Henry Louis Gates Jr. films inside Michigan Central Station in Detroit.
Through four episodes, “Great Migrations” explores the initial wave of Black migration, driven by the search for better economic opportunities, as well as the "New Great Migration," when African Americans moved back to the South following the Civil Rights Movement. The series also examines the "Next Great Migration," which highlights the influx of Caribbean and African immigrants and their growing influence on American society. Credit: Screenshot

A four-part series focused on the Great Migration of Black Americans from the South to Detroit and other northern states during the 1900s has launched on PBS.

“Great Migrations: A People on the Move,” a documentary with Henry Louis Gates Jr., premiered Tuesday around the country. The first episode, “Exodus,” focuses on the first wave of migration between 1910 and 1940.

Approximately six million Black people moved from the American South to Northern, Midwestern, and Western states roughly from the 1910s until the 1970s.

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The PBS docuseries “Great Migrations: People on the Move” examines the historic migration of African Americans from the South and its impact on U.S. culture, politics and society. American Black Journal contributor Orlando Bailey talks with docuseries host, writer, and executive producer Henry Louis Gates Jr. about Detroit’s role in the Great Migration, the three waves of migration and more.

The episode begins with Gates standing in the renovated Michigan Central in Detroit, emphasizing the importance of the train station in the mass movement north. For many, this was the first spot they ended up in when they came to Detroit for auto industry jobs and new lives.

“This station was like a portal into the future, a place where rural Southerners became urban Northerners, building new lives in the proverbial promised land,” Gates said.

In concert with the series, Detroit PBS spent time recording the stories of local residents whose history in the city started during this period. One of those residents is Stephen Henderson, BridgeDetroit founder and host of “American Black Journal.”

His mom’s family moved to the Russell Woods neighborhood in the 1950s just as it was opened to Black residents. When the family moved in, it was primarily a Jewish community.

“At the end of their block, there was a synagogue, and across the street from it, a Hebrew school.” Henderson said in the episode. “By the time I was born in 1970, my memories of that block was a public school and a Baptist church. That’s how quickly the neighborhood changed.”

During the 60-or-so years it lasted, the Great Migration changed the fabric of major cities, culture and politics, Gates says in the first episode.

“Even today, movement continues to shape the identity of the Black community with new waves of migration, both within the country and from abroad,” he said. “All of these movements are expressions of hope, leaps of faith, acts of resistance.”

New episodes of “Great Migrations” air on Tuesdays through February 18 and can be watched on detroitpbs.org.

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