on migration and urban life in many contexts

Today, Dr. Franky Abbott shared the dynamics of "return migration to Atlanta with the students in this class. This topic was one of her key research interests when she was a doctoral student at Emory University. Using Census data, she studied the migratory patterns of African Americans as well as  people of African and West Indian descent into Atlanta since 1990. Interestingly, she is cautious about finding parallels between this trend and the Great Migration of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North from 1910 to 1970. As mentioned in the last blog posting, some of the Atlanta black migrants in more recent years were actually Northern born individuals, among them New Yorkers, who migrated to Atlanta in search of a better and more affordable quality of life. I could well relate to her lecture as I know several people who lived in New York and New Jersey, but have relocated to Atlanta in the last ten years. In fact, as a student at the University of Miami more than twenty years ago, I had a classmate from Boston who greatly desired to move to Atlanta upon graduation. For her and others, this city appeared as a "black Mecca." Abbott also pointed out that some migrants are Southern born individuals who felt a "call" to return home. This portion of her lecture made me think of the motion picture, "Down in the Delta," which concerns an African American Chicago-based woman (Alfre Woodward)  who travels to Mississippi to reconnect with her familial past. She meets her cousin (Wesley Snipes), an Atlanta lawyer who represents the educated black elite  represented in Abbott's study though one who migrates to Atlanta not from the North, but from Mississippi. "Called home" where he questions his seeming success, he forms a bond with his cousin of more modest means. She, too, is changed by their meeting and establishes a sense of purpose and regains her confidence as an unmarried mother of two. After Abbott's lecture, the students briefly discussed their final paper topics, which will all -  with the exception of one that focuses on storefront churches in the context of African American northward migration during the twentieth century and another that draws attention to the ways in which skin complexion played a role in the success of African American Civil Rights leaders -  juxtapose the idea of African American life in cities in conversation with a primary source. The sources the students selected include hip hop music, visual imagery of University of Alabama football fans, the Oklahoma City Thunder NBA basketball franchise, three televisions shows ("Scandal," "Good Times" and "The Cosby Show"), and two films ("The Five Heartbeats" and "The Princess and the Frog").  Next week, they will use Raymond Mohl's research on Miami to explore race relations and Arnold Hirsch's thesis on the "making of second ghettoes" (this thesis was the subject of an earlier blog entry). This lesson will involve their watching a clip of The U," an ESPN 30 for 30 production focusing on the University of Miami football team. At stake will be making connections between race relations in Miami across time and the ways in which race and urban life inform the experiences of African American UM football players during their winning years in the 1980s and 1990s.  I look forward to our next and final class meeting for the semester. This was my first stand-alone course. It has truly been a pleasure and, indeed, a privilege learning more about urban black life in America while teaching this subject to an outstanding group.