Detroit's population increased from under 500,000 in 1910 to over 1.8 million at the city's peak in 1950, making Detroit the fourth-most populous city in the United States at that time. The population grew largely because of an influx of European immigrants, in addition to the migration of both black and white Americans to Detroit.Baulch, Vivian M. (September 4, 1999). Michigan's greatest treasure – Its people . Michigan History, The Detroit News. Retrieved on October 22, 2007. During the Great Migration, beginning around 1920, black people left the South in search of better jobs as well as to escape Jim Crow laws. During the first wave of the Great Migration, thousands of African Americans settled in Detroit, as part of the total of 1.5 million black people who left the South in the first half of the 20th century looking for opportunities in the Northeast and Midwest."Detroit and the Great Migration, 1916–1929 by Elizabeth Anne Martin ". Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. In 1910, about 6,000 black people lived in the city.Vivian M. Baulch, "How Detroit got its first black hospital," The Detroit News, November 28, 1995. By 1930, more than 120,000 black people lived in Detroit."Important Cities in Black History". Infoplease.com. Despite the large influx of black residents, in 1940, whites still made up 90.4% of the city's population, indicating a similarly large influx of white residents due to the burgeoning job market.
