EFFECTS OF THE MOVEMENT ON THE SOUTH
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 increase in the Birmingham district may be studied as a type
of the changes effected in the industrial centers of the South, as
Birmingham is a great coal mining center and, with the exception of
Pittsburgh, is the greatest iron ore district in the United States.
On November 6, 1917, the average daily wage earnings of forty-five men
was $5.49. On November 10, 1917, the average for seventy-five men was
$5.30. One man was earning $10 a day, two $9 to $10 a day, five $8 to
$9, six $7 to $8, ten $6 to $7, fourteen $5 to $6, thirty-two $4 to
$5, nine $3 to $4, and six under $3. In the other coal and iron ore
sections the earnings had been similarly increased.[96]
In Mississippi, largely a farming section, wages did not increase to
the extent that they did in Alabama, but some increase was necessary
to induce the negroes to remain on the plantations and towns to keep
the industries going. In Greenville wages increased at first about ten
per cent but this did not suffice to stop the migration, for, because
of the scarcity of labor, factories and stores had to employ white
porters, druggists had to deliver their own packages and firms had
to resort to employing negro women. On the farms much of the crop was
lost on account of the scarcity of labor. In Greenwood wages of common
laborers increased from $1 and $1.25 to $1.75 per day. Clarksdale was
also compelled to offer laborers more remuneration. Vicksburg found it
necessary to increase the wages of negroes from $1.25 to $2 per day.
There were laborers on steamboats who received $75 to $100 per month.
At Leland 500 to 1,000 men received $1.75 per day. The oil mills of
Indianola raised the wages of the negroes from $1.50 to $2 per day.
At Laurel the average daily wage was raised from $1.35 to $1.65, the
maximum wage being $2. Wages increased at Meridian from 90 cents and
$1.25 to $1.50 and $1.75 per day. The wholesale houses increased the
compensation of their employes from $10 to $12 per week. From $1.10 in
Hattiesburg the daily wage was raised to $1.75 and $2 per day. Wages
in Jackson increased from $1 and $1.25 to $1.35 and $1.50 per day. In
Natchez there was an increase of 25 per cent. On the whole, throughout
the State there was an increase of from 10 to 30 per cent and in some
instances of as much as 100 per cent.[97]
Throughout the South there was not only a change in policy as to the
method of stopping the migration of the blacks to the North, but a
change in the economic policy of the South. Southern business men and
planters soon found out that it was impossible to treat the negro as
a serf and began to deal with him as an actual employe entitled to his
share of the returns from his labor. It was evident that it would be
very much better to have the negroes as coworkers in a common cause
than to have them abandon their occupations in the South, leaving
their employers no opportunity to secure to themselves adequate income
to keep them above want.
A more difficult change of attitude was that of the labor unions. They
had for years been antagonistic to the negroes and had begun to drive
them from many of the higher pursuits of labor which they had even
from the days of slavery monopolized. The skilled negro laborer
has gradually seen his chances grow less and less as the labor
organizations have invaded the South. In the end, however, the trade
unions have been compelled to yield, although complete economic
freedom of the negro in the South is still a matter of prospect.
There was, too, a decided change in the attitude of the whole race
toward the blacks. The white people could be more easily reached, and
very soon there was brought about a better understanding between
the races. Cities gave attention to the improvement of the sanitary
condition of the negro sections, which had so long been neglected;
negroes were invited to take part in the clean-up week; the Women's
Health League called special meetings of colored women, conferred with
them and urged them to organize community clubs. Committees of leading
negroes dared to take up with their employers the questions of better
accommodations and better treatment of negro labor. Members of these
committees went before chambers of commerce to set forth their claims.
Others dared boldly to explain to them that the negroes were leaving
the South because they had not been given the treatment which should
be accorded men.
Instead of expressing their indignation at such efforts on the part
of the negroes, the whites listened to them attentively. Accordingly,
joint meetings of the whites and blacks were held to hear frank
statements of the case from speakers of both races. One of the most
interesting of these meetings was the one held in Birmingham, Alabama.
The negroes addressing the audience frankly declared that it was
impossible to bring back from the North the migrants who were making
good there, but that the immediate problem requiring solution was how
to hold in the South those who had not gone. These negroes made it
clear that it was impossible for negro leaders through the pulpit and
press to check the movement, but that only through a change in the
attitude of the whites to the blacks could the latter be made to feel
that the Southland is safe for them.
