During the 1920s and 1930s the consciousness of black America was raised to newer and higher levels of self-worth and social importance. A number of events led up to this awakening, or, more appropriately, reawakening. Large numbers of blacks had streamed into the northern cities in the first years of the new century, in a movement that historians call the Great Migration. These blacks were forced by bigotry to leave the south. They were drawn north by, among other things, the promise of better vocational and educational opportunities.