EFFORTS TO CHECK THE MOVEMENT
The departure of the first negroes usually elicited no concern
from the authorities. It was assumed that their actions were merely
expressions of the negro's "love for travel," and that they would
soon return. When, however, they did not return and hosts of others
followed, the white South became deeply concerned and endeavored to
check the movement. Throughout the exodus drastic legislation and
force were employed. In Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi and Georgia
laws were passed in an effort to suppress the activities of labor
agents. Licenses were made prohibitively high; labor agents were
arrested and heavily fined. In some cases their coming was penalized
to prohibit their operations entirely and they frequently suffered
physical injury.
In Florida labor recruiting early assumed a serious aspect. Precaution
was, therefore, taken to impede the progress of the work of labor
agents among negroes, at first by moral suasion and then by actual
force. The cities and towns of this State enacted measures requiring
a very high license of labor agents, imposing in case of failure to
comply with these regulations, a penalty of imprisonment. For example,
in Tampa when these operations were brought to the attention of
the authorities, Joe Robinson, a negro officer, was detailed to
investigate the matter. He discovered that one Joyce and another negro
named Alex Reeves were implicated in the movement. These men were
charged with having collected $7 from each of several hundred negroes
who wanted to go to Pennsylvania. A meeting among the negroes of Tampa
was then held to secure pledges of assistance for the negro officer,
then making an effort to prevent the exodus. Being under the
impression that the ignorant members of their race were being imposed
upon by agents from without, many of these leading negroes pledged
themselves to assist in the suppression of it.[77]
In Jacksonville, where the labor agents flourished, the City Council
passed an ordinance requiring that migration agents should pay $1,000
license to recruit labor sent out of the State under penalty of $600
fine and 60 days in jail. Several police detectives were assigned the
task of arresting those who were said to be spreading false reports
among negroes there to the effect that special trains were ready on
various specified dates to take them to points in the North. When,
therefore, large crowds of negroes gathered near the Union Depot in
Jacksonville, awaiting the so-called special train, they were handled
rather roughly by the police when it was shown that they had
not purchased tickets and there was no one to vouch for their
transportation.
The same condition with respect to the apparent necessity for
prohibitive measures obtained in Georgia. The local governments early
took action to prevent the drain of the labor population to northern
States through the operation of labor agents. It was soon observed,
however, that these agents worked out their schemes so clandestinely
that it was impossible to check the movement by such measures. Fearing
that the general unrest among the negroes of the city and the efforts
that were being put forth on the part of the authorities to keep them
from being transported from Macon to the North, might result in a riot
with which the city authorities would not be able to cope, Chief of
Police George S. Riley recommended to the civil service commission
that forty magazine rifles be purchased for the police department.[78]
At that time the police had only their pistols and clubs. It was
said that surliness then existed among certain negroes and the police
wanted to be able to cope with any situation that might arise. The
City Council, thereafter, raised the license fee for labor agents to
$25,000, requiring also that such an agent be recommended by ten local
ministers, ten manufacturers and twenty-five business men. The police
of Macon were very active in running down labor agents violating this
law.
Americus was honeycombed and carefully watched and searched for
persons inducing negroes to migrate, as there was a large exodus of
negroes from this city to the tobacco fields of Connecticut. Negroes
attempting to leave were arrested and held to see if by legal measures
they could be deterred from going North. The officers in charge of
this raid were armed with State warrants charging misdemeanors and
assisted by a formidable array of policemen and deputy sheriffs.
Negroes were roughly taken from the trains and crowded into the
prisons to await trial for these so-called misdemeanors. Although the
majority of them were set free after their trains had left the city,
the leaders in most cases suffered humiliation at the hands of the
officers of the law.[79]
At Thomasville, a white man and a negro were arrested, charged with
the usual crime of being labor agents. Much excitement followed.
Fearing serious results, the colored ministers of this city endeavored
to stop the exodus. A committee of their most prominent citizens met
with the mayor and discussed the matter freely. They arranged for
a large mass meeting of white and colored citizens who undertook to
cooperate in bringing the exodus to an end. The white citizens of
Waycross experienced the same trouble with labor agents, but had much
difficulty in finding out exactly who they were and how they contrived
to make such inroads on the population.[80]
The situation became more critical in Savannah, one of the largest
assembling points for migrants in the South. When the loss of labor
became so serious and ordinary efforts to check it failed, more
drastic measures were resorted to. On the thirteenth of August, for
example, when there spread through the city the rumor that two special
trains would leave for the North there followed great commotion among
the negroes, who, already much disturbed by the agitation for and
against the movement, were easily induced to start for the North.
