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April 12

Did a lot of White Southerners also move to the Northern US during the Great Migration?

I know that several million African-Americans moved from the Southern US to the Northern US during the Great Migration. However, I am wondering if there was ever a similar migration of Southern Whites from the Southern US to the Northern US. Futurist110 (talk) 04:31, 12 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

In the 1930s, there were the "Okies", but that was mainly a migration from the Great Plains westward.

One of the main "push" factors behind black migration northward in the early 20th century was that white agricultural landowners needed less labor than before to cultivate their land, with improvements in farming machinery. This didn't end up displacing poor whites in the same numbers as it did poor blacks... AnonMoos (talk) 07:43, 12 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

There was some white migration. Not sure of the time period. There are communities that are given a derisive nickname by appending "-tucky", such as Taylortucky, Michigan. I've heard of others, but that the only one I can think of. older ≠ wiser 09:13, 12 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

And again while the timeline of the original migration is unclear (or I just don't recall it from the book), Hillbilly Elegy provides a personal narrative about the effects of such southern migration for economic reasons. older ≠ wiser 12:08, 12 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

"More than 20 million whites left the South during the 20th century, vastly outnumbering the 7-8 [million] African Americans who left". America's Great Migrations, University of Washington

Quoted on that website is The Southern Diaspora: How the Great Migrations of White and Black Southerners Transformed America, by James Gregory (University of North Carolina Press, 2005) which has a Google Books preview.

Alansplodge (talk) 12:48, 12 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you very much for this information, Alan! That link certainly seems worthy of me checking it out! Futurist110 (talk) 21:36, 12 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]