Phyllis Biffle Elmore was little more than a toddler when her life changed dramatically: she moved from her birthplace of Detroit to Alabama to live with her maternal grandparents. Phyllis was a child of the Great Migration. The time period from 1910 to 1970 was one of tremendous change in the United States – between six and seven million African Americans moved from the agriculturally-based southern part of the country to the industrialised north.
Northern cities such as Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit and New York became places to make a new beginning and afford the next generation new possibilities. The Biffles were among those migrating north in search of opportunity. Often, children were sent back to the South to spend time with relatives – perhaps for a few weeks in the summer, or they lived with family for years. Young Phyllis was one of the latter and was sent to Alabama to live with
