Acie Cargill

Great Migration Acie Cargill

Mississippi in the early 1900's. Not a good place to be if you are an African-American. Scratching a living off the earth, probably as a sharecropper. Subject to regular humiliation by laws and customs. Step out of line and a long sentence on a chain gang, or maybe dragged behind a car, or burned or even lynched. A million people had enough of the treatment in the South and went to the North. By train or boat or car or horse or on foot. Whatever it took. Get to one of the Northern industrial states for rumored comfort, a good-paying job. And respect as a person. This play is one story in a million. Good, honest, hard-working, moral people struggling north for a better life. Same story told countless times. Every story individual and every story the same. Get to the North. Get a job. Get a home. Get in a good church. Demand good schools for your kids. Not looking for a free ride. These are people willing to work hard. They are unspoiled. Creative. Ambitious. Thirsty for life. Relishing freedom and equality. Unshackled at last.