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The Acceleration of the Great Migration, 1916-17

Group 1: Black Migrant Workers from the South—Handout 1 (page 1 of 29)
Directions
•

Pretend that it is 1917 and you are black migrants from the South now working in the
North.

•

Review the questions with your group.

•

Read excerpts from primary source documents in the “Group 1” file in the online folder
for this class (or access the file at https://www.stlouisfed.org/~/media/Education/
Lessons/pdf/maps/Group1_BlackMigrants.pdf).

•

Consider the ideas, attitudes, and beliefs of your assigned category and answer the
questions from the perspective of those people.

•

Combine your answers to create a perspectives page for your assigned category.

•

Decide who will do each of the following jobs:
■
■
■
■
■

Record agreed-upon answers: Number the questions on the sticky-note paper
and write the group’s answers.
Find PACED-model alternatives: List alternatives for black southern workers
considering migration to the North.
Find PACED-model criteria: List criteria for black southern workers considering
migration to the North.
Apply the economic terms: Identify how the given economic terms apply to the
acceleration of the Great Migration.
Check sources: Locate the answers in the specific documents.

What factors caused a labor surplus in the South?

What factors contributed to balancing the labor supply between the surplus
in the South and the shortage in the North?

What changes in conditions were evident for migrants in the North after the
acceleration of the Great Migration?

What changes in conditions were evident in the South for those who stayed
behind after the acceleration of the Great Migration?
Economic Concepts
Factors of production
• Natural resources
• Labor
• Capital resources

Scarcity
Supply
Demand
Shortage

Surplus
Human capital
Opportunity cost

© 2016, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Permission is granted to reprint or photocopy this lesson in its entirety for educational
purposes, provided the user credits the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, www.stlouisfed.org/education.

The Acceleration of the Great Migration, 1916-17

Alternatives

Criteria

PACED Decisionmaking Model

Totals

Group 1: Black Migrant Workers from the South (page 2 of 29)
Visual 1: PACED Decisionmaking Model

The Acceleration of the Great Migration, 1916-17

Group 1: Black Migrant Workers from the South (page 3 of 29)

Excerpt from Negro Migration During the War by Emmett J. Scott*
“Editor’s Preface,” David Kinley, page iii
I think that no one more capable than Dr. Emmett J. Scott could have been found
to present to the public a study on the subject of this monograph. The topic is one
of great public importance, and the author is equipped for its treatment both by
his wide knowledge of the subject and his sympathy with the viewpoint of his race.
The problem of negro labor, its diffusion and its adaptation to more numerous
kinds of work, are problems not only of great public importance but of great difficulty. Whatever views one may hold on the general subject of race relations between
the negroes and the whites in this country, there is no question that we can not
reach safe conclusions without a full knowledge of the facts as they appear to both
of the interested parties. For that reason this presentation by Dr. Scott is a welcome addition to our information on the subject.
Sympathetically read it will help the whites to understand better the negro viewpoint, and will help the negroes to appreciate more fully the difficulties which
appear from the white viewpoint. This is a field in which Tennyson’s words are
preeminently true, that “Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.” Yet we can not
hope ever to attain the necessary wisdom excepting by an increasing fulness of
knowledge. Therefore I commend this study to every one who is interested in the
question for dispassionate reading and consideration.

*Scott, Emmett J. Negro Migration During the War. New York: Oxford University Press, 1920.

The Acceleration of the Great Migration, 1916-17

Group 1: Black Migrant Workers from the South (page 4 of 29)

Excerpt from Negro Migration During the War by Emmett J. Scott
Chapter III: Stimulation of the Movement
Page 31
In answer to the warnings of the South against the rigors of the northern winters,
the Defender [newspaper] said:
To die from the bite of frost is far more glorious than at the hands of a mob. I beg you,
my brother, to leave the benighted land. You are a free man. Show the world that you
will not let false leaders lead you. Your neck has been in the yoke. Will you continue to
keep it there because some “white folks’ nigger” wants you to? Leave for all quarters of
the globe. Get out of the South. Your being there in the numbers in which you are gives
the southern politician too strong a hold on your progress… So much has been said
through the white papers in the South about the members of the race freezing to death
in the North. They freeze to death down South when they don’t take care of themselves.
There is no reason for any human staying in the Southland on this bugaboo handed out
by the white press.1

If you can freeze to death in the North and be free, why freeze to death in the South
and be a slave, where your mother, sister and daughter are raped and burned at
the stake; where your father, brother and sons are treated with contempt and hung
to a pole, riddled with bullets at the least mention that he does not like the way he
is treated. Come North then, all you folks, both good and bad. If you don’t behave
yourselves up here, the jails will certainly make you wish you had. For the hardworking man there is plenty of work—if you really want it. The Defender says come.2
1

The following clippings are taken from these white papers:

“Aged Negro Frozen to Death—Albany, Ga., February 8.
‘‘Yesterday the dead body of Peter Crowder, an old negro, was found in out-of-the-way place where he had
been frozen to death during the recent cold snap.”—Macon Telegraph.
“Dies from Exposure—Spartanburg, S. C., February 6.
“Marshall Jackson, a negro man, who lived on the farm of J.T. Harris near Campobello, Sunday night froze
to death.”—South Carolina State.
“Negro Frozen to Death in Fireless Gretna Hut.
“Coldest weather in the last four years claimed a victim Friday night, when Archie Williams, a negro, was
frozen to death in his bed in a little hut in the outskirts of Gretna.”—New Orleans Item, February 4.
“Negro Woman Frozen to Death Monday.
“Harriet Tolbert, an aged negro woman, was frozen to death in her home at 18 Garibaldi Street early
Monday morning during the severe cold.”—Atlanta Constitution, February 6.
2

