Laurence Glasco

Book Review: Black Migration in America: A Society and Demographic HistoryBlack Migration in America: A Society and Demographic History. By JohnsonDaniel M. and CampbellRex R. Studies in Social and Economic Demography No. 4. Durham, NC:Duke University Press, 1981. Pp. viii, 190.

This short book, which aims to summarize what we already know about the demographic history of black migration in the United States, covers an enormous span of time. It discusses, in chronological fashion, the Atlantic slave trade, the domestic slave trade, black migration after Emancipation into states like Kansas and Oklahoma, migration to northern cities in the late 19th century, the acceleration of that movement during and after World War I, the continued migration during the Great Depression, and the even more massive migration northward, westward and to southern cities during and after World War II. The book closes with the 1960s, although a one page epilogue hints at some new developments of the 1970s. The book is completely based on secondary literature; no original research was attempted, although a forthcoming companion study by the authors will involve interviews with several hundred return migrants to the South. As a review of the literature, it is quite prosaic and uninspired. No models, theories or larger questions serve to guide or organize the syntheses. The reader follows the authors in fairly lockstep fashion from one period and one topic to another. Nor is the literature review a critical one; the authors give no guides as to strengths and weaknesses of the research that has gone before. The work is more informative and precise for the post-World War II period, probably because that is the period for which the authors have done most oftheir own research. The chapter on the 1950s is the best of the book, partly because the authors pay more attention to the urban adjustment of migrants during this period, and also because the writing seems more secure and confident. Overall, the synthesis seems competent. No important gaffs or blunders were committed, and so it woul d be a reliable work for persons unfamiliar with the topic who seek a very general guide. One is disappointed that a geographic study contains only two maps.