The Great Migration (part 1)

Season 5 begins with the most underreported story in American History; The Great Migration.

Transcript

Welcome And Season Framing

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Eye to Eye, the podcast that dives deep into the social, psychological, and spiritual world of the individual. Join us in season five as your host, Calvin J explores topics around the science of physics, New Age Enlightenment, ancient spirituality, alien life, DNA, epigenetics, organized religion versus spirituality, self-love, sci-fi movies, books, epistemology, and so much more. It's going to be a great season with stimulating conversation that will inspire new and healthy ways of thinking, learning, and living. This is Ignorance to Illumination.

Why The Great Migration Matters

SPEAKER_00 1:32

And uh this season I would once start off uh thanking you and welcoming you to another season of I to I. Um it's gonna be a great season. Um this episode is very, very important, is very dear to me, and um it's essentially about the Great Migration, one of the most underreported, underappreciated stories in American history. Every author, journalist, news reporter, even actor, in the midst of their craft may come across some material that is so personal that in reporting it, writing it, or acting it out on screen, we're enter a zone, right? An essence of realizing that the art in which they're doing or making is bigger than them, their ego. Like Rand Kugler's Sinners movie, Isabel Wickerson's book entitled The Warmth of Other Sons, Oprah Winfrey when she was acting in The Color Purple, and so many more, it becomes their life's duty and honor to showcase a story through art. The following podcast is my art. The Great Migration is perhaps the most underreported story in American history. Over the course of six decades, six million black southerners left their land, their forefathers' land, and banned out all across the corners of America. This exodus spanned from 1915 to 1970, essentially matching up to the time frame of the World War I, or at the time it was called the Great War, which costly led to the Great Depression, and spanned on to the civil rights era. This is the story of every single African American that lived in every city in Northern America. This is my story. Not my great-great parents or not even my great-grandfather or my grandfather, but my father, John Taylor, who was born in Hatalburg, Mississippi. And not to get that confused with Hattersburg, Mississippi, he was born there in 1938. As a young man, he witnessed a lot, a lot of good, bad, and of course, ugly. He was born in between two wars, raised in the financial climate of the Great Depression, and became an independent man during the civil rights movement. My mother's dad, Ross, my maternal grandfather, fought in the war and lived also in Mississippi. My grandmother, his wife, Morgia, and her mother Rita relocated during the Great Migration.

A Leaderless Exodus For Safety

SPEAKER_00 5:18

From Arkansas to California, people would move. From Mississippi to Chicago, people would move from Georgia to South Carolina, up to New York and Philadelphia. People with no leader, with no Moses, with no Martin Luther King or any leader directing this movement. There was no Harriet Tutman. People would randomly and spontaneously go from the South, the agricultural south, to the industrial north looking for a better life, fleeing the torches of Jim Crow just for a better life. Just like the Mexican immigrants that have over the years fled Mexico and traveled to America in search for a better life. It's nothing short of being an American. The only question is, is it respected and embraced and empathized with? Certain people get caught up into criticizing the logistics of how they come over here when in reality, in the past, every culture, most races, most ethnicities came over here the same way. Well, this Polish, Greek, Italian, Jews, like it's nothing short of being an American wanting to flee your native country to come to an area, to come to a country that is a melting pot and search for the American dream. It's nothing short of being American. So who we are to embrace that and criticize it? Sure, there's negatives in every situation, but I promise you, those situations are the exception. There's bad apples in every bunch. There's bad immigrants to every flock of people that comes to America. But I think it's a a disservice, and I think it's uh a bad thing to paint a picture that all people that are searching for a better quality of life are bad people. So, not to get into a deep rabbit hole of that, but that's the nature of the great migration. Many, many, many people, many cultures throughout America has left their native land or their forefathers to search for the promise that America holds freedom, capitalism, and just the warmth of other sons. Which is the book by Isabel Wilkerson, great author.