Articles such as the following kept alive the spirit of the exodus:
“Tampa, Florida, January 19. J.T. King, supposed to be a race leader, is using his wits to get on the good side
of the white people by calling a meeting to urge our people not to migrate north. King has been termed a
‘good nigger’ by his pernicious activity on the emigration question. Reports have been received here that
all who have gone north are at work and pleased with the splendid conditions in the North. It is known here
that in the North there is a scarcity of labor; mills and factories are open to them. People are not paying any
attention to King and are packing and ready to travel north to the ‘promised land.’”

The Acceleration of the Great Migration, 1916-17

Group 1: Black Migrant Workers from the South (page 5 of 29)

Excerpt from Negro Migration During the War by Emmett J. Scott
Chapter III: Stimulation of the Movement
Page 35
“The foreign laborer has been called home to bear arms for his country. The daily
death toll [from Word War I] and waste and the recently enacted immigration law
make it certain that he will not soon return in great numbers. As a result a large
market exists for the negro laborer in localities in which he would have been considered an impudent trespasser had he attempted to enter a few years ago. The history of the world from the days of Moses to the present shows that where one race
has been subjugated, oppressed or proscribed by another and exists in large numbers, permanent relief has come in one or two ways—amalgamation or migration.
The thought of amalgamation is not to be entertained. If conditions in the South
for the colored man are to be permanently improved, many of those who now live
there should migrate and scatter throughout the North, East and West. I believe
the present opportunity providential.”—Hon. John C. Ashbury, Philadelphia Bar.

The Acceleration of the Great Migration, 1916-17

Group 1: Black Migrant Workers from the South (page 6 of 29)

Excerpt from Negro Migration During the War by Emmett J. Scott
Chapter V: The Call of the Self-Sufficient North
Pages 52-53
The following is a statement taken from reports of the Bureau of Foreign
Immigration.
Immigration Since 1913
Year

Number

1913 .........................1,197,892
1914 .........................1,218,480
1915............................326,700
1916............................298,826
1917............................295,403
The decrease of over 900,000 immigrants, on whom the industries of the North
depended, caused a grave situation. It must be remembered also that of the 295,403
arrivals in 1917, there were included 32,346 English, 24,405 French and 13,350
Scotch who furnish but a small quota of the laboring classes. There were also
16,438 Mexicans who came over the border, and who, for the most part, live and
work in the Southwest. The type of immigration which kept prime the labor market
of the North and Northwest came in through Ellis Island. Of these, Mr. Frederick C.
Howe, Commissioner of Immigration, said that “only enough have come to balance
those who have left.” He adds further that “As a result, there has been a great shortage of labor in many of our industrial sections that may last as long as the war.”

The Acceleration of the Great Migration, 1916-17

Group 1: Black Migrant Workers from the South (page 7 of 29)

Excerpt from Negro Migration During the War by Emmett J. Scott
Chapter VI: The Draining of the Black Belt
Page 65
The interstate migration has resulted from the land poverty of the hill country and
from intimidation of the “poor whites” in Amite, Lincoln, Franklin and Wilkinson
counties [in Mississippi]. In 1908 when the floods and boll weevil worked such
general havoc in the southwestern corner of the State, labor agents the Delta went
down and carried away thousands of families. It is estimated that more than 8,000
negroes left Adams county during the first two years of the boll weevil period.
Census figures for 1910 show that the southwestern counties suffered a loss of
18,000 negroes. The migration of recent years to adjacent States has been principally to Arkansas.1

The reasons back of this, as obtained from migrants themselves, are that, except in the town of Mound Bayou,
negroes have not been encouraged to own property or rent, but to work on shares; in Arkansas it is possible to
buy good land cheaply and on reasonable terms; inducements are offered by Arkansas in the form of better treatment and schools; there are no such “excessive” taxes as are required in the Mississippi Delta to protect them
from the overflows; the boll weevil has not yet seriously affected that State, and a small farmer may be fairly independent in Arkansas.

The Acceleration of the Great Migration, 1916-17

Group 1: Black Migrant Workers from the South (page 8 of 29)

Excerpt from Negro Migration During the War by Emmett J. Scott
Chapter VI: The Draining of the Black Belt
Page 66, Footnote 1
The lumber mills and the local corporations provide a great part of the work for
laborers in the city. Wages last year ranged from $1.25 to $1.50 a day. Wages at
present are $1.75 and $2 a day. Cotton picking last year brought 60 and 75 cents
a hundred; at present $2 is paid for every hundred pounds picked. The city has
enacted “move on” laws intending to get rid of drones. The police, it is said, could
not distinguish drones from “all negroes.”
It was further complained that the police deputies and sheriffs are too free with the
use of their clubs and guns when a negro is involved. It was related that Dr.———,
practicing 47 years in Greenville, Mississippi, was driving his buggy in a crowded
street on circus day when he was commanded by a policeman to drive to one side
and let a man pass. He replied that he could not because he himself was jammed.
He was commanded again and then dragged from the buggy, clubbed and haled into
the police court and fined. The officer who arrested him swore that he had given
frequent trouble, which was untrue according to reliable testimony and his own
statement. This incident is also told:
A policeman’s friend needed a cook. The policeman drove by a negro home and,
seeing a woman on the porch, told her to get in the buggy. No questions were permitted. She was carried to his friend’s home and told to work. The woman prepared
one meal and left the city for the North.— [Charles S.] Johnson, Report on the
Migration from Mississippi [n. d.].

