The Great Migration, or the relocation of more than 6 million African Americans from the rural South to the cities of the North, Midwest and West from 1916 to 1970, had a huge impact on urban life in the United States.
Men were needed to work in war-related industries in the North. Most
white men were being drafted, while draft boards were so racist that
blacks tended to be excluded, and available to fill the industrial jobs.