PREVIOUS NEGRO MOVEMENTS
Among the many who have written concerning this exodus one finds that
not a few of them have been prone to emphasize the fact that in this
recent movement the Negroes suddenly developed within themselves a
desire to move, thus implying that migration is not controlled by
certain economic and social laws, and that this movement was an
entirely new social phenomenon. Disregarding for the present the first
assumption, and directing attention to the second, the writer holds
that the latter must have sprung from the fact that no account was
taken of the past economic and social history of the Negroes; for a
study in that direction would have shown that ever since the time of
their emancipation the Negroes have shown a tendency to migrate.[9]
That this has been the case a number of instances will demonstrate.
Shortly after emancipation there occurred slow and confused movements
of the Negro population which covered a period of several years.
During his enslavement the Negro could hardly do anything without the
will and consent of his master; he had not the liberty to order and
direct his life as he chose. When, therefore, he was suddenly
transformed from this state to that of freedom, the first thing he did
was to put this freedom to test by moving about. Consequently he
drifted from place to place and at the same time changed his name,
employment, and even his wife. Many also devoted much of their time to
hunting while they were awaiting Federal Government assistance in the
form of land and mules. Emancipation meant to them not only freedom
from slavery but freedom from responsibility as well. Thus during
their early years of liberty large numbers of Negroes moved about
almost aimlessly and thoughtlessly and made their way especially to
the towns, cities and Federal military camps.[10]
There was, moreover, a considerable movement of the Negro population
toward the southwestern part of the United States. It was very slow
and was in operation between 1865 and 1875, when the expansion of the
numerous railway systems gave rise to a great number of land
speculators who did much to induce men to go West and settle on the
land. Their appeals greatly aroused the Negroes who had reasons for a
change of abode. This movement was at first composed of individuals;
but later on it became a group movement. In this migratory stream
which flowed southwestward were 35,000 Negroes, who came largely from
South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi.[11]
Again, in 1879, a large number of Negroes made a rush to Kansas.[12]
This movement was due for the most part to agricultural depression in
parts of the South, but was precipitated greatly by the activities of
a host of petty Negro leaders who had sprung up in all parts of the
South during the Reconstruction period. This exodus began early in
March and continued till May. The estimated number of migrants was
between 5,000 and 10,000; but there were thousands of others who had
planned to migrate, but were deterred from doing so because of the
news of the misfortunes which befell those who actually moved. The
majority of those who left the South were from Louisiana and
Mississippi. In this migration the Negroes left their homes when the
weather was growing warm, but on reaching their destination found that
spring had not yet arrived, the country being still bleak and
desolate. Most of them were poorly clad and without funds.
Consequently, many suffered from want and disease and consequently
became public charges. As soon as it was convenient for them, however,
large numbers returned to their homes where they scattered such
discouraging reports that others who had planned to move declined to
do so. Nevertheless, about a third of them remained in Kansas and of
this portion a fairly large number attained a creditable degree of
prosperity.
The years of the later eighties and the early nineties also witnessed
a few small interstate movements of Negroes.[13] For a long time it
was the custom of employers in the mineral districts of the
Appalachian Mountains to hire only foreign labor to do their work, but
during the time just referred to this labor failed to satisfy the
demand. In order to meet this emergency the employers at once
dispatched their agents to different parts of the South to appeal to
the Negroes for their labor. The efforts of these agents were not
without effect, because many Negroes soon flocked to the mining
districts of Birmingham, Alabama, to those of East Tennessee, and to
those of West Virginia. Also, large numbers went to southern Ohio,
where they were employed in the places of white laborers, who were on
a strike, demanding higher wages.
