Clement Gibson
Editor-in-Chief
WJSU 88.5 “Cool and Current” is presenting a four-part radio docu-series, “Field to Factory” every Sunday in February at 7 p.m. ET.
The series was developed by a number of published forums culminating in a national symposium held on the campus of Jackson State University in the summer of 1989.
The four part series takes an in depth look at why some African-Americans chose to stay in the south, particularly in Mississippi, during the Great Migration from 1915 to 1940.
WJSU Manager Anthony Dean, felt it was important to re-air the series so that the listeners could understand the history of African-Americans and the impact that was made on the south by those who opted to stay.
“Most people in the south, particularly those who live in Mississippi, have relatives who moved from the south to the north during the Great Migration. But we also have people whose relatives stayed in the south and faired well in spite of the hardships,” said Dean. “These people owned land, became lawyers, doctors, teachers, preachers and other notable professions and because they stayed, they had a major impact on the quality of life in the south.”
Dean added, “I think it’s important for our young people to hear why people stayed in the south and became model citizens and made significant contributions in the south.”
Several influential African-Americans, including novelist Margaret Walker Alexander, former state representative and civil rights leader Henry Kirksey, former City of Jackson Councilman Louis Armstrong, former JSU Professor Doris Saunders, former Holly Springs Mayor Eddie Lee Smith, professor and novelist Blyden Jackson and Essie Edwards, the first African-American nurse at UMMC, and more participated in the documentary.
According to the series, the story of the great migration is among the most thematic and compelling chapters in all of American history.
It transformed not only the face of the south, but the texture of African-American life and the very character of American institutions.
The first half of the series focused on the migration process—why so many Mississippians left the south and why others stayed.
Many left, but many also stayed. Even with injustices such as segregated courts, disfranchisement, public discrimination and fear of lynching.
Those interviewed offered many reasons for staying in the south under such harsh conditions. Many stayed because they believed they could make things better and be of service or some kind of help.
They did not want to leave their families and history behind. Some felt dedicated to the south because they were teachers and leaders.
They knew the south, they were born in the south they had relationships in the south between themselves and the white community.
Some people in these areas did own land and businesses and wanted the businesses to create profit to pay as inheritance to their descendants.
Doris Saunders, former professor and interim chair of the Department of Mass Communications at Jackson State, elaborated on black culture in the series.
“Blacks have always carried with them their cultural patterns, their symbols and cultural habits. Some of these were food, some of these were music, art and other kinds of language and speech patterns,” said Saunders in the documentary.
Many human beings seem to have an emotional attachment to the places where they grew up, and their ancestors grew up.
Black institutions needed black leadership. Many simply felt that they would not be as well off in the north as the south.
Eddie Lee Smith, former mayor of Holly Springs, Miss., said he stayed to help those who were not fortunate enough to get an education.
“Those of us who had been fortunate enough to get an education needed to stay and help those who had not been that fortunate. Consequently, I began my first year out of college teaching in Mississippi. I turned down a job in Nebraska that would have paid me two thousand dollars more. It was out of the need of concern for our people why I stayed,” Smith said in the documentary.
Also according to the documentary, a declining economy and worsening social conditions caused millions of African-Americans to leave the south.
Of all of the southern states, Mississippi experienced the greatest loss of migrants. Almost every African-American family had someone who left to find homes, cars, jobs and the freedom to vote in every election.
The average age of the African-American male leaving the south was 24 while the average age of the African-American female was around 23.
To make the journey even more tempting, northern industries recruited southern African-Americans with the promise of better paying jobs and the implications of better social conditions— much better than they received in the south.
Wages in the north were doubled and tripled compared to those in the south. Women who received $2.50 a week in domestic services could earn that much in a day in the north.
Men receiving $1.10 or $1.25 could earn $2.50 to $3.75 a day in the various industries in the north.
Most of the migrants settled in the major cities of the north— Chicago, Detroit, New York, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Cleveland and Cincinnati.
Blyden Jackson, PhD., a former English professor at the University of North Carolina elaborated on the locations blacks settled in.
“When Negros went from the south to the north, they tended to follow lanes. All three lanes were logical. South Carolina or Virginia or Georgia or Florida. The lane led to cities in the east. The second lane went from Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi to Columbus, Detroit, Indianapolis, and Chicago. The third lane led west. From Texas and Louisiana to California,” Jackson said.
Even though one of the major causes of the great migration was economic, its roots were entangled in the entire social conditions of the south.
It should be noted that many of those interviewed in this 1989 docu-series are now deceased.
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