If you are not familar with the work of Nell Irvin Painter, now is the time to look her up. She earned her PhD from Harvard, taught for awhile at Duke University, and the last that I heard was directing the AA Studies program at Prinston. "Exodusters" which come out in 1992 is now in paperback. The bulk of her work is too extensive for me to quote, but the majority of it is on the topic of Black Migration from the South to the North. Some other works are "Standing at Armageddon", and most recently, "Southern History Across the Color Line". She also edited the Harriet Jacob book, "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" which if you haven't read it, you need to do so.
Keep in mind that nearly all of us who are AAs have roots in the South can understand what the outward migration was all about, regardless of where we now live.