The Acceleration of the Great Migration, 1916-17

Group 1: Black Migrant Workers from the South (page 9 of 29)

Excerpt from Negro Migration During the War by Emmett J. Scott
Chapter VI: The Draining of the Black Belt
Pages 68-69
It is an interesting fact that this migration from the South followed the path marked
out by the Underground Railroad of antebellum days. Negroes from the rural districts moved first to the nearest village or town, then to the city. On the plantations
it was not regarded safe to arrange for transportation to the North through receiving and sending letters. On the other hand, in the towns and cities there was more
security in meeting labor agents. The result of it was that cities like New Orleans,
Birmingham, Jacksonville, Savannah and Memphis became concentration points.
From these cities migrants were rerouted along the lines most in favor.
The principal difference between this course and the Underground Railroad was
that in the later movement the southernmost States contributed the largest numbers. This perhaps is due in part to the selection of Florida and Georgia by the first
concerns offering the inducement of free transportation, and at the same time it
accounts for the very general and intimate knowledge of the movement by the people in States through which they were forced to pass. In Hattiesburg, Mississippi,
for example, the first intimation of a great movement of negroes to the North came
through reports that thousands of negroes were leaving Florida for the North. To
the negroes of Florida, South Carolina, Virginia and Georgia the North means
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and New England. The route is more direct,
and it is this section of the northern expanse of the United States that gets widest advertisement through tourists, and passengers and porters on the Atlantic
coast steamers. The northern newspapers with the greatest circulation are from
Pennsylvania and New York, and the New York colored weeklies are widely read.
Reports from all of these south Atlantic States indicate that comparatively few
persons ventured into the Northwest when a better known country lay before them.

The Acceleration of the Great Migration, 1916-17

Group 1: Black Migrant Workers from the South (page 10 of 29)

Excerpt from Negro Migration During the War by Emmett J. Scott
Chapter VI: The Draining of the Black Belt
Page 71

The Acceleration of the Great Migration, 1916-17

Group 1: Black Migrant Workers from the South (page 11 of 29)

Excerpt from Negro Migration During the War by Emmett J. Scott
Chapter VII: Efforts to Check the Movement
Pages 78-79
…The federal authorities were importuned to stop the movement. They withdrew
the assistance of the Employment Department, but admitted that they could not
stop the interstate migration.1
One remarked, however, “It will scarcely be possible, to make a sectional issue of
these Columbus convictions, as the charge of ‘enticing away of labor in that country is aimed at certain Arkansas planters who carried away several carloads of
negroes to work on their places, leaving the Mississippi employers without the
labor to gather or grow their crops. It can not, therefore, be interpreted as an attempt to keep the negro in semislavery in the South and prevent him from going
to work at better wages in the northern munition factories; it is only an effort to
protect Mississippi employers from Arkansas planters.”2
…After having enforced these drastic measures without securing satisfactory
results, and having seen that any attempt to hold the negroes by force resulted
apparently in an increased determination to leave, there was resort to the policy
of frightening the negroes away from the North by circulating rumors as to the
misfortunes to be experienced there. Negroes were then warned against the rigors
of the northern winter and the death rate from pneumonia and tuberculosis. Social
workers in the North reported frequent cases of men with simple colds who actually believed that they had developed “consumption.” Speakers who wished to discourage the exodus reported “exact” figures on the death rate of the migrants in
the North that were astounding. As, for example, it was said by one Reverend Mr.
Parks that there were 2,000 of them sick in Philadelphia. The editor of a leading
white paper in Jackson, Mississippi, made the remark that he feared that the result
of the first winter’s experience in the North would prove serious to the South, in so
far as it would remove the bugbear of the northern climate. The returned migrants
were encouraged to speak in disparagement of the North and to give wide publicity to their utterances, emphasizing incidents of suffering reported through the
press.
When such efforts as these failed, however, the disconcerted planters and business
men of the South resorted to another plan. Reconciliation and persuasion were
tried. Meetings were held and speakers were secured and advised what to say. In
1

Johnson, Report on the Migration from Mississippi [n.d.].

Times Picayune, New Orleans, October 1, 1916.

The Acceleration of the Great Migration, 1916-17

Group 1: Black Migrant Workers from the South (page 12 of 29)

cities and communities where contact on this plane had been infrequent, it was a
bit difficult to approach the subject. The press of Georgia gave much space to the
discussion of the movement and what ought to be done to stop it. The consensus
of opinion of the white papers in the State was that the negro had not been fairly
treated, and that better treatment would be one of the most effective means of
checking the migration. Mob violence, it was pointed out, was one of the chief
causes of the exodus.3

Johnson, Report on the Migration from Mississippi [n.d.].