As is evident in the preceding citations, the Negroes of the South are
inclined not only to move to the North and West, but are also prone to
move about freely within the South. This can be further substantiated
by a brief study of the interdivisional movements of the Negro
population of the South. In 1910, according to the Federal Census, it
was found that 1.4 per cent of the Negroes living in the South
Atlantic Division, 5.8 per cent of those residing in the East South
Central Division, and 13.1 per cent of those in the West South Central
Division, were born in places outside these respective sections. On
the other hand, it was shown that the South Atlantic Division
registered a loss of 392,927 from its Negro population, the East South
Central a loss of 200,876, whereas the West South Central Division
revealed a net gain of 194,658 in its Negro population. Thus, while
two divisions lost, the third gained heavily by interdivisional Negro
migration.[14] This tendency toward interdivisional migration on the
part of Negroes is, however, exhibited in a less degree than is the
case on the part of whites. In 1910, 16.6 per cent of the Negroes had
moved to other States than those in which they were born, whereas 22.4
per cent of the whites were found in States other than those in which
they were born.[15]
Likewise, the Negroes are inclined to move about freely from section
to section within the bounds of the North and West. In 1910, 47 per
cent of the Negroes living in the New England Division, 52.3 per cent
of those in the Middle Atlantic Division, 50.4 per cent of those in
the East North Central Division, 32.1 per cent of those in the West
North Central Division, and 80 per cent of those living in the
Mountain Division and 77.7 per cent of those living in the Pacific
Division, were born, in each case, in places outside of these
sections.[16] Each section showed also a loss of a certain per cent of
its total native Negro population through migration to some other
division. In this respect, New England showed a loss of 18.5 per cent,
the Middle Atlantic States a loss of 10.5 per cent, the East North
Central 16.2 per cent, the West North Central 18.2 per cent, the
Mountain 43.9 per cent, and the Pacific 26.4 per cent.[17] While this
was the case, each division, nevertheless, received in turn, through
migration from other places, enough newcomers to show a decided gain
in its total Negro population. These gains in numbers were as
follows:[18]
New England 20,310
Middle Atlantic 186,384
East North Central 119,649
West North Central 40,479
Mountain 13,229
Pacific 18,976
While much of the Negro migration has been interdivisional movements
within the three major sections of this country, yet a very
considerable amount of it has been directed from the South to the
North and West. Between 1870 and 1910, a period of forty years, there
was a marked increase in the number of Negroes who were born in the
South but who had migrated to the North. In 1870 the number was
149,000, but in 1910 it had increased to 440,534.[19] This latter
estimate is undoubtedly much less than the actual number of migrants,
for it does not account for those who might have died or returned to
the South or elsewhere before the taking of the Federal Census.
Moreover, it is a fact that since the Civil War the Negro population
of the North has been increasing faster than that of the South. In
1860 there were 344,719 Negroes in the North; in 1910 there were
1,078,336, an increase of 212.8 per cent for the fifty years' period.
In 1920 there were 1,472,448 Negroes in the North, an increase of 43.8
per cent in ten years. In the West there were 78,591 in 1920. In the
South, on the other hand, during the period from 1870 to 1910, the
rate of increase was only 111.1 per cent. From 1910 to 1920 there was
an increase of only 1.9 per cent whereas there was between 1900 and
1915 an increase of 10.4 per cent in that section in the Negro
population in the South. During the past fifty years, therefore, the
relative increase of Negroes in the North has been more than double
that of the Negro population in the South. Before 1860 every census,
except that of 1840, showed a greater relative increase in the Negro
population of the South than in that of the North. Since that time,
however, this condition has been reversed.[20] This increase of the
Negro population in the North is undoubtedly due to migration from the
South, and not to natural increase, because the vital statistics of
Northern communities show that the Negro birth-rate is barely
sufficient to balance the death-rate.[21]
Not only have Negroes been moving from the South to the North and
West, but they have also been migrating from these latter sections to
the South. Immediately after the Civil War a small number of Negroes
left the North and made their way to the South.[22] This movement was
composed of intelligent Negroes who had been fortunate enough to enjoy
some of the educational opportunities of the North and who, because of
this equipment, felt that they might be of service to the race during
the Reconstruction period in the South. They were the ones who became
the antagonists of the Carpet-baggers--the arch-corrupters of the
governments of the Southern States. There were, however, other reasons
why these men went South. In the first place, some had found northern
communities so hostile to them that their progress was impeded; in the
next place, many desired to reunite with their relatives from whom
they had been separated by their flight from slavery; finally, others
moved in response to a spirit of adventure to enter a new field which
offered opportunities of all sorts.
