'Goin' To Chicago' Explores Great Migration From American South

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Roswell, GA -- They traveled en mass, leaving the cotton fields and Jim Crow laws of the American South in search of a better life in the cities of the North and the West.

One woman boarded a Greyhound bus with no money, just a box of Ritz crackers. About six million African Americans left the South during the 20th century in the largest internal migration in the United States.

Atlanta director and producer George King chronicles this historic exodus in “Goin’ to Chicago,” a 50-minute documentary film that will be screened on Tuesday, Feb. 9, as part of the 15th annual Roswell Roots: A Festival of Black History and Culture.

The event begins at 4 p.m. at Roswell Cultural Arts Center and is free to the public. After the screening King will lead a question-and-answer session, and the Roswell Historical Society will host a reception.

The 1994 documentary weaves together archival film and photographs, narrated home videos, music, and interviews telling the personal stories of a group of older Chicagoans from the Mississippi Delta.

Interviewees highlight the racism, sharecropping and unemployment that prompted the migration. They also address the struggles of living in Chicago.

Part oral history, part musical history, the documentary addresses the spectrum of African-American music, including the “field hollers” that were the beginning of the blues, historic recordings by Muddy Waters and Jimmy Rogers, gospel, jazz and rap.

Many songs were recorded specifically for the film in community venues like Artis’s Bar in the South Side of Chicago.

“The impact of African American migration on contemporary American culture is huge,” King said in a telephone interview. “Black Southern culture had a tremendous impact on the United States in general.”

While filming Goin’ to Chicago in the 1990s, “we found out that a lot of younger African Americans and, quite frankly, most white people, didn’t know about the migration,” King said.

“It’s a story that hadn’t really been told,” King added.

Elaine DeNiro, archivist for Roswell Historical Society/city of Roswell Research Library and Archives, stated “there are so many facets to the period of the great migration, and George King has the talent to put them all together in one film.”

“It’s just amazing that we can have this caliber film as part of our Roots celebration,” DeNiro said. ”We’ve talked to two or three high school groups about the film. It’s something that people are not going to want to miss.”

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Image via George King