The document summarizes a historian's conclusion that young, literate black males were more likely to migrate north during the Great Migration of the early 20th century. It suggests checking census data from 1900 and 1930 to see if it supports higher rates of migration for black males compared to females. Analyzing Georgia census data from those years overwhelmingly confirms this, as the percentage of black females in southern counties was higher in 1930 than 1900, indicating more black males left. This leads to questions about white female population percentages in Georgia during the same period.

1. Geographic/Historic Inquiry
The Great Migration

2. Ask Questions
In Farewell, We're Good and Gone, Carole Marks’ history of the Great Migration of black
Americans out of the southern states in the first few decades of the twentieth century, the author
concludes that:
... certain types of migrants leave in fairly predictable patterns. Young literate men, possessing some
formal education and previous manufacturing experience are among those most likely to move.
Marks is saying that more males migrated than females; that young men, single as well as married, were
among the first to migrate - hoping to settle into a job and place to live before they brought their families
North; that it was predominately literate African Americans who made the trip north.
Does available census data support these conclusions?

3. Census data from 1900 and 1930 are readily
available from NHGIS. Selecting population
data by race and gender will allow students to
test the conclusion that black males migrated in
greater numbers than black females.
Acquire Data

4. Analyze Information
If Marks’ conclusion is correct their
should be a greater percentage of black
females in the population of southern
counties in 1930 than in 1900.
The evidence in the case of
Georgia is overwhelming:

5. Act on Knowledge
In the context of a history lesson acting on new
knowledge can take the form of examining
implications in the present and acting on an
issue, but more often takes the form of asking
new and related questions of the past.
For example, how did the percentage of white
females in Georgia’s population compare with
that of black females in 1930? Was there a
similar imbalance?

6. Act on Knowledge
In the context of a history lesson acting on new
knowledge can take the form of examining
implications in the present and acting on an
issue, but more often takes the form of asking
new and related questions of the past.
For example, how did the percentage of white
females in Georgia’s population compare with
that of black females in 1930? Was there a
similar imbalance?