Racial Gaps in Career Mobility during the Great Migration

The author investigates whether the Great Migration closed or mitigated racial disparities in career advancement. Using linked historical census data, tracking individuals from the early twentieth century, the author analyzes the occupational mobility of Black and White men who came of age during the Great Migration. The author uses two longitudinal analyses of occupational status over a 30-year period (e.g., 1900–1930 and 1910–1940) to compare career trajectories across racial and migratory groups. The results show that Black men who left the Jim Crow South for northern states—rapidly growing industrial areas in particular—experienced the same level of career mobility as those who remained in the South. Furthermore, northern Black men attained higher occupational status than southern Black men who had migrated to the North, indicative of a career mobility ceiling experienced by Black migrants. While starting their careers at different occupational levels, White men enjoyed significantly greater career mobility in both the South and the North. These findings imply that the Great Migration, despite escaping the worst versions of Jim Crow, maintained racial gaps in career mobility. This descriptive longitudinal account of occupational attainment underscores the durable impact of racialized opportunity structures even amid economic modernization.