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The journey north was made by train, boat, bus, sometimes car, and even horse-drawn cart. It was most often a long, grueling experience; the travelers confronted segregated waiting rooms, buses, and train coaches, as well as unfamiliar procedures and unfriendly conductors. Very little food or drink was available. Fares were expensive, deterring many would-be migrants from making the trip. Regular passenger fares - 2¢ per mile in 1915 - skyrocketed within three years to 24¢ a mile. Getting to "the Promised Land" did not come cheap, so many migrants made the journey in stages, stopping off and working in places in the South, then continuing on their way. This so-called step migration could take a very long time. Painter Jacob Lawrence recalled that his family was "moving up the coast, as many families were during that migration . . . . We moved up to various cities until we arrived - the last two cities I can remember before moving to New York were Easton, Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia."

The railroads, in dire need of workers to transport war material and maintain the rail lines, were among the first employers to recruit. In the summer of 1916, the Pennsylvania Railroad brought sixteen thousand southern African Americans north to do unskilled labor. The agents from the Illinois Central Railroad issued passes to bring workers to Chicago. Other industries central to the burgeoning war economy, such as the steel mills, made great and unprecedented promises to prospective African-American employees. These workers were poor and eager to take advantage of any opportunity. "Just give us a chance" was their common refrain. So many southerners made their way north on their own that employers soon cut back on travel passes. Meanwhile, local authorities were trying to deny the agents access to the black community. In some cases, their passes were not honored at the depots. On many occasions, travelers were pulled off trains to prevent them from leaving the South. || More influential than the agents in the long run were family and friends. Prospective migrants financed their tickets by selling all their possessions. When that was not enough, families pooled their resources to send one member. With the breadwinner gone north, other family members had to support themselves until the migrant made good. Many women provided family support by taking jobs as domestics. They also saved money to buy their own tickets. One wrote, "So many women are wanting to go . . . we can't get work here so much now, the white women tell us we just want to make money to go North and we do." Both parents sometimes went north while grandparents or other family members cared for their children. Letters from family and friends already settled in the North provided specific accounts of jobs and housing, encouraging others to make the journey. A few dollars enclosed in the envelope lent further legitimacy to the writers' claims. These letters were often read at services. Churches formed migration clubs to exchange information and facilitate passage north. Leaders were chosen to correspond with northern industries, newspapers, and placement services on the entire group's behalf.
 * During the early period, northern employers assisted the migrants with transportation. Their agents gave out travel passes whose cost was often deducted from future wages. These agents, who were paid a flat fee for each worker they produced, were selective, favoring those who appeared in good health, men over women, the young over the old.
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Letters from family and friends already settled in the North provided specific accounts of jobs and housing, encouraging others to make the journey. A few dollars enclosed in the envelope lent further legitimacy to the writers' claims. These letters were often read at services. Churches formed migration clubs to exchange information and facilitate passage north. Leaders were chosen to correspond with northern industries, newspapers, and placement services on the entire group's behalf. ||  ||  ||
 * [[image:http://www.inmotionaame.org/images/1x1.gif width="16" height="1"]] || || __< The Journey North __ ||  || __<span style="color: #003063; font-family: arial,helvetica; font-size: 11px;">A New Industrial Landscape > __ ||
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 * <span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial,helvetica; font-size: 14px;">More influential than the agents in the long run were family and friends. Prospective migrants financed their tickets by selling all their possessions. When that was not enough, families pooled their resources to send one member. With the breadwinner gone north, other family members had to support themselves until the migrant made good. Many women provided family support by taking jobs as domestics. They also saved money to buy their own tickets. One wrote, "So many women are wanting to go . . . we can't get work here so much now, the white women tell us we just want to make money to go North and we do." Both parents sometimes went north while grandparents or other family members cared for their children.

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial,helvetica; font-size: 14px;">Many African-American newspapers were leading players in the epic drama that was the Great Migration. By the turn of the century, the black press was becoming a more effective weapon for the community in its struggle against racism. To respond to the demand of a growing racial consciousness, fifty new black periodicals were created. Some, like //The Urban League Bulletin//, were founded to respond to the migrants' needs. Established newspapers, such as the //<span style="color: #003063; font-family: arial,helvetica; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none;">Amsterdam News // in New York, covered issues vital to the newcomers. Robert Abbott's //The Chicago Defender,// however, was the unquestioned star.
 * <span style="color: #003063; font-family: arial,helvetica; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none;">[[image:http://www.inmotionaame.org/images/icon_texts_nb.gif width="21" height="16" align="top" caption="Selling the American Dream Myth to Black Southerners: The Chicago Defender and the Great Migration of 1915-1919Western Journal of Communication, vol. 62, no. 4 (Fall 1998)" link="javascript:popup('../texts/viewer.cfm?id=8_019T&page=474',770,535)"]] || <span style="color: #003063; font-family: arial,helvetica; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none;">Selling the American Dream Myth to Black Southerners: The Chicago Defender and the Great Migration of 1915-1919 from //Western Journal of Communication, vol. 62, no. 4 (Fall 1998)// by Alan DeSantis ||

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial,helvetica; font-size: 14px;">The //Defender// emphasized southern racial injustice and provided African Americans in the region with information they could read nowhere else. Its loud and unceasing advocacy of African-American migration infuriated white southern commercial and political interests. Police in several cities confiscated copies, but vendors responded by smuggling them in from rural areas. <span style="color: #003063; font-family: arial,helvetica; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none;">Pullman porters secretly delivered bales of papers on their trips from Chicago. Copies were mailed in packages that disguised their contents. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial,helvetica; font-size: 14px;">One Mississippi county declared //The Chicago Defender// German propaganda and banned it. All of this intrigue only added to the paper's popularity. Though circulation estimates vary, Abbott claimed that during the Great Migration the //Defender// sold 150,000 copies an issue, with a total readership far exceeding that number. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial,helvetica; font-size: 14px;">In January 1917, the newspaper created its own migration event. Banner headlines proclaimed, "Millions to Leave the South. Northern Invasion will Start in Spring - Bound for the Promised Land." The article promised reduced fares and special accommodations starting on May 15, 1917. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial,helvetica; font-size: 14px;">The Great Northern Drive never happened. //The Chicago Defender//was forced to declare that "there were no special trains scheduled to leave southern stations on May 15th, and that this date had been selected simply because it was a good time to leave for the north, so as to become acclimated." But the forces were already in motion. Thousands of migrants, managing to scrape together the money to pay full fares, boarded the northbound trains.