D2.Geo.7.9-12C3 FrameworkSocial StudiesGeographyGrades 9-12

D2.Geo.7.9-12: The Great Migration as a Two-Way Process

In plain English: D2.Geo.7.9-12 is the C3 Framework geography indicator for grades 9-12 that asks students to analyze how historical events and the spread of ideas, technologies and cultural practices have shaped migration and where people live, and how migration in turn spreads ideas and changes places. It is usually taught in human geography or U.S. history.

Analyze the reciprocal nature of how historical events and the spatial diffusion of ideas, technologies, and cultural practices have influenced migration patterns and the distribution of human population.

C3 Framework for Social Studies (NCSS) · Dimension 2: Applying Disciplinary Concepts and Tools · Discipline: Geography · Human Population: Spatial Patterns and Movements · Official standard

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Lesson Plan

80-90 min

Overview

Between about 1910 and 1970, millions of Black Americans left the rural South for cities in the Northeast, the Midwest and the West. Historians call this the Great Migration. It changed the distribution of the country's Black population: in 1910 about nine in ten Black Americans lived in the South, and by 1970 a little over half did. This lesson uses the Great Migration to teach the key word in D2.Geo.7.9-12, reciprocal. Events and the spread of ideas, technologies and cultural practices pushed and pulled people to move, and the moving itself spread new ideas and practices, which drew still more people and reshaped the places they left and the places they reached.

Students read two excerpts from a 1920 study by Emmett J. Scott, based, as his foreword explains, on reports by investigators who visited Southern and Northern towns while the movement was under way (Sources 1-2). They analyze U.S. Census Bureau counts of the Black population by region (Source 3) and of tractors on farms (Source 4), map the change by state (Diagram 1) and evaluate two SVHS-written interpretations (Source 5). The lesson treats the migration as documented history, including the discrimination and violence that migrants described, and keeps the analysis geographic: who moved, where, why, and with what effects on places.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

Describe the change in the distribution of the U.S. Black population from 1910 to 1970 using regional counts, shares and a state map.
Analyze how historical events (World War I, the boll weevil, the 1915 floods) influenced migration patterns, and propose and test explanations for later changes in the data.
Analyze how the spatial diffusion of ideas (newspapers, letters), technologies (railroads, farm machinery) and cultural practices influenced who moved and where.
Explain the reciprocal relationship: how migration itself spread ideas and cultural practices and so changed later migration and the places involved.
Evaluate competing interpretations of a migration using primary-source and quantitative evidence.

Prior Knowledge Required

Students should already be comfortable with:

Push and pull factors in migration, and the difference between population size and population distribution
Explaining how transportation and communication technology affect connections and diffusion D2.Geo.7.6-8
Analyzing multiple and complex causes and effects of past events D2.His.14.9-12
Computing a percentage share and a ratio from a table

Lesson Procedure

80-90 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

Warm-Up10 minutes
Warm-Up Prompt
"Imagine it is 1916 and you live on a farm in Mississippi with no telephone, no radio and a weekly newspaper. A job 1,000 kilometers away pays twice what you earn. What would you need to know before you went, and how would you find it out? Who would you trust?"
Collect answers in two columns: what people need to know (wages, housing, weather, safety, how to get there) and how they learn it (relatives, newspapers, people who travel, church and neighbors). Tell students that the two columns are today's lesson: the reasons people move, and the way information about those reasons spreads across space.

Direct Instruction20 minutes

Key terms for D2.Geo.7.9-12 (working definitions)
Term	Meaning	In this lesson
Migration pattern	Where people move from and to, how many, and when	From the rural South to Northern and Western cities, 1910-1970
Population distribution	How a population is spread across places, often shown as shares of a total	The South's share of the U.S. Black population
Push and pull factors	Conditions that push people out of a place and pull them toward another	Crop losses (push); factory wages (pull)
Historical event	A dated development with wide effects	World War I; the 1915 floods
Expansion diffusion	Spread of an idea or practice outward through a population while it stays where it started	A newspaper read and passed hand to hand
Relocation diffusion	Spread of an idea or practice when the people who hold it move	A family that moves north and keeps its home church's style of worship in the new city
Chain migration	Migration that follows earlier migrants, who send news, money and help	Letters home that bring relatives north
Reciprocal relationship	Two things that affect each other in both directions, forming a feedback loop	Migration spreads news; news causes more migration
Mechanization	Replacing human and animal labor with machines	Tractors on farms (Source 4)

