<P> Educated African Americans were better able to obtain jobs after the Great Migration, eventually gaining a measure of class mobility, but the migrants encountered significant forms of discrimination . Because so many people migrated in a short period of time, the African - American migrants were often resented by the urban white working class (often recent immigrants themselves); fearing their ability to negotiate rates of pay or secure employment, the ethnic whites felt threatened by the influx of new labor competition . Sometimes those who were most fearful or resentful were the last immigrants of the 19th and new immigrants of the 20th century . </P> <P> African Americans made substantial gains in industrial employment, particularly in the steel, automobile, shipbuilding, and meatpacking industries . Between 1910 and 1920, the number of blacks employed in industry nearly doubled from 500,000 to 901,000 . After the Great Depression, more advances took place after workers in the steel and meatpacking industries organized into labor unions in the 1930s and 1940s, under the interracial Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). The unions ended the segregation of many jobs, and African Americans began to advance into more skilled jobs and supervisory positions previously informally reserved for whites . </P> <P> Between 1940 and 1960, the number of blacks in managerial and administrative occupations doubled, along with the number of blacks in white - collar occupations, while the number of black agricultural workers in 1960 fell to one - fourth of what it was in 1940 . Also, between 1936 and 1959, black income relative to white income more than doubled in various skilled trades . Despite employment discrimination, blacks had higher labor force participation rates than whites in every U.S. Census from 1890 to 1950 . As a result of these advancements, the percentage of black families living below the poverty line declined from 87 percent in 1940 to 47 percent by 1960 and to 30 percent by 1970 . </P> <P> Populations increased so rapidly among both African - American migrants and new European immigrants that there were housing shortages in most major cities . With fewer resources, the newer groups were forced to compete for the oldest, most run - down housing . Ethnic groups created territories which they defended against change . Discrimination often restricted African Americans to crowded neighborhoods . The more established populations of cities tended to move to newer housing as it was developing in the outskirts . Mortgage discrimination and redlining in inner city areas limited the newer African - American migrants' ability to determine their own housing, or obtain a fair price . In the long term, the National Housing Act of 1934 contributed to limiting the availability of loans to urban areas, particularly those areas inhabited by African Americans . </P>

How did the great migration affect life for african americans in many industrial cities