A massive amount of sociological material was covered in a readable way by the way Wilkerson told events through three people, people who migrated north at different times, for different reasons, from and to different areas. And they had different personalities. There were snippets of experiences from others that had been interviewed as well. Tucked among the narratives were bits of analysis. 
 We learned of some of the horrid experienced faced in the south, and then disappointingly also in the north. We learned census data that challenged myths and current theories. Wilkerson linked some of the narrative events to larger historical events; for example, World War I started the migration because workers were needed in the northern factories to produce munitions. Ida Mae almost gets to hear Martin Luther King, Jr. 
 Footnotes are present for the scholar at the end, but unobtrusive for the ordinary reader.