Part 1: The pattern. Show Source 3, Diagram 1 and Diagram 2. Ask: what changed in where Black Americans lived, and when did the change speed up? Point out that every region's count rose, but the shares moved, and that a share can fall even while a count rises. Note too that a census count shows where people lived, not who moved; it includes births and deaths.

Part 2: Two directions of influence. Draw two arrows on the board between a box labeled Events and diffusion and a box labeled Migration and distribution. The forward arrow is the familiar one: events and the spread of ideas and technologies cause people to move. The return arrow is what makes the relationship reciprocal: migrants send letters, money and news back, carry customs to new places and change the places they enter, and those changes become new causes.

Part 3: Worked examples.

Distribution as a share
Source 3 gives the South's Black population in 1910 as 8,749,427 and the U.S. total as 9,827,763. What share lived in the South?
Result: 8,749,427 / 9,827,763 = 0.890, or 89.0%. About nine in ten Black Americans lived in the South in 1910.
Growth in a destination region
Source 3: the Midwest's Black population was 543,498 in 1910 and 1,420,318 in 1940. How many times larger was it in 1940?
Result: 1,420,318 / 543,498 = 2.61, so about 2.6 times as large after 30 years, during the first wave of the migration.
Diffusion of a technology
Source 4: farms had 246 thousand tractors in 1920 and 1,567 thousand in 1940. How many times as many?
Result: 1,567 / 246 = 6.37, so about 6.4 times as many. A tractor could do much of the work that had needed people and mules, so as tractors spread, farms could be worked with fewer hands. Source 4 is national, so it shows the spread of the technology, not its effect in one region.
A reciprocal chain from a source
Use Source 2, paragraph 1. Trace one loop from migration back to more migration.
Result: People leave (migration) leads to letters and news sent back from the North (diffusion of ideas) leads to talk about reasons for leaving in places where people already gathered (a cultural practice) leads to more people leaving. The loop is reinforcing: each turn makes the next one stronger.

Source 3: Black population by census region, 1910-1970 (U.S. Census Bureau, Working Paper No. 56, Tables 1-5)
Region	1910	1940	1950	1970
Northeast	484,176	1,369,875	2,018,182	4,344,153
Midwest	543,498	1,420,318	2,227,876	4,571,550
South	8,749,427	9,904,619	10,225,407	11,969,961
West	50,662	170,706	570,821	1,694,625
United States	9,827,763	12,865,518	15,042,286	22,580,289

Source 4: Tractors on U.S. farms, thousands (U.S. Census Bureau, Historical Statistics of the United States, 1975, series K 184)
Year	Tractors (thousands)
1910	1
1920	246
1930	920
1940	1,567
1950	3,394
1960	4,685
1970	4,790

Source 3 notes: the Census Bureau's four regions are the Northeast, the Midwest (North Central), the South and the West; the South includes Delaware, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Texas. Source 4 counts tractors on all U.S. farms, excluding steam and garden tractors; 1 thousand tractors in 1910 means about 1,000.

