Question

"And Black men’s fee learned roads. Some say goodbye carefully... others fearfully, with terrors of unknown dangers in their mouth... others in their eagerness for distance said nothing. The daybreak found them gone. The wind said North. Trains said North. The tides and tongues said North, and men moved like the herds before the glaciers."


What historical event is Zora Neale Hurston describing in this quote?

A. The abolition of slavery

B. The Harlem Renaissance

C. The Red Scare

D. The Great Migration

Answer 1

The correct answer is D) the Great Migration.

The historical event that Zora Neale Hurston is describing in this quote is the Great Migration.

There was a time in the modern history of the United States when more than 6 million African Americans from the southern states decided to move up north. This was known as the Great Migration.

Black people who lived in the poor and rural areas of the southern states decided to move to the North and Midwest. The migration started around 1916 and finally ended in 1970.

The reason?

African Americans were tired of segregationism practices in the South and decided to migrate to the North, where the big industries needed extra hands in the factories to operate the machines during  World War I. What these people were looking for was a better life for their families.