| | In the Land of the Forefathers | p. 1 |
| | Leaving | p. 3 |
| | The Great Migration, 1915-1970 | p. 8 |
| | Beginnings | p. 17 |
| | Ida Mae Brandon Gladney | p. 19 |
| | The Stirrings of Discontent | p. 36 |
| | George Swanson Starling | p. 47 |
| | Robert Joseph Pershing Foster | p. 72 |
| | A Burdensome Labor | p. 95 |
| | The Awakening | p. 124 |
| | Breaking Away | p. 165 |
| | Exodus | p. 181 |
| | The appointed Time of their Coming | p. 183 |
| | Crossing Over | p. 205 |
| | New York | p. 227 |
| | Los Angeles | p. 230 |
| | The Things They Left Behind | p. 238 |
| | Transplanted in Alien Soil | p. 242 |
| | Divisions | p. 260 |
| | To Bend in Strange Winds | p. 285 |
| | The Other Side of Jordan | p. 302 |
| | Complications | p. 332 |
| | The River Keeps Running | p. 364 |
| | The Prodigals | p. 371 |
| | Disillusionment | p. 385 |
| | Revolutions | p. 385 |
| | The Fullness of the Migration | p. 413 |
| | Aftermath | p. 433 |
| | In the Places They Left | p. 435 |
| | Losses | p. 445 |
| | More North and West Than South | p. 455 |
| | Rederription | p. 465 |
| | And, Perhaps, to Bloom | p. 481 |
| | The Winter of Their Lives | p. 491 |
| | The Emancipation of Ida Mae | p. 516 |
| | Epilogue | p. 527 |
| | Notes on Methodology | p. 539 |
| | Afterword | p. 545 |
| | Acknowledgments | p. 547 Notes |
| | Index | p. 589 |
| | Permissions Acknowledgments | p. 621 |