Guided Practice20 minutes
Reading a 1920 study. Emmett J. Scott's study was written while the movement was still going on; his foreword says it rests on the reports of three investigators, Monroe N. Work, Charles S. Johnson and T. Thomas Fortune. Read Source 1 aloud. Students highlight historical events in one color and conditions that lasted for years in another. Then read Source 2. Work through paragraph 2 together; paragraphs 1 and 3 are saved for Independent Practice and the quiz.
Among the immediate economic causes of the migration were the labor depression in the South in 1914 and 1915 and the large decrease in foreign immigration resulting from the World War. Then came the cotton boll weevil in the summers of 1915 and 1916, greatly damaging the cotton crop over considerable area, largely in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida, and threatening greatly to unsettle farming conditions in the year 1917. There followed then the cotton price demoralization and the low price of this product during subsequent years. The unusual floods during the summer of 1915 over large sections in practically the same States further aggravated the situation. The negroes, moreover, were generally dissatisfied because of the continued low wages which obtained in the South in spite of the increasing cost of living. Finally, there was a decided decrease in foreign immigration. The result was a great demand in the North for the labor of the negro at wages such as he had never received.
Emmett J. Scott, Causes of the Migration (Source 1, from Negro Migration during the War, chapter II) (1920). Public domain (published 1920). Source text.
One of the chief stimuli was discussion. The very fact that negroes were leaving in large numbers was a disturbing factor. The talk in the barber shops and grocery stores where men were wont to assemble soon began to take the form of reasons for leaving. There it was the custom to review all the instances of mistreatment and injustice which fell to the lot of the negro in the South. It was here also that letters from the North were read and fresh news on the exodus was first given out. In Hattiesburg, Mississippi, it was stated that for a while there was no subject of discussion but the migration. "The packing houses in Chicago for a while seemed to be everything," said one negro. "You could not rest in your bed at night for Chicago." Chicago came to be so common a word that they began to call it "Chi." Men went down to talk with the Chicago porters on the Gulf and Ship Island Railroad which ran through the town. They asked questions about the weather in Chicago. The report was that it was the same as in Hattiesburg.
[...]
The Chicago Defender, a weekly negro newspaper, with its pronounced radical utterances, its criticism of the South, its policy of retaliation, etc., contributed greatly to the exodus. Its influence can be imagined when, after reading the southern white papers with only occasional references to the negroes which might be called commendable and numerous articles which were for the most part distasteful, negroes could read the things they wanted to hear most, expressed in a manner in which they would not dare express them. It voiced the unexpressed thoughts of many and made accusations for which they themselves would have been severely handled. Freud's theory of the suppressed wish finds a happy illustration in this rage over the Chicago Defender. Expressed in terms of figures, the circulation of the paper at the beginning of the movement was something like 50,000. In 1918 it had grown to 125,000. It had a large circulation in Mississippi and the supply was usually bought up on the first day of its arrival. Copies were passed around until worn out. One prominent negro asserted that "negroes grab the Defender like a hungry mule grabs fodder." In Gulfport, Mississippi, a man was regarded "intelligent" if he read the Defender. It was said that in Laurel, Mississippi, old men who did not know how to read would buy it because it was regarded as precious.
It was this paper that named the exodus "The Great Northern Drive," and set the date May 15th, announced the arrivals and took responsibility for inducing "the poor brethren" from the South. It was accused of ruining Hattiesburg, Mississippi, by promoting this rush to the North. The sale of this paper was, therefore, forbidden in several towns in the South. A correspondent said: "White people are paying more attention to the race in order to keep them in the South, but the Chicago Defender has emblazoned upon their minds 'Bound for the Promised Land.'"
Emmett J. Scott, Stimulation of the Movement (Source 2, from Negro Migration during the War, chapter III) (1920). Public domain (published 1920). Source text.
