Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division

Between 1940 and 1970, migration to Western states remained fairly constant, while migration to the Northeast continued to increase and that to the Midwestern (or North Central) states declined. Black migration to the Northeastern states was 462,000 during the 1940s, 598,000 during the 1950s, and 612,000 during the 1960s. Migration to the Midwestern states fell from 618,000 during the 1940s, to 542,000 during the 1950s, to 380,000 during the 1960s. Migration of African Americans to the Western states hovered around 300,000 in each decade.