Chapter 20 Exercises: The Great Migration Out — Why Millions Left the Mountains
Exercise 1: Mapping the Migration — Routes, Destinations, and Scale
Using census data and the information in this chapter, create a map of the major Appalachian migration corridors.
a) On a map of the eastern United States, draw the major migration routes described in the chapter: Route 23 (eastern Kentucky to Detroit), the route from southern West Virginia to Baltimore, the route from eastern Kentucky and Tennessee to Cincinnati, and the route to Chicago. Label each route with the approximate states and cities it connected.
b) For each major destination city (Detroit, Cincinnati, Chicago, Baltimore, Dayton, Columbus), research and annotate the map with the specific Appalachian states and subregions that fed each destination. Why did specific sending communities connect to specific receiving cities?
c) The chapter mentions "chain migration" as the mechanism that linked specific mountain communities to specific urban neighborhoods. How would you visually represent chain migration on a map? What additional data would you need?
d) Compare your Appalachian migration map to a map of the African American Great Migration during the same period. What similarities and differences do you observe in the routes, destinations, and timing?
Exercise 2: Primary Source Analysis — Albert Votaw's "Hillbillies Invade Chicago"
Read the following additional excerpts from Albert N. Votaw's 1958 article "The Hillbillies Invade Chicago" (Harper's Magazine) alongside the excerpt in the chapter:
Excerpt A: "They have filled the jails, flooded the relief rolls, and have given a decidedly rural flavor to many city neighborhoods."
Excerpt B: "The lots and yards are strewn with the litter and the wreckage of their recent move from the hills."
Excerpt C: "In our city they are being absorbed, slowly and painfully, and in the process both the migrants and Chicago are being changed."
a) What assumptions about Appalachian migrants does Votaw make in these excerpts? List at least five specific claims or implications, and evaluate the evidence (or lack of evidence) for each.
b) Votaw uses the word "invade" in his title. What does this word choice imply about the relationship between the migrants and the city? How would the article read differently if it were titled "Appalachian Workers Come to Chicago" or "Southern Migrants Settle in Uptown"?
c) Compare Votaw's language to the language used to describe other migrant groups — for example, media coverage of African American migrants to Northern cities, or of Latino immigrants to the United States. What patterns do you observe in how dominant media describes unwanted newcomers?
d) Votaw's article was published in a national magazine and read by educated, urban audiences. What function did it serve? Who was the intended audience, and what was the implied message about what should be done about the "hillbilly problem"?
Exercise 3: Oral History Exercise — The Story of Leaving
Conduct an interview (if possible) with someone who participated in the Appalachian out-migration, or with a descendant of someone who did. If you cannot find a personal contact, use published oral histories from the Appalachian Oral History Collection (University of Kentucky) or similar archives.
a) Ask (or research) the following questions: Where did the person (or their ancestor) come from? When did they leave? Why? Where did they go? How did they get there? Who helped them?
b) Ask (or research) about the experience of arrival: What was the city like? Where did they live? What work did they find? What was the hardest adjustment?
c) Ask (or research) about the emotional dimension: Did they miss home? Did they go back to visit? Did they ever consider returning permanently?
d) Write a 1,000-word narrative based on the interview or oral history that tells the person's migration story in their own words as much as possible. Reflect on what this individual story reveals about the larger patterns described in the chapter.
Exercise 4: Population Data Analysis — The Hollowed-Out Counties
Using U.S. Census data (available through the Census Bureau website or IPUMS), research the population history of one of the following counties:
- McDowell County, West Virginia
- Harlan County, Kentucky
- Pike County, Kentucky
- Mingo County, West Virginia
- Letcher County, Kentucky
a) Record the county's population for each decennial census from 1900 to 2020. Create a graph showing the population trend.
b) Identify the decade of peak population and the decades of steepest decline. What historical events correspond to these turning points?
c) Using available census data, examine the age structure of the county's population during the peak migration period (1950-1970). Was the departing population younger or older than the remaining population? What evidence supports your answer?
d) Compare the population trajectory of your chosen county to the national population trend during the same period. The U.S. population grew dramatically between 1940 and 1970 — what does it mean that these counties shrank while the nation grew?
e) Write a 500-word analysis of what population collapse means for a community. Consider: tax base, schools, healthcare, infrastructure, social institutions, political representation.
Exercise 5: The Discrimination Question — "No Dogs, No Hillbillies"
The chapter describes discrimination against Appalachian migrants in the cities. This exercise asks you to analyze that discrimination critically.
a) The chapter notes that the historical evidence for "No Dogs, No Hillbillies" signs is debated. Why does the literal existence of these signs matter? Is the absence of photographic evidence proof that they did not exist, or could other explanations account for the lack of documentation?
b) Even if specific signs are apocryphal, the discrimination they symbolize is well-documented. List at least four forms of discrimination against Appalachian migrants described in the chapter, and identify the evidence for each.
c) Compare the discrimination faced by Appalachian migrants to the discrimination faced by other migrant groups in American cities — for example, Irish immigrants in the nineteenth century, or African American migrants during the Great Migration. What are the similarities? What are the crucial differences (particularly regarding race)?
d) The Cincinnati Human Relations Commission included Appalachians as a protected group. Write a 300-word argument for or against this designation. Is Appalachian identity comparable to racial or ethnic identity as a basis for anti-discrimination protection?
Exercise 6: Music as Primary Source — Songs of Leaving
Country music from the 1950s through the 1980s is rich with songs about the Appalachian migration experience. Listen to at least three of the following songs (available on most streaming platforms) and answer the questions below:
- "Detroit City" — Bobby Bare (1963)
- "Streets of Baltimore" — Bobby Bare (1966)
- "Coal Miner's Daughter" — Loretta Lynn (1970)
- "Appalachian Memories" — Dolly Parton (1983)
- "Readin', Rightin', Route 23" — Dwight Yoakam (1987)
- "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive" — Darrell Scott / Brad Paisley (2001)
a) For each song, identify the story being told: Who is the narrator? Where are they? Where did they come from? What is the emotional tone?
b) What common themes emerge across the songs? What experiences of migration appear again and again?
c) How do these songs function as historical sources? What do they tell us about the migration experience that census data and government reports do not?
d) Are these songs accurate representations of the migration experience, or do they romanticize or simplify it? Can a song be both emotionally true and historically selective at the same time?
Exercise 7: Then and Now — A Migration Destination Today
Choose one of the urban neighborhoods described in this chapter (Over-the-Rhine in Cincinnati, Lower Price Hill in Cincinnati, Uptown in Chicago, or an Appalachian neighborhood in Detroit) and research its current condition.
a) What is the neighborhood's current demographic composition? How has it changed since the peak of Appalachian settlement?
b) Has the neighborhood experienced gentrification? If so, what has gentrification meant for the remaining Appalachian community?
c) Are there any surviving institutions from the Appalachian era — churches, community centers, businesses, organizations? What condition are they in?
d) Write a 500-word reflection on the relationship between the neighborhood's past (as an Appalachian community) and its present. Is the Appalachian history remembered, commemorated, or erased?
Exercise 8: Community History Portfolio — The Migration from Your County
Building on previous portfolio entries, investigate the out-migration from your selected county.
a) Using census data, document the population change in your county from 1940 to the present. When was the peak? How much population was lost?
b) Research where people from your county went. Are there urban Appalachian communities associated with your county? (Check county historical societies, reunion announcements, family history websites.)
c) Interview a family member, community member, or use published sources to document one person's or family's migration story from your county.
d) What evidence of the out-migration's impact can you find in your county today — closed schools, abandoned houses, declining businesses, reduced services? Document at least three specific consequences.