1. Sort the causes. Prompt: in Source 1, which causes are events with dates and which are conditions? Teacher note: the World War, the boll weevil of 1915-1916 and the 1915 floods are events; low wages and the rising cost of living are longer-term conditions. Both matter, and the events changed the timing. Source 1 covers only Scott's economic causes. Tell students that the same chapter also reports causes in the way Black Southerners were treated: segregated rail cars, "bad treatment by representatives of the law" and lynching. Scott writes that "Both whites and negroes in mentioning the reasons for the movement generally give lynching as one of the most important causes" and that "the fear of the mob has greatly accelerated the exodus." The economic list is not the whole explanation.
2. Follow the push and the pull. Prompt: what was happening in the North, according to the last sentence of Source 1? Teacher note: a great demand for Black workers at higher wages. Ask why a drop in immigration from Europe would raise that demand.
3. Measure the spread of an idea. Prompt: paragraph 2 of Source 2 gives two circulation figures for the newspaper. What do they show? Teacher note: the paper's readership grew quickly during the movement, and each copy was "passed around until worn out," so readers outnumbered copies.
4. Name the diffusion. Prompt: is a newspaper read in Mississippi but printed in Chicago an example of expansion or relocation diffusion? Teacher note: expansion; the ideas spread to new readers while the paper stayed in Chicago. When migrants later carried their customs north, that was relocation diffusion.
5. Find the return arrow. Prompt: paragraph 2 says the paper "contributed greatly to the exodus" and also gives its circulation "at the beginning of the movement" and in 1918. What two-way link does that suggest? Teacher note: the paper spread ideas that encouraged migration, and the growing movement gave the paper more news and more readers. Diffusion fed migration, and migration fed diffusion.
Independent Practice20 minutes
Interpretation A. The Great Migration was first of all an economic movement. World War I cut the flow of workers from Europe just as northern factories needed more labor, while the boll weevil, floods and low cotton prices left many Southern tenants without work or credit. Newspapers and letters only reported jobs that already existed. Without those jobs, no amount of reading or talk would have moved people north, and the timing of the movement follows the war and the labor market.
Interpretation B. Jobs opened the door, but information decided who walked through it and where they went. News moved along networks: the Chicago Defender, letters from relatives, money sent home and talk with railroad workers. Each family that left became a new source of news for the people still at home, so the movement fed on itself. This would explain why migration kept growing after the first wave and why people from one Southern area often went to the same Northern city.
SVHS-written sample interpretation, Two sample interpretations of the Great Migration (Source 5) (2026). Original passage written for this page.
Task (individually, then pairs). (1) Read paragraphs 1 and 3 of Source 2 on your own and underline every way news moved from place to place. (2) For Interpretation A and Interpretation B, list two pieces of evidence from Sources 1-4 that support it and one that it leaves out. (3) Use Source 3 to find the share of the Black population living in the West in 1940 and in 1950. Which interpretation does that change fit better, or does it need a third explanation? (4) Write a three-sentence judgment that uses the word reciprocal.
Look for: students who tie A to Source 1 (the war, immigration, crop losses) and B to Source 2 (talk, letters, porters, the newspaper). The West's share rose from 170,706 / 12,865,518 = 1.3% in 1940 to 570,821 / 15,042,286 = 3.8% in 1950. Neither interpretation names that decade's cause, and the sources on this page do not cover the 1940s. Strong students propose a historical event of that decade as a hypothesis to test, not as a known answer, and say what evidence would test it, for example Census migration or employment data for Western states. A strong judgment says that the two interpretations describe the two arrows of a reciprocal relationship rather than rival answers.
Closure10-20 minutes
Exit ticket: Draw a loop with four boxes that shows the Great Migration as a reciprocal process. Label each arrow with one piece of evidence from today's sources.
Teacher note on language and content: Scott's 1920 book writes "negro" in lower case, which was common at the time; today the capitalized "Black" or "African American" is standard, and the page uses "Black" outside the quotations. Scott describes the Chicago Defender's "radical utterances" and "criticism of the South" from his own point of view; other parts of his book quote the paper's words about mob violence and mistreatment in the South. The excerpts here leave those passages out; one of them also quotes a racial slur, which is another reason it is not reproduced. If students raise them, treat them as documented history.
Teacher note on interpretation: Source 5 is written for this page. Historians weigh economic pull, information networks, violence and discrimination differently; the rubric rewards a judgment supported by evidence, not either interpretation.