Here we see the coming to pass of a thing long desired by those
interested in the welfare of the South and long rejected by those who
have always prized the peculiar interest of one race more highly than
the welfare of all. White men, for the first time, were talking on
the streets with negroes just as white men talk with each other. The
merchants gave their negro patrons more attention and consideration. A
prominent white man said, "I have never seen such changes as have come
about within the last four months. I know of white men and negroes
who have not dared to speak to one another on the streets to converse
freely." The suspension of harsh treatment was so marked in some
places that few negroes neglected to mention it. In Greenwood and
Jackson, Mississippi, the police were instructed to curtail their
practices of beating negroes. Several court cases in which negroes
were involved terminated favorably for them. There followed directly
after the exodus an attempt at more even handed justice, or at least
some conciliatory measures were adopted. The authorities at Laurel,
Mississippi, were cautioned to treat negroes better, so as to prevent
their leaving. There is cited the case of a negro arrested on an
ambiguous charge. He was assigned to the county chain gang and put to
work on the roads. At this time the treatment in the courts was
being urged by negroes as a reason for leaving. This negro's case was
discussed. He was sent back from the county roads alone for a shovel.
He did not return; and his return was not expected.[98]
Conferences of negroes and whites in Mississippi emphasized the
necessity of cooperation between the races for their common good. The
whites said, to quote a negro laborer, "We must just get together."
A negro said: "The dominant race is just a bit less dominant at
present." "We are getting more consideration and appreciation," said
another. From another quarter came the remark that "instead of the old
proverbial accusation--shiftless and unreliable--negro labor is being
heralded as 'the only dependable labor extant, etc.'"[99] A general
review of the results made it clear that there was a disposition
on the part of the white population to give some measure of those
benefits, the denial of which was alleged as the cause of the exodus.
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.
As a matter of fact, the white people in the South began to direct
attention to serious work of reconstruction to make that section
inviting to the negro. Bolivar county, Mississippi, as a direct result
of the recommendation of the labor committee, made an appropriation of
$25,000 toward an agricultural high school, the first of its kind
in the State. The school boards of Coahoma and Adams counties have
appointed Jeanes Foundation Supervisors and, in Coahoma county,
promised a farm demonstration agent. They also made repairs on the
school buildings in towns, and prominent whites have expressed a
willingness to duplicate every dollar negroes raise for rural school
improvements. A large planter in the Big Creek neighborhood has
raised, together with his tenants, $1,000 for schools and the
superintendent of schools has gone over the county urging planters to
give land for negro schools. Two other large planters, whose tenants
number into the hundreds, have made repairs on the schoolhouses
on their plantations. The Mississippi Council of Defense passed a
resolution calling upon the State to put a farm demonstrator and home
economics agent to work in rural communities to make living conditions
better in the effort to induce the people to stay.
This upheaval in the South, according to an investigator, will be
helpful to all.
The decrease in the black population in those communities
where the negroes outnumber the whites will remove the fear of
negro domination. Many of the expensive precautions which the
southern people have taken to keep the negroes down, much
of the terrorism incited to restrain the blacks from
self-assertion will no longer be considered necessary; for,
having the excess in numbers on their side, the whites will
finally rest assured that the negroes may be encouraged
without any apprehension that they may develop enough power to
subjugate or embarrass their former masters.
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, as 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.
Southern men are telling their neighbors that their section
must abandon the policy of treating the negroes as a problem
and construct a program for recognition rather than for
repression. Meetings are, therefore, being held to find
out what the negroes want and what may be done to keep them
contented. They are told that the negro must be elevated, not
exploited; that to make the South what it must needs be, the
cooperation of all is needed to train and equip the men of all
races for efficiency. The aim of all then must be to reform
or get rid of the unfair proprietors who do not give their
tenants a fair division of the returns from their labor. To
this end the best whites and blacks are urged to come together
to find a working basis for a systematic effort in the
interest of all.[100]
Another evidence of the beneficent effects of the decrease in the
population in the Black Belt of the South is the interest now almost
generally manifested in the improvement of the negro quarters in
southern cities. For a number of years science has made an appeal in
behalf of the thoroughly clean city, knowing that since the germ does
not draw the color line, a city can not be kept clean as long as a
substantial portion of its citizens are crowded into one of its oldest
and least desirable parts, neglected by the city and avoided by the
whites. Doing now what science has hitherto failed to accomplish, this
peculiar economic need of the negro in the South has brought about
unusual changes in the appearance of southern cities. Darkened
portions of urban districts have been lighted; streets in need of
improvement have been paved; the water, light and gas systems have
been extended to negro quarters and play grounds and parks have been
provided for their amusement.
