Blockbusting during the Great Migration

Beginning in the 1910's African American people flocked to metropolitan cities leaving behind their homes in the South. This exodus, commonly referred to as the Great Migration, lasted from 1916-1970. Rather than the vast opportunities they were expecting, The Great Migration resulted in a new struggle the African American community would face. As a result of the 1917 supreme court decision of Buchanan v. Warley, the selling of property to black homeowners in white-majority neighborhoods could not be prohibited. Real estate agents used that to their advantage by scaring white homeowners in the inner cities into selling their homes at cheap prices to avoid living in a racially mixed neighborhood. They would then sell the homes to prospective black homeowners at above market prices. Real estate companies profited greatly as a result of anti-black racism.