Wilkerson rejects Southern elites’ explanations for the Great Migration because they deny agency to migrants themselves. Recruiters, newspapers, and economic forces certainly
contributed to the migration, but attributing it
solely to these causes means treating Black Southerners as passive victims of circumstance, rather than active creators of their own destinies. Similarly, by providing an overarching timeline for the Great Migration, Wilkerson shows that no simple set of external causes can explain it. While it’s important to consider the changing historical conditions that contributed to people’s migration decisions, it’s also crucial to recognize that they were still fundamentally
decisions. This timeline also helps explain why Wilkerson chooses to focus on three migrants from different time periods—Ida Mae from the 1930s, George from the 1940s, and Robert from the 1950s.