Viewing African-American history through the lens of health: The Great Migration and African Americans in Detroit, 1916--1940.

Abstract

This dissertation uses the lens of health to examine the Great Migration and the lives of black southern migrants who settled in Detroit, Michigan, between 1916 and 1940. It argues that the desire to improve and maintain a broad sense of well-being influenced many black southerners to migrate to Detroit and other northern cities. When interviewed, many blacks asserted that the threat of physical violence from racist whites and the stress of living under a system of legalized segregation and discrimination motivated them to leave the South. Sadly, after black southerners arrived in Detroit, they still encountered conditions that threatened their physical and psychological health, particularly in the areas of housing and employment. Yet, this dissertation shows that migrants continued to strive to maintain a broad sense of well-being. They drew on the support of an expanding black community and worked to shape living and working conditions as well as religion and health care in ways that helped them lead healthy lives up North. An exploration of migrants' efforts to preserve their well-being draws on diverse primary sources: oral histories, newspapers, church records, and Urban League records. Ultimately, this dissertation suggests that African American history is, in many ways, the story of blacks' struggle to find and fashion healthier environments in which to live. While this dissertation looks at various decisions that Detroit's black newcomers made to maintain their well-being, it also gives a great deal of attention to migrants' choices about health care. Many working-class migrants continued to rely on health care practices they had used in the South (i.e. the use of home remedies, patent medicines, and lay midwives). By the late 1920s, most migrants depended upon medical care. Yet, before, after, or while seeking treatment from medical practitioners, many migrants routinely took home remedies and patent medicines, visited divine healers, or prayed in order to cure physical ailments. Indeed, migrants continued to use a variety of health care practices and providers through the late 1930s. By examining migrants' diverse health care practices, this study comes closer to representing early twentieth-century urban black health care than previous works.