The story of the Great Migration is the story of America. Between 1916-1970, 6 million African Americans moved from the rural South to the urban centers in the Northeast, Midwest, and West in search of jobs and other opportunities for better lives. This mass movement had a profound effect on nearly every aspect of modern American culture. In this webinar, we will hear from two historians as they discuss the relevance of the Great Migration in shaping New York State. Dr. Jennifer Lemak, Chief Curator of History at The New York State Museum, will highlight a few specific Upstate communities. Dr. Carla J. DuBose-Simons, Professor at SUNY Westchester Community College, will focus on New York City. Beverly Bardequez and Stephanie Woodard from the Rapp Road Historical Association will join to share their experience living in and advocating on behalf of Rapp Road, a Great Migration community in Albany. They will moderate a discussion with Jennifer and Carla, including audience Q&A.
Thanks to our program sponsor: Peggy N. & Roger G. Gerry Charitable Trust
Carla J DuBose-Simons earned her doctorate in American History from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York in February, 2013. Her dissertation entitled The ‘Silent Arrival’: The second wave of the Great Migration and its affects on black New York, 1940-1950 examines the demographic, economic, and social effects of the World War II migration of southern blacks to New York City. The dissertation maps areas of black settlement in the city, explains the process by which blacks found employment, analyzes early civil rights activism in the city, and explores the expansion of black settlement beyond the boundaries of Harlem.
Her research interests include New York City history, African American history, and the history of community formation. She is the author of “Fighting Against Jim Crow Hiring” in The Economic Civil Rights Movement: African Americans and the Struggle for Economic Power which was published by Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group in 2013. Prof. DuBose-Simons’ latest article on black settlement in the South Bronx “Movin’ on Up: African Americans in the South Bronx in the 1940s” was published in the Fall 2014 issue of the New York State Historical Association’s quarterly journal New York History.
Dr. DuBose-Simons is an Instructor of History in the Humanities Department at Westchester Community College where she teaches colonial American, 20th Century American, and African-American history classes. She also serves as Assistant Editor of the Ethnic Students Review, University of California Press https://online.ucpress.edu/esr
Jennifer Lemak is the chief curator of history at the New York State Museum. Prior to this appointment she served there as senior historian/curator of social history. Major exhibition and publication projects include Votes for Women: Celebrating New York’s Suffrage Centennial (2017) and An Irrepressible Conflict: The Empire State in the Civil War (2012). Lemak is the author of Southern Life, Northern City: The History of Albany’s Rapp Road (SUNY Press, 2008) and several articles on the Great Migration to Upstate New York. Her current projects include research on the ERA in New York State and an upcoming exhibit on the 50th anniversary of the Attica prison uprising.
Lemak serves the history field as a member of the New York State Preservation Board, the New York State Suffrage Centennial Commission, and as co-editor of the New York History journal. She earned her MA in Public History and PhD in American History, both from the University at Albany. She is also a fellow of the New York Academy of Historians.