The Acceleration of the Great Migration, 1916-17

Group 1: Black Migrant Workers from the South (page 13 of 29)

Excerpt from Negro Migration During the War by Emmett J. Scott
Chapter VII: Efforts to Check the Movement
Pages 83-84
It was found necessary to increase wages from ten to twenty-five per cent and in
some cases as much as 100 per cent to hold labor. The reasons for migration given
by negroes were sought. In almost all cases the chief complaint was about treatment. An effort was made to meet this by calling conferences and by giving publicity to the launching of a campaign to make unfair settlements and other such
grievances unpopular. Thus, in Bolivar county, Mississippi, a meeting was called,
ostensibly to look after the economic welfare of the Delta country, but in reality
to develop some plan for holding labor. A subcommittee of seventeen men was
appointed to look into the labor situation. There were twelve white men and five
negroes. The subcommittee met and reported to the body that the present labor
shortage was due to the migration, and that the migration was due to a feeling of
insecurity before the law, the unrestrained action of mobs, unfair methods of yearly
settlement on farms and inadequate school facilities. As a result of the report, it
was agreed to make an appropriation of $25,000 towards an agricultural high
school, as a step towards showing an interest in the negroes of Bolivar county and
thus give them reasons for remaining. A campaign was started to make unpopular
the practice among farmers of robbing negroes of the returns from their labor, and
a general effort was made by a few of the leading men behind the movement to
create “a better feeling” between the races.

The Acceleration of the Great Migration, 1916-17

Group 1: Black Migrant Workers from the South (page 14 of 29)

Excerpt from Negro Migration During the War by Emmett J. Scott
Chapter VIII: Effects of the Movement on the South
Page 86
The first changes wrought by this migration were unusually startling. Homes
found themselves without servants, factories could not operate because of the
lack of labor, farmers were unable to secure laborers to harvest their crops. Streets
in towns and cities once crowded assumed the aspect of deserted thoroughfares,
houses in congested districts became empty, churches, lodges and societies suffered such a large loss of membership that they had to close up or undergo
reorganization.
Probably the most striking change was the unusual increase in wages. The wages
for common labor in Thomasville, Georgia, increased almost certainly 100 per cent.
In Valdosta there was a general increase in the town and county of about 50 per
cent, in Brunswick and Savannah the same condition obtained. The common laborer
who had formerly received 80 cents a day earned thereafter $1.50 to $1.75. Farm
hands working for from $10 to $15 per month were advanced to $20 or $35 per
month. Brick masons who had received 50 cents per hour thereafter earned 62
1/2 cents and 70 cents per hour. In Savannah common laborers paid as high as
$2 per day were advanced to $3. At the sugar refinery the rates were for women,
15 to 22 cents per hour, men, 22 to 30 cents per hour. In the more skilled lines of
work, the wages were for carpenters, $4 to $6 per day, painters, $2.50 to $4 per
day, and bricklayers $4 to $5 per day.

The Acceleration of the Great Migration, 1916-17

Group 1: Black Migrant Workers from the South (page 15 of 29)

Excerpt from Negro Migration During the War by Emmett J. Scott
Chapter VIII: Effects of the Movement on the South
Page 90
For those who remained conditions were much more tolerable, although there
appeared to persist a feeling of apprehension that these concessions would be
retracted as soon as normal times returned. Some were of the opinion that the
exodus was of more assistance to those negroes who stayed behind than to those
who went away.

The Acceleration of the Great Migration, 1916-17

Group 1: Black Migrant Workers from the South (page 16 of 29)

Excerpt from Negro Migration During the War by Emmett J. Scott
Chapter VIII: Effects of the Movement on the South
Page 91
The negroes, too, are very much in demand in the South and the intelligent whites
will gladly give them larger opportunities to attach them to that section, knowing
that the blacks, once conscious of their power to move freely throughout the country wherever they may improve their condition, will never endure hardships like
those formerly inflicted upon the race. The South is already learning that the negro
is the most desirable labor for that section, that the persecution of negroes not
only drives them out but makes the employment of labor such a problem that the
South will not be an attractive section for capital. It will, therefore, be considered
the duty of business men to secure protection to the negroes lest their ill treatment
force them to migrate to the extent of bringing about a stagnation of business.
The exodus has driven home the truth that the prosperity of the South is at the
mercy of the negro. Dependent on cheap labor, which the bulldozing whites will
not readily furnish, the wealthy southerners must finally reach the position of
regarding themselves and the negroes as having a community of interests which
each must promote. “Nature itself in those States,” Douglass said, “came to the
rescue of the negro. He had labor, the South wanted it, and must have it or perish.
Since he was free he could then give it, or withhold it; use it where he was, or take
it elsewhere, he pleased. His labor made him a slave and his labor could, if he would,
make him free, comfortable and independent. It is more to him than either fire,
sword, ballot boxes or bayonets. It touches the heart of the South through its
pocket.” Knowing that the negro has this silent weapon to be used against his employer or the community, the South is already giving the race better educational
facilities, better railway accommodations, and will eventually, if the advocacy of
certain southern newspapers be heeded, grant them political privileges. Wages in
the South, therefore, have risen even in the extreme southwestern States, where
there is an opportunity to import Mexican labor. Reduced to this extremity, the
southern aristocrats have begun to lose some of their race prejudice, which has
not hitherto yielded to reason or philanthropy.

