Early in the Great Migration of 1910–1970, which involved the mass migration of Black people from the southern to the
northern United States, political activist and Chicago Defender writer Fannie Barrier Williams was instrumental in helping
other Black women establish themselves in the North. Many women hoped for better employment opportunities in the North
because, in the South, they faced much competition for domestic employment and men tended to get agricultural work. To
aid with this transition, Barrier Williams helped secure job placement in the North for many women before they even began
their journey.
To introduce and illustrate Barrier Williams’s integral role in supporting other Black women as their circumstances
changed during part of the Great Migration
To establish that Barrier Williams used her professional connections to arrange employment for other Black women,
including jobs with the Chicago Defender
To demonstrate that the factors that motivated the start of the Great Migration were different for Black women than they
were for Black men
To provide an overview of the employment challenges faced by Black women in the agricultural and domestic spheres in
Choice A is the best answer because it most accurately describes the text’s purpose, which is to discuss the important role
Barrier Williams played in supporting many other Black women as they relocated to the northern United States during the
early years of the Great Migration. After introducing Barrier Williams, the text describes how she helped ﬁnd jobs for other
Black women, who in many cases relocated in search of better employment prospects than the South could offer at the time.
The text indicates that by doing so, she eased these women’s transition as their circumstances changed.
Choice B is incorrect. Although the text mentions Barrier Williams’s work as a political activist and writer for the Chicago
Defender, it doesn’t discuss any professional connections she made in these roles or indicate that she used any such
connections in her work to secure employment for other Black women. Choice C is incorrect. Although the text discusses a
factor that caused many women to relocate during the Great Migration, their diﬃculty ﬁnding employment in the South, the
text doesn’t indicate that this factor motivated the start of the Great Migration. Moreover, the text doesn’t discuss the factors
that motivated Black men to migrate. Choice D is incorrect. Although the text mentions the diﬃcult employment prospects
for Black women in the domestic and agricultural sectors in the South during the Great Migration, the text’s main purpose
isn’t to provide an overview of the employment challenges Black women faced in these sectors. Rather, it provides this