North to Boston

Between World War II and 1980, tens of thousands of Black people moved to Boston from the South as part of the Great Migration, one of the most consequential mass movements of people in American history. Black migration from the South transformed the city, as it did urban areas across the country. North to Boston is the first book to examine that important subject.

Blake Gumprecht traces the history of this migration and explores its impacts in greater depth through the lives of ten individuals, each the subject of one chapter. Those chapters are short biographies based on extensive interviews by the author and are told in an engaging style that reflects the author's background as a journalist.

The ten people featured came from six southern states. They fled racism, limited opportunity, and hopelessness, and moved north in pursuit of better jobs, equal treatment, and greater freedom. They settled in neighborhoods such as Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan. They worked as teachers, factory workers, welders, and security guards. Their stories are emblematic of the experiences of Black people everywhere who left the South, and provide a rare glimpse into the lives of ordinary people living in one city's Black community.

North to Boston brings to life the history of the Great Migration, revealing a hidden aspect of New England's history and shining a spotlight on a singularly important event in the making of Black Boston.

In this fine, detailed treatment of 10 individuals who migrated north, readers learn of the paradoxes of the migration and the subsequent experiences of living in the North. Moving north did not mean leaving behind racist discrimination, lack of economic opportunity, or even violence. The supposedly progressive Boston, where 19th-century abolitionists protected fleeing enslaved persons in the elite Brahmin enclave of Beacon Hill, was not what many experienced, and they suffered also from the disdain of the earlier settled Black population. Most of the stories, however, are positive, proud stories of carving out a solid life in Boston, raising families, working hard, gaining the respect of their peers, and leading lives of faith. Their lives as drawn are both ordinary and distinctive. Recommended.

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