Isabel Wilkerson On Why People Leave

SPEAKER_00 8:33

Isabel Wilkerson, in her book, actually entitled The Warmth of Other Sons, she states The actions of the people were both universal and distinctly American. Their migration was a response to an economic and social structure not of their making. They did what humans have done for centuries when life became unattainable, what the pilgrims did under the tyranny of British rule, what the Scots-Irish did in Oklahoma when the land turned to dust, what the Irish did when there was nothing to eat, what the European Jews did during the spread of Nazism, what the landless in Russia, Italy, China, and elsewhere did when something better across the ocean called to them. What binds these stories together was the back against the wall, reluctant yet hopeful search for something better, any place for where they were. They did what human beings looking for freedom throughout history have often done. They left. And she goes on to say, the Great Migration would not end until the 1970s, when the South began finally to change. The whites-only signs came down, the all-white schools opened up, and everyone could vote. By then, nearly half of all black Americans, some 47%, would be living outside the South compared to 10% where the migration began. Really, really, really great book, and she follows it up with uh Cast. That's her next book. But in any case, during this time, the late 60s, you know, MLK passed away in 68. So by the 70s, there has been a significant change in American social structure and culture.

The Pattern Of American Pushback

SPEAKER_00 10:48

There's women getting their right to vote, you got the civil rights era. Um, a lot of things is happening, you know, that that give pause to how Americans are treating Americans. A lot of it is uh televised across the world. Um, the assassination of MLK, um, Malcolm X, uh JFK, his brother Bobby, a lot of things are happening in the 60s. So America has no choice but to put themselves in a position to have equal rights. But then again, when there's equal rights, people in position of power that want to maintain that supremacy will give pushback. Pushback. What is this pushback that people that wants to make a change to be better? Some reason, somehow, some way, the American government always gives pushback. They give pushback in order to maintain the status quo, they give pushback in order to maintain supremacy. Pushback. Well, this pushback isn't anything new. This pushback has been indoctrinated within the matrix of American history. Pushback is what America is, it's within the DNA, it's within the fabric of America, it's very subtle. People find loopholes to maintain supremacy, to maintain dominance. So when anytime any culture or any people make any type of advancement of themselves, not to be dominant, but to have equality, it doesn't really jive with the status quo of quote unquote making America great to maintain that supremacy. Pushback is as American as American pie, apple pie. In 1865, that was pushback.

Civil War To Juneteenth Freedom

SPEAKER_00 13:00

Yeah, that's right. During the Civil War era. So I'll break down real quick what the pushback was and how it's not new. 1861, the Civil War popped off. 1861 to 1865. So 1861 was when it first popped off. 1862 got real bloody. 1863, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which gave the Union troops the edge because that enabled them to enlist guess what? Black soldiers to the Union. That gave them the edge. So of course, in 1863, the Battle of Gettysburg, which is when the Union will fought the South Confederacy soldiers, the North ended up winning. So in 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee, he conceded. He said, Yo, we lost. That's why it's so confusing when you see certain people waving certain flags, even though they in America waving Confederacy flags, even though they lost. That's you know a whole nother podcast. But in 1865, the Confederacy lost, they conceded, they lost the Civil War. That was it. And obviously, June 19th was the official recognized date that the whole country realized, especially in particular in Galveston, Texas, when those northern troops, those Union troops pulled up in Galveston, and those people, those slaves seeing black soldiers pull up in Galveston, and like, yo, y'all free. And it was a sight to see because you're seeing black soldiers with guns telling other black slaves that they're free, and that's why we celebrate June 19th. That's why it's recognized. One could understand and see how it's hard to celebrate a July 4th in which we're celebrating a people's freedom over another people's freedom, but certain people's freedom aren't really free. Does that make sense? Not that we're against July 4th, but I think when you attain a certain level of education and enlightenment, you have to do something with that enlightenment, with that education. That's when wisdom and and and that illumination comes into play. That's the whole essence of this podcast, right? Ignorance to illumination. Once we understood that Christopher Columbus really didn't discover America, you have to do something with that information. So ignorance is celebrating Christopher Columbus as if he really discovered America. Illumination is saying, hey, this is Indigenous People's Day. Ignorance is celebrating July 4th. Now, mind you, we understand that America wanted its freedom from Great Britain. That's why they went through attaining that freedom because they knew they wanted to be free. They didn't want to get taxed, they wanted to set their own land up, their own law, they all, and we get that, we understand that. But at the same time, how can you say we're going to celebrate July 4th, 1776? We're celebrating the fact that we're free from Great Britain's rule. Meanwhile, the slaves that we have over here aren't free at all, but we want them to celebrate July 4th. My freedom, not your freedom. I want you to celebrate my freedom. So when the slave becomes free, June 19th, 1865, one would understand how more appropriate it is to celebrate that freedom. And really, that's the freedom for all, June 19th, 1865. It's not another holiday, it's just that that's the that's the date that everyone in America is free. So that's a little bit of history lesson in regards to the pushback.

