Between 1915 and 1970, the Ohio River was more than a border between North and South—it was a corridor of change. As millions of African Americans left the rural South in what came to be called the Great Migration, cities like Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville, and Cairo became places of arrival where new communities took root.
Why did so many leave? Some were pulled northward by wartime jobs that could no longer be filled by low-wage immigrant workers. Others were pushed by violence, poverty, and political exclusion in the South. Trains heading to Pittsburgh or Chicago were often full of passengers carrying not much more than a suitcase and a lead from a cousin or neighbor who had gone before.
Isabel Wilkerson documents this on a national scale in The Warmth of Other Suns (2010), a deeply researched narrative history of the Great Migration that uses personal stories to illuminate what moved people, where they went, and what they left behind. The book won major awards, including the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction and the Anisfield-Wolf Award. She also shared these insights in a widely viewed TED talk.
The reception in the Ohio Valley was complicated. Industries needed hands, but employers often confined newcomers to the dirtiest and most dangerous jobs. Middlemen cropped up, sometimes helping, sometimes exploiting. Housing was another battle: in Cincinnati, the West End became a crowded hub later targeted for “urban renewal”; in Pittsburgh, the Hill District thrived culturally even as city planners bulldozed blocks for highways and stadiums; in Louisville, Black families were steered into neighborhoods like Smoketown and the West End.
Migration also shifted the balance of political power. Where voting rights were less restricted, Black communities could organize, cast ballots, and even tip elections. That influence sparked new opportunities as well as new forms of resistance. We still see echoes of this today in debates over redistricting, representation, and voting rights — reminders that the Great Migration continues to shape American life.
From steel towns to stockyards, from church basements to union halls, the Great Migration reshaped the Ohio River valley in ways still visible today. The questions that follow will help you trace how work, politics, housing, and community life along the river were transformed by this movement of people.
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QUESTIONS
Answers in the footnotes.
1. Why did the Great Migration accelerate in states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois during WWI?
A. Northern industries recruited Black workers to replace European immigrants whose migration slowedB. Southern states began subsidizing train fare northC. Black newspapers advertised opportunities in Northern citiesD. Federal New Deal programs required quotas of Black workers
2. Who were “labor brokers” (also called “labor agents”) during the Great Migration, and why were they controversial?
A. Recruiters hired by Northern industries to bring Southern Black workers northB. Middlemen who sometimes exploited migrants by taking a cut of their wages or charging feesC. Community leaders who voluntarily helped migrants find housing and jobs without payD. Organizers who tried to unionize Black workers as soon as they arrived
3. When Black Southerners arrived in Northern states, many employers assumed they would be best suited for which kinds of jobs?
A. Domestic service and janitorial workB. Stockyards and meatpacking plantsC. Foundries and steel millsD. Agricultural and food-processing labor (e.g., canneries, sugar beet fields)
4.How did Black migration reshape politics in Ohio River states (PA, WV, KY, OH, IN, IL)?
A. African Americans gained the right to vote without poll taxes and literacy testsB. The Black vote began to swing elections in cities like Chicago and ClevelandC. Both major political parties ignored Black voters until after WWIID. Migration triggered white backlash and restrictive housing covenants
5.What role did the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) play in the Great Migration?
A. It provided free rides north for Southern migrantsB. It hired thousands of Black workers as porters, track laborers, and dining car staffC. It ran ads in Black newspapers promoting Pittsburgh and Philadelphia jobsD. It lobbied Congress to restrict Black migration to control wages
6.By 1970, how had the Great Migration reshaped cities along the Ohio River?
A. Louisville’s Black population grew as rural Kentuckians moved into the city for industrial and wartime jobsB. Cincinnati’s West End became a major Black community before being decimated by urban renewalC. Pittsburgh’s Hill District flourished culturally but faced job losses as steel began to declineD. Cairo, Illinois, became a safe haven for Black migrants
7.How did U.S. Steel shape the Great Migration in Pittsburgh and other Ohio River steel towns?
A. It recruited Black workers to fill labor shortages, especially during WWI and WWIIB. It smoothed the transition by giving Black workers a month of free housing in mill townsC. It sometimes used Black workers as strikebreakers, straining relations with white immigrant laborD. It helped fund Black newspapers to support migrant communities
8.What role did the meatpacking and stockyards of Louisville and Cincinnati play in the Great Migration?
A. They hired Southern Black migrants into grueling, low-wage slaughterhouse and processing jobsB. They provided pathways into stable union jobs from the very beginningC. They became organizing grounds where Black workers later joined interracial CIO unions in the 1930sD. They were entirely closed to Black labor until after WWII
9.How did Pullman porters influence Black migration and community life in Ohio River cities like Cincinnati and Louisville?
A. They provided steady, respected work for Black men, though under harsh conditions and low payB. They carried The Chicago Defender and other Black newspapers south, spreading word about Northern opportunitiesC. They organized one of the first national Black labor unions, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car PortersD. They ensured that Black families in river cities were exempt from housing segregation
10.How did housing policies and practices affect Black migrants in Ohio River cities?
A. Restrictive covenants and redlining confined Black families to segregated neighborhoodsB. Urban renewal projects displaced Black communities, often in the name of “slum clearance”C. Federal housing programs after WWII encouraged integrated, mixed-race suburbsD. Despite barriers, Black neighborhoods like Pittsburgh’s Hill District and Cincinnati’s West End fostered strong cultural and political life
If you’ve lived in or near these places — the Hill District in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati’s West End, Smoketown in Louisville — what stories have come down in your family?
Intermission
I was recently in Cincinnati, getting to know more about Black History and the West End. This video includes much of what I discovered there:
ANSWERS
