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The Acceleration of the Great Migration, 1916-17

Group 3: Southern Small-Farm Farmers—Handout 3 (page 1 of 26)
Directions
•

Pretend that it is 1917 and you are southern small-farm farmers in the South.

•

Review the questions with your group.

•

Read excerpts from primary source documents in the “Group 3” file in the online
folder for this class (or access the file at https://www.stlouisfed.org/~/media/Education/
Lessons/pdf/maps/Group3_SouthernSmallFarmFarmers.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 were evident in the South 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 3: Southern Small-Farm Farmers (page 2 of 26)
Visual 1: PACED Decisionmaking Model

The Acceleration of the Great Migration, 1916-17

Group 3: Southern Small-Farm Farmers (page 3 of 26)

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 3: Southern Small-Farm Farmers (page 4 of 26)

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 3: Southern Small-Farm Farmers (page 5 of 26)

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 3: Southern Small-Farm Farmers (page 6 of 26)

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 3: Southern Small-Farm Farmers (page 7 of 26)

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 3: Southern Small-Farm Farmers (page 8 of 26)

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 3: Southern Small-Farm Farmers (page 9 of 26)

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 3: Southern Small-Farm Farmers (page 10 of 26)

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 3: Southern Small-Farm Farmers (page 11 of 26)

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 3: Southern Small-Farm Farmers (page 12 of 26)

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 3: Southern Small-Farm Farmers (page 13 of 26)

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 3: Southern Small-Farm Farmers (page 14 of 26)

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 3: Southern Small-Farm Farmers (page 15 of 26)

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 3: Southern Small-Farm Farmers (page 16 of 26)

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 3: Southern Small-Farm Farmers (page 17 of 26)

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 3: Southern Small-Farm Farmers (page 18 of 26)

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 3: Southern Small-Farm Farmers (page 19 of 26)

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.

*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 3: Southern Small-Farm Farmers (page 20 of 26)

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

The Acceleration of the Great Migration, 1916-17

Group 3: Southern Small-Farm Farmers (page 21 of 26)

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
“Attitude of Negro Leaders,” pages 31-32
Another Negro of equally high standing, who had cooperated actively though
silently with local white leaders to prevent injustice to a member of his race, said:
“I am discouraged over the outlook. Frankly, the thing that discourages me most
is the helplessness of the southern white man who wants to help us.”
His point was that he believed southern white men were in danger of social censure
from their own race if they exerted themselves actively on behalf of fair dealing
for the Negroes in the courts and elsewhere. The secrecy that whites had felt it
necessary to employ in order to secure justice for the Negro in trouble, mentioned
above, was the thing that had depressed and discouraged this leader.
The fundamental cause, however, of the apathy of the local Negro leaders to the
migration is that at heart they rejoice over it. The feeling is general that the
things they desire for their race will come only as concessions prompted by the
self-interest of the whites. These leaders believe they see in the growing need for
Negro labor so powerful an appeal to the self-interest of the white employer and
the white planter as to make it possible to get an influential white group to exert
itself actively to provide better schools; to insure full settlements between landlord and tenant on all plantations at end of the year; to bring about abolition of
the abuses in the courts of justices of the peace, operating under the fee system,
as well as a fair trial in cases where a white man is involved; and to obtain living
wages for the Negro masses. These leaders believe that in some sections not enough
Negroes have departed as yet to compel the economic self-interest of the white
capitalist and landlord; and therefore when, in their thinking, such Negro leaders
separate their personal interest from the racial interest, they are silently hoping
that the migration may continue in such increasing proportions as to bring about
a successful bloodless revolution, assuring equal treatment in business, in the
schools, on the trains, and under the law.
The local leaders differ from those controlling the northern Negro press in that as
a class in our interviews they have laid no emphasis on the use of the ballot. Said
one: “I do not care to vote; I only ask that those who do have the ballot shall see to
it that the rulers whom they choose give to white and black equal protection under
the law.”
In my judgment, the most serious weakness in the present situation is the lack of
contact and of personal acquaintance between the white leaders and the Negro

The Acceleration of the Great Migration, 1916-17

Group 3: Southern Small-Farm Farmers (page 22 of 26)

leaders in local communities. Speaking generally, the white leaders are familiar
with the existence of the Negro field hand and the house servant, while at the
same time they are out of touch with the handful of thoughtful and practically
educated Negroes who guide their people. These leaders are not asking for social
intermingling, but only for equal opportunity for the selfdevelopment of their race.
The significance of this group is well stated by one of their number in this fashion:
Whether you whites like it or not, you have educated some of us; and now we are persons,
and we want the rest of our race to have a chance to become persons, too. That is what
makes this exodus different from any other that has taken place before. We are helping
the masses to think.

The Acceleration of the Great Migration, 1916-17

Group 3: Southern Small-Farm Farmers (page 23 of 26)

