The Impact of the Great Migration on Mortality of African Americans: Evidence from the Deep South.

The Great Migration-the massive migration of African Americans out of the rural South to largely urban locations in the North, Midwest, and West-was a landmark event in U.S. HISTORY Our paper shows that this migration increased mortality of African Americans born in the early twentieth century South. This inference comes from an analysis that uses proximity of birthplace to railroad lines as an instrument for migration.