Further Reading

How has migration—from the Great Migration of the 20th century to immigration in the 21st—shaped Chicago? What motivates us to relocate and find a better life? What effect does that movement have on our cities and society? Delve into the One Book, One Chicago theme of migration with these great titles.

Quicklinks: Fiction | Nonfiction

Fiction

Great Migration

Learn more about the lives of those who lived through the Great Migration and its ripple effects throughout the 20th century.

All Aunt Hagar’s Children
By Edward P. Jones
This title will be discussed in a Chicago Public Library location in the coming months. Check back for details.

Blood on the Forge
By William Attaway

Clybourne Park
By Bruce Norris

Color Me Dark: The Diary of Nellie Nee Love
By Patricia McKissack

Invisible Man
By Ralph Ellison

A Raisin in the Sun
By Lorraine Hansberry

Some People Some Other Place
By J. California Cooper

Some Sing, Some Cry
By Ntozaka Shange and Ifa Bayeza
This title will be discussed in a Chicago Public Library location in the coming months. Check back for details.

The Twelve Tribes of Hattie
By Ayana Mathis

Migration Today

Further explore the worlds of migrants finding a new home in American cities today.

American Dervish
By Ayad Akhtar
This title will be discussed in a Chicago Public Library location in the coming months. Check back for details.

The Buddha in the Attic
By Julie Otsuka
This title will be discussed in a Chicago Public Library location in the coming months. Check back for details.

Chicago
By Alaa Al Aswani

Into the Beautiful North
By Luis Alberto Urrea
This title will be discussed in a Chicago Public Library location in the coming months. Check back for details.

When Luba Leaves Home
By Irene Zabytko

Nonfiction

Great Migration

These titles provide more background on the Great Migration and its important place in American history.

Black Boy
By Richard Wright
This title will be discussed in a Chicago Public Library location in the coming months. Check back for details.

Bridges of Memory: Chicago’s First Wave of Black Migration
Bridges of Memory: Chicago’s Second Wave of Black Migration
By Timuel D. Black, Jr.

Chicago’s New Negroes: Modernity, the Great Migration and Black Urban Life
By Davarian L. Baldwin

Daily Life During African American Migrations
By Kimberley L. Phillips

Freedom’s Children: The Journey from Emancipation into the Twentieth Century
By Velma Maia Thomas

The Great Migration: An American Story
Paintings by Jacob Lawrence; with a poem in appreciation by Walter Dean Myers

Land of Hope: Chicago, Black Southerners and the Great Migration
By James R. Grossman

The Making of African America: The Four Migrations
By Ira Berlin
This title will be discussed in a Chicago Public Library location in the coming months. Check back for details.

A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South, from Slavery to the Great Migration
By Steven Hahn

The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America
By Nicholas Lemann

Migration Today

These titles explore migration today and how the drive to move is shaping our world.

Arrival City: How the Largest Migration in History Is Reshaping Our World
By Doug Saunders

Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail
By Rubén Martinez

The Distance Between Us: A Memoir
By Reyna Grande

Division Street Princess
By Elaine Soloway
Join a discussion of this title at 2:00 p.m. Saturday, April 6 at Bezazian Branch.

Exceptional People: How Migration Shaped Our World and Will Define Our Future
By Ian Goldin, Geoffrey Cameron and Meera Balarajan

The New Americans: A Guide to Immigration Since 1965
Edited by Mary C. Waters and Reed Ueda, with Helen B. Marrow

The New Chosen People: Immigrants in the United States
By Guillermina Jasso and Mark R. Rosenzweig

Working Toward Whiteness: How America’s Immigrants Became White: The Strange Journey from Ellis Island to the Suburbs
By David R. Roediger