Severe racism and discrimination by white southerners, particulary members of the Ku Klux Klan, pushed blacks out of their towns and homes. They were also pushed out of the South by a severe depression that took place between 1914 and 1915, forcing black farmers to lose their lands and their jobs.
After World War I the increase of food prices attracted blacks to seek a better living up North. Although Blacks looked for a better quality of life in the North they realized that the North was not the ideal region they had been dreaming about. They was faced with tremendous poverty, intense racism and much persecution. I asked my grandfather why did he leave the south? He explained that after War World 1 in 1918, African Americans were faced with one of the lowest points in history since the end of slavery. In the south blacks were treated like second class citizens. Poverty increased greatly, as it did the number of lynchings. The fear of race riots in the South caused large number of African Americans to move North. .
.
.
The Harlem Renaissance was a time for African Americans to show and reflect their talents throughout society. It was the time to prove something to the world. Harlem is indeed the great Mecca for the sight-seer, the pleasure-seeker, the curious, the adventurous, the enterprising, the ambitions and the talented of the whole Negro world. Harlem is a city within a city, the greatest Negro city in the world. I can remember my grandfather telling me about his trips up seventh avenue on the bus and looking at the beautiful churches, social and civic centers, shops, theatres and other places of amusement. He talked about the transformation that takes place after he crosses One Hundred and Twenty-Fifth street. Beginning there, those sitting in restaurants, coming out of theatres, standing in doorways and looking out of windows are practically all Blacks; and then he emerges where the population suddenly becomes white again.
