Text 1: Historian Foster argues that the Great Migration of African Americans from the rural South to northern cities between 1916 and 1970 was driven by economic opportunity. Wartime industries needed workers; northern wages were two or three times southern wages; the pull of jobs, Foster contends, explains the movement.
Text 2: Historian Park accepts the economic factors but emphasizes push as much as pull. Lynching, sharecropping debt, and the violent enforcement of Jim Crow, she argues, made southern life intolerable for many migrants. The Great Migration was not just a job hunt but a flight from terror.
The authors most clearly disagree about
- Acheck_circle
the relative weight of economic pull versus violent push factors.
- B
whether the Great Migration occurred.
- C
whether Jim Crow existed.
- D
whether northern wages were higher than southern wages.
Explanation
Both accept the migration and the economic differential. They differ on the relative weight of pull versus push factors. B captures the dispute.