History by the Numbers

- It's one of the most

overlooked stories of American history.

And it features one very big number.

Six million.

Six million.

Six million.

- That's the number of African Americans

who took part in the great migration.

Over the course of 60 years

they moved from the southern states to The North and West.

And by doing so, they transformed the face of America.

- What really changed the whole notion of our nation.

Let every mountain and-

- It led to some of the greatest cultural,

social, and political progress.

- From the civil rights movement,

to Black Lives Matter, from politics to sport and music,

the great migration continues to influence all our lives.

- When we think about the way we eat,

live, dress, play, worship in America,

so much of as a product of the great migration.

This is the story

of 44 presidents of the United States,

800 home runs, four frightened teenagers,

and the hopes, fears, and dreams

of six million African Americans who risked everything

to take part in the great migration.

- The great migration is this massive

exodus of African American people from

the US South to The North and the West

that transformed the literal landscape of American life.

It's a collection of six million plus

individual experiences, individual courageous stories.

- Between 1915 and 1975

they followed the railroads up the East Coast,

west to California, and along the Mississippi Valley

to cities like Chicago.

- The promised land, that's how The North was thought of.

- And one of the promises that was kept

is the number 44, a small number that reveals

the far reaching consequences of the great migration.

Chicago's Bud Billiken Parade is a celebration

of African American youth in culture.

Watched by over one million people,

it's the largest African American parade in the country.

- The Bud Billiken Parade is a celebration that goes

up and down the spine of the black community in Chicago.

It's song, it's dance,

it's public displays of black excellence and community.

- And it happens every year for nearly a century,

because of the great migration.

100 years ago, the African American population of Chicago

numbered just 44,103, or less than 3%

of the city's total population.

Today, that number is more like 800,000.

If you're an aspiring politician,

the Bud Billiken Parade is where you come

to shake as many hands as you possibly can.

In 2007, Barack Obama was

this young Senator based in Chicago.

And he understood to gain the endorsement,

not just of Chicago's black community,

but also black America, he has to receive

the official nod at the Bud Billiken Parade.

- The parade marks the start of his

successful bid to become President of the United States.

- When we think about the number 44, and Barack Obama

becoming the 44th President of the United States,

it's amazing that we have this African American first.

- It's an American first

that's possible because Chicago isn't unique.

What happens here is repeated

in cities across the United States.

At the start of the 20th century,

90% of African Americans live in The South.

But in the cities of The North and West,

African American populations increase

as a direct result of the great migration until,

by the 1970s, 47% live in The North.

- I can't imagine a Barack Obama in 2008

without a great migration.

I think the great migration is absolutely foundational

to our understanding of progress

for black people in this nation.

- So how and why does such a transformation

of American politics and society occur?

It culminates with a 44, but begins with a four.

It's Chicago, 1905.

And Robert Sengstacke Abbott is running out of options.

- He came to Chicago to be a lawyer.

Couldn't do well, couldn't establish a clientele.

- So he applies for other jobs,

and is passed over for white European immigrants.

When he's desperate, and hungry,

and in a church's bread line,

he's told to stand aside for the white guy.

- He struggled to gain a foothold.

He kept hitting roadblocks.

People said he was too dark.

- Down to his last 25 cents.

he gambles it all on one big idea, a pencil, and a notepad.

- He is at his land lady's kitchen table.

He sat down and he put together a four page newspaper

that would become The Chicago Defender.

- It starts with a print run of just 300 copies.

He goes door to door in Chicago's south side

selling his newspaper in barber shops

and churches for two cents a copy.

And The Chicago Defender becomes an instant hit.

There were other

African American papers in Chicago at the time.

His paper was just one of many.

But what he did that distinguished him, was he understood

the power of talking about progress for African Americans,

and equality for African Americans.

The Chicago Defender is

the most significant African American newspaper,

and I would argue the most significant

piece of journalism in the history of the American press.

Within a decade,

The Chicago Defender becomes the biggest selling

African American newspaper in the entire country,

selling over 100,000 copies.

It's estimated that every weekly edition

is passed on to five readers,

making a total readership of over half a million,

50% of whom aren't even in Chicago.

- The Chicago Defender becomes the vehicle,

the organ, the voice of beckoning African Americans

to come from south to north.

- Robert Abbott started to say, come to Chicago.

Chicago's the best place in the world.

He talked about all the jobs, all the opportunities.

He talked about the ways in which you could advance,

and have education for your children.

- When people wanted to understand life in The North,

they would have a young person sit in a community of elders

who might not have access to literacy.

And they would read the paper to the community.

- This newspaper from a big city, created an excitement.

It engendered a thought that ooh, I could make life better.

- The paper is wildly successful,

and is read all over the United States.

In some ways it operates like social media operates today.

- The Chicago Defender becomes a catalyst

for the first wave of the great migration

in the first half of the 20th century,

because suddenly every African American family

in The South has a choice to make, stay or go.

- Black people don't randomly choose to leave The South

during the great migration, they move through

what we call push factors and pull factors.

In this first wave,

many will be pushed from The South by the legacy

of broken promises of the Civil War,

including the number 40,

a slippery and treacherous number.

For nearly two and a half centuries after the coming

of European settlers, slavery had been at the heart

of the plantation economy of the southern states.

By the middle of the 19th century, close to four million

African Americans were enslaved representing 13%

of the entire population of the United States.

The market value of slaves in the US exceeded that of banks,

factories, and railroads combined.

But with the defeat of the southern states in the Civil War,

slavery was not only abolished, 40,000 freed slaves

were promised 40 acres and a mule.

- 40 acres in a mule is the idea that the federal government

would help enslaved people transition into American society.

- A lot plots, so that coming out of bondage,

we can till our our own soil, we can grow our own crops.

We can be self-sustainable, self-determining.

- But when president Abraham Lincoln

is assassinated, and former slave owner,

Andrew Johnson, becomes president, the idea is shelved.

- He shut down this amazing opportunity

for political and economic redistribution.

By some estimates,

the value of 40 acres and a mule for those

40,000 freed slaves would be worth

640 billion dollars today.

And if all four million had been compensated,

that number would amount to 6.4 trillion.

- The lost opportunity, and the betrayal

is one of the key threads in the current conditions

of wealth disparity in our country to this day,

that directly exist along racial lines.

- But one broken presidential promise

isn't the only push factor

in the first wave of the great migration.

Eight Supreme court justices will also play their part.

For a brief period after the end of the Civil War,

the era known as Reconstruction,

it seems that all you have to do is pick a number.

- The Reconstruction era was this amazing moment

of collective possibility, and not just for black folk,

but for everyone.

- Take, for example, the number 13.

- The 13th amendment abolished slavery.