Reading ComprehensionDifficulty: Medium

PT148 S2 P2 Q7 Explanation

The Great Migration

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

TopicsMain PointSociety

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

Start practicing free

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

Main Point

Your task

Capture the passage's overall primary point — the claim everything else supports.

Common trap

Answers that are true but too narrow (a single paragraph) or too broad (beyond the passage's scope).

Winning move

Summarize the whole passage in one sentence first, then match it to a choice.

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

The question
7.

Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main point of

Answer choices

  1. Wrong Emphasis: just background2% picked this

    Approximately 40 percent of the African American population left the Southern U.S. between 1915 and 1960-an event historians refer

    This is just telling us that a Great Migration occurred. Yes, that was the topic, but the author's purpose in writing it wasn't to establish that it occurred. She is trying to solve the causal mystery of why it continued longer than the economic incentives might suggest it should have. This answer choice has nothing to do with providing an answer to the question of, "Why did the Great Migration continue even once the income gap of North over South shrunk?"

  2. Wrong Emphasis: too narrow1% picked this

    The Great Migration was triggered by an increased labor demand in the North due to the onset of World War I and a reduced

    This is telling us why the Great Migration occurred, but the author's main purpose was to provide an answer to the question of, "Why did the Great Migration continue even once the income gap of North over South shrunk?" This answer doesn't deal with solving the mystery of why the Great Migration continued.

  3. Too Narrow15% picked this

    Because earlier migrants helped defray the financial costs of migration for later migrants, African American migration to the North accelerated at a

    This is closer to providing an answer to the question of "How come the Great Migration continued even once income differences were narrowing." It is true that earlier migrants helped defray the financial costs. But that was just part of the author's explanation. The end of the 3rd paragraph lists 3 different challenges that migrants face, and the 4th paragraph explains how earlier migrants helped later migrants ameliorate those challenges. But this answer is just pointing to ONE of those three challenges and elevating it to the main point.

  4. Wrong Emphasis: Too Broad2% picked this

    In migration movements, earlier migrants reduce the physical costs of moving and provide a cultural and linguistic

    This main topic of this passage was the Great Migration, and this answer doesn't even mention it. Sometimes we feel like we should make the Main Point some "deep" takeaway like this ... a transcendent principle that could apply to other passages as well. But we shouldn't. If the main character of this passage was the Great Migration then it should absolutely be in the main point answer.

  5. Correct80% picked this

    Although the Great Migration was initially triggered by the income differential between the North and South, other factors must be cited in order to

    Why this is right

    The warmup clause to this answer covers the first paragraph, and the main clause of this paragraph covers the rest of the passage. This gets at our central question of, "Why did the Great Migration continue even after the income differential catalyst had basically disappeared?" This is broad enough (compared to choice C), that it can encapsulate the three different causal factors the author highlighted.

    Skill tested: Main Point · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

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