The Great Migration

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Reading Comprehension question.

TopicsInferenceSociety

Keep going in LSAT Lab

Save & drill this skill — build targeted practice sets from questions like this one
Video walkthroughs — watch every question solved step by step
81 official LSATs — as questions, timed sections & full-length tests

Free to start

Full official LSAT questions are available through LawHub. This page provides LSAT Lab's explanation, strategy, and review tools without republishing the full official question.

Passage

This passage was adapted from an article written economists.

Roughly 40 percent of the African American population of the Southern United States left the South between 1915 and 1960, primarily for the industrial cities of the North. While there was some African American migration to the North during the nineteenth century, most accounts point to 1915 as the start of what cotton crops and reduced labor demand in much of the South in the 1910s and 1920s.

In short, the Great Migration began in 1915 and not earlier, because it was only then that the North–South income gap became large enough to start such a large-scale migration. Less clear, however, is why migration continued, and even time that North–South income differences were narrowing.

We propose that once started, migration develops momentum over time as current migration reduces the difficulty and cost of future migration. Economists have typically assumed that people migrate if their expected earnings in the destination exceed those of the origin enough to outweigh the difficulties and one-time costs of migration. Previous research must find housing and work, and they must often adapt to a new culture or language.

Empirical studies show that during the Great Migration, information was passed through letters that were often read by dozens of people and through conversation when migrants made trips back to their home communities. Thus early migrants provided information about labor-and housing-market conditions to friends and relatives who had not yet made the later migrants, so that they did not have to struggle as hard with their new surroundings.

What this question is testing

Inference

Your task

Find what must be true based on what the passage or stimulus states.

Common trap

Answers that are plausible or likely but not actually guaranteed by the text.

Winning move

Keep only the choice the statements fully support — eliminate anything that requires an extra assumption.

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question

12.

The passage provides the most support for which one of the

Answer choices

Too Specific: highest / lowest2% picked this
The highest-paying agricultural jobs in the South prior to 1915 did not pay more than the lowest-paying manufacturing
We don't know anything about the #1 highest paying agricultural job or the absolute lowest paying manufacturing job. We know that, on average, there was more potential to make money in Northern manufacturing jobs than in Southern agricultural jobs, but we can't compare these outlier data points at the top and bottom of each category.
2%
Out of Scope1% picked this
The overall cost of migrating from the South to the North in the twentieth century was lower for the earliest migrants because there were
Out of Scope: highest-paying jobs Opposite: cost of earlier was lower The thesis of this passage was that the overall cost of migrating from the South to the North decreased as the Great Migration went on. So we would think that the overall cost of migrating for the earliest migrants was higher. This answer is suggesting the steeper costs of moving were balanced out by richer rewards, in the form of grabbing the highest-paying jobs. The passage never said that there were higher-paying jobs available for earlier migrants than for later ones.
1%
Correct87% picked this
The North-South income gap increased around 1915 because of the increase in demand for labor in the North and the decrease in
Why this is right
The last few sentences of the 1st paragraph explain the three catalysts of the Great Migration, and they include these factors: 1. higher demand for labor in the North 2. decreased supply of labor in the North via European immigrants 3. decreased demand for labor in the South (because crops were ruined) And then the 2nd paragraph begins by summarizing that "the Great Migration began in 1915 and not earlier, because it was only then that the North-South income gap became large enough to start the migration". So we know the three catalysts mentioned at the end of the 1st paragraph caused there to be a bigger-than-before income gap between North-South.
Skill tested: Inference · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.
87%
Too Strong: for all workers1% picked this
The average wages in the South, though dramatically lower than the average wages in the North, held roughly steady for all workers
The passage only talks about the contrast between North and South. This answer reiterates that but then delves into comparing the average wages of some workers in the South to those of other workers in the South. We have no basis for that comparison. And it's a strong idea. It would be pretty amazing if average wages held roughly steady for all workers in any area over a two decade period.
1%
Too Strong: most9% picked this
Most migrants in the Great Migration made at least one trip back to the South to provide help and information to other people
We know that some migrants made the trip back to the South and provided guidance about what re-locating would be like. Does the passage really specify that it was more than 50% of the people who went North? No, nothing in that final paragraph where this is discussed mentions the concept of "most".
9%

Continue the review in LSAT Lab

Save this question, watch the video walkthrough, and drill similar questions in your LSAT Lab account.

Save and practice this skill

LSAT Lab

Turn this review into a targeted study plan.

Save this question, drill more like it, watch the video walkthrough, and track your progress in your LSAT Lab account.

Start practicing free