Analyzing the Relationship Between the Great Migration and Racially Restrictive Covenants

By Raaj Aggarwal

Set in the South during the early 1900s, panel 33 of Jacob Lawrence’s 1941 Migration Series conveys two emotions. On the left, the painting depicts an African American child kneeling down with their hands on their face, perhaps sobbing, listening to their mother read a letter, or being in deep contemplation. Nevertheless, the figure seems to convey a sense of defeat. In the middle of the painting showcases another African American with a letter in her hand. Her expression seemingly conveys both a sense of defeat for life in the South and a longing for what hope could be found in the North, the letter offering an escape from misery. The caption for this painting reads, “People who had not yet come North received letters from their relatives telling them of the better conditions that existed in the North.” As such, Lawrence’s 1941 painting gives the impression of both a sense of loss and defeat from the South’s daily grind, and a sense of hope of what could be discovered in the north. In the words of art historian Jodi Roberts commenting on this painting, the letters sent to the South, “Stoked hopes of escaping the drudgery and poverty that many black Southerners endured.” This painting depicts the sentiments of African Americans during the First Great Migration, the period from 1910-1940 that featured millions of African Americans escaping the brutalities of the Jim Crow South with the hopes of finding better life in the North. When considering the common thread within the lives of African American migrants, Isabel Wilkerson in The Warmth of Other Suns wrote that, "What binds these stories together was the back-against-the-wall, reluctant yet hopeful search for something better, any place but where they were." Yet even with these hopes for improved life, migrants would be welcomed by a new form of racial discrimination known as racially restrictive covenants, which was reminiscent of the segregation found in the rural South. Chicago was no exception, with Timuel Black in Bridges of Memory: Chicago's First Wave of Black Migration writing that The Windy City was, "A city of restrictive covenants, of official brutishness, of less than benign neglect. Yet, with miraculous stubborness, [migrants] 'got over.'"

Figure 1: Jacob Lawrence, The Migration Series, 1940-41. Panel 33. “People who had not yet come North received letters from their relatives telling them of the better conditions that existed in the North.” Tempera on Masonite, 12" x 18". (The Philips Collection, Washington, D.C.)

During the Great Migration, African Americans were driven to migrate by a wide variety of factors, such as the harsh realities of Jim Crow laws that enforced racial segregation in the South, as well as the widespread violence and economic disadvantage faced by Black communities. These experiences were vividly captured in the 1940 song “Times is Gettin’ Harder'' by Southern Blues singer and guitarist Lucious Curtis:

Times is gettin' harder,

Money’s gettin' scarce.

Soon as I gather my cotton and corn,

I’m bound to leave this place.

White folks sittin' in the parlor,

Eatin' that cake and cream,

N—–’s way down to the kitchen,

Squabblin' over turnip greens.”

In addition to the “push” factors of hardship in the South, there were also “pull” factors that motivated migrants to make the trek North. The promise of better jobs, higher wages, and improved living conditions, along with the chance for greater political and social freedoms, drew many African Americans to leave the South in search of a better life. Chicago was no exception, as a 1922 survey of black migrants found that African Americans came to The Windy City in search for better ways to support their family and improved living conditions. All of these factors coalesced into a hope of finding better life when compared to the merciless life of the South.

Family of African Americans migrating out of the South. Library of Congress

Some of these dreams were realized while others were stunted, as Isabel Wilkerson writes that for African American migrants, "The New World held out higher wages but staggering rents that the people had to calculate like a foreign currency."

While many migrants were able to find better jobs in Chicago, inferior living standards and rampant racism would still be present in many domains of life, including housing. In Chicago and many other cities across the country, a chief instrument of housing segregation in the first half of the 20th century came in the form of racially restrictive covenants. These were legally enforceable deeds signed by property owners that restricted certain races, such as African Americans, from occupying covenanted housing. The detrimental effects of restrictive covenants were numerous, such as forcing African Americans into dilapidated and overcrowded housing and creating racially segregated schools within covenanted areas. As such, much of the tenement housing in Bronzeville would be converted into one room kitchenettes. Timuel Black recalls in his experience living in Chicago that, "Our family lived in a nice, large apartment, but we were forced to move out of it so [the landlords] could cut it up and make smaller kitchenettes out of it." These units would house entire families that could range up to 10+ members.

Group of African American boys residing in Chicago, Illinois. Library of Congress

Restrictive covenants would envelope a wide array of areas within the city of Chicago. In an oral history interview, Earl Dickerson, a Chicago lawyer that challenged the legality of restrictive covenants in Hansberry v. Lee, discussed the broad presence that these covenants had in the city. With regards to both Chicago in general and Hyde Park, a neighborhood in the city, Dickerson stated the following: "When I was a boy in Hyde Park... [it] was not unlike much of the rest of the City of Chicago from the standpoint of race relations. Blacks could not live in Hyde Park... There were racial restrictive covenants in the Hyde Park area. There were racial restrictive covenants all over Chicago in those areas bordering the black communities." Dickerson would go on to discuss the covenant challenged in the Hansberry v. Lee case, stating that one covenant covering 26 city blocks was able to bar housing from all people of color.

African American woman standing in a deteriorated apartment in Chicago. University of Chicago Special Collections

Notably, these covenants were not just supported by property owners. Instead, a complex network of support from local and national professional organizations for realtors, local, state, and federal governments, the University of Chicago, and community organizations helped support restrictive covenants within Chicago. In the case of Hansberry v. Lee, Dickerson stated that the Hyde Park-Kenwood Improvement Association, a community organization made of members of the Hyde Park neighborhood, supported restrictive covenants in the area. This included filing lawsuits to evict African Americans who occupied covenanted housing.

From the widespread support and detrimental effects of restrictive covenants, the hopes of black migrants coming to Chicago would be significantly challenged. Those who sought an escape from the complex network of discrimination and white supremacy in the rural South would instead find a new web of white supremacy in Chicago and other areas of the North. This discrimination would not only impact the material conditions of African Americans, but their dreams for dignified living. On the issue of how restrictive covenants would be met by migrants, economist Robert Weaver wrote in 1948 that, "In our literature, folklore, and propaganda for free enterprise, we have glorified home ownership and desirable shelter. A decent and attractive home is one of the basic components in the American ideal of a high standard of living. Associated with this attitude, of course, is the traditional rural affection for land and the universal craving of farm people to own their home." Yet instead of living up to the American dream, Weaver wrote that African American housing was, "Full of accounts of vice, adult and juvenile delinquency, poverty, bad health, social and family delinquency, and deteriorated housing."

Further reading: The Negro Ghetto by Robert Weaver