Page 74 - Blues Festival Guide Magazine 2018

The Great
The Great

Migration
Migration

and the Blues
and the Blues

Central Station in Chicago became the disembarkation point for Mississippians migrating north, now memorialized by a Mississippi Blues Trail marker
Photo courtesy of the Mississippi Blues Commission

By Jim O’Neal of many from Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana. The story of the
The Great Migration – the movement of more than blues would be unimaginably different had not Muddy Waters,
six million African Americans from the South to urban Jimmy Reed, Little Walter, Buddy Guy and many others headed
destinations in the northern and western states – vibrated to north for Chicago, or T-Bone Walker, Charles Brown and Lowell
an ever-developing soundtrack of blues, jazz and gospel that Fulson west to California. Southern cities such as Memphis,
found new strongholds far from the music’s Southern roots. New Orleans, Houston and Atlanta grew – as did their music
Just as American society, politics and economy underwent scenes – and despite the mass exodus, many musicians stayed
transformations, so did the music. in the South or returned home after trying Northern life. In mid-
The Great Migration is often separated into two time America, St. Louis, Kansas City and other cities became either
periods, 1910 to 1940 and 1940 to 1970. The forces behind waystops for musicians on the move or new homes for those who
it were many, as African Americans left singly, with families chose to settle.
or in groups in hopes of a better life outside the Old South. The leading figures on Chicago’s early blues scene arrived
Many sought to escape racial oppression and discrimination from numerous states. Tampa Red and Georgia Tom Dorsey
and to find jobs in the city that were far more lucrative than (later to become renowned as the “Father of Gospel Music”)
the pay earned by farm workers, sharecroppers and other were natives of Georgia, Alberta Hunter came from Memphis,
Southern laborers. The advent of the World Wars escalated Big Bill Broonzy from Arkansas, Papa Charlie Jackson from New
the migration as the need for workers in defense plants and Orleans. As the city developed a blues recording industry and a
factories expanded beyond the available Northern labor growing audience for the music on the South Side, it became an
force. With the migrants came their music, and while some important hub for touring artists such as the “Mother of the Blues,”
ambitious musicians arrived with ideas of starting or furthering Ma Rainey, and one of the first blues queens, Ida Cox, both from
their careers as performers, it was still the industrial wages Georgia, who recorded for the Paramount label. Paramount was
that drew the mass of workers, and musicians usually held based north of the city in Port Washington and Grafton, WI, but
day jobs as well. found a niche in the blues by employing a black Chicagoan, J.
Chicago was a primary focal point for migrants, especially Mayo Williams, to find and record talent.
from Mississippi but also from Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana In 1923, Ida Cox recorded “Chicago Bound Blues (Famous
and other states. Migrations tended to follow the routes of Migration Blues)” for Paramount. The song lyrics actually only
railroads out of the South, and Chicago’s Central Station dealt with Cox’s lover leaving her to go to Chicago, and not
became the disembarkation point for Mississippians riding the the migration in a broader sense; likely it was Williams (who
Illinois Central. In fact, the site where the station stood is now took a co-writing credit) who came up with the parenthetical
memorialized by a Mississippi Blues Trail marker. Taking rail title to capitalize on a topic that was growing more important
lines north took many Alabamians and Georgians to Detroit, every day. Through Williams and a network of talent scouts,
Cleveland and other cities, while the southeastern states funneled Southern bluesmen Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Blake, Papa
new populations into New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Charlie Jackson and others recorded for Paramount in Chicago
Baltimore. California and the West Coast became the new home or Grafton.

72 Blues Festival Guide 2018