Better Lives, Broken Promises and the Struggle for Equality: Lessons from The Black Migration to Saginaw, Michigan

This ethno-historical analysis uses the oral histories of three generations of African American migrants to Saginaw, Michigan to show how social processes within the African American community changed in response to the local race-based opportunity structure.

This study focuses on the black migration to this northern industrial community that occurred in two waves between 1915 and 1960 and argues that different levels of expectations informed how each wave responded to the local social str...