CHAPTER 13 · Blacks Arrive in Northern Cities
Why did moving north fail to guarantee affordable housing for Black migrants in Harlem?
A practice question that prepares your thinking for the aim. Study how the model works, then build your own answer to your assigned question.
The model paragraph
Moving north opened possibilities for Black families, but discrimination allowed landlords to limit how much those families gained. Harlem, a neighborhood in New York City, grew rapidly during the Great Migration. Landlords, the owners of rental housing, controlled access to homes that newcomers needed. Takaki explains that “discrimination made it difficult for blacks to move to other parts of the city” (YPT 264). This says families could not freely choose housing throughout New York. It shows that racial exclusion reduced their alternatives and gave landlords greater power over them. However, being confined to Harlem did not make the rent easier to afford. Takaki notes that “most of them worked in low-paying menial or service jobs” (YPT 265). This says many Black tenants had little income to spend on housing. It shows why rising rents could consume the gains that migrants hoped to make by leaving the South. Because housing segregation restricted movement, it gave landlords leverage over tenants who could not easily leave. This exploitation linked racial exclusion to the transfer of workers’ earnings to property owners. This illustrates the Key Idea that Economic forces drive history. Control over property and access to wages shaped what freedom actually meant in migrants’ daily lives. Although migration changed where people lived, equal opportunity also required changing the unequal terms on which they could work and rent.
1 POINT TO NAME IT · 1 POINT TO EXPLAIN IT
How this model earns its key idea points
Gist
People make choices to get land, money, and the things they need. Those choices can change other people’s lives.
Check your understanding
Academic definition
Economic interests shape historical change when people use power to control resources, organize labor, and distribute wealth. Explain the decisions connecting an economic goal to its consequences.
Check your understanding
Elaboration
- Name the idea
- Key Idea 1: Economic forces drive history
- Point to the evidence
- Housing discrimination restricted Black tenants’ choices (YPT 264), while many depended on low-paying jobs (YPT 265).
- Explain how it works
- Restricted housing choices gave landlords bargaining power. Low wages made rising rents harder to absorb, so income and property ownership shaped migrants’ opportunities.
- Make the connection explicit
- Earn the first point by naming Economic forces drive history. Earn the second by explaining how control over housing and wages limited what migration could accomplish, rather than merely saying that migrants needed money.
Check your understanding: explain how this model’s evidence shows its key idea without looking at the explanation above.
Compare your explanation
Restricted housing choices gave landlords bargaining power. Low wages made rising rents harder to absorb, so income and property ownership shaped migrants’ opportunities.
How the argument builds
Follow what each move adds to the answer. Then map your own paragraph in your notebook.
- Claim
Moving north created opportunities without guaranteeing affordable housing.
- First evidence
Housing discrimination narrowed the places Black families could live.
- Second evidence
Low wages made the cost of housing harder to bear.
- Mechanism
Limited alternatives strengthened landlords’ power over tenants.
- Key idea
Property and wages shaped the practical meaning of freedom.
- Conclusion
Movement alone could not change every unequal relationship.
Build your own sentences · Chapter 13
Choose the relationship your argument needs. These are sentence models to study; your paragraph should use your own reasoning and your assigned four words of the day.
Appositives · rename a noun precisely
A noun phrase between commas renames the noun before it. It adds useful information, not another sentence. You need two.
Check: remove the phrase between the commas. The main sentence should still work.
The Great Migration, a movement of African Americans from the South to northern cities, joined the search for higher wages with a demand for dignity.
YPT 256–257 YPT 259The Illinois Central Railroad, a transportation link between Chicago and several southern states, made a distant industrial destination easier for Black migrants to reach.
YPT 260Richard Parker, the organizer of an employer-funded Black union, helped company owners prevent Black and white workers from combining their strength.
YPT 261–262The Stockyards Labor Council, a union that opened membership to Black workers, encountered distrust after employers supported a separate organization.
YPT 261–262Langston Hughes, a poet associated with the Harlem Renaissance, explored how African roots and American experiences could belong within the same identity.
YPT 265–266Marcus Garvey, the founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, used pride in African history to encourage a movement for Black unity and power.
YPT 269–270
The nine connectors · choose a relationship
But
Adds a contrast.
Northern factories offered Black migrants higher wages, but housing discrimination and divided unions limited the independence that those new jobs could provide.
YPT 257 YPT 260–262So
Shows a result.
World War I interrupted European immigration and reduced the supply of factory workers, so northern employers began recruiting African Americans they had previously refused to hire.
YPT 257Because
Gives a reason.
Rail connections helped make Chicago a major destination because the Illinois Central linked the city with southern communities where many Black migrants began their journey.
YPT 260If
Names a condition.
If we explain the Great Migration only through higher wages, we overlook young Black migrants’ desire for safety, dignity, and control over their own futures.
YPT 258–259Unless
Means if not.
A comparison of Black and Mexican migration remains incomplete unless it considers both shared pressures to find work and the different dangers that pushed people from home.
YPT 238–239 YPT 256–257 YPT 259When
Means if with expectation.
When white neighborhood organizations pressured owners to refuse Black tenants, they helped turn racial prejudice into a housing boundary that restricted migrants’ choices.
YPT 260 YPT 264Despite
Takes a noun phrase.
Despite employer efforts to divide Black and white workers, later industrial unions recruited Black members and recognized that cooperation across racial lines could strengthen workers’ demands.
YPT 261–262 YPT 268Although
Takes a subject and a verb.
Although Harlem’s cultural achievements attracted national attention, many residents faced low wages and high rents, revealing the distance between artistic recognition and material security.
YPT 265–266However
Starts a new sentence.
Garvey’s shipping company failed and he was deported. However, his message of Black pride continued to shape how many people understood themselves and their possibilities.
YPT 270–271After despite, use a noun phrase. After although, use a subject and a verb. In your rubric’s pattern, put a period before however and a comma after it. The contrast must make sense in context.