When the Great Depression hit the southern states in the 1930's, millions of people migrated across the country to find better opportunities for themselves. Close to 1.6 million African-Americans turned to the northern states to find work in the factories. Chicago was the destination for many of them. They settled along city's south side and developed an art movement similar but less publicized than the Harlem one -- the Chicago Black Renaissance. Among these writers, musicians, and other artists was Willard Motley.
Motley began his career writing for the Chicago Defender under a pseudonym. Like many artists his luck was earned with time and patience. He traveled to various states doing menial editing and writing jobs before returning home in 1947 to write his first and best loved novel, Knock on Any Door, which interestingly enough features a different migrant group, Italians, rather than African-Americans. His audience received the novel's theme of poverty and hardship turned to crime well, and the book was a hit. In the first three weeks 47,000 copies were sold. The novel was also adapted to the screen starring Humphrey Bogart. There were critics to Motley's choice of character ethnicity to which he replied, "My race is the human race."
After the first novel Motley tried to continue his success, but the reactions to his other three works, one of which was published posthumously, were not equal in proportion to the first.
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