There is not just one story about how people populated Rochester. Some came to escape the racist violence in the South while some came for jobs. Many of the employment opportunities surrounded farming, mining or working in flour mills. Despite the multitude of new arrivals, popular companies like Xerox and Kodak were segregated and hired few people of color in janitorial and other low-paying positions. The racism people thought they abandoned down South was only rebranded up North. Because of this, Black people in Rochester kept with their tradition of innovation and started businesses, especially in the Third Ward– giving back to the village.
1962 Map, Courtesy of University of Rochester Rare Books and Special Collections (Map edits courtesy of Blair Tinker)
Where else did migrants from the South go? What do you think they found?
What drew you or your family to Rochester?
The Great Migration was a prolific journey of Black Southerners into the North and West United States primarily lasting from 1920-1970. There were earlier trends of Black migration into Rochester in the late 1800s-early 1900s with people coming from Culpeper County, Virginia. These migrants built some of the earliest Black institutions in Rochester. The second influx of migrants, lasting from 1940-1970, grew the Black population in Rochester by 300%. This was a result of agricultural recruiters from Wayne County going to Georgia and Florida in search of workers for their vast farms.
Where else did migrants from the South go? What do you think they found?
Map adapted from the Pathstone Antiracist Curriculum Project by mapmaker, Blair Tinker
1910 Third Ward Map with outline of historic Clarissa Street (northern section named Caledonia Avenue until approximately 1930). Throughout the Great Migration, until the early 1970s, Clarissa Street ran from West Main Street to Mt. Hope Avenue. Courtesy of City of Rochester, NY.
Upon arrival, Black people moving into the city were restricted to live only in Rochester’s Third and Seventh Wards. Earliest waves of Black migrants primarily resided in the Third Ward and built their community and businesses around Clarissa Street. Families arriving in the second wave after World War II tended to settle around Joseph Avenue in the Seventh Ward, where most of the businesses were white-owned.
In the 1950s, Urban Renewal began in the Baden-Ormond area in northeast Rochester. Homes and churches were torn down to make way for corporate businesses and a 7-tower public housing project called Hanover Houses. Demolition of this neighborhood displaced hundreds of families. The Third Ward was the only other neighborhood where the majority–who were not white–were legally allowed to live.
Thus, by the early 1960s, rapid population growth, combined with redlining, restrictive covenants, and displacement from urban renewal caused immense overcrowding in both Wards. All of these factors led to tensions that boiled over into the 1964 uprising.
Today, descendants of these communities live all around the city and in surrounding areas. Nonetheless, the community traditions still remain, and each area of the city has a unique story to tell.
In the next section Resistance Mapping, see where redlining/greenlining and restrictive covenants were imposed in Rochester.
1910 3rd Ward Map, Courtesy of City of Rochester
Research & development by Brynn Murphy-Stanley, assisted by Aydan Fusco
Map edits courtesy of Blair Tinker
