Great Migrations: A People on The Move
Great Migrations Extended Trailer
Preview | 2m 57sVideo has Closed Captions
Great Migrations explores how a series of Black migrations have shaped America.
Great Migrations: A People on the Move explores the transformative impact of Black migration on American culture and society. From the waves of Black Americans to the North—and back South—over the last century to the growing number of immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean today, the film shows how movement is a defining feature of the Black experience.
Corporate support for GREAT MIGRATIONS: A PEOPLE ON THE MOVE is provided by Bank of America, Ford Motor Company and Johnson & Johnson. Major support is provided by the Corporation...
Great Migrations: A People on The Move
Great Migrations Extended Trailer
Preview | 2m 57sVideo has Closed Captions
Great Migrations: A People on the Move explores the transformative impact of Black migration on American culture and society. From the waves of Black Americans to the North—and back South—over the last century to the growing number of immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean today, the film shows how movement is a defining feature of the Black experience.
How to Watch Great Migrations: A People on The Move
Great Migrations: A People on The Move is available to stream on pbs.org and the free PBS App, available on iPhone, Apple TV, Android TV, Android smartphones, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Fire Tablet, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, and Vizio.
Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship-My grandmother and her siblings were all cotton pickers.
They hated that life.
They picked up everything they knew and left to the north.
-My grandmother migrated to Philadelphia from Eastman, Georgia.
-My mother's family migrated to Los Angeles in 1924.
-My grandfather, he jumped on a moving train and headed to Kentucky.
♪♪ -I think migration is freedom to Black America.
-That decision to migrate was everything.
It broadened Black life and what that life could look like.
To create a whole new life in these new places is what made the next generation possible.
-The African-American Great Migration was in fact one of the most significant demographic transformations in United States history.
-The music that we associate with America... ...the food wave we associate with America.
-Doc, I got something for you.
-Oh, man.
It looks like it's in a magazine.
[ Laughter ] -The North always had this connotation of the promised land.
It took on new meaning with the migration.
-I have seen this photograph a thousand times.
In every book or essay about the Great Migration, you see this photograph.
-There was a very tragic story as to why they moved.
-If there's a Black American dream, I think it's to have the freedom to dream.
Freedom to imagine oneself and a future for oneself that involves both African-Americans and immigrants.
-Why is it important for people to understand that Black people came through here too?
-It's like affirmation saying this is our dream too.
You don't see that.
You don't hear about it.
-We are still fighting for visibility around Black immigrants in the U.S. -When did you become aware of the phenomenon of the "Reverse Great Migration"?
-You could feel it.
If you lived in Atlanta, you saw our population growing year over year, decade over decade, and you realize something was happening.
-Movement is a really concrete way of measuring your freedom, realizing that I can make a choice to pick up and start up all over again elsewhere.
If that's not the most transformative decision that you can make, I don't know what is.
♪♪ [ Birds chirping ]
Great Migrations Extended Trailer
Video has Closed Captions
Great Migrations explores how a series of Black migrations have shaped America. (2m 57s)
Video has Closed Captions
Great Migrations explores how a series of Black migrations have shaped America. (30s)
Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipCorporate support for GREAT MIGRATIONS: A PEOPLE ON THE MOVE is provided by Bank of America, Ford Motor Company and Johnson & Johnson. Major support is provided by the Corporation...