When, at about five o'clock that morning, 2,000 negroes assembled
at the station for this purpose, the county police, augmented by a
detachment of city officers, appeared at the station and attempted to
clear the tracks; but the crowd being so large the officers finally
found their task impossible, for as they would clear one section of
the tracks the crowd would surge to another. The crowd was extremely
orderly and good natured and the two arrests that were made were for
minor offenses. As these trains failed to move according to orders,
over 300 of this group paid their own fares and proceeded to the
North.[81]
A few days later Savannah reached a crisis in the labor movement
agitation, when over 100 negroes were placed under arrest at the Union
Depot and sent to the police barracks. Several patrol wagon loads of
police arrived at the station and immediately a cordon was formed by
the police around all negroes in the lobby and every exit from the
station was guarded. By this unusual sight many persons were attracted
to the station and excitement ran high. Many negroes were arrested
with a view to finding out the leaders of the movement, but upon
failure to discover the facts in the case the lieutenant in charge
ordered the men in custody to be incarcerated on charges of loitering.
To show how groundless these charges were, one need but to note
the character of some of the persons arrested. Four carpenters from
Lumpkin, Georgia, had just arrived and were waiting for a contractor
for whom they had agreed to work a short distance from the city.
Another young man entered the station to purchase a ticket to
Burroughs, Georgia, to see relatives, but he was not only incarcerated
but had to give a bond of $100 for his appearance next morning.
Another young man, working for the Pullman Company, entered the
depot to cash a check for $11 when he was arrested, sent to jail
and searched. Still another, a middle-aged man of most pleasing
appearance, had just arrived from Jacksonville, Florida, and was
waiting in the station until the time to proceed by boat that
afternoon to New York. On one occasion, J.H. Butler, manager of the
_Savannah Tribune_, a negro newspaper, was arrested charged with
violation of the city and State law of sending labor out of the city.
He was obliged to give bond of $400 to appear in court the next day.
At the same time seventeen college boys who were waiting at a New York
steamer dock were also apprehended. The trial of the men before the
recorder proved farcical, not a single one of the hundred or more
prisoners being required to testify. After the chief of the detective
force and several police lieutenants had testified, Recorder Schwartz
ordered the men all released, but not before he had taken occasion
to upbraid the police force for the unnecessarily large number of
arrests.[82]
Alabama was equally alive to the need to suppress the migration
propaganda among negroes. To this end the Montgomery City Commission
on September 19, 1916, passed an ordinance to the effect that any
person who would entice, persuade or influence any laborer or other
person to leave the city of Montgomery for the purpose of being
employed at any other place as a laborer must on conviction be
fined not less than one nor more than one hundred dollars, or may be
sentenced to hard labor for the city, for not more than six months,
one or both in the discretion of the court. The other ordinance
provided that any person, firm or corporation who published, printed
or wrote or delivered or distributed or posted or caused to be
published, printed or written or delivered or distributed or posted,
any advertisement, letter, newspaper, pamphlet, handbill or other
writing, for the purpose of enticing, persuading or influencing
any laborer or other person to leave the city of Montgomery for the
purpose of being employed at any other place as a laborer must on
conviction be fined not less than one hundred dollars, or may be
sentenced to hard labor for the city for not more than six months, one
or both in the discretion of the court. Labor agents and other leaders
both white and black were arrested throughout the State in accordance
with the usual custom of preferring technical charges.[83]
The treatment of the movement in Mississippi was no exception to the
rule. At Jackson, the "pass riders," as they were called, were so
molested by the police that they were finally driven from the town. In
the same town the citizens were reported to have forced the railroads
to discontinue the use of passes on the threat of damaging their
interests and influencing decisions in court cases. Negroes were
secretly enticed away, however, after they had been dispersed from
the railway stations and imprisoned when in the act of boarding
the trains. The police interfered at one time with negroes leaving,
especially when it was suspected that they were leaving on passes. To
circumvent this, negroes would go two or three stations below Jackson
where there were no policemen and board the trains. It was the
unanimous opinion of whites and blacks who observed the almost frantic
efforts to leave the town, that any attempt to hinder by intimidation
or by making it difficult to leave, simply served to make them more