The Acceleration of the Great Migration, 1916-17

Group 1: Black Migrant Workers from the South (page 17 of 29)

Excerpt from Negro Migration During the War by Emmett J. Scott
Chapter XIV: Public Opinion Regarding the Migration
Page 154
Among those holding the view that the South needed the negro was the [October 5,
1916] Memphis Commercial Appeal. Concerning this an editorial in this paper said
that not only does the South need the negro, but that he should be encouraged to
stay.
The enormous demand for labor and the changing conditions brought about by the boll
weevil in certain parts of the South have caused an exodus of negroes which may be
serious. Great colonies of negroes have gone north to work in factories, in packing houses
and on the railroads.
Some of our friends think that these negroes are being taken north for the purpose of
voting them in November. Such is not the case. The restriction of immigration because
of the European war and the tremendous manufacturing and industrial activity in the
North have resulted in a scarcity of labor. The negro is a good track hand. He is also a
good man around packing houses, and in certain elementary trades he is useful. The
South needs every able-bodied negro that is now south of the line, and every negro who
remains south of the line will in the end do better than he will do in the North.
The negro has been a tremendous factor in the development of agriculture and all the
commerce of the South. But in the meantime, if we are to keep him here, and if we are
to have the best use of his business capacity, there is a certain duty that the white man
himself must discharge in his relation to the negro.
The business of lynching negroes is bad, and we believe it is declining, but the worst
thing is that the wrong negro is often lynched. The negro should be protected in all his
legal rights. Furthermore, in some communities, some white people make money at the
expense of the negro’s lack of intelligence. Unfair dealing with the negro is not a custom
in the South. It is not the rule, but here and there the taking of enormous profits from
the labor of the negro is known to exist.
It should be so arranged that the negro in the city does not have to raise his children in
the alleys and in the streets.
Liquor in the cities has been a great curse to negroes.
Millions of dollars have been made by no account white people selling no account liquor
to negroes and thus making a whole lot of negroes no account. Happily this business is
being extinguished.
The negroes who are in the South should be encouraged to remain there, and those
white people who are in the boll weevil territory should make every sacrifice to keep
their negro labor until there can be adjustments to the new and quickly prosperous
conditions that will later exist.

The Acceleration of the Great Migration, 1916-17

Group 1: Black Migrant Workers from the South (page 18 of 29)

Excerpt from Negro Migration During the War by Emmett J. Scott
Chapter XIV: Public Opinion Regarding the Migration
Page 157
The [July 1, 1917] New Republic of New York City pointed out that the movement
gave the negro a chance and that he, the South and the nation, would in the end,
all be gainers.
When Austria found the Serbian reply inadmissible, the American negro, who had never
heard of Count Berchtold, and did not care whether Bosnia belonged to Austria or Siam,
got his “chance.” It was not the sort of chance that came to the makers of munitions—a
chance to make millions. It was merely a widening of a very narrow foothold on life, a
slightly better opportunity to make his way in the industrial world of America.
In the beginning such a migration of negroes would increase the present race friction
in the North. Within certain limits a racial minority is unpopular directly in proportion
to its numbers. Only as it increases to the point where political and economic power
makes it formidable, does it overcome opposition. The negro’s competition for jobs and
homes will probably exacerbate relations. As the negroes increased in numbers they
would not only seek menial and unskilled work, but also strive to enter skilled trades
where they would meet with antagonism of white workers. Moreover, the negroes would
be forced to seek homes in what are now regarded as “white” neighborhoods, and a
clamor would be raised at each new extension of their dwelling area.

The Acceleration of the Great Migration, 1916-17

Group 1: Black Migrant Workers from the South (page 19 of 29)

Excerpt from Negro Migration in 1916-17 by R.H. Leavell, et al.*
“Introduction,” by J.H. Dillard, pages 10-12
…Many immigrants from Europe and most of the colored people in our southern
States are within the definition of those who had the least chance of improvement
through power, education, or inheritance. What can be done for extending their
chances of improvement is a matter of supreme importance. The Negro migration
may or may not be a step toward the attainment of better chances, but it is at any
rate a most interesting effort in this direction, and should be recognized as such
in our thoughts on the subject.
These thoughts recurred to my mind while talking with a colored man in Cincinnati,
and while looking over the rolls of new admissions to a colored school in Philadelphia.
I had just come up from the South with my mind full of the opinion, which I still
hold, that the South is the best home for the masses of our Negro population. I was
making my way near nightfall toward a railroad station in Cincinnati, and stopping
to inquire the nearest way was accosted by a polite colored man who said he was
going to the same station and would gladly show me the way. I found that he had
been six months in the city, had moved from Atlanta, had a good job in some ironworks, had brought his wife and three children, and was making for the station to
meet his brother for whom he had secured a position in the same plant. He himself
had come through correspondence with a friend who had lived for some time in
Cincinnati. He stated that he was getting better wages, and that he was paying the
same rent for a better house. He gave no cause for moving other than the desire,
as he said, “to better himself.” In view of various reports in regard to housing conditions, this man’s experience may have been exceptional in this respect, but at
any rate he was apparently much pleased with his move, and I could not but think
that he was to be commended for his desire and effort “to better himself.”
A few days later I visited the Durham School in Philadelphia, a large public school
for colored children. I thought that the new enrollment would probably afford some
information as to new arrivals in that city. The principal had enrolled the new
pupils on sheets containing 50 names, and he had been careful to enter opposite
each name the place from which the pupil came. I took six of these sheets at random and found that one of them had 26 names of children who had been brought
within the past year from various States of the South— Georgia, Alabama, Virginia,
etc. The lowest number of names of recent arrivals found on any one of the six
sheets was 21. In other words, among the new pupils there were between 40 and
*Leavell, R.H.; Snavely; T.R.; Woofter, T.J. Jr.; Williams, W.T.B.; Tyson, Francis D. and Dillard, J.H. Negro Migration
in 1916-17. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Labor, Office of the Secretary Division of Negro Economics, 1920.

