The Great Migration was a movement of African Americans, from the South to the North, between 1916 and 1930. Hundreds of thousands of African Americans migrated, in order, to find better working and living conditions. When WWI began, more jobs were open to African Americans and many took advantage of that.

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    By 1920, central Harlem was 32.43% black.  Housing created major problems between African - Americans and whites during this mass movement of people. Communities became segregated, due to many cities adopting segregation ordinances to keep African-Americans out of predominantly white communities. In 1917, the Supreme Court declared municipal resident segregation ordinances unconstitutional, but whites still found ways around that. Whites created deeds that bounded other whites to sell their property only to other whites.

Many African Americans believed that this sacrifice would be repaid when the war was over. In the words of one Aftican American "Our second emancipation will be the outcome of this war." Upon their return after the war, African American soldiers were not given the same right  as white soldiers, even though 14.4 percent black compared to 6.3 percent white soliders died in the war. Black soldiers weren't given the right to join in the victory march down Paris's Champs-Elysees boulevard--even though black troops from European colonies marched.