Neighborhoods were redlined, unions resisted integration, and opportunity was meted out sparingly. Still, for many, life in the North offered something the Delta never could: a measure of dignity, a chance to shape their destiny.
Image: As migrants filled Northern factories, groups offering social services handed out advertising cards. University of Illinois at Chicago, The University Library, Special Collections Department, Arthur and Graham Aldis Papers
10/25
In these new lands, men found work at Ford, their hands greasy and their shifts long, but their paychecks allowed them to send their children to schools with opportunities they’d never dreamed of in the Delta. In them, Black families built tight-knit communities, their churches and businesses thriving in a new world of industry and ambition, where the future finally felt like more than a dream.
Image: The Buckeye Steel Castings Company in Columbus, Ohio Ohio Historical Society
11/25