The Acceleration of the Great Migration, 1916-17

Group 1: Black Migrant Workers from the South (page 20 of 29)

50 per cent who were newcomers, and all these from the South. I was surprised
at the number, and could not but realize that the parents who had migrated to
that city showed a commendable desire to give their children the benefit of education. I am inclined to the opinion that the desire to secure better opportunities for
“schooling” has been one of the influential causes of the migration, certainly among
the better class of Negroes who have moved. For it is an undoubted fact that the
movement has embraced Negroes of all grades; many herded together by labor
agents and many who have moved separately and of their own initiative.
On this subject, as well as on the other facts regarding the migration, I must refer
to the reports. I had thought to collate these reports, but have concluded that it is
better to let each writer’s facts and inferences be read in his own setting.
It may be well, however, to bring together here a few of the statements in regard
to certain leading questions:
1. The number.—The movement had been well under way for some time before
anyone thought of making an effort to secure statistics. Moreover, so many left
separately and unobserved that to get complete statistics would at any time have
been impracticable. Mr. Leavell says that “any numerical estimate must be based
on such scanty data as to have no scientific value.” Mr. Snavely estimates 75,000
left Alabama within 18 months, but adds that “except in a few particular instances
it is impossible to give numbers with scientific accuracy.” Mr. Woofter estimates
the number leaving Georgia between May, 1916, and September, 1917, at 35,000
to 40,000, but says that “a numerical estimate of the total number must be an
approximation.” Mr. Williams gives 50,000 for Georgia, quoting the commissioner
of commerce and labor; 90,000 for Alabama, quoting the commissioner of agriculture; and 100,000 for Mississippi, according to officials of insurance companies,
and 75,000 according to the editor of the Jackson Daily News. Prof. Tyson says
that “within certain limits one guess is as good as another.” I should be inclined to
set the limits at 150,000 and 350,000 and my guess would be 200,000. The number of those who have returned South is equally uncertain. Some say 10 per cent;
some say as much as 30 per cent.
2. The cause.—That the lack of labor at the North, due mainly to the ceasing of
immigration from Europe, was the occasion of the migration all agree. The causes
assigned at the southern end are numerous: General dissatisfaction with conditions,
ravages of boll weevil, floods, change of crop system, low wages, poor houses on
plantations, poor school facilities, unsatisfactory crop settlements, rough treatment, cruelty of the law officers, unfairness in courts, lynching, desire for travel,
labor agents, the Negro press, letters from friends in the North, and finally advice
of white friends in the South where crops had failed. All of these causes have been

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Group 1: Black Migrant Workers from the South (page 21 of 29)

mentioned, and doubtless each cause mentioned has had its influence in individual
cases. A discussion of these causes will be found in the reports, none of which give
as much prominence to the influence of labor agents as might be expected. Doubtless the spectacular part of the migration, the movement of large numbers at the
same time, was due to agents, and doubtless in many localities the labor agent
was the instigator of the movement. “The universal testimony of employers was,
however,” says Mr. Woofter, “that after the initial group movement by agents,
Negroes kept going by twos and threes. These were drawn by letters, and by actual advances of money, from Negroes who had already settled in the North.” Mr.
Williams says that “every Negro that makes good in the North and writes back to
his friends starts off a new group.” He thinks that this quiet work “has been more
effective in carrying off labor than agents could possibly have been.” Mr. Leavell
approves the opinion that “the railroads and the United States mails have been the
principal ‘labor agents.’ ” However the influence came, and whatever concurrent
causes may have operated, all will agree with Mr. Williams when he says that “better
wages offered by the North have been the immediate occasion for the exodus.”

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Excerpt from Negro Migration in 1916-17 by R.H. Leavell, et al.
“The Negro Migration from Mississippi, with Special Reference to the Exodus
to Northern Communities in 1916-17,” by R.H. Leavell
“Causes of the Negro Migration,” pages 21-22
Hence my effort has been twofold. I have sought to find out what economic and
social facts are pushing the Negro out of Mississippi and pulling him toward other
communities. And I have tried to find out what beliefs of the Negroes have been
influencing their migration. In both endeavors I have found the widest variety of
facts and beliefs operating as motives in different parts of the State and in different
local communities.
The inference is obvious that this diagnosis of causes of the movement will be useful
only when employed by white leaders locally in determining whether actual or
threatened shortage of labor is due to one or more of the causes mentioned. For
such testing of the attractiveness of a community to Negro labor, the facts and
beliefs about facts which are herein set forth it is hoped may be of help.
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CAUSES OF MIGRATION.
The economic and social facts, as distinguished from beliefs about facts, that have
been responsible for much of the Negro migration are the following:
1.