Jim Crow And Modern Backlash

SPEAKER_00 17:37

Because after that, 1865 freedom date for all slaves in America, the abolishment of slavery, there was pushback, and that pushback was the initiation of the KKK, the Klansmen, and also the indoctrination of these unofficial laws called Jim Crow that plagued and terrorized the deep south from 1865 well into the 1900s. These were laws and stereotypes and judgments that would be indoctrinated in people's psyche and implemented through officials, governmental officials. You get your freedom in 1865, but you know what? Through Jim Crow laws, you can't take your kids to certain schools. Through Jim Crow laws, you can't drink from the same water fountain. From certain laws, you're treated essentially like a second-class citizen. This is the pushback. So from 1865 to 1965, plus more, we've had to suffer the inequalities, the pushback from that. Pushback, pushback. 1865, we get the freedom, but you get 100 years of pushback. Then you finally get the ability to vote through civil rights movements, but you still get the pushback. You finally get a black president, but you still get the pushback. And the pushback, the pushback, the pushback from Obama being in office. Well, we all know what happened. We all know who got in office. We all know what insurrection came to. Pushback. Pushback isn't about equality. Pushback is about the fear of losing dominance. Pushback. So after 1865, the fear of loss of supremacy plagued certain citizens and certain officials in government, and the Ku Klux Klan was born. They actually made a movie entitled Klansmen. This like this is legit real information. They made a movie entitled Klansmen, which actually premiered not at theaters, but at the White House. And this, of course, riled up the base to quote unquote make America great again, and throughout decades of terror with no consequences. So soon after a win for the blacks after freedom, the KKK and Jim Crow tactics over a hundred years of domestic terrorism, there was still a struggle, not for black superiority, but for black equality. Equality, as I said, threatens the superiority, and that's why things like diversity, equity, and inclusion will never make sense to a person that's trying to maintain the upper hand on you. Equality in the Christian country should make sense, but equality from the perspective of someone that's trying to maintain dominance is a threat. So back to the present.

Emmett Till And Fleeing Terror

SPEAKER_00 21:39

GM in Detroit, the steelworkers in Gary, Indiana, the North needed workers, and the workers needed an escape. But an escape from what? Well, I'm sure we all heard of how bad the South was, the inequalities, the Domestic terrorism. You know, I'm sure we all have heard of the bombings of Black Wall Street by the FBI, by the government. Anytime you get an edge on economics to change your way of living, there's been terrorism. Domestic terrorism is the biggest kind of terrorism that this country has experienced. So when the black southerners want to escape, they're trying to escape from things like what happened to Megar Evans or what happened to Emmett Till. I know we all heard about Emmett Till, but for the listeners that never heard of Emmett Till, Emmett Till was a 14-year-old black kid from Chicago that had family in Mississippi. And he went down to Mississippi, I think it was 1955. He went down to Mississippi to visit family. And the alleged uh the allegement was that he whistled at a white woman. He was abducted, beaten, lynched so badly that it was recommended that he have a clothes casket for allegedly whistling at a white woman. 14-year-old kid. 14 years old. Just hit the teenage years. This isn't some grown man that actually raped someone. This is a naive teenager from the north that is, mind you, quite oblivious to the southern structure of things. Fourteen-year-old boy from Chicago came down south to visit family, went into a store, and allegedly whistled at a white woman. They came out throughout the night, came into his family home, kidnapped this 14-year-old kid, drugged him out in the middle of the night, tortured him, beat him, and lynched him. They had to drive his corpse back to Chicago to his mother, Mammy Till. And she wanted the world to see what they did to her son. So she demanded that there was an open casket. And the world seeing what the South did. So this is what the Southerners was running from. They were fleeing for their lives to have a better life. They were fleeing not just the backbreaking agricultural work of the South to the industrial better paying, but they were fleeing domestic terrorism. From 1915 to 1970, over four to six million people fled up north to have a better quality of life. They did nothing more than what any other group of people throughout human history would do in order to have a better life. They left.

Part Two Preview With Parents

SPEAKER_00 26:02

Join me next week for part two of the Great Migration as I interviewed my mother and father.