Marcia Chatelain. South Side Girls: Growing Up in the Great Migration. Durham, NC, Duke University Press (2015).

This is a very important study of lives of black girls during the Great Migration. At its core are the girls themselves, based on stories gathered from writings and interviews. The expectations and the roles set for them by their elders form the next layer of analysis. Finally, there is a window into wider institutions. One example was the Park Ridge School for Girls, which was highly thought at the time as a home for the destitute and dependent, but this study identified instances of the school finding ways to avoid including black girls into their work.

In his Author! Author! blog series, Museum president Gary T. Johnson highlights works that draw on our collection.