Review: Keneshia N. Grant's The Great Migration and the Democratic Party

Reviewed by Christopher Shell

The Great Migration and the Democratic Party: Black Voters and the Realignment of American Politics in the 20th Century
By Keneshia N. Grant
Temple University Press, 2021
214 pages

In 1900, more than ninety percent of the Black American population resided in the American South. At the conclusion of the First World War, Black Americans turned their sights to the urban centers of the Midwest and Northeast. The migration of roughly six million Black Americans to the North between 1915-1965 is the subject of Keneshia N. Grant’s book, The Great Migration and the Democratic Party: Black Voters and the Realignment of American Politics in the 20th Century. In the United States popular imagination, when we think about the Great Migration, we may think about its cultural implications such as the Harlem Renaissance, the New Negro movement, or Motown. Perhaps we think about its impact on Black radical activity such as the Universal Negro Improvement Association, Nation of Islam, or the Black Panther Party. Grant’s study, rather, urges readers to reconceptualize the Great Migration as an event that critically transformed the northern political system.

The central argument to The Great Migration and the Democratic Party is that the mass movement of Black Southerners “changed how Democratic Party Elites interacted with Black communities.” Blacks in the South, after Reconstruction, faced racist southern legislation that almost entirely impeded their ability to vote. While Black Southern Migrants sought economic and social reprieve in their migration, they also sought the ability to exercise their right to participate in the democratic process. The numerical swelling of northern cities created a new pool of eligible voters and forced northern politicians to address their new constituents. Grant argues that the relationship between Blacks and the Democratic party in the north was twofold. Blacks hastily seized the ability to cast their ballot and effect political change as constituents in their new homes. Additionally, white northern Democratic politicians’ response to Black voters were both positive and negative. While some white Democratic politicians saw the new pool of Black voters as an avenue to reach their political goals, and encouraged Black political participation, some politicians attempted to suppress Black political activity.

Grant opens her book with a historical analysis of the push and pull factors leading a substantial number of Black men, women, and children to leave their home states. Moreover, the author paints a portrait of who the migrants were, what motivated them to leave the South, and their experiences once they reached the North. The Great Migration was vast, in that Blacks resettled in an array of cities throughout the Midwest and Northeast. For this study, Grant chose to focus on Detroit, New York, and Chicago. The author’s reasoning lies in the fact that those three cities received the largest number of southern migrants between 1915 and 1965.  Moreover, the responses by white politicians to their new constituents were varied, providing a perfect case study of the possibilities of northern migration and the nature of the Jim Crow North.

In the three respective cities, Grant provides an analysis of Blacks ascent to elected office in congress, state legislature, and local positions. Grant does her best work when she describes the relationship between Black voters and mayoral candidates. She makes note that in Detroit and Chicago, most mayoral candidates responded negatively to Black voters. White mayoral candidates whether democrat or republican attempted at times to “mobilize the white electorate against any attempt – by members of the black community, union organizations, or white liberal candidates - to provide equal access to jobs or housing in the city.” We learn that this was not necessarily the case in New York. Grant points out that for most of the great migration period, mayoral candidates campaigned directly to Black voters. This is an interesting phenomenon when we take into consideration the Black percentage of the total voting age in the three cities. New York City — the largest recipient of Black Southern migrants — comprised the smallest percentage of Black voters compared to Chicago and Detroit. For example, in 1930 Blacks in Detroit comprised 8.3% of the total voting population and 7.7% in Chicago, in comparison to only 5.1% in New York. New York’s Black voting representation continued to lag behind Chicago and Detroit through the end of the study.

While this may have been the case, numerous New York mayoral candidates, such as Fiorello LaGuardia, were responsive to Black voters in mostly positive ways. For example, LaGuardia, who fought for anti-lynching legislation during his tenure as congressman, won the mayoral race in 1933 with a large portion of the Black vote. While in office he aided in the appointment of Black New Yorkers to government positions. Moreover, in the early 1940s, he fought to decrease discrimination in defense industry hiring. Grant acknowledges that Black New Yorkers did not constitute the Balance of Power (BOP) in elections. Mayoral candidates like LaGuardia understood that Black voters did not have the numerical power to single-handedly change the outcome of an election. However, Grant argues that Blacks in New York had the ability to “contribute to coalitions of voters as large blocs of individuals who were willing to vote strategically for their interests.”

While Grant’s examples of how Blacks influenced New York mayoral election outcomes is noteworthy, her work somewhat lacks in specific instances of coalition building. For example, New York saw a massive wave of Puerto Rican immigrants enter the city in the post-World War II era. It would have helped to have seen a brief analysis of how Black Southern migrants-built coalitions with Caribbean and European immigrants. Additionally, her analysis of Black civic and religious organizations is rather scant. A deeper dive into how notable religious figures such as Adam Clayton Powell, and civic organizations such as the NAACP and Black Fraternal organizations would have been appreciated.

Grant concludes her study in 1965, the exact moment that some of the greatest political advancements occurred in United States History. White flight and urban decay in the 1970s led to further demographic changes. These changes led to the cementation of Black political power in Detroit, Chicago, and New York. Grant argues that the election of Black mayors in the three cities under study: Detroit – Coleman Young (1974), Chicago – Harold Washington (1983), New York – David Dinkins (1990), could not have been accomplished without Great Migration participants and their involvement in the political system. The conclusion also serves as a roadmap for Black political power in the future. The Great Migration and the Democratic Party leaves the reader with much to think about in terms of how “Return Migration” and gentrification are changing the face of Black politics in the North and the South.

The substantial flow of Black retirees and Black professionals to Southern states, since the 1970s, has helped to flip staunchly republican states democrat. The 2020 presidential election, in which Georgia was won by Democratic nominee Joe Biden, is a perfect example of this. This feat was accomplished much in part to the work of political mobilization undertaken by Black women such as Stacy Abrams.  Moreover, gentrification has displaced tens of thousands of Black Americans from neighborhoods that proved critical to the foundation of northern Black voting blocs. Grant is skeptical about the future of Black voting power in northern cities as Blacks are relocating to the outskirts.  For example, Harlem — the pulse of Black social, economic, and political activity — has seen its Black population shrink drastically in recent decades. Washington, DC, historically known as “Chocolate City” is in the same precarious situation. The question becomes, what does this mean for Black political activity, specifically the outcomes of mayoral races? Grant leaves the reader with much to ruminate on. Hopefully she or another scholar will tackle the effects of Return Migration and gentrification on Black voting power soon.

Nonetheless, The Great Migration and the Democratic Party is a brilliant book that paints Black Southern migrants as active political agents that critically impacted their new environments. Social Scientists, and those casually interested in the impact of the Great Migration, will appreciate Grant’s work. Grant also leaves the reader with an elaborate appendix of Black elected officials providing their place of birth and the political office they occupied. In much the same way Caribbean scholars such as Winston Duke have assessed the role Black West Indian migrants played in American socio-political movements, Grant’s work is a reminder of the groundbreaking work that Black Southern migrants played in the Black Freedom Struggle.

Christopher Shell is a PhD Candidate at Michigan State University. His research interests include immigration, migration, African American and urban history.