determined to leave.[84]
At Greenville, Mississippi, trains were stopped. Negroes were dragged
therefrom and others were prevented from boarding them. Strangers were
searched for evidence that might convict them as labor agents. It is
also reported that local authorities were reprimanded for interfering
with interstate commerce. At Greenwood there was much complaint
against the brutality of the police, whose efforts to intimidate
negroes carried them beyond bounds. A chartered car carrying fifty
men and women was sidetracked at Brookhaven for three days. The man
conducting the passengers was arrested, but when no charge was brought
against him, he was released.[85]
A Hattiesburg, Mississippi, ticket agent attempted on the advice
of citizens to interfere with negroes leaving by refusing to sell
tickets. Some one called the attention of the general superintendent
to the matter. Thereafter the man was courteous and even assisted
the migrants. Police arrested one or two men at the station, and,
according to one of the men, made the crowd so angry that they swore
they would not stop until all had gone. There are cited further
instances of letters to plantation hands which were detained and
telegrams which were delayed. At Meridian, Mississippi, a trainload of
negroes en route to the North was held up by the chief of police on a
technical charge. It is said that the United States marshal arrested
him and placed him under heavy bond for delaying the train. 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.[86]
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."[87]
The alarm felt over the exodus prompted the mayor of New Orleans to
telegraph the president of the Illinois Central Railroad, asking that
his road stop carrying negroes to the North. The latter replied that
he had viewed with much concern the heavy exodus of negro labor from
the South during the past year, and, because of his very important
interest in that section, it was not to his advantage to encourage it,
but as common carriers, they could not refuse to sell tickets or to
provide the necessary transportation. It seemed to him that as long as
their friends and kinsmen who had preceded them to the North and East
were receiving a high scale of wages, the South would have to look for
continued movement.[88]
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 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.[89]
The _Tifton_ (Georgia) _Gazette_ commenting on the causes said:
They have allowed negroes to be lynched, five at a time,
on nothing stronger than suspicion; they have allowed whole
sections to be depopulated of them (notably in several north
Georgia counties); they have allowed them to be whitecapped
and to be whipped, and their homes burned, with only the
weakest and most spasmodic efforts to apprehend or punish
those guilty--when any efforts were made at all. Loss of much
of the State's best labor is one of the prices Georgia is
paying for unchecked mob activity against negroes often
charged only with ordinary crimes. Current dispatches from
Albany, Georgia, in the center of the section apparently most
affected, and where efforts are being made to stop the exodus
by spreading correct information among the negroes, say that
the heaviest migration of negroes has been from those counties
in which there have been the worst outbreaks against negroes.
It is developed by investigation that where there have been
lynchings, the negroes have been most eager to believe what
the emigration agents have told them of plots for the removal
or extermination of the race. Comparatively few negroes have
left Dougherty county, which is considered significant in
view of the fact that this is one of the counties in southwest
Georgia in which a lynching has never occurred.
At Thomasville, Georgia, a mass meeting of colored citizens of the
town with many from the country was held at the court house and
addresses were made by several prominent white men, as well as by
several colored with a view to taking some steps in regard to the
exodus of negroes from this section to the North and West. The whole
sentiment of the meeting was very amicable, the negroes applauding
enthusiastically the speeches of the white men and the advice given by
them. Resolutions were drawn up by a committee expressing the desire
that the people of the two races continue to live together as they
have done in the past and that steps be taken to adjust any difference
between them.[90]
After a conference of three days at Waycross, Georgia, the negroes
came to a decision as to the best manner in which to present their
cause to the white people with a view to securing their cooperation
towards the improvement of conditions in the South to make that
section more habitable. "There are four things of which our people
complain," they said, "and this conference urges our white friends
to secure for us these things with all possible speed. First, more
protection at the hands of the law. We ask that the law of the State,
made and enforced by white men, should be made to apply with exact
justice to both races. We have no sympathy for criminals, but we ask
that the innocent shall be protected to the fullest extent of the law.