In southeast and east Mississippi lack of capital for carrying labor through
the fall and early winter until time to start a new crop. This lack of capital has
been occasioned by one or more of three causes—a succession of short crops,
the more recent advent of the boll weevil, a destructive storm in the summer
of 1916.

Reorganization of agriculture behind the boll weevil so as to for a smaller
number of farm laborers per hundred acres. This is notable in southwest
Mississippi, which was the first section to meet the boll-weevil pest. Such
reorganization, although paying considerable attention to trucking, is emphasizing live stock, particularly beef cattle.

Hunger wages in Mississippi.

The attractions of Arkansas. That State, country Negroes assert, competes
for Mississippi Negro agricultural labor not only affording larger economic
opportunity but also by offering more considerate treatment.

The attractions of the northern urban and industrial centers. These attractions are of two sorts: (a) Distinctly higher wages for unskilled labor, such as

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in munitions plants, railroad construction, stockyards; (6) better living conditions, such as (1) housing that seems superior to the rough cabins of southern
plantations; (2) a closer approximation to evenhanded justice in the courts
in cases where both whites and Negroes are involved1; (3) better schools for
the Negro race than in either the country or the towns of Mississippi;(4) equal
treatment on the cars [trains]. Indeed, in the cars equality of treatment is the
necessary result of the fact that there is no segregation in them. Concerning
equality of treatment, be it noted that northern Negro leaders are strenuously
opposed quite generally to any sort of compulsory segregation anywhere. The
southern Negro leaders pay little attention to this, but limit themselves to
asking for equality of treatment, even though segregated. It is quite possible,
however, that this difference in attitude is accounted for by the fact that at
present abolition of “Jim Crowism” is in Mississippi a purely academic proposal.

A Chicago weekly calls attention to the fact that the grand jury was able at least to find persons to indict for the
East St. Louis affair; but this same weekly maintains that grand juries seem unable to locate the culprits in
southern mobs.

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Excerpt from Negro Migration in 1916-17 by R.H. Leavell, et al.
“The Negro Migration from Mississippi, with Special Reference to the Exodus
to Northern Communities in 1916-17,” by R.H. Leavell
“Agents of Migration: United States Mails Stimulate Migration,” pages 28-29
The United States mails have been increasingly effective in prompting the migration in two different ways. Letters from Negroes in the North—especially letters
containing that unanswerable evidence of better conditions, considerable sums of
actual cash—have probably been of unsurpassed effectiveness in stimulating the
later migration. A white banker told me of one young Negro who regularly every
two months sent back to his aged father $75. Other remittances for smaller, though
considerable, amounts were reported to me in a number of communities.

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Excerpt from Negro Migration in 1916-17 by R.H. Leavell, et al.
“The Negro Migration from Mississippi, with Special Reference to the Exodus
to Northern Communities in 1916-17,” by R.H. Leavell
“Negro Suggestions on Practical Plantation Management,” page 38
One colored man whom I interviewed in Chicago, after telling me that he would
keep silent about anything that he would be silent about in Mississippi, expressed
the opinion that better living conditions in the North were not the same stimulus
to the migration of the country Negro as to the one in town. “If you have never eaten
lemon pie, you don’t know how fond you may be of it. After you have tasted it, it’s
different.” He believed that improved living conditions in the northern cities, even
though not the attracting force for the country Negro, would keep him from returning South. This colored man laid special emphasis on the city housing of the North.
“A country Negro,” he said, “may not use the bathtub in the house he rents in
Chicago; but it’s there and he can write home about it.” The whole situation as the
Negro sees it was summed up by one educator in these words: “The Negro wants a
square deal.”

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Excerpt from Negro Migration in 1916-17 by R.H. Leavell, et al.
“The Exodus of Negroes from Southern States: Alabama and North Carolina,”
by Tipton Ray Snavely
“Causes of the Movement,” pages 60-61
One of the underlying causes of the migration, therefore, may be characterized as
the changed conditions incident to the transition from the old system of cotton
planting to stock raising and the diversification of crops…
The immediate causes came at a time most favorable for the exodus. The effectiveness of the movement was greatly enhanced on account of this fact. One of these
was a shortage of crops which resulted from the floods of July, 1916. The crops
were destroyed not only in the black-belt counties but throughout a large portion
of the State.
For many planters this new disaster formed a climax to a series of misfortunes
from which they have not been able to recover. They were making a final attempt
to recoup themselves from the losses of the past four years. The result was immediate. Both farmers and tenants who had staked all on this last effort were obliged
to find some means for a present livelihood.
The customary advances of provisions to the negro tenants were cut off. Owners of
large plantations were compelled for the first time in their lives to tell their Negroes
that they could not feed them and that they were forced to let them move away. In
a number of the black-belt counties the state of actual privation was such that food
was distributed to the starving Negroes by the Federal Department of Agriculture
and by the organization of the Red Cross. The tenants were not only left without
food but they were also in debt for provisions which had been furnished them during the past winter. Thus in many instances they lost their mules and other property which were taken for the payment of rent and store debts.
On the other hand, hundreds of landowners simply released their tenants from such
contracts as they held against them. The rents were either relinquished outright
or postponed indefinitely. In some instances work was improvised on the farms in
order that the Negroes might be supplied with food. But the mere canceling of rents
and debts did not relieve the immediate necessity for provisions, and planters who
were not able to furnish work for their Negro tenants saw them go to the railroads
and sawmills for employment. The landowners who felt justified in carrying their
tenants for another year, and were able to do so, have suffered less from the recent
shortage of labor than have those who did not adopt similar measures. Absentee
owners, who depended upon a self-adjustment of the situation, have suffered most.
The exodus from the rural districts and towns into the cities began, and there was
soon a steady movement toward the Birmingham district and to the northern and
eastern States.

