The first significant voluntary wave of Black immigration to post-emancipation America was Caribbean colonists. More than two-thirds of Black residents in early 20th-century New York City were either Black Southerners who’d come north during the early years of America’s Great Migration or transplants from the Caribbean.
Not just significant for their sheer numbers, this latter group also embraced new opportunities and created new trends.
The Library of Virginia is hosting Janira Teague, a scholar of 19th and 20th-century African American history and assistant professor of history at Morehouse College in Atlanta, for a lecture, “Beyond Black Radicalism: How America’s Great Migration to New York City Shaped Electoral Politics.” Teague’s talk places America’s Great Migration in global context and examines the movement’s impact on electoral politics.
Blacks from the Caribbean came to New York City during the early 20th century because, just like the Black Southerners, they hoped to find jobs and better economic opportunities in the industrial areas of the United States. “New York City began to house the largest Black immigrant population in the country,” Teague explains. “It’s important to note that during the early 20th century, some immigrants from the Caribbean did not define themselves as Black, although most were perceived as Black by Americans.”
Teague’s thesis is that people of African descent from the Caribbean – as well as other regions of the globe – who settled in America’s urban and industrialized North during the early 20th century were global participants in America’s Great Migration. But she points out that the newcomers from the Caribbean were distinct from African Americans because they brought their own unique values, histories, cultures, and experiences to New York City, all of which differed according to their birthplace within the Caribbean. In this way, they contributed to the city’s diversity, vibrancy, prominence, and allure.
Specifically, Caribbean immigrants in New York City were well known for their significant impact on culture, on Black radicalism, and within the professional class. “Even now, Caribbean culture, including food, music, and traditions, remains a conspicuous aspect of Black culture in the city,” Teague says. The controversial and widely influential Jamaican immigrant Marcus Garvey cultivated a Black Nationalist movement. “That movement flourished in Harlem and had a profound impact in this country and reverberated around the world,” Teague points out.
Garvey also created and supported Black businesses. He was just one of the many influential Caribbean immigrants in the city who embraced their Caribbean roots while being influential in America, especially as it relates to Black Radicalism and within the professional class. “During the migration, the islanders associated more with people from their own birthplace in the Caribbean as opposed to a united Caribbean region,” Teague says. “So they identified as Jamaican, or Bajan, or Dominican, and so on, more so than the unifying term of Caribbean, or West Indian, which was the contemporary term.”
Black immigrants influenced voting habits
Not surprisingly, the concerns of these two groups were different from Europeans who immigrated to New York City during the early 20th century. Although the Caribbean immigrants’ views about race differed from Americans’ views on the subject, both American Blacks and Caribbean immigrants had to deal with American racism living in this country. Often that meant substandard schools, housing discrimination, lower wages, and violence. “Likely due to racism and other factors, Black immigrants naturalized at significantly lower rates than European immigrants,” she explains. “In fact, some Black immigrants embraced their immigrant status in this country at times.”
African Americans, Caribbean immigrants, and European immigrants wanted better economic opportunities and competed for jobs. But in an ethnically and culturally diverse Black New York City during the early 20th century, it was immigrants, mainly from the Caribbean, who transformed the political landscape, sometimes more than American-born citizens.
Beyond Garvey and his Black Radicalism, Teague’s research examines lesser known and understudied Black Caribbean immigrants and their influence on electoral politics in the city. Referring to the subject of her talk, Teague says, “I believe that immigrants also influenced voting habits within Black communities.”
Today, she points out, we’re witnessing a reverse migration to the South, which has been contributing to some so-called “red” states becoming “purple.” Her research considers the ethnic diversity of African-descended people in the U.S. and how this has influenced electoral politics, which has implications for today’s America.
As recently as the fall of 2022, the state of Louisiana asked the U.S. Supreme Court to consider Black ethnic diversity and to weigh in on the definition of Blackness as it is used for redistricting and voting maps.
“That demonstrates that it’s important to understand Black ethnic diversity and its significance, past and present, to electoral politics,” Teague says.
“Beyond Black Radicalism: How America’s Great Migration to New York City Shaped Electoral Politics” lecture takes place on Tuesday, June 13 at noon at the Library of Virginia, 800 E. Broad St.
