Great Migration: The African-American Exodus North 大迁徙：非裔美国人北迁

修文乔

Between 1915 and 1970， more than 6 million African-Americans moved out of the South to cities across the Northeast， Midwest and West.

This relocation—called the Great Migration—resulted in massive demographic shifts across the United States. Between 1910 and 1930， cities such as New York， Chicago， Detroit and Cleveland saw their African-American populations grow by about 40 percent， and the number of African-Americans employed in industrial jobs nearly doubled.

“[The Great Migration] had such an effect on almost every aspect of our lives—from the music that we listen to to the politics of our country to the ways the cities even look and feel， even today，” says Isabel Wilkerson1. “The suburbanization and the ghettos that were created as a result of the limits of where [African-Americans] could live in the North [still exist today]. And ... the South was forced to change， in part because they were losing such a large part of their workforce through the Great Migration.”

On the Jim Crow laws2 in the South

“There were colored and white waiting rooms everywhere， from doctors offices to the bus stations. ... But there were actually colored windows at the post office in Pensacola， Fla. And there were white and colored telephone booths in Oklahoma. There were separate windows where white people and black people would go to get their license plates in Mississippi. And there were even separate tellers to make your deposits at the First National Bank in Atlanta. It was illegal for black people and white people to play checkers together in Birmingham. And there were even black and white Bibles to swear to tell the truth on3 in many parts of the South.”

On resistance from Northern African-American communities to the Great Migration

“At the beginning of the 20th century， before the migration began， 90 percent of all African-Americans were living in the South. By the end of the Great Migration， nearly half of them were living outside the South in the great cities of the North and West. So when this migration began， you had a really small number of people who were living in the North and they were surviving as porters or domestics or preachers—some had risen to levels of professional jobs—but they were， in some ways， protected because they were so small. They did not pose any threat. There was a kind of alchemy4 or acceptance of that small minority of people in these cities. So when you had this great wave and flood of people coming in from the South， many of them untutored and unaware of the ways of the big cities， it was in some ways threatening to those who were already there because they feared the positions that they had worked so hard to achieve—that was tenuous5 at best in these big cities—and thats why there was a great deal of resistance.”

On her parents migration experience

“My parents absolutely did not think of themselves as part of the Great Migration. They knew they were part of a great wave. No one really talked about it in those terms or gave it a name. I grew up surrounded by people who were from North Carolina， South Carolina， Georgia—all around me. My parents friends were all from there. They socialized with people from there. They were quite ambitious and competitive among themselves， bragging about that they were going to put their child through Catholic school because that was going to give them a better chance at succeeding. My parents sent me to a school across town， an integrated school， where I had the chance to meet and grow up with people who were from other parts of the world. ... I remember feeling that I would never have anything to contribute on St. Patricks Day. I couldnt tell the stories that they might have been telling about their forebears and I felt left out， and only when I got older， and began reporting from different cities outside of Washington ... there were people who migrated from parts of the South to Chicago and Detroit and Los Angeles and San Francisco. And I began to put these pieces together and it began to hit me that this was so much like the immigration experience of so many others.”

1915到1970年之间，超过600万非裔美国人从美国南部迁徙到西北部、中西部和西部各个城市。

这次迁徙史上称为大迁徙，导致美国人口分布發生了巨大变化。1910到1930年间，纽约、芝加哥、底特律、克利夫兰等城市的非裔美国人人口增长了大约40%，而受雇于工业部门的非裔美国人人口几乎翻倍。

“从音乐到政治，再到城市的面貌和氛围，（大迁徙）几乎对我们生活的方方面面都产生了影响，这些影响至今存在。”伊莎贝尔·威尔克森如此评论道，“由于（非裔美国人）在北部居住受限而产生了人口郊区化现象和非裔聚居区（存留至今）。南部也被迫发生改变，部分原因在于他们在大迁徙中失去了大部分劳动力。”

南部的吉姆·克劳法

“到处是黑人白人分开的等候室，诊所、车站无一例外……佛罗里达州彭萨科拉邮局竟然有黑色的窗户。俄克拉何马州有为白人和黑人分设的电话亭。在密西西比州，白人和黑人要从不同的窗口取车牌。亚特兰大第一国民银行甚至有不同的出纳员处理不同人种的储蓄业务。在伯明翰，黑人与白人一同下棋视为非法。在南部很多地方，黑人和白人在法庭宣誓保证说实话时甚至使用不同的《圣经》。”

北部非裔美国人抵制大迁徙

“在20世纪初大迁徙发生之前，90%的非裔美国人生活在南部。大迁徙结束之后，几乎一半人口离开南部，居住在北部和西部的大城市。所以在大迁徙刚开始的时候，生活在北部的非裔美国人数量极少，他们当搬运工、用人、牧师谋生，有些人拥有一技之长走上了专业岗位。因为人数很少，他们在某种程度上受到保护。他们不构成任何威胁。这些少数族裔人口有点儿神秘，也都被这些城市所接受。所以，一大波迁徙浪潮从南部袭来，许多迁徙人口未受过正规教育，也不谙城市的生活方式，他们的到来在某种程度上对原有的人口造成了威胁。他们担心会失去经过艰辛努力才争取到的工作，这些工作在大城市极易被取代，所以他们对大迁徙极其抗拒。”

父母的迁徙经历

“我父母完全不认为自己参与了大迁徙。他们只知道自己参与了一场社会浪潮。事实上在讨论这一事件时，没有人使用这些术语，也没有给出固定的名字。我小的时候，周围有人来自北卡罗来纳，有人来自南卡罗来纳，有人来自佐治亚，各地的人都有。我父母的朋友都来自那些地方，与他们交往的朋友也来自那些地方。他们在自己的小圈子里踌躇满志、一心求胜，夸耀说要让孩子上天主教学校，这会让他们有更大的胜算获得成功。父母将我送到城市另一端的一所综合学校，我在那里有机会遇到来自世界其他地方的同学，与他们一同成长。我依然记得圣帕特里克节我呆坐在那里的感受。当别人在侃侃而谈，讲述他们祖先的故事时，我一言不发，感觉自己是多余的一员。一直到我长大离开华盛顿州，在各个城市报道新闻……我才知道很多人从南部各地迁徙到芝加哥、底特律、洛杉矶和旧金山。那时我开始总结儿时的这些经历，才意识到这与很多其他人的迁徙经历非常相像。”

[译者单位：中国石油大学（北京）]

1（1961—  ），美国新闻史上第一位获得普利策特稿奖的非裔美国人，也是第一位获得普利策奖的黑人女性。她的父母在大迁徒中从佐治亚和南弗吉尼亚来到华盛顿特区，她在那里出生、长大。她历尽15年心血，采访1200余人而成的精雕细琢之作《他乡暖阳：美国大迁徙史传》（The Warmth of Other Suns： The Epic Story of Americas Great Migration）围绕20世纪黑人大迁徙展开，于2019年1月出版。

2吉姆·克劳法（Jim Crow laws）泛指1876年至1965年间美国南部各州以及边境各州对有色人种（主要针对非裔美国人，但同时也包含其他族群）实行种族隔离制度的法律。  3在英美法系国家，证人出庭时，往往手按《圣经》，发誓所说的一切句句属实。誓词为：I will tell the truth， the whole truth， and nothing but the truth， so help me God.

4 alchemy（改变事物的）神秘力量。  5 tenuous脆弱的。