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Excerpt from Negro Migration in 1916-17 by R.H. Leavell, et al.
“Migration of Negroes from Georgia, 1916-17,” by T.J. Woofter, Jr.
“Causes of the Movement,” pages 87-88
After the initial movement of laborers by agents, the migration attracted the attention of the press and excited much discussion among the Negroes themselves. Then
their social grievances became a topic of conversation, and quite a few economically
independent, respected citizens moved North. It was noted in connection with farm
labor that a few independent renters and owners have sold their property, in the
majority of instances at a sacrifice, and moved North. Real estate men also report
that in the towns a number of home owners have sold out and left. While this number forms a relatively small proportion of the total number migrating, they form
quite an appreciable proportion of the property-owning Negroes, and their departure from the South marks a recession of the Negro race from some of the gains it
has made in its progress toward economic independence in the South. In these
cases economic advantage can be said to play but a small part in the movement,
for unquestionably these men sacrifice their property and move for better protection in the courts and better social advantages in housing and education.
It is difficult to determine the exact influence of the lynchings in Georgia upon the
movement of Negroes, on account of the fact that the lynchings which occurred
immediately before and during the movement of Negroes were in the boll-weevil
section, where the economic conditions were also at their worst. Several planters
across whose places lynching parties passed say that their loss was heavier than
those of the surrounding plantations on account of the terrorization of their tenants. Negroes on the farm, the ignorant class, seem to take the lynching of a guilty
Negro as a matter of course. In cases in 1915 and 1916, however, in the boll-weevil
section of Georgia not only the guilty Negro was killed but also other Negroes. In
one county the mob beat and terrorized many Negroes and after killing the criminal
went across the county and killed his mother and one of his relatives. This feeling
of danger, even from the misdeeds of other Negroes, has undoubtedly contributed
largely to the willingness of many Negroes to seek opportunity in the North. The
two counties in which these lynchings occurred, Randolph and Early, were among
the heaviest losers in Negro population…
Minor injustices in the courts also are frequently assigned by Negroes as a cause
of discontent with life in the South. Under the fee system county and police officials are often overzealous in rounding up Negroes for gambling, drinking, and
petty infractions of the law. The limit fine or sentence to work the county roads is
often imposed. Two city officials stated that they had endeavored to discourage

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this practice since the movement of Negroes started, and that they believed that
their success had contributed to the slackening of the movement. As long as rural
recreational facilities and social life of the Negro is so barren, such cases of petty
disorders among the Negro population will continue, and as long as they are dealt
with summarily he will continue to nurse his grievance against the courts.
A well-developed public opinion among the Negroes concerning inequalities in
educational facilities is also apparent. A recent report of the Bureau of Education
indicates that the per capita expenditure in public-school teachers’ salaries for each
white child 6 to 14 years of age is about six times the per capita expenditure for
each colored child 6 to 14.

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Excerpt from Negro Migration in 1916-17 by R.H. Leavell, et al.
“The Negro Exodus from the South,” by W.T.B. Williams
“Underlying Causes of the Exodus,” page 101
The unusual amounts of money coming in, the glowing accounts from the North,
and the excitement and stir of great crowds leaving, work upon the feelings of many
Negroes. They pull up and follow the crowd almost without a reason. They are
stampeded into action. This accounts in large part for the apparently unreasonable
doings of many who give up good positions or sacrifice valuable property or good
businesses to go North. There are also Negroes of all classes who profoundly believe
that God has opened this way for them out of the restrictions and oppressions that
beset them on every hand in the South; moving out is an expression of their faith.
Unfortunately the South gives the Negro abundant occasions for wanting to leave.
As someone has put it, it is not only the northern pull but also the southern push
that is sending so many Negroes out of the South.
The treatment accorded the Negro always stood second, when not first, among
the reasons given by Negroes for leaving the South. I talked with all classes of colored people from Virginia to Louisiana—farm hands, tenants, farmers, hack drivers,
porters, mechanics, barbers, merchants, insurance men, teachers, heads of schools,
ministers, druggists, physicians, and lawyers—and in every instance the matter of
treatment came to the front voluntarily. This is the all-absorbing, burning question
among Negroes. For years no group of the thoughtful, intelligent class of Negroes,
at any rate, have met for any purpose without finally drifting into some discussion
of their treatment at the hands of white people.

*Leavell, R.H.; Snavely; T.R.; Woofter, T.J. Jr.; Williams, W.T.B.; Tyson, Francis D. and Dillard, J.H. Negro Migration
in 1916-17. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Labor, Office of the Secretary Division of Negro Economics, 1920.