USM doctoral students speaks on the rise of Mobile street

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Eve Wade a University of Southern Mississippi doctoral student with the Department of History is researching the history on Mobile street.

Wade spoke at the African American Museum Wednesday night to discuss her current dissertation.

The public lecture is a segment of Wade’s dissertation “Becoming Bronzeville: The Origin of the Black Metropolis in a Southern City,” which explores broad questions about African American migration and urbanization.

Her lecture explored the development of the African American community in Hattiesburg and what she argues could be the First Great Migration.

Wade said, " History takes place on a local level, so when you talk about local history its important because it changes the narrative."

From 1880 to 1920, thousands of African Americans left the rural South and settled in nearby Southern cities, creating “Black Metropolises.”

The lecture looked at how this segregation forced the creation of bustling business and entertainment districts where residents lived decades before migrating North in what is commonly known as the Great Migration.

"So whereas people are familiar with the Great Migration that happened about 1915, it’s important to know about the story that happened before that" said Wade.