial economy grew significantly
during the war. However, the conflict also cut off European immigration and reduced the pool of available cheap labor. Unable
to meet demand with existing European immigrants and white women alone, northern businesses increasingly looked to black
southerners to fill the void. In turn, the prospect of higher wages and improved working conditions prompted thousands of
black southerners to abandon their agricultural lives in the south and moved to urban areas in the North. In a movement known
as the Great Migration , between 1914 and 1920 roughly 500,000 black southerners packed their bags and headed to the
North.
Another factor that drove many African Americans to the urban areas in northern states during the Great Migration was the
proliferation of violence against blacks in the Jim Crow era. Jim Crow laws were in effect across the United States, but
lynching and violence against blacks was most heavily concentrated in the southern states. On a more positive note, the Great
Migration also supported cultural growth in the arts and music in urban areas for African Americans; an example of this was
the Harlem Renaissance.
The war most directly impacted those African Americans called to fight and labor in the military overseas. Over 200,000
crossed the Atlantic and served in France. The war became a rallying point for black leaders to call for political change at
home. It would be insincere , many black people argued, for the United States to fight for democracy in Europe while African
Americans remained second-class citizens at home. "If America truly understands the functions of democracy and justice, she
must know that she must begin to promote democracy and justice at home first of all," Arthur Shaw of New York proclaimed.
When many black soldiers returned to the United States looking for employment and seeking the rights they had as equals on
the battlefield, tensions arose. In 1919, the United States saw major race riots across the country; known as “Red Summer”
the violence spread throughout the country resulting in the deaths of many African Americans.
