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MOVIE REVIEW
GREAT MIGRATIONS : A PEOPLE ON THE MOVE
By McKENZIE CURTIS
The wash and rush of this human tide on the beach line of the northern city centers is to be explained primarily in terms of a new vision of opportunity , of social and economic freedom , of a spirit to seize , even in the face of an extortionate and heavy toll , a chance for the improvement of conditions .
When Alain Locke wrote these words in 1925 , he wasn ’ t talking about the Harlem Renaissance , the great social , cultural and literary awakening in which he played a major role . He was instead talking about the transformative exodus of millions of Blacks out of the American South that spawned the Harlem Renaissance .
The story of this movement , which transformed America , is told in a four-part PBS documentary titled the “ Great Migrations : A People on the Move .” Narrated by Henry Louis Gates , Jr ., the Harvard historian and filmmaker , the film begins in Southern a train station with scenes of Blacks leaving the South for the promised land of the American North . Over its four episodes , Gates takes the audience along for the ride .
The docuseries portrays the self-definition and cultural rebirth of Black life in America that gave rise to Locke ’ s philosophical concept of “ The New Negro .” At the beginning of the first episode , there is a scene where we experience riding on the train from the POV of those who migrated out of the South .
An astute portrayal of the first wave of this migration is presented in episode one , “ EXODUS ,” where the audience is introduced to Robert Abbott , founder of The Chicago Defender . Widely read by Blacks across the nation , but especially in the South , The Chicago Defender was the newspaper of record for many Blacks in the early years of the 20 th century . Abbott ’ s publication of a front-page article entitled “ Exodus ,” invoked a spiritual call for Blacks to leave the South as a way of improving their lot – and destabilizing the South ’ s Jim Crow economy .
While the dominant theme of this docuseries is the story of Blacks fleeing their troubled existence in the South for a life of greater dignity and better wages in the North . However , the documentary does much more . It expands the view of the Great Migration as not only a movement of people , but also as a population shift that had a big impact on the art , music , intellectual thought , cultural pride , and technological advancement of this nation .
In addition to exploring the first and second waves of the Great Migration , Gates also tells the story of the eventual
-The New Negro , Alain Locke
return of Blacks to their ancestral Southern roots , as well as the immigration into the United States of Blacks from the Caribbean and Africa .
“ The Great Migration : A People on The Move ” does not shy away from the racism that Blacks encountered outside of the South . Particularly unnerving is the film ’ s discussion of the “ Red Summer ” of 1919 , in which scores of Blacks were killed or injured by White mobs , with most of this violence occurring in cities outside of the South .
Black resistance to this violence produced a resilience that could not be taken , beaten , or killed . It also set the stage for a wave of Black consciousness that in 1925 that moved Alain Locke ’ s to write his seminal essay and book , “ The New Negro .”
Gates expands the aperture of Black migration , highlighting the children of migration , namely Berry Gordy , whose father moved his family from Georgia to Detroit and worked at Ford Motors . It was a transition that inspired Gordy to name the record company he eventually created Motown .
The immersion into the migration story is the strength of the docuseries . But I found the fourth installment of the series , “ Coming to America ,” to be an unsatisfying denouement . It ’ s focus on the influx of African and Caribbean immigrants to the United States , while necessary to the story of an expanding and shifting Black migration in the United States , felt rushed , fitting decades of movement and history into fifty minutes .
Still , “ The Great Migration : A People on the Move ” enriches the viewers ’ understanding of the movement of Black at a critical time in this nation ’ s history – and the transformational impact of this population shift . •
McKenzie Curtis , a senior in Morgan State University ’ s School of Global Journalism & Communication , is an aspiring filmmaker and screenwriter .
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