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Great Migrations: Past and Present

Students' Projects from the Spring 2017 Semester

The Great Migration (1917-1970) of more than six million African Americans out of the South to other regions of the United States is one of the most important, courageous, and consequential movements in our nation’s history.  In search of true freedom, equality, and opportunity, those brave migrants – fleeing systemic racism, abuse, oppression, enforced poverty, and terror – transformed American culture, society, demographics, and politics in a multitude of ways, both tangible and intangible. Additionally, African Americans, Mexican Americans, and Asian Americans migrated to Houston from other regions, making our city the most diverse in the nation. 

Honors College students from U.S. History and Houston History classes, and history students from Texas Southern University exhibited their projects exploring the reasons for, and the lasting legacies of, the “great migrations” in America in the Honors College Commons through the end of the spring semester. In the summer, some of the students’ projects will be exhibited in the Houston Heritage Society’s gallery.

 

Gabriel Aguilar: “Muslims” video   

Florencia Caceres: “Lynchings in a Divided America” website 

Kevin Cavazos: “On Buffalo” short story 

Rachel George: “[U]n[I]ty” poem

Lida Hedayatpour and Nicholas Johnson: “Life in the North After Migrating and How Conditions Were Similar to the South” podcast  

Nicole Henkel: “Segregation, Desegregation, and Resegregation of Public Schools in America” paper

Cecile Huynh: “Housing Restrictions and Poverty Among African Americans” paper

Erin Hwang, Elissa Nguyen, Alina Flores: “The Great Migration” podcast 

Herschel Bluestein Levin: “We are America” poem 

Derek Lore: “Status Symbols and the Difficulty of Obtaining Them” paper

Orio Lowy: "The Role of Segregation in the Racial Wealth Gap" paper

Cassie MacLaren: “Nella Fantasia” video

Jordan Medrano and Andrew Buchanan: “Educational Discrimination: Colored and White” dual websites depicting a plausible example of educational discrimination that exists today, much in the same way it existed during the time of the Great Migration.

Noelle Meinen and Sarah Rolen: “The Third Ward: Then and Now” video

Thomas McCallum: “How the Great Migration Shaped the American Political Landscape” paper

Debora Mroczek: “The Great Migration and Social Inequality – the Wage Gap in Cities” PowerPoint/video and paper

Aleyda Perez: “Chingo Bling” audio 

Angella Rodriguez: “Waiting” poem

Asit Shah: “Olympians in Houston: Their Success is Houston’s Success” PowerPoint  

Andrew Teoch: “Information” video 

Justin Thompson: “Freedom” original composition audio    

Anonymous: “How to Make Tortillas” poem

Brooks Vasquez: “The Mexican Struggle in Houston” photo essay   

Muhammad Vohra and Sana Chaudhry: “Islam in America - the Great Migration and Community Outreach” paper

 

To view images of additional projects, click here.