What was the Great Migration? According to the National Archives, “it was one of the largest movements of people in United States history. Approximately six million Black people moved from the American South to Northern, Midwestern, and Western states roughly from the 1910s until the 1970s. The driving force behind the mass movement was to escape racial violence, pursue economic and educational opportunities, and obtain freedom from the oppression of Jim Crow.”
I would often amaze my Black students when I taught at leading universities by telling them which state their grand- or great grandparents were from, unless their origins were from the Caribbean or if they were second or third generation African immigrants. I had a 90% accuracy rate.
For a person living in Chicago, their relatives were likely from Mississippi. People in Ohio or Michigan most likely can trace their origins to Georgia. Those in Connecticut would overwhelmingly be from North Carolina, and those in California from Arkansas or Louisiana. I could go on.
Let us look at the root causes of the Great Migration and the largest domestic terrorist acts in America, the harassment and the lynching of Black Americans by the Ku Klux Klan. The two go together. Is it possible that the “stars are lining up again”? Putting all eggs in one basket per voting has been proven to be unwise for the Black community, though beneficial for political leaders.
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Once Black people who were former slaves had the right to vote all during the 19th Century, they voted nearly unanimously for Republicans. Twenty-two Black Republican men were elected to either the U.S. House or U.S. Senate – zero Black Democrats Members of Congress until the 1930s. The reason: Republicans got all the credit for freeing the slaves. President Abraham Lincoln and General Ulysses Grant were Republicans. Grant, the top general who won the Civil War officially ended slavery. Prior to becoming the first Republican to serve two terms as president Grant was responsible for ensuring the progress of Reconstruction via the use of military troops.
Blacks were voting overwhelmingly for Republicans. Many southern states were majority or near-majority Black as slaves outnumbered slave owners and their families.
Educator and author Booker T. Washington wrote in his book “Up from Slavery” that former slaves knew whom to vote for by listening to white people in the stores. Whomever white folks planned to vote for, Black people voted almost unanimously for the opposing candidate.
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But this ultimately led to the Great Migration and the killing of over 2,000 Black people by the Ku Klux Klan just during the brief Reconstruction period. Nearly 6,500 were killed by the 1950s. The KKK used terrorism and harassment to intimidate Blacks from voting. They also helped create Jim Crow laws to disenfranchise Blacks, segregate them from the white population, and treat them generally as second-class citizens, especially in the South.
Back in the 19th century, there were three elections when Black people provided Republicans with nearly unanimous voting support. Today, we have had three elections where Black women gave 98% support to Democratic candidates for president or vice president – former President Barack Obama twice and Biden-Harris once. Even Hillary Clinton was in the 90%+ range with Black women.
After the Civil War until the election between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden in 1876, the Republicans were receiving near unanimous Black support.
Back then, that fact obviously did not make white people happy. Today we have the inverse situation. Democrats instead of Republicans now enjoy near unanimous Black support.
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We had the Compromise of 1877 when Democrats threw their candidate for president under the bus. “Cleverly” via a compromise, Tilden, who was just one electoral college vote away from victory was denied the presidency as Democrats bonded with Republicans to elect Hayes in exchange for the removal of northern troops from the South. Hayes promised to make that one of his first acts as president.
This was a big deal. It ended Reconstruction, allowing former slave owners to revert back to many of their former ways of dealing with Black people short of slave labor. New voting laws were imposed to diminish the voting rights of Black people and KKK terrorism towards Black people ensued.
Today, Democrats are very direct in messaging Black people to ensure near unanimous support.
Remember these classic lines?
When running as Obama’s vice president pick, Biden said to a Black audience: “Republicans are going to put you back in chains” (if you vote for them).
When running for president in 2020, Biden also clumsily said, “If you (Black people) have to think about who you are going to vote for, you ain’t really Black.”
Obama supporters’ coded message to the Black community during the 2012 campaign went like this: “He (Obama) has had your back, now it is time for you to have his back.” (When a slave owner was whipping a Black slave in public unmercifully, another slave would offer to “have his back” or take the beating in his place to save the slave from being whipped to death.)
Harris’s coded message and campaign slogan: “We are not going back.” (This phrase goes back to Harriet Tubman and the underground railroad which Black slaves used to escape to freedom. It was used to get fearful slaves escaping from slavery from even thinking about turning around back into slavery.)
These tactics often fly over the heads of most white people, but resonate deeply in the Black community.
So, will there be another Great Migration because of Black peoples’ near unanimous support for one party? Will racist groups be recharged? I have no idea. We can only pray for the best for America. Different tactics can be used that could yield the same effect, however.
It has been decades since the will of the majority (white population) has determined the president of the United States. White people have divided their vote between the two parties’ candidates for president while Black people do not split their vote. Democratic presidential candidates have lost the white vote for many decades. Yet by being disingenuous, they have won the White House for 12 of the last 16 years.
Gary Franks served three terms as U.S. representative for Connecticut’s 5th District. He was the first Black Republican elected to the House in nearly 60 years and New England’s first Black member of the House. Host: podcast “We Speak Frankly.” Author: “With God, For God, and For Country.” @GaryFranks (C)2024 Gary Franks. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
