In the modern world, many people view the African Americans as an urban people. However, this is a development that occurred and became a reality following The Great Migration which started in 1915. Before then most African Americans primarily lived in the rural Southern areas of the United States of America. During this historical event, more than 6 million African Americans migrated from the Southern areas governed by the Jim Crow laws and migrated towards the North and West of the United States. The migration was a sort of a revolution with no leader. It began after the World War I when labor shortage in the industrial revolution created a need for more African American human resources. As soon as the door initially opened for these opportunities, a flood of people joined and it became a revolution soon afterwards.
The migration also set the tone for the rise of the Civil Rights movement which was very instrumental in shaping the social identities of African Americans. It also influenced their music, culture, and sports in a big way as many from different regions found themselves together in an urban setting and found an identity in a culture they all shared. Their presence also brought about instances of fear and uncertainties in the cities where they eventually settled down. Most of the native residents in those cities who were primarily white met them with hostility and were blocked from being part of the “American Dream” that was all about the wellbeing of the average American. The Great Migration is a historical event that brought about a major change in the demographics of the American history.