From the first wave of that massive exodus of African American families out of the south to their arrival in those northern industrial climes, the African American family was impacted in these ways:

1.) They had to endure segregated housing just like they had in the south. Upon their arrival in these northern industrial centers, they formed separate communities which drove one distinguished historian to quip, “American blacks have become a city within a city.” That perennial quote was taken from Daniel Boorstin’s final volume of his “The American Experience.” Indeed, African Americans began to flock to those northern industrial centers in groves to the tune of hundreds of thousands. For example, Harlem, New York became that “city within a city” by hosting more than a hundred thousand African Americans.

2.) African Americans soon found that Jim Crow had caught up with them, and was now living in next ward of those northern metropolises. What they experienced in these northern-styled Jim Crow settings were devastating and impacted these families tremendously, at least as far as their own families were concerned.

3.) Also, the movie, Birth of a Nation, exerted a tremendous impact on African American family development and relationships. This movie cast black men in a stereotypical light as no more than mere brutes; or, in the words of one writer, “apes and baboons.” This movie further scared the movie-going public (the dominant racial group) to take up the gauntlet in defense of themselves and their families. Consequently, the first wave of African American lynching was heard throughout the south, and forced them to literally exit the south in groves by joining the “Great Migration.” What’s more racist about the movie is that the main characters of the film were not black men, but white men in black-face.

Finally, the “Great Migration” of African Americans out of the deep south forced them on a perilous journey in which they encountered an endless amount of brutality and persecution from white, vigilante-typed mobs who wanted nothing more than to lynch every hapless black man or woman they could find. Furthermore, African Americans had to literally take up the gauntlet to properly defend themselves. It has been documented that mini-wars have transpired along the route that African Americans have taken out of the deep south to their northern “Promised Land.” This movement proved to be timeless in a sense for African Americans to find their path toward self-sufficiency.