I chose to focus on the chapter in The Warmth of Other Suns titled "The Stirrings of Discomfort". This section of the book discusses the beginnings of the mass migration of African American's from the South to the North. After the Civil War, conditions for blacks were very poor. Although slavery had been abolished, many still worked day to day as if they were enslaved for little to no pay. Additionally, there were many laws and codes in place that limited social mobility for blacks in the south. Said laws and codes were reinforced and upheld by violent acts such as lynching. The labor shortage in the North in addition to much improved social conditions for blacks were motivating factors contributing to many people leaving the South in the hopes of beginning a new life in the North. As stated in the text, "treatment doesn't warrant staying" and this move that many families made set up a more promising future for their youth and the next generation.
There was a poem titled "Youth" in The New Negro by Langston Hughes that I felt capture the essence and important of this mass migration. I felt as if the poem placed importance on tomorrow and how it was the torch that guided the steps of the future. Yesterday has come and gone and is no longer a reference point. One must march on towards tomorrow and the future. To me, this poem connected to "The Stirrings of Discomfort" because all of those families that took a chance to migrate North only looked towards tomorrow and the future and what they felt would be opportunity and improved social conditions. They did not look back. In turn, as I mentioned above, this movement really affected the future/next generation considering how they grew up in conditions that were completely different than their mothers and fathers.
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