The Monument to Great Northern Migration (Alison Sarr); Celebration of AMERICAN and WORLD Cultural Heritage

Chicago, 1996: MLK & 25/26th streets

THE Voice of the Southern Diaspora?

The Delta in Diaspora…. there and back again: Geographic Perspectives on the 20th

Century Engine of American AND World History

Select Delta Diaspora Bibliography (see hand-out)

& documentary film

Children & Young Adult

Broader Geographical Histories

See related web-site: http://faculty.washington.edu/gregoryj/diaspora/

Participant FamilyNarratives

Migration as a major theme in African-American cultural production (music, art, photography, literature, correspondence, etc.)

Literary archaeology of the Great Migration, incorporating foci from broad range of literary voices

Autobiographical account of the Diaspora

“I was leaving the SouthTo fling myself into the unknown…..I was talking part of the South To transplant in alien soil, To see if it could grow differently,If it could drink of new and cool rains, Bend in strange winds,Respond to the warmth of other sunsAnd, perhaps, to bloom” - Richard Wright (Black Boy, 1945, alternative title – American Hunger)

***press release: “The true story of life in AMERICA …..”***

What is a “diaspora”?- an extraordinary mass-migration?- relocated ethnic “collective”?- scattering of “cultural” seeds? * Emphasis on outcome of cultural germination & development!*- awareness (ex. documentation)? Atlantic Slave Trade; 1502-1870

The Jewish Diaspora

The Chinese Diaspora

The African Diaspora

See Berlin. 2010. The Making of African America: The Four Great Migrations.

The History of the African & African-American Experience as Defined by Four Major Migration Streams (stages of the African Diaspora?):

1.Middle Passage (Atlantic Slave Trade)2.Move from Atlantic Seaboard to Southern Interior of North America (MS Delta as major destination!)3.The Southern Diaspora, or the Great Migration (South-to-North & West) (MS Delta as major source!)4.Arrival of people of African descent to U.S. from the World (20th & 21st Century); ex. Lagos to the Bronx

DIASPORAS & THE EVOLUTION OF CULTURAL (EX. ETHNIC) IDENTITIES - Delta plays a critical role!

Movement, Migration & Diffusion: Is the African/Southern/Trans-Atlantic Diaspora THE Story

of American (U.S.) Music? THE Story of America?

Southern Diaspora

“He (Elvis) had hips that swiveled from Europe to Africa, which is the whole point of America” – U2 lead singer Bono

Diffusion stream 1

Diffusion streams 2/3

Architects of Cultural Change

_____< >

(Troutman 2013); An Hawaiian Influence? Ex. Steel/Slide Guitar

2.5

Geographic Evolution of Blues Culture (Map with Alan Marcus)

Diffusion stream 4

Was the Delta the regional prism through which the King’s hips swiveled? … through which layers of diffusion progressed?

Participants (architects of change) that germinated elsewhere

Willie Morris

Chicago; 444 E. 47th St(Bronzeville: The Black Metropolis)

Bobby Jo Moon (aka Zhou Yao Kuan)

Lillian Hellman

Did Deltans find their “gim-san” here?

Delta Diaspora in Action: Diffusion of Geophagy & assimilation of Asian hair

Africa MS Delta Chicago Tokyo & beyond (and reverse!)

Sites from which clays were taken Holmes County, MS

The Southern Diaspora: Geographical Perspectives

• 4 Questions: 1) Where, 2) Why, 3) How, 4) So What?• Largest internal migration in U.S. history (22.5 million???)

– In 1910, 2.7 million southerners lived outside region; by 1980 = 12 million

– In 1910 75% African-Americans in South; 1970 = 50%• (1910-45, 1.5 million migrants; 1945-70 over 5 million)

Where? Illinois vs. Mississippi?

1910IL = 1.9 % black (109,000)MS = 56.2 % black (1,009, 487)

1970 IL = 12.8% black (1,400,000)MS = 36.8% black (815,770)

*All 3 migration streams evident in Wilkerson’s The Warm of Other Suns & within Po “Monkeys on Family Night! (6/28/12 & 6/26/14)*

Pathways of The Great Migration

Push Factors?• racial oppression; JIM CROW

– segregation, share-cropping, discrimination

• economic setbacks in southern economy

– ex. boll weavil blues

• agricultural mechanization?

Belzoni, MS; 1939

- The “emancipator” or “terminator”?- A “cause” or an “effect” of migration? (2nd Great Emancipation; Holley 2000)

- (made in Chicago!)

Why the mass exodus?

Hopson Plantation; 1944

Pull Factors?• perception of equal opportunity

• labor demand; ex. industrialization

• geographic mobility as psychological freedom

– Ex. “Rambling” & the “Blues lifestyle” as a counter-cultural activity (“I’m a Rollin’ Stone”)

Voice from “The Great North”?

* MONEY & DIGNITY! * (“money, baby!” – Phyllis & Bo, Po’ Monkey patrons; 6/28/12)

Why Chicago?

Southern Black Family arrives in Chicago; circa 1919

“The biggest city in Mississippi!” (Muddy)

Why Chicago? HOW does Chicago relate to

the Delta & vice-versa?

- intersection of national rail-road system

The

- Relative location of Illinois-Central to Southern “black belt”

* “When a man gets the blues Lord, he grabs a train and rides…” (Mamie Desdumes; 1890s )

Rapid Population Growth: The Chicago Black Belt, 1910 and 1920

1910 1920

The Chicago “Black Belt”, 1960 & 1990; The “Black Metropolis”

1960 1990

http://www.uic.edu/orgs/kbc/Archives/Guggenheim/animsidelegend.gif (this site includes an animated map showing the growth of Chicago’s South Side) * Diaspora corresponds to & influences the academic study of urban areas (ex. Urban models, Urban Ecology, demographic change, etc.) *

Ghettoization, yet such urban spaces facilitate new forms of power, influence & identity!

Chicago: “The City with Big Shoulders”• Rapid, diverse economic

growth– Manufacturing Center

– “Hog-Butcher to the World”– “It was the Promised Land - if you

can’t make it in Chicago, you can’t make it anywhere!” (Ruby Hopkins, migrant from Clarksdale, MS and Trina of Cleveland, MS)

Stock Yards

U.S. Steel