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
“Attitudes of Whites Toward Negroes,” pages 40-42
Now that attention has been given to the silent indorsement of the Negro exodus
by the leaders of the race and to the underlying causes of their passivity as found
in their beliefs about the attitude and policy of the whites toward opportunity for
Negro self-development, it is worthwhile to inquire what are the prevailing attitudes
of the white leaders.
In order to show these attitudes in their proper setting, a brief reference to the
traditional beliefs of the white toward the Negro as fixed in the Reconstruction
period is essential. In that era when, as the Negro who was a slave the day before
himself expressed it, “the bottom rail was on top,” the whites were reinforced in
the conviction that the Negro could not profit by schooling and that it only added
to the embarrassments of maintaining law and order to give the Negro educational
opportunity. The Negro, it was commonly believed, aspired to social intercourse,
intermarriage, and the ballot. And it was believed that to grant the ballot would
be subversive of white civilization under these circumstances. In 1890 the new
constitution enfranchised those who could read. This, in view of the conviction
about Negro aspirations and Negro political incapacity, operated as a deterrent to
the white in providing adequate school facilities.
Meantime the old close personal relations existing between the finer spirits of the
two races have lapsed in great degree and there have come quite generally in its
place two different attitudes among the whites. The small white farmer on the
unproductive soils that constitute a large part of the uplands regards the Negro
and his child as taking the place in the sun needed by the white farmer for his own
children. There is barely enough to go around, even if the whole product of the soil
is reserved for the whites.
The white landlord group, on the other hand, has a direct economic interest in such
a degree of Negro well-being as will insure a dependable supply of the kind of labor
which they know how to deal with. There is, however, a growing separation in spirit
between this group and the Negroes; the economic tie tends more and more to be
the principal connecting link. Under these circumstances the attitude of economic
exploitation with which students of labor problems are familiar in the militant
white manufacturers’ group has an unusual chance to flourish in southern agriculture. This is all the truer because under southern conditions the employing class
can buttress their economic exploitation of the weaker Negro laborer and absolve

The Acceleration of the Great Migration, 1916-17

Group 3: Southern Small-Farm Farmers (page 24 of 26)

themselves by appeal to race prejudice, which in many cases seems to have become
a sort of religion.
The white employer has been sincere in this attitude; he has honestly believed it
was better for the Negro himself to keep him ignorant and to deal with him on the
animalistic rather than on the human plane.
These are the attitudes of the older groups of white men—the small white farmer
who holds the political power in the State [Mississippi] and in the uplands, and
the white capitalist who as planter, banker, and business man holds the economic
power in the State and in the delta.
Another attitude is coming into being: The educated son of the small white farmer
and the educated son of the white capitalist and planter are beginning to see that
perpetuation of ignorance is no solution of human problems. Out of all these attitudes arise differences of opinion as to the good and evil in the exodus. Some wish
to see all the Negroes leave the State; others want to see enough Negroes go to
change their majority in the State as a whole and in certain localities into a minority. Business men and planters are concerned over the loss, or the threatened loss,
of an ample supply of comparatively docile labor, for their immediate profits are
menaced. But even in this group one finds thoughtful men who are willing to accept
immediate loss for what they regard as the permanent welfare of the community
in getting rid of the Negro majority. Some dream of the time when the Negro population may become evenly distributed throughout the Nation, and the complex
problems of democratic behavior in a biracial community thus tend toward the
vanishing point.

The Acceleration of the Great Migration, 1916-17

Group 3: Southern Small-Farm Farmers (page 25 of 26)

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
“Wages and Living Conditions,” pages 66-67
As compared with the steady rise in wages which has occurred in all branches of
labor since the beginning of the European war [World War I], wages for farm labor
in the State were found to have advanced but little. The price paid for day labor in
the 21 black-belt counties averages 50 and 60 cents a day. It ranges from 40 cents
as a minimum to 75 cents and, in a very few instances, $1 as a maximum. The
above average is based on the wages received by able-bodied male farm hands and
does not include the somewhat lower wages received by women and boys. In exceptional instances the noon meal is given to employees, but the prevailing custom is
for the Negroes to board themselves at all meals. To the question of whether they
had raised wages within the past two years some of the farmers answered that they
were now paying from $15 to $18 a month, whereas they formerly paid from $12
to $15. Others stated that they had made no increase at all. The majority, however,
have made an advance averaging from 10 to 20 per cent. Wherever they have been
forced to compete with the lumber mills and mining industries for labor, wages
were found to have advanced most. In portions of Choctaw, Pickens, Sumter, and
Tuscaloosa Counties, for example, the average farm wage was 75 cents a day. The
lumber mills in the western part of the State give employment to a large number
of Negroes. In April, 1917, the daily capacity of the mills located on the Alabama,
Tennessee & Northern Railroad, which extends from Mobile to Reform, was
2,453,500 feet. Wages were found to vary both as to the grade of work and the locality—averaging from $0.75 to $1.50 and, in exceptional instances, $2 a day. Most
of the companies reported an increase within recent months; the Alabama Dry
Dock Co., at Mobile, stated that 600 Negroes were employed by the company and
that wages had been increased from $1.50 to $1.75 and $2 a day.

The Acceleration of the Great Migration, 1916-17

Group 3: Southern Small-Farm Farmers (page 26 of 26)

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
“North Carolina,” pages 73-74
The commissioner of labor of the State reported a scarcity of Negro farm labor
prior to the recent exodus. In the year 1916, 87 of a total of 100 counties reported
a shortage of labor, and in many sections of the State, as in Mecklenburg County,
for example, the farmers are sowing grasses and raising stock on account of the
scarcity of hands. More farm machinery is also being employed. The statement
was made in many of the cotton-producing counties that there would be a serious
shortage of labor for cotton picking. In some counties, also, much land has been
allowed to lie out during the past summer. Wages for Negro farm labor were found
to average approximately $1 a day. Unlicensed emigrant agents were reported to
have solicited Negro labor in all of the counties visited and in the city of Wilmington
four agents—one negro and three whites—were awaiting trial. Although the exodus
of Negroes from the State has diminished, they are continuing to leave in important
numbers. The general passenger agent of the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac
Railroad, which extends from Richmond, Va., to Washington, D. C., stated that the
number of Negro passengers going north over this railroad is frequently large
enough to demand extra cars. While many of these are from Richmond and the
surrounding country, the great majority are from North Carolina and other States
in the lower South.

Full text of Classroom Lesson: The Acceleration of the Great Migration, 1916-17 : Supplemental Materials : Supplement: Group 3 Materials

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