Great Migrations: A People on The Move

We find an explosion of movement from the south to the west.

They're going to places where the West Coast defense buildup is so important.

There's a big shipyard that was established on the north side of Portland to help build ships.

My mother, she joined Boeing and was a riveter building B-17s and B-29s in Seattle during World War II.

Mammy the Riveter.

My father went to the Bay area, where he found a job in the Naval Shipyard of Oakland.

The Southern California region became the area where more African-Americans came for the war industry production.

It's a place of opportunity.

The California dream.

California's booming.

It's a warm and welcoming land, and it's waiting for you with open arms.

Beautiful, wonderful Southern California.

That journey west was unchartered territory.

Came with a lot of uncertainty, a lot of risk, but for many with great, great, great rewards.

What does it mean to strip off those dirty, dusty coveralls from working in a plantation cotton field?

Unbowing yourself from Jim Crow conditions in the south.

Walking upright at a Southern California beach.

Being able to take in the sunshine.

The same sunshine, but under very different conditions.

The juxtaposition between these two was profound.

iIn the 1940s, wartime jobs would attract black Southerners to California as never before.

Many headed to the city of Los Angeles.