Differentiation Strategies

For Struggling Students

Provide a partly filled loop diagram with the first two boxes completed from Source 2, paragraph 1.
Give a glossary card for 1920 words in the sources: exodus, stimuli, wont, emblazoned, brethren.
Let students compute shares with a calculator and a template: part / whole = decimal, then times 100.

For Advanced Students

Ask them to compare the 1940-1970 changes in Source 3 with the tractor counts in Source 4 and explain why the national tractor series cannot prove a regional cause.
Ask them to find one more reciprocal loop in the present-day United States, for example a destination city whose growth attracts more newcomers, and test it with Census data.

Assessment Guidance

What to Look For

Strong work uses shares, not only counts, to describe distribution; names specific historical events and specific diffused ideas, technologies and practices; shows influence in both directions with evidence; and separates what the sources show from what they leave out. Watch for students who treat a rising count as proof that people moved there, who describe only the forward arrow, or who treat an SVHS-written interpretation as a source of facts.

Classroom Activities

3 Activities

Build the Feedback Loop

25 minGroups of 4

Groups arrange 12 cause-and-effect cards into a diagram with arrows, then find at least one loop in which migration leads back to more migration. Every card comes from the sources or the data on this page.

The 12 cards

World War I sharply reduces immigration from Europe (Source 1)
The boll weevil damages cotton in 1915 and 1916 (Source 1)
Floods in the summer of 1915 (Source 1)
Northern factories offer wages Black workers had never received (Source 1)
Letters from the North are read aloud (Source 2)
Railroad workers bring news from Chicago (Source 2)
The Chicago Defender circulates and is passed hand to hand (Source 2)
Railroad lines link Southern towns to Northern cities (Source 2: Chicago porters on the railroad through Hattiesburg)
Tractors spread on U.S. farms (Source 4)
Barber shop and grocery store gatherings turn to reasons for leaving (Source 2)
Black population of the Midwest and Northeast grows (Source 3)
The South's share of the Black population falls (Source 3)

Steps

Sort the cards into four piles: historical events, diffusion of ideas, diffusion of technologies, and diffusion of cultural practices. Put the two Source 3 cards aside as outcomes.
On large paper, place the outcome cards on the right and connect the others with arrows. Write a verb on each arrow (cuts, spreads, attracts, reduces).
Draw at least one arrow that runs from an outcome back to an earlier card. Label it with evidence.

Discussion

Ask: Which pile had the most arrows into the outcomes? Which arrow runs backward, from migration to diffusion? (Letters and porters' reports exist only because people had already gone north.) Does a feedback loop mean the migration would have continued forever? (No: it depends on jobs, which is why the events matter.)

Shares, Not Just Counts

20 minPairs

Pairs use a state data card from the same Census Bureau working paper as Source 3 to separate a change in a count from a change in distribution.

Data card: Black population, 1940 and 1970

State	1940	1970
New York	571,221	2,168,949
Ohio	339,461	970,477
California	124,306	1,400,143
Georgia	1,084,927	1,187,149
Louisiana	849,303	1,086,832
Arkansas	482,578	352,445

Tasks

Find each state's change from 1940 to 1970.
Rank the states by change, largest first.
Georgia's count rose. Does that mean no one left Georgia? Explain what else changes a population count.

Answer key: New York +1,597,728; California +1,275,837; Ohio +631,016; Louisiana +237,529; Georgia +102,222; Arkansas -130,133. A count can rise because births outnumber deaths even while many people move away, so a rising count in a Southern state does not rule out out-migration.

Extension

California gained more than twice as much as Ohio after 1940, but Ohio had more Black residents in 1940. Ask pairs to suggest one historical event that might explain a fast rise in the West after 1940, and what source would test it.

Structured Controversy: Jobs or Networks?

25 minGroups of 4 (two pairs)

Each pair argues for one of the two SVHS-written interpretations in Source 5, then switches sides, then the group writes a joint statement. The goal is a better explanation, not a winner.

Round 1 (8 min)

Pair 1 presents Interpretation A and Pair 2 presents Interpretation B, each using at least two pieces of evidence from Sources 1-4. The other pair listens and restates the argument before replying.

Round 2 (8 min)

Pairs switch sides and add one new piece of evidence that the first pair did not use.

Joint statement (9 min)

The group writes three to four sentences that explain the Great Migration as a reciprocal process and say which part of the evidence is strongest and which is weakest. Score with the homework rubric's evidence and reasoning rows; any well-supported position earns full credit.

Diagrams & Visual Aids

2 diagrams

Diagram 1: Change in Black Population by State, 1910 to 1970

Choropleth map of the 48 contiguous states drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2023 boundary file. Each state is shaded by the change in its Black population from the 1910 census to the 1970 census (U.S. Census Bureau, Working Paper No. 56). Red marks a decline; Vermont's decline is under 1,000 people. The District of Columbia is too small to see at this scale. Alaska and Hawaii were not states in 1910 and are not shown.

