Bound for the Promised Land

Children's Literature - Alexandria LaFaye

Well-written, intriguing, and powerful, Bound for the Promised Land provides a compelling look into the mass migration of African Americans to the northern states between 1915 and 1930. Cooper crosses the lines between history, political science, and sociology while maintaining a style that is informative and entertaining without being didactic. He discusses a vast number of issues including the Harlem Renaissance, the formation of the NAACP, discrimination, black owned businesses, and the ideas and influence of people such as Marcus Garvey and Zora Neale Hurston. The endnotes, suggested reading list, and index in the back of the book make it valuable for schools and libraries.

School Library Journal

Gr 5-9-Cooper devotes this book to the event that not only changed the face of African American life, but also the face of America. From 1915 to approximately 1930, some one million rural Southern blacks left their homes and migrated to cities in the North and in the Midwest. Cooper tells this story through first-person accounts of the people who actually made the journeys, newspaper and other accounts, and through black-and-white photographs. He sets the stage for this great migration by discussing the conditions under which blacks lived in the South and their desires for something better. He describes the kinds of neighborhoods they came to and what they made of them, as well as the types of jobs they had to take. The prejudice and violence they encountered are vividly chronicled. Yet out of all of that came thriving black institutions, the Harlem Renaissance, and genuine opportunity. This is an important title because of the sensitive and thorough manner in which Cooper treats his subject.-Carol Jones Collins, Montclair Kimberley Academy, NJ

Hazel Rochman

About one million African Americans left the South from 1915 to 1930 in search of better lives in the cities of the North. This short history of what is called the Great Migration discusses why black people left, what they hoped for, what they found, and how they changed America. Several chapters focus on those who came to Chicago and on the important role of the nation's largest black-owned newspaper, the" Chicago Defender". There's also a brief account of the excitement of the Harlem Renaissance and the leading figures in the arts. Fascinating archival black-and-white photographs add interest throughout the text, and endnotes discuss the sources used in each chapter. The full-color cover picture is from Jacob Lawrence's famous series of paintings collected in "The Great Migration" (1993), which is a dramatic book to use with this history. Older readers may go from here to Nicholas Lemann's adult book "The Promised Land (1991).