Second, that more liberal provisions be made for the education of
our people." They commended Governor Dorsey for his courageous
recommendation in his inaugural address that an agricultural school
should be established for negroes in some center in southern Georgia,
and asked their friends everywhere to urge the members of the
legislature from the various counties to put Governor Dorsey's noble
sentiments into law. These memorialists felt, too, that as far as
possible, wages should be in keeping with the cost of living, and
that the white people generally should take an interest in the general
welfare of the negroes.[91]
Tuskegee Institute was also quick to offer a remedy for the migration.
In the latter part of September, 1916, the institution made a strong
effort to persuade the negro farmers to remain on the land instead
of going to the cities. Conferences were held with the bankers of
Tuskegee and with many planters of Macon county and a method of
dealing with the situation was worked out. This method embraced a
number of helpful suggestions as to how to solve their many perplexing
problems.[92] At the twenty-sixth annual negro conference at Tuskegee
Institute, the institution took that occasion to send through certain
declarations a message to the negroes of the South. These declarations
recited the distress and suffering impelling the negroes to migrate,
expressing the appreciation of the necessity to do something to better
their condition by embracing the new opportunities offered them in the
North. On the other hand, this institution felt that there were many
permanent opportunities for the masses of the colored people in the
South, which is now entering upon a great era of development. Among
these are the millions of acres of land yet to be cultivated, cities
to be built, railroads to be extended and mines to be worked. These
memorialists considered it of still greater importance to the negro
that in the South they have acquired land, buildings, etc., valued at
about five hundred million dollars. The negroes were, therefore, urged
to stay on the soil which they owned.
Addressing a word to the white people of the South, the conference
said that the disposition of so many of the blacks to leave is not
because they do not love the Southland but because they believe that
in the North they will not only have more opportunity to get more
money but that they will get better treatment, better protection
under the law and better school facilities for their children. The
conference urged, therefore, that the southern white people avail
themselves of their greatest opportunity to cooperate with the blacks
in the various communities and have a thorough understanding as to
working for the common welfare of all. The delegates believed that the
time had come for the best element of the whites and blacks to unite
to protect the interests of both races to the end that more effective
work may be done in the upbuilding of a greater South.[93]
In the same way the people of Mississippi soon discovered that any
attempt forcibly to hold negroes resulted apparently in an increased
determination to leave. Nor was it sufficient to warn the negroes
against the rigors of the northern winter and the death rate from
pneumonia and tuberculosis. In Greenwood, Mississippi, the difficulty
was circumvented by using the Red Cross and the food conservation
meetings as a forum for the discussion of the movement. This was the
first time that the negroes and whites of Greenwood had met to discuss
matters of mutual welfare. Bishop W.P. Thirkield of New Orleans
addressed a body of negroes and whites on the movement. He suggested
that whites get representative colored persons together and find the
cause. He also suggested a remedy through better treatment, more wages
and more cooperation between the races. Negro ministers stated that
they were offered sums of money by bankers, planters and merchants to
speak in discouragement of the movement. Some spoke, and others, by
far the greater number, seem to have remained neutral.[94]
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.[95]
Wide publicity was given to the experiment in plantation government,
and the policy was accepted by a number of planters as opportunistic
action. Thus, one Mr. Abbott of Natchez, Mississippi, told the
planters of his section that good treatment, adequate and sympathetic
oversight are the important factors in any effort to hold labor. He
made a trip to his farm every week, endeavoring to educate his tenants
in modes of right living. Every man on his place had a bank account
and was apparently satisfied. This example was presented with the
statement that where these methods had been used, few had left. One
planter purchased twenty-eight Ford automobiles to sell on easy terms
to his tenants with the hope of contenting them.
The newspapers published numerous letters from southern negro leaders
urging negroes to consider well their step, asserting that the South
is the best place for them and that the southern white man knows them
and will in consequence be more lenient with their shortcomings.
The papers further urged an increase in wages and better treatment.
Wherever possible, there were published articles which pointed to the
material prosperity of negroes in the South. For example, a writer of
Greenville, said of negroes' loyalty in 1917:
The prosperity as well as the patriotism of the negro farmer
has been shown in the purchase of Liberty Bonds in the Delta.