Diagram 2: Share of the Black Population by Region, 1900-1970

Line graph drawn to scale from U.S. Census Bureau Working Paper No. 56, Tables 1-5: the percentage of the U.S. Black population living in each of the four census regions at each census from 1900 to 1970. The four shares add to 100% in each year, apart from rounding.

Homework Assignment

~30 min

D2.Geo.7.9-12 Homework: Testing the Two Arrows

Directions: Use Sources 1-5 and Diagrams 1-2. For Problem 2, use these counts from the same Census Bureau working paper: Michigan's Black population was 17,115 out of a total population of 2,810,173 in 1910, and 991,066 out of 8,875,083 in 1970. Round percentages to one decimal place and show your work.

Part 1: Measure the Change (Problems 1-3)

Use Source 3. Find the share of the U.S. Black population living in the Northeast and Midwest combined in 1910, 1940 and 1970. Did the combined share rise more from 1910 to 1940 or from 1940 to 1970?
Find the Black share of Michigan's total population in 1910 and in 1970. Then explain how a change like this could change a place's culture, using the idea of relocation diffusion.
Use Source 4. Find how many tractors (in thousands) were added in each ten-year period from 1910 to 1970. Which decade added the most? Explain one way the spread of this technology could affect migration, and one reason Source 4 alone cannot prove that effect.

Part 2: Analyze the Reciprocal Relationship (Problems 4-6)

Use Source 2. Draw a feedback loop with at least four boxes in which migration leads to more migration. Label every arrow with a short quotation and its paragraph number.
Use Sources 1 and 3. Name one historical event in Source 1 and explain how it affected the timing of the migration. Then use Source 3 to describe one change in distribution that Source 1 cannot explain, because it happened after the book was published.
Write a paragraph of 6-8 sentences that evaluates Interpretation B in Source 5. Use at least one quotation from Source 2, at least one number from Source 3 or Source 4, and explain what makes the relationship between migration and diffusion reciprocal.

Rubric

Criterion	4: Strong	3: Proficient	2: Developing	1: Beginning
Quantitative evidence	Shares, ratios and differences correct and used to describe distribution	Correct with a minor slip	Counts used where shares are needed, or several errors	Numbers missing or misread
Sources and quotations	Accurate quotations with paragraph numbers, each tied to a claim	Accurate quotations, links mostly clear	Quotations loosely connected	No quotations or inaccurate ones
Reciprocal reasoning	Shows influence in both directions, with a working feedback loop	Shows both directions with a gap	Shows only events or diffusion causing migration	Lists causes without relationships
Evaluation	Weighs an interpretation against evidence, names its limits and what would test it	Weighs evidence on one side	Restates the interpretation	No judgment

Quiz: 20 Questions

Interactive, with answers

Instructions

Questions 1-2 use Source 1 and Questions 3-7 use Source 2, both in Guided Practice; paragraph numbers refer to the numbered paragraphs of each source. Questions 8-9 use Source 3 and Question 12 uses Source 4 in Direct Instruction. Questions 17-18 use Source 5 in Independent Practice. Data needed for other questions are given in the question. Choose an answer to see whether it is right; for short-answer questions, write your answer first and then open the model answer.

Multiple choice: pick an option to check it. Short answer: write your answer, then reveal the model answer.

