“Smiling Faces, Beautiful Places”: Stories of African Diaspora Relocation to the South

In the first part of the twentieth century African Americans left the rural South and migrated to the more urban North and West. “Pushed ” out by natural disasters and the economic decline of southern industries, concurrently they were “pulled ” by the lure of war industry jobs with higher wages and non-discriminatory hiring practices. Many migrants expressed that move as “going to the Promised Land. ” Today’s urban decay and inner city joblessness has many African Americans feeling “rootless. ” Since the 1970s African Americans have been “returning ” to the South-- that “vexed ” and “haunted ” area that most represents home. This article investigates the phenomenon of African Diaspora southern migration by exploring the meaning of place and identity within the writings and life stories of African Americans who explicitly deal with “returning ” to the modern day South of “smiling faces, and beautiful places.” This article is accompanied by a documentary film, also entitled Smiling Faces, Beautiful Places: Stories of African Diaspora Relocation to the South, which is available for viewing online in Quicktime format (30 megabyte file) at: