"For the Advancement of the Race": Agency, Work, and the Great Migrations to Houston, Texas, 1900-1941.

This study examines the Great Migrations to Houston, Texas, between the years 1900 and 1941. Specifically it looks closely at agency, the Black workforce in Houston, and the subtle, accommodating strategies African Americans orchestrated in their quest for social equality. More than anything else, the desire to improve one's economic condition compelled families and individuals alike to uproot, especially during the heyday of Houston's First Great Migration in the 1920s. The decision to relocate one's family or one's self involved self-help agency, determination, courage, and hope. Newcomers actively sought higher wages, an increased standard of living for themselves and their families, decent homes, quality schools for their children, and quietly, the eradication of institutionalized racism. This study of internal migration and agency builds on several engaging scholarly canons within the fields of United States history and African American studies. This study firstly celebrates Black urban history; it also builds on the impressive research of Robin D. G. Kelley, Amilcar Shabazz, and others who place the ordinary actions of individuals and groups inside the framework of civil-rights activism. Finally, this piece sheds new light on the Great Migrations by highlighting Houston, Texas, by presenting an alternative model to the traditional scholarship within the subfield of African American urban history. Drawing from potent sources from the Houston area, including manuscript collections, vital statistics, census data, welfare records, newspapers, and oral histories, this study recreates the Great Migrations to Houston in the first half of the century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]