0 of 20 answered · 0 correct

Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to Source 1, in which states did the boll weevil greatly damage the cotton crop in 1915 and 1916?
Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to Source 1, what was happening to Southern wages?
Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to paragraph 1 of Source 2, where were letters from the North read and fresh news on the exodus first given out?
Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to paragraph 3 of Source 2, what name did the Chicago Defender give the exodus?
Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Paragraph 2 of Source 2 says the Defender's circulation was "something like 50,000" at the beginning of the movement and 125,000 in 1918. By what percent did it grow?
Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Paragraph 3 of Source 2 says "The sale of this paper was, therefore, forbidden in several towns in the South." How does this show a reciprocal relationship?
Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to paragraph 1 of Source 2, what did men in Hattiesburg ask the Chicago porters on the railroad about?
Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Use Source 3. What share of the U.S. Black population lived in the South in 1950?
Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Use Source 3. By how many people did the West's Black population grow from 1940 to 1950?
Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Illinois had 109,049 Black residents in 1910 and 1,425,674 in 1970 (U.S. Census Bureau). About how many times as many lived there in 1970?
Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Mississippi had 1,009,487 Black residents in 1910, 1,074,578 in 1940 and 815,770 in 1970 (U.S. Census Bureau). What was the change from 1910 to 1970?
Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Use Source 4. About how many times as many tractors were on U.S. farms in 1950 as in 1930?
Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which is an example of relocation diffusion?
Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which statement about Diagram 1 is supported by the map?
Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer
Use paragraph 1 of Source 2 to explain why Scott says the exodus "grew so contagious." Describe the loop in your own words.
Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer
Source 3 shows the South's Black population rising from 8,749,427 in 1910 to 11,969,961 in 1970, yet Diagram 2 shows the South's share falling. Explain how both can be true and what this tells you about population distribution.
Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer
Choose Interpretation A or Interpretation B in Source 5. Give one piece of evidence from Sources 1-4 that supports it and one fact it leaves out.
Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer
Which interpretation in Source 5 better explains why migration kept growing after the first wave? Use the word reciprocal in your answer.
Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer
Explain how the diffusion of one technology, either railroads or farm machinery, influenced migration patterns. Use Source 2 or Source 4.
Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer
Give one way the arrival of migrants changed Northern or Western cities, and explain how that change could influence later migration.

0 of 20 answered · 0 correct

Frequently Asked Questions

10 Questions

What does D2.Geo.7.9-12 mean?

D2.Geo.7.9-12 asks high school students to analyze how historical events and the spread of ideas, technologies and cultural practices shape migration and where people live, and how migration in turn spreads ideas and practices and shapes later events. The key word is "reciprocal": the influence runs both ways.

What does "reciprocal" mean in D2.Geo.7.9-12?

It means two things affect each other. Diffusion and events cause migration, and migration causes more diffusion and new events. A good answer shows both arrows and the loop they make, not just a list of causes.

How is D2.Geo.7.9-12 different from D2.Geo.7.6-8?

The middle school indicator asks how transportation and communication technology change connections between settlements and help ideas spread. The high school indicator adds historical events, puts migration and population distribution at the center, and requires analysis of influence in both directions.

Why use the Great Migration for this standard?

It is one of the largest internal migrations in U.S. history, it is well documented by the Census Bureau and by observers who wrote while it was happening, and it shows every part of the indicator: wartime events, spreading news, new farm technology, and cultural practices carried to new places.

Where do the data on this page come from?

Population counts by region and state come from the U.S. Census Bureau's Working Paper No. 56, Historical Census Statistics on Population Totals by Race, 1790 to 1990 (Campbell Gibson and Kay Jung, 2002). Tractor counts come from the Census Bureau's Historical Statistics of the United States (1975), series K 184. The map uses the Census Bureau's 2023 state boundary file.

Why does the lesson use shares as well as counts?

Distribution is about how a population is spread across places. Counts can rise everywhere at once as a population grows, so only shares show that the South's part of the whole was shrinking while other regions' parts grew.

Is the 1920 source reliable?

It is valuable because it was written during the migration from investigators' reports, interviews and newspapers, but it reflects its author's views and its time, including its language. Students should treat it as a primary source to be weighed against other evidence, such as Census data.

How should teachers handle the difficult history in this topic?

State documented facts plainly, including discrimination and violence that migrants described, and keep the focus on evidence and geographic analysis. The excerpts on this page leave out the most graphic passages of the 1920 book; a teacher note explains this.

What mistakes do students make with D2.Geo.7.9-12?

Common ones are describing only one direction of influence, treating a rising count as proof of in-migration, confusing expansion and relocation diffusion, and quoting an interpretation as if it were a fact. The rubric rows for reciprocal reasoning and evaluation target these.

What other cases fit this standard?

Any migration with documented causes and effects works, for example the westward movement after the Homestead Act, migration to the Sun Belt after air conditioning spread, or international migration linked to family networks. The same questions apply: which events and diffusions drove it, and what did the migrants spread in return?