Why 1 Am Leaving
During the Great Migration (1916-1970), over 7 million African Americans moved from the South to the urban North, seeking opportur that were denied to them in the segregated South. The following is a fictional account of one woman's reasons for leaving Alabama in i of a better life.
June 12.1928
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Back in November, my sister Shirley showed me this advertisement in the Chicago Defender newspaper:
COME TO CHICAGO
FOR WORK, FREEDOM, AND OPPORTUNITY!
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Women:
$2 a day.
Domestics, testiles, assembly,
Men:
$2.50 a day.
Meat packing, transport, automobile assembly.
Contact the Bethlehem Baptist Association for help with housing and employment.
1 immediately cut it out and pinned it beside my sewing machine where I could reread it every evening while I work. Reading it makes me both excited with anticipation and afraid of such a drastic change. In the mornings, as I read it aloud while getting dressed, I can almost taste the adventure along with my familiar cup of coffee. Will my coffee taste the same in Chicago, I wonder?
In that same edition, there was a letter penned by a fellow from Alabama named Carl Webster, who describes a richer, more satisfying life in the North. He makes Chicago sound heavenly and makes me long for the kind of freedom he describes. Because of the power and enticement of his words, I cannot wait to board that train.
1 also cut out another advertisement for "Perfect Eats," a restaurant on 47th Street near South Park, owned by another southerner who has moved North. The advertisement includes a photograph of what looks like a fine restaurant-full of black patrons--with the owner standing proudly behind the counter. As I stare at it, I picture myself ordering a meal, seated comfortably at one of those lovely tables. It makes me almost giddy to imagine what it would be like to own a successful business in a metropolis like Chicago.
long to escape this miserable place called Alabama, with its armies of boll weevils and its Whites Only" lunch counters and drinking fountains. I want to be rid of its daily injustices and 100-degree heat so humid it melts your bones. I hope and pray that I will never return.
It has taken me six long months to save the cost of a bus ticket from Mobile to Chicago, between caring for the Mason family during the day and making dresses'for Miss Irene's Fine Dress Shop at night. My dresses are the talk of the town, so Miss Irene says. Her customers love my fine beadwork and the care I put into my stitches; I only wish she paid me as much for my dresses as she sells them for! But, as I told Shirley just the other day, folks say Louis Armstrong made his fortune armed with only his trumpet. I aim to do the same, but with my sewing machine!
Minnie Libby told me that some companies up north will actually pay for your travel, but when I considered that option, I decided that I would rather not be beholden to anyone. If freedom is truly my goal and my desire, then that freedom must be present from the start. Tomorrow, I will walk to the bus station with my wallet and my suitcase packed, and with my head held high, for it will be the first day of the rest of my life. Which sentence is the BEST summary of the events in the text?
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The writer realizes that she will miss her home and family even though she wants to leave them.
A person can re-create his or her life if he or she is inspired by successful examples.
A woman tells the story of her decision to leave Alabama and anticipates her migration to Chicago.
The writer's course of action is influenced by other people who have migrated to Chicago,