The Federal Census of 1910, moreover, furnishes evidence of Negro
movement from the North and West to the South.[23] This report shows
that during that decade 41,489 Negroes who were born in the North and
West were living in the South. This migration from these former
sections to the South, though less considerable in volume than the
migration from the South, is, nevertheless, proportionately greater
when considered in relation to the Negro population born in these two
sections than the migration from the South when the latter movement
is, likewise, considered in its relation to the total Negro population
born in the South. Thus the 41,489 Negroes born in the North and West
but living in the South in 1910 constituted 6.5 per cent of the total
Negro population born in the North and West, whereas the 440,534
Negroes born in the South but residing in the North formed only 4.8
per cent of the total Negro population born in the South.
The fact that this recent Negro migration, as has been stated, was a
movement to the large cities and industrial centers of the North and
West should give no occasion for surprise, because this has been in
progress for more than three decades. During this period the Negroes
have shown a decided tendency to flock to the large cities of the
North and West, and also to those of the South. This is verified by
the discovery that since 1880 nine cities of the North and West have
shown considerable increase in their Negro population. These
attractive cities thus popularized are as follows: Boston, Greater New
York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Cincinnati, Evansville, Indianapolis,
Pittsburgh, and St. Louis. The increase for these nine cities between
1880 and 1890 was about 36.2 per cent; between 1890 and 1900 it was
about 74.4 per cent; from 1900 to 1910 about 37.4 per cent; and from
1910 to 1920 about 50 per cent. In the first decade the increase was
more than three times the increase of the total Negro population; in
the second it was more than four times as large; in the third the
increase was nearly three times larger; and in the fourth nearly five
times as large as the increase of the same population. Likewise,
during the same period there was a great Negro influx to the larger
cities of the South, but the rate of increase was less than that of
the Northern cities. In fifteen Southern cities the percentage of
increase was about 38.7 per cent during the first decade; during the
second about 20.6 per cent; and from 1900 to 1916 the increase (based
on figures for sixteen cities) was about the same as that of the
preceding decades.[24]
These numerous instances of previous Negro movements show that the
recent migration is no new and strange phenomenon, that Negroes, like
other elements of the population of the United States, have shown a
tendency since their emancipation to move from place to place. This
recent exodus was simply a part of a long series of movements which
have been in progress for more than half a century. It is, therefore,
much like the others and differs from them only in its immense
volume. In the course of this migration, as we observed, the number of
Negroes who moved to the North and West was probably a half million--a
number which perhaps exceeds or certainly equals that which resulted
from all other movements from the South to the North during a period
of forty years. Herein alone, if such a view of it can be held at all,
lies its strangeness and remarkability as a social phenomenon.
FOOTNOTES:
[9] Scroggs, W. O., _Jour. Pol. Econ._, 25: 1034, Dec., 1917.
[10] Woodson, C. G., _A Century of Negro Migration_, pp. 117-20.
[11] _Ibid._, pp. 120-21.
[12] Scroggs, W. O., _Jour. Pol. Econ._, 25: 1035-37, Dec., 1917.
[13] Woodson, C. G., _A Century of Negro Migration_, p. 146.
[14] _Negro Population in U. S., 1790-1915_, Bureau of Census, pp.
69-70.
[15] _Journal of Pol. Econ._, 25: 1040, D. '17.
[16] _Negro Population in U. S., 1790-1915_, Bureau of Census, pp.
69-70.
[17] _Negroes in the U. S._, Bulletin 129, p. 17. Census Bureau.
[18] _Negro Population in U. S., 1790-1915_, Bureau of Census, pp.
69-70.
[19] _Negro Population in U. S., 1790-1915_, Bureau of Census, p. 65.
[20] Scroggs, W. D., _Jour. Pol. Econ._, 25: 1038, D. '17.
[21] _Ibid._, D. '17.
[22] Woodson, C. G., _A Century of Negro Migration_, pp. 123-4.
[23] _Negro Population in the U. S., 1790-1915_, p. 65.
[24] Haynes, G. E., _New York Times_, Nov. 12, 1916, II, 12: 1.