"Goin' to Chicago"," a documentary film traces the story of the mass migration of African Americans from the south to Chicago during the 20th century. Between 1910 and 1970, 6.5 million black Americans moved out of the South in two great waves, and five million blacks after 1940. This film also explains the struggles and success that African Americans went through in order to fulfill their dream of having a better life. In the early 20th century, segregation was becoming more common with the Jim Crow laws in affect. African Americans were put through a lot and did not have the right to choose where they lived, worked, or even go to school. These Jim Crow laws made it difficult for them to decide anything on their own. Even after slavery was abolished, these laws made African Americans still seem like they were in slavery because it restricted them from their rights. When blacks wanted to obtain an education, they were discriminated against and were segregated. Different schools were made for blacks; they were not allowed to go to schools with the whites. They were not only discriminated at schools but also in professional businesses. In the article Creating Black America, Chapter 8, Nell Painter provides statistical data that shows how African Americans were discriminated against in the teaching field.".
During that time period after slavery, majority of the blacks did not own land so many African Americans rented land from a landlord and became sharecroppers. Money was loaned to them from landlords in return for farming supplies like seeds, tools, food, and mules. After the season was over, they would get their share of earnings. African Americans would often fall in debt trying to pay back the landlords money and would have to pledge the next year's crop as payment; Clory Bryant described this process of sharecropping as "a form of slavery ". African Americans worked so hard each day for low wages just to pay off their loan.
