Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection [LC-USF34-040820-D]

Jack Delano

Following on the heels of the Great Migration of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North, the second wave, between 1940 and 1970, was even larger than the first. During the 1940s alone, as many African Americans left the South as had during the previous three decades. The South experienced an out-migration of almost 4.5 million African Americans. Here, a family prepares for a trip north, from Florida to New Jersey.