Many colored farm laborers subscribed for bonds. Every family
on the place of Planter C.D. Walcott, near Hollandale, took
a bond, while one negro, Boley Cox, a renter, bought bonds to
the amount of $1,000 and gave his check for the total amount
out of the savings of this year from his crop and still has
cotton to sell. There are negro families on Delta plantations
making more money this year than the salary of the governor of
the State.
When migrants could be induced to talk freely, they complained also
against the treatment in the courts. Some of the cities consequently
are known to have suspended their raids and arrests on petty charges.
In some instances the attempts at pacification reached almost
incredible bounds. For example, a negro missed connection with his
train through the fault of the railroad. His white friend advised him
to bring suit. This he did and urged as his principal grievance that
he was stranded in a strange town and was forced to sleep in quarters
wholly at the mercy of bed bugs. It is said that he was awarded
damages to the extent of $800. A Jackson, Mississippi, daily paper
that had been running a column of humorous incidents about negroes
taken from the daily court sessions, which was very distasteful to
the colored people of the city, discontinued it. Such methods as
these have been the only ones to prove effective in bringing about
an appreciable stem in the tide. With the advent of the United States
Government constructing cantonments and establishing manufacturing
plants in the South, the millions thus diverted to that section have
caused such an increase in wages that the movement has been decidedly
checked.
[Footnote 77: Work, _Report on the Migration from Florida_.]
[Footnote 78: _Atlantic Constitution_, November 1, 1916.]
[Footnote 79: Work, _Report on the Migration from Georgia_.]
[Footnote 80: Ibid.]
[Footnote 81: Work, _Report on the Migration from Georgia_.]
[Footnote 82: Work, _Report on the Migration from Georgia_.]
[Footnote 83: Work, _Report on the Migration from Alabama_.]
[Footnote 84: Johnson, _Report on the Migration from Mississippi_.]
[Footnote 85: Ibid.]
[Footnote 86: Johnson, _Report on the Migration from Mississippi_.]
[Footnote 87: _Times Picayune_, New Orleans. October 1, 1916.]
[Footnote 88: Work, _Report on the Migration from Louisiana_.]
[Footnote 89: Johnson, _Report on the Migration from Mississippi_.]
[Footnote 90: _Atlanta Constitution_, June 1, 1917.]
[Footnote 91: I.D. Davis served as president of the conference and
J.B. Ellis as secretary. Former Superior Court Judge T.A. Parker and
V.L. Stanton, president of the Chamber of Commerce, were among
the prominent white people who attended. It was the sense of the
conference that the colored people as a race should do all in their
power in the present crisis to assist the government and, above all
else, to help themselves by conserving food. The president of the
conference said the colored people had to work harder than ever before
with so many problems confronting their country. "It is no time for
loafing," he said, "we must work early and late, and make our work
count."--_Savannah Morning News_, July 18, 1917.]
[Footnote 92: The suggestions were: to encourage the farmer to plant
peanuts, soy beans, velvet beans and cotton as cash crops; to create
a cash market for such crops named above as at present have no cash
market; to encourage tenants to grow fall and winter gardens and to
plant at least five acres of oats to the plow, seed being furnished
when necessary; to stipulate, in making tenant contracts for another
year, that cotton stalks be plowed under in the fall, that special
methods of combating the boll weevil be used. To advance no more than
$25 to the plow, and, in every case possible, to refrain from any
advance; to encourage land holders to rent land for part of the crops
grown; to urge the exercise of leniency on unpaid notes and mortgages
due from thrifty and industrious farmers so as to give them a chance
to recover from the boll weevil conditions and storm losses; to create
a market lasting all year for such crops as hay, cow-peas, sweet
potatoes, poultry and live stock; to urge everybody to build fences
and make pastures so as to grow more live stock and to produce more
nearly all of the supplies used on the farm; to carry on a food
campaign in the country, devoting the first Sunday in October to
the work of urging the people to plant gardens and sow oats, and to
organize a Farmers' Loan Association in Macon county to work with the
Farmers' Loan Bank being established by the United States Government.]
[Footnote 93: Report of the Twenty-sixth Annual Negro Conference at
Tuskegee Institute.]
[Footnote 94: Johnson, _Report on the Migration from Mississippi_.]
[Footnote 95: Johnson, _Report on the Migration from Mississippi_.]