Great Migrations: A People on the Move

Great Migrations: A People on the Move is a four-hour docuseries from Executive Producer, host and writer Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., series producers and directors Julia Marchesi and Nailah Ife Sims. 

The film examines the powerful influence 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.

Corporate support is provided by Bank of America, Ford Motor Company and Johnson & Johnson. Major support is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Support is also provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Ford Foundation. Additional support was provided by the Inkwell Society together with many of its members, and by public television viewers.

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Screening and Community Discussion

Join KLRN from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 5 for a free screening of Great Migrations: A People on the Move, followed by a discussion with Producer and Director Nailah Sims. We'll hear about how the show came to be and what was learned.

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How to Watch

Tuesdays on KLRN Channels 9 and 9.1:

• Jan. 28 at 8 p.m. - Episode 1: Exodus
• Feb. 4 at 8 p.m. - Episode 2: Streets Paved in Gold
• Feb. 11 at 8 p.m. - Episode 3: One Way Ticket Back
• Feb 18 at 8 p.m. p.m. - Episode 4: Coming to America

Available on-demand at video.klrn.org and through the PBS App .

Educator Resources

The series has collaborated with TeachRock and Thinking Nation to create four standards-based, classroom-ready education resources for grades 6-8 and 9-12. Resources include video segments from the series, discussion questions, vocabulary and student-led activities. All will be accessible for free to educators on PBS LearningMedia.

Lesson plans include:

• Lesson 1:  Students will explore the context of the Great Migration (1910–1940) to understand its significance and impact on Black Americans and the nation.
• Lesson 2:  Focus will be on the second wave of the Great Migration and its impact on American cities and society.
• Lesson 3:  Focus will be on the New Great Migration, a movement of African Americans from northern cities and back to southern states. Students will examine the reasons for this southward migration, its historical importance and how it has evolved.
• Lesson 4:  Examining the Next Great Migration, an ongoing immigration of people from the Caribbean and Africa, and its influence on American culture. Students will analyze the impact on immigration laws, culture, and the Black community.

Reading List

For Adults: 

• Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
• Making Our Way Home: The Great Migration and the Black American Dream by Blair Imani
• Bound for Freedom: Black Los Angeles in Jim Crow America by Douglas Flamming
• The Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Reader by Henry Louis Gates Jr
  The Southern Diaspora: How the Great Migrations of Black and White Southerners
• Transformed America by James N. Gregory
• Jacob Lawrence: The Migration Series edited by Leah Dickerman, Elsa Smithgall
• The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America by
  Nicholas Lemann
• The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
  by Richard Rothstein
• Sweet Land of Liberty: The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North by Thomas J. Sugrue
• The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson

For Youth:

• Making Our Way Home: The Great Migration and the Black American Dream by Blair Imani and Rachelle Baker
• The Great Migration: An American Story by Jacob Lawrence
• What Was the Harlem Renaissance? by Sherri L. Smith
• Henry Louis Gates Jr. Biography For Curious Kids: Historian of African American Culture, Keeper of Heritage by Celina Weston
• This Is the Rope: A Story from the Great Migration by Jacqueline Woodson