Great Migration: The African-American Exodus North　大遷徙：非裔美國人北遷

修文喬

Between 1915 and 1970， more than 6 million African-Americans moved out of the South to cities across the Northeast， Midwest and West.

This relocation—called the Great Migration—resulted in massive demographic shifts across the United States. Between 1910 and 1930， cities such as New York， Chicago， Detroit and Cleveland saw their African-American populations grow by about 40 percent， and the number of African-Americans employed in industrial jobs nearly doubled.

“[The Great Migration] had such an effect on almost every aspect of our lives—from the music that we listen to to the politics of our country to the ways the cities even look and feel， even today，” says Isabel Wilkerson1. “The suburbanization and the ghettos that were created as a result of the limits of where [African-Americans] could live in the North [still exist today]. And ... the South was forced to change， in part because they were losing such a large part of their workforce through the Great Migration.”

On the Jim Crow laws2 in the South

“There were colored and white waiting rooms everywhere， from doctors offices to the bus stations. ... But there were actually colored windows at the post office in Pensacola， Fla. And there were white and colored telephone booths in Oklahoma. There were separate windows where white people and black people would go to get their license plates in Mississippi. And there were even separate tellers to make your deposits at the First National Bank in Atlanta. It was illegal for black people and white people to play checkers together in Birmingham. And there were even black and white Bibles to swear to tell the truth on3 in many parts of the South.”

On resistance from Northern African-American communities to the Great Migration

“At the beginning of the 20th century， before the migration began， 90 percent of all African-Americans were living in the South. By the end of the Great Migration， nearly half of them were living outside the South in the great cities of the North and West. So when this migration began， you had a really small number of people who were living in the North and they were surviving as porters or domestics or preachers—some had risen to levels of professional jobs—but they were， in some ways， protected because they were so small. They did not pose any threat. There was a kind of alchemy4 or acceptance of that small minority of people in these cities. So when you had this great wave and flood of people coming in from the South， many of them untutored and unaware of the ways of the big cities， it was in some ways threatening to those who were already there because they feared the positions that they had worked so hard to achieve—that was tenuous5 at best in these big cities—and thats why there was a great deal of resistance.”

On her parents migration experience

“My parents absolutely did not think of themselves as part of the Great Migration. They knew they were part of a great wave. No one really talked about it in those terms or gave it a name. I grew up surrounded by people who were from North Carolina， South Carolina， Georgia—all around me. My parents friends were all from there. They socialized with people from there. They were quite ambitious and competitive among themselves， bragging about that they were going to put their child through Catholic school because that was going to give them a better chance at succeeding. My parents sent me to a school across town， an integrated school， where I had the chance to meet and grow up with people who were from other parts of the world. ... I remember feeling that I would never have anything to contribute on St. Patricks Day. I couldnt tell the stories that they might have been telling about their forebears and I felt left out， and only when I got older， and began reporting from different cities outside of Washington ... there were people who migrated from parts of the South to Chicago and Detroit and Los Angeles and San Francisco. And I began to put these pieces together and it began to hit me that this was so much like the immigration experience of so many others.”

1915到1970年之間，超過600萬非裔美國人從美國南部遷徙到西北部、中西部和西部各個城市。

這次遷徙史上稱為大遷徙，導(dǎo)致美國人口分布發(fā)生了巨大變化。1910到1930年間，紐約、芝加哥、底特律、克利夫蘭等城市的非裔美國人人口增長了大約40%，而受雇于工業(yè)部門的非裔美國人人口幾乎翻倍。

“從音樂到政治，再到城市的面貌和氛圍，（大遷徙）幾乎對我們生活的方方面面都產(chǎn)生了影響，這些影響至今存在。”伊莎貝爾·威爾克森如此評論道，“由于（非裔美國人）在北部居住受限而產(chǎn)生了人口郊區(qū)化現(xiàn)象和非裔聚居區(qū)（存留至今）。南部也被迫發(fā)生改變，部分原因在于他們在大遷徙中失去了大部分勞動力。”

