The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America (Helen Bernstein Book Award)

The Promised Land by Nicholas Lemann is a groundbreaking history of the migration of African-Americans from the rural South to the urban North, providing a definitive account of American history that is both essential reading for educators and policymakers at all levels.

Through personal accounts and refutation of beliefs, Lemann collects stories of five million black migrants who moved from 1940 to 1970, offering a vivid document that spent 10 weeks on the bestseller list and was an alternate selection for the History Book Club and QPB.

This book is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the continuing history of racial oppression and conflict in the United States, with interwoven personal narratives of African-American migrants and their families alongside the discouraging story of politics and public policy in Chicago and Washington.