This time period is sometimes referred to as the nadir of American race relations because racism , segregation , racial discrimination , and expressions of white supremacy all increased . So did anti-black violence , including race riots such as the Atlanta Race riot of 1906 and the Tulsa race riot of 1921 . The Atlanta riot was characterized by the French newspaper '' Le Petit Journal '' as a " racial massacre of negroes " . The Charleston '' News and Courier '' wrote in response to the Atlanta riots : " Separation of the races is the only radical solution of the negro problem in this country . There is nothing new about it . It was the Almighty who established the bounds of the habitation of the races . The negroes were brought here by compulsion ; they should be induced to leave here by persuasion . " In addition , racism , which had been viewed primarily as a problem in the Southern states , burst onto the national consciousness following the Great Migration , the relocation of millions of African Americans from their roots in the rural Southern states to the industrial centers of the North and West between 1910 and 1970 , particularly in cities such as Boston , Chicago , Detroit , New York City ( Harlem ) , Los Angeles , Oakland , Seattle , Portland , Phoenix , and Denver . Within Chicago , for example , between 1910 and 1970 , the percentage of African-Americans leapt from 2.0 percent to 32.7 percent . The demographic patterns of black migrants and external economic conditions are largely studied stimulants regarding the Great Migration . For example , migrating blacks ( between 1910 and 1920 ) were more likely to be literate than blacks that remained in the South . Known economic push factors played a role in migration , such as the emergence of a split labor market and agricultural distress from the boll weevil destruction of the cotton economy
Tulsa race riot
Tulsa race riot
Racism in the United States