Death in the Promised Land: The Great Migration and Black Infant Mortality

Abstract

The Great Black Migration from the rural South to the urban North in the first half of the 20th century drastically lowered the health environment of infants. We show that migrating to northern cities increased the likelihood that an infant born to a migrant would die in the first year of life. We find no evidence that differences are driven by migrant selection. Much of this gap is due to residential location in unhealthy neighborhoods within northern cities. Our paper adds to the literature on the costs and benefits of the Great Migration.