No less important has been the effect of the migration on the southern
land tenure and the credit system, the very heart of the trouble in
that section. For generations the negroes have borne it grievously
that it has been difficult to obtain land for cultivation other than
by paying exorbitant rents or giving their landlords an unusually
large share of the crops. They have been further handicapped by the
necessity of depending on such landlords to supply them with food and
clothing at such exorbitant prices that their portion of the return
from their labor has been usually exhausted before harvesting the
crops. Cheated thus in the making of their contracts and in purchasing
necessities, they have been but the prey of sharks and harpies bent
upon keeping them in a state scarcely better than that of slavery.
Southerners of foresight have, therefore, severely criticized this
custom and, in a measure, have contributed to its decline. The press
and the pulpit of the South are now urging the planters to abolish
this system that the negroes may enjoy the fruits of their own labor.
It is largely because of these urgent appeals in behalf of fair play,
during the economic upheaval, that this legalized robbery is losing
its hold in the South.
Recently welfare work among negroes has become a matter of much
concern to the industries of the South in view of the exceptional
efforts made along this line in the North. At the very beginning of
the migration the National League on Urban Conditions among Negroes
pointed out that firms wishing to retain negro laborers and to
have them become efficient must give special attention to welfare
work.[101] A considerable number of firms employing negro laborers
in the North have used the services of negro welfare workers. Their
duties have been to work with the men, study and interpret their wants
and stand as a medium between the employer and his negro workmen. It
has, therefore, come to be recognized in certain industrial centers in
the South that money expended for this purpose is a good investment.
Firms employing negro laborers in any considerable numbers have found
out that they must be dealt with on the same general basis as white
laborers. Among the industries in the South now looking out for their
negro laborers in this respect are the Newport News Shipbuilding and
Dry Dock Company, the American Cast Iron Pipe Company of Birmingham
and the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company.
These efforts take the form which usually characterize the operations
of social workers. The laborers are cared for through the Y.M.C.A.,
the Y.W.C.A., the National Urban League and social settlement
establishments. The attention of the welfare workers is directed to
the improvement of living conditions through proper sanitation and
medical attention. They are supplied with churches, school buildings
and bath houses, enjoy the advantages of community singing, dramatic
clubs and public games, and receive instruction in gardening, sewing
and cooking. Better educational facilities are generally provided.
On the whole the South will profit by this migration. Such an upheaval
was necessary to set up a reaction in the southern mind to enable its
leaders of thought to look beyond themselves into the needs of the
man far down. There is in progress, therefore, a reshaping of public
opinion, in fact a peaceful revolution in a land cursed by slavery
and handicapped by aristocracy. The tendency to maltreat the negroes
without cause, the custom of arresting them for petty offenses and the
institution of lynching have all been somewhat checked by this change
in the attitude of the southern white man towards the negro. The
check in the movement of the negroes to other parts may to some extent
interfere with this development of the new public opinion in the
South, but this movement has been so far reaching in its effect as to
compel the thinking class of the South to construct and carry out a
policy of fair play to provide against that day when that section may
find itself again at the mercy of the laboring class of the negroes.
[Footnote 96: Work, _Report on the Migration from Alabama_.]
[Footnote 97: Johnson, _Report on the Migration from Mississippi_.]
[Footnote 98: Johnson, _Report on the Migration from Mississippi_.]
[Footnote 99: Johnson, _Report on the Migration from Mississippi_.]
[Footnote 100: Woodson, _A Century of Negro Migration_, pp. 183-186.]
[Footnote 101: At the National Conference, "The Problems of the
Employment Manager in Industry" held at Rochester, New York, in May,
1918, considerable time was given to this question. In discussing
psychology in the employment of negro workingmen Mr. E.K. Jones,
Director of the Urban League, pointed out that negro laborers must
be given not only good housing and recreation facilities but also the
opportunity for advancement. "Give them," said he, "a chance to become
foremen and to engage in all kinds of skill and delicate labor. This
will inspire them and place new life in them."]