Liberty Ships, Closed Doors · Episode 6 of 13 · 34 min
The Hillbilly Highway: How the Other Southern Migration Rewired America
The migration the famous home-front story skips: millions of white Southerners and Appalachians, pushed by failing coal and cotton, drove north on U.S. 23 and U.S. 25 to Detroit auto plants, Akron rubber works and Ohio Valley steel towns. They were wanted as workers and scorned as hillbillies, a class and regional prejudice distinct from the racial caste Black newcomers faced, and competition for scarce jobs and rooms helped ignite 1943's violence.
Where it happens
- Detroit, Michigan+7 more episodesWar plants that absorbed some 400,000 Southern migrants
- Akron, Ohio+1 more episodeRubber works drawing Appalachian workers
- Ohio Valley+1 more episodeSteel towns that attracted migrants
- Kentucky+1 more episodeOrigin state of many migrants on the highway
- West Virginia+1 more episodeAppalachian origin state of many migrants
Timeline
- 1930sCoal mechanization and the Depression deepen out-migration pressure
- 1940-1945War plants pull white Southerners north in force
- 1941-1943Detroit absorbs about 400,000 Southern migrants, Black and white
- 1943Competition and prejudice help ignite the Detroit riot
- 1953Detroit survey ranks poor Southern whites among the least desirable residents
Still debated
The 7 million figure spans roughly 1940 to 1970, with the wartime surge only the leading edge. Employers' preference for Appalachian whites reflected the era's stereotypes, and the migration created the crowded conditions behind 1943 without migrants being to blame.