Abstract
African Americans developed the blues as a reaction to the harsh living conditions in the Mississippi Delta. The music found a new home during the first half of the twentieth century when thousands of African Americans migrated to Chicago. The purpose of this research is to understand how migration and the urban environment shaped the Black experience. Blues music, specifically the music of Muddy Waters, will be the focus of this study. His Downhome Blues, which grew in popularity following WW II, both shaped and reflected the emergence of an Urban African-American identity in Chicago.
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