Twentieth-century America has witnessed the most widespread and sustained movement of African-Americans from the South to urban centers in the North. Griffin looks at this migration across a wide range of genres--the literary texts of Richard Wright and Dorothy West, the paintings of Jacob Lawrence, and the music of Billie Holiday and Arrested Development, as well as photography and correspondence. She identifies the Migration Narrative as a major theme in African-American cultural production, and argues that a dominant portrayal of migration is produced by its historical and political moment.

Farah Jasmine Griffin is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania. She lives and writes in Philadelphia.