南部的吉姆·克勞法

“到處是黑人白人分開的等候室，診所、車站無一例外……佛羅里達(dá)州彭薩科拉郵局竟然有黑色的窗戶。俄克拉何馬州有為白人和黑人分設(shè)的電話亭。在密西西比州，白人和黑人要從不同的窗口取車牌。亞特蘭大第一國民銀行甚至有不同的出納員處理不同人種的儲蓄業(yè)務(wù)。在伯明翰，黑人與白人一同下棋視為非法。在南部很多地方，黑人和白人在法庭宣誓保證說實話時甚至使用不同的《圣經(jīng)》?！?/p>

北部非裔美國人抵制大遷徙

“在20世紀(jì)初大遷徙發(fā)生之前，90%的非裔美國人生活在南部。大遷徙結(jié)束之后，幾乎一半人口離開南部，居住在北部和西部的大城市。所以在大遷徙剛開始的時候，生活在北部的非裔美國人數(shù)量極少，他們當(dāng)搬運工、用人、牧師謀生，有些人擁有一技之長走上了專業(yè)崗位。因為人數(shù)很少，他們在某種程度上受到保護(hù)。他們不構(gòu)成任何威脅。這些少數(shù)族裔人口有點兒神秘，也都被這些城市所接受。所以，一大波遷徙浪潮從南部襲來，許多遷徙人口未受過正規(guī)教育，也不諳城市的生活方式，他們的到來在某種程度上對原有的人口造成了威脅。他們擔(dān)心會失去經(jīng)過艱辛努力才爭取到的工作，這些工作在大城市極易被取代，所以他們對大遷徙極其抗拒。”

父母的遷徙經(jīng)歷

“我父母完全不認(rèn)為自己參與了大遷徙。他們只知道自己參與了一場社會浪潮。事實上在討論這一事件時，沒有人使用這些術(shù)語，也沒有給出固定的名字。我小的時候，周圍有人來自北卡羅來納，有人來自南卡羅來納，有人來自佐治亞，各地的人都有。我父母的朋友都來自那些地方，與他們交往的朋友也來自那些地方。他們在自己的小圈子里躊躇滿志、一心求勝，夸耀說要讓孩子上天主教學(xué)校，這會讓他們有更大的勝算獲得成功。父母將我送到城市另一端的一所綜合學(xué)校，我在那里有機(jī)會遇到來自世界其他地方的同學(xué)，與他們一同成長。我依然記得圣帕特里克節(jié)我呆坐在那里的感受。當(dāng)別人在侃侃而談，講述他們祖先的故事時，我一言不發(fā)，感覺自己是多余的一員。一直到我長大離開華盛頓州，在各個城市報道新聞……我才知道很多人從南部各地遷徙到芝加哥、底特律、洛杉磯和舊金山。那時我開始總結(jié)兒時的這些經(jīng)歷，才意識到這與很多其他人的遷徙經(jīng)歷非常相像?！?/p>

[譯者單位：中國石油大學(xué)（北京）]

1（1961—? ），美國新聞史上第一位獲得普利策特稿獎的非裔美國人，也是第一位獲得普利策獎的黑人女性。她的父母在大遷徒中從佐治亞和南弗吉尼亞來到華盛頓特區(qū)，她在那里出生、長大。她歷盡15年心血，采訪1200余人而成的精雕細(xì)琢之作《他鄉(xiāng)暖陽：美國大遷徙史傳》（The Warmth of Other Suns： The Epic Story of Americas Great Migration）圍繞20世紀(jì)黑人大遷徙展開，于2019年1月出版。

2吉姆·克勞法（Jim Crow laws）泛指1876年至1965年間美國南部各州以及邊境各州對有色人種（主要針對非裔美國人，但同時也包含其他族群）實行種族隔離制度的法律。? 3在英美法系國家，證人出庭時，往往手按《圣經(jīng)》，發(fā)誓所說的一切句句屬實。誓詞為：I will tell the truth， the whole truth， and nothing but the truth， so help me God.

4 alchemy（改變事物的）神秘力量。? 5 tenuous脆弱的。