Key Ideas
1. The turn of the 20th century was a time of mass immigration and migration in the United States.
2. Women from all over the world immigrated to the US to seek a better life, but there were specific laws and politics in place to restrict the rights of immigrants of color.
3. The US rarely lived up to the expectations of the women who immigrated here, but most were able to persevere and thrive.
4. Black women who participated in the Great Migration carried the additional burden of building new homes and communities to keep their children safe.
Introduction
Immigration and the Great Migration
There was unprecedented movement of people throughout the US at the turn of the 20th century. Immigration to the US was at an all-time high, but the country did not often live up to the expectations of hopeful arrivals. Immigration policies like the Chinese Exclusion Act and the Gentleman’s Agreement with Japan made emigration from Asia difficult. The Expatriation Act stripped American women of their citizenship if they married foreign-born men who had not naturalized. Immigrants who tried to enter the United States through Ellis Island or Angel Island were met with suspicion and skepticism, with the worst treatment reserved for anyone of Asian descent. Once they gained entry to the country, immigrants faced dangerous living conditions, exploitative workplaces, cultural exclusion, and discrimination. In spite of all this adversity, immigrant populations built tight-knit communities to support one another and found ways to persevere and contribute to the reshaping of US society.
Meanwhile, over 500,000 Black Americans chose to migrate north to escape the restrictions and violence of the Jim Crow South. Northern cities offered better opportunities for Black Americans, but prejudice and segregation were still rampant, and violence was not uncommon. Regardless of the challenges they encountered, Black communities continued to rebuild and rebound, laying the foundation for the explosion of creative output that would come to be known as the Harlem Renaissance.
Bettmann, Japanese Picture Brides at Immigration, 1920. Bettmann Archive/Getty Images
Teaching Materials
Resources in this Topic
Black Life in the Urban North
An article that describes the new opportunities and challenges Northern cities offered Black women who migrated from the Jim Crow South.
Life in the Tenements
A collection of images that document the experience of immigrant women and girls in New York City.
Medical Exams on Ellis Island
Two images that illustrate some of the challenges immigrants had to face to make it through Ellis Island.
Migrating North
Three photographs that document the experience of Black women and girls migrating from the rural South to Chicago.
Picture Brides and Japanese Immigration
A photograph that tells the story of Japanese exclusion and the lengths women would go to gain entry to the US.
The Silent Protest
This resource is adapted from the New-York Historical Society’s Black Citizenship in the Age of Jim Crow curriculum.
Edith Maude Eaton
Building Empathy Through Understanding. The story of a Chinese British immigrant who wrote about the unfair treatment of Chinese Americans in the Chinese Exclusion era.
Kala Bagai
Early Indian Immigration. The story of one of the first Indian women to immigrate to the US.
Mother Cabrini, aka Maria Francesca Cabrini
Patron Saint of Immigrants. The story of an Italian nun who dedicated her life to helping immigrant communities.
Paik Kuang Sun, aka Mary Paik Lee
Korean Immigration and Resilience. The story of a Korean immigrant’s lifelong struggle for acceptance.
Get Deeper into Relevant Topics
-
Activism and the Progressive Era
For many women, political and social activism offered an opportunity to break from traditional roles and enact change. Social reformers came from almost every walk of life.
-
Modern Womanhood
Modern womanhood included newfound freedom, but modern life also involved shaking off tradition and carving new paths to success.
-
Women’s Suffrage
The rise of social reform and progressive politics breathed fresh life into a movement that had begun decades earlier.
Discover more Units
1977 - 2001End of the Twentieth Century
0 Items- 1977 - 2001
End of the Twentieth Century
43 ItemsStudy the experiences of women as technology, globalization, and increasingly polarized politics shaped the nation.
You are Here
1889 - 1920Modernizing America
63 ItemsDiscover how women experienced and shaped immigration, industrialization, progressivism, and suffrage at the turn of the 20th century.
1866 - 1904Industry and Empire
42 ItemsConsider women’s rights at the end of the 19th century as the nation redefined the boundaries and privileges of citizenship.
1948 - 1977Growth and Turmoil
42 ItemsConsider how women of diverse backgrounds contributed to and were shaped by an era of escalating political activism and rapidly shifting social norms, from the dawn of the Cold War through the apex of the debate over the Equal Rights Amendment.
1820 - 1869Expansions and Inequalities
50 ItemsExamine what Westward Expansion meant to the diverse women living within and outside of the expanding nation’s borders, how women responded to the burgeoning immigration debate, and the roles women played in the early years of the Industrial Revolution.
1492 - 1734Early Encounters
67 ItemsDiscover the lives and experiences of Native American, African, and European women who encountered one another on America’s shores.
1920 - 1948Confidence and Crises
47 ItemsExplore dramatic shifts in American society and culture from the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the dawn of the /topic/confidence-and-crises_post-war/ era.
1692 - 1783Colonies and Revolution
70 ItemsTrace the development of colonial society and identity up through the crucible of the American Revolution.
1832 - 1877A Nation Divided
50 ItemsDelve into the ways women participated in all aspects of the Civil War, and on both sides, from the early debate over the expansion of slavery through Reconstruction.
1776 - 1831Building a New Nation
50 ItemsExplore the foundation of the new nation, the ways women’s rights were suppressed under the new government, and how women were central to the formation of the new American identity.