CAUSES OF THE RECENT NEGRO MIGRATION
In the study of the migration of any group or groups of mankind a
consideration of its causes is highly important, because it seems that
therein largely lies much of the significance of the movement. It has
already been seen that for every migration there must be some definite
cause, since man always moves in response to a rational impulse.
Moreover, we saw that the cause must be a very powerful one, because
it is the tendency of men to become attached to the locality in which
they find themselves. In the investigation of this particular movement
under consideration, we are, therefore, justified in seeking to know
its causes; and this seems the more legitimate because we desire
greatly to know why it was that at this particular time, perhaps more,
or, at least, as many Negroes left their Southern homes for points in
the North and West than did through a series of migrations which had
been in progress for forty years.
The fundamental and immediate cause of this Negro exodus is economic,
the basic and predominant cause of most of the movements of modern
times. Its sudden occasion had its origin in the great labor shortage
at the North, which was due to conditions growing out of the European
War. This great war had the effect of cutting off the large and
accustomed immigration stream from Europe and of withdrawing from this
country thousands of foreign-born residents who were needed in the
service of their respective native lands. Northern employers who had
been dependent on them for their labor soon faced a serious shortage
of labor, on the one hand, while, on the other, they saw their
contracts with European concerns for war supplies increase
tremendously. Being hard pressed for labor, these owners and operators
of the various industrial enterprises, as a last resort, turned to
the South and began to solicit Negro labor in order to meet their
demands. Thus a Negro exodus from the South was started, and we say
that the cause of it was economic. This statement, however, does not
adequately cover the ground, because, as has already been seen, a
migration is usually the result of the operation of a complexity of
causes and not the result of any one cause. Therefore, we shall say
that this Negro movement was due to the workings of a complication of
economic and social causes, but that of these causes the economic were
overwhelmingly predominant.
In studying the forces or causes which were behind this movement, we
find that they group themselves under two categories, namely,
attractive and repellent. In this migration the Negroes were to a
large extent both drawn and driven to break the ties which bound them
to their respective localities. One has said that these causes may be
grouped as beckoning and driving causes, the former arising from
conditions in the North and the latter from conditions in the
South.[59] The beckoning causes are as follows: high wages, little or
no employment, a shorter working day than on the farm, less political
and social discrimination than in the South, better educational
facilities, and the lure of the city.[60] On the other hand, we have
these given as the driving causes: "General dissatisfaction with
conditions, ravages of boll-weevil, floods, change of crop system, low
wages, poor houses on plantations, inadequate school facilities,
unsatisfactory crop settlements, rough treatment, cruelty of the law
officers, unfairness in courts, lynching, the desire for travel, labor
agents, the Negro press, letters from friends in the North, and
finally advice of white friends in the South, where crops had
failed."[61] At this juncture a specific consideration of these latter
causes as they were operative in three of the Southern States will now
be made. These States referred to are those which were foremost in
contributing to the movement and are, namely, Alabama, Georgia and
Mississippi.
The causes of migration from Alabama[62] were in the main economic. In
the first place the opportunities afforded Negroes to earn their
subsistence were greatly curtailed by the boll-weevil pest which swept
over the State a few years ago. In the black belt counties cotton had
been for several generations the sole crop, and its cultivation wholly
dependent upon Negro labor. On the other hand, the Negroes were
dependent upon the landowners or overseers for money for their
subsistence. In the meantime the Negro farmers and laborers were never
taught or encouraged to raise any crop other than cotton. When the
boll-weevil pest came and made the raising of cotton an impossibility,
it became necessary to shift from the cotton crop to another which was
not liable to be troubled by the weevil pests. While the transition
was being made, however, the prices of cotton fell considerably and
thus made it very difficult for landowners and Negro farmers to borrow
money at a reasonable rate of interest. The outcome was that the
Negroes suffered much in their struggle to maintain themselves.
Secondly, in 1916 there was a serious crop shortage due to floods.
During the spring and summer of that year the rivers overflowed their
banks and the water therefrom destroyed the crops throughout a large
portion of the state. This made it necessary for both farmers and
tenants to find other means of livelihood. The customary advances in
money and provisions to the Negro tenants were cut off and in many
cases the owners of large plantations were compelled to advise their
Negro laborers to move away. In other cases Negroes were so deeply in
debt for provisions furnished them during the past winter, for rent
and other causes that they were forced to forfeit their mules and
other property in payment of these debts. These conditions brought on
so much suffering among the Negroes that some sunk to the depths of
starvation and had to be given food by the Federal Government, through
the Department of Agriculture, and also by the Red Cross organization.
In the next place, shortage of railroad cars was another prominent
factor in causing migration from this State. Officials of railroad
companies reported that fully half the miners who left the Birmingham
districts did so because the companies were unable to obtain cars. In
June, 1917, the chairman of the Birmingham District Subcommittee on
Car Service stated that more than 7,000 cars of manufactured products
had accumulated for shipment in the district.[63] Also, certain lumber
companies were forced to reduce the number of their employees on
account of the impossibility of getting their lumber products removed
from the yards. The shortage of cars, therefore, necessitated the
discharge of many men and at the same time prevented the employment of
additional laborers.
There was, moreover, a great demand for labor in the North, rendered
effective by offers of higher wages than those paid in Alabama. There
was at this time too a great surplus of labor throughout those
sections affected by the boll-weevil, floods, and shortage of cars,
which was ready to respond to this demand. This demand was made known
to the migrants by Northern labor agents who played the part of
middlemen in this exodus. The migration, through them, was made easy
by the furnishing of free transportation and by the making of glowing
promises to the Negro migrants.
Another potent influence was that of the persuasion of friends and
relatives already in the North. In 1917, when an investigation of the
movement was made, it was found that this was the principal influence
operating to move the Negroes to the North. Former residents of some
of the rural districts of the South who had gone North and secured a
foothold wrote letters back to their friends and relatives telling
them of their success in the new environment. They depicted in these
missives wages which seemed fabulous sums when compared with those
received in the South, told of the good conditions of their
surroundings, and of numerous advantages and opportunities which they
were enjoying, but which had been impossible for them to enjoy while
in the South. Negro men, moreover, frequently sent large sums of money
to transport their families to the North, and frequently sons in the
North sent neat sums back to their parents in the South. These letters
containing glowing reports concerning Northern conditions, and the
large remittances to relatives and friends, played no small part in
inducing thousands to move to try their fortunes in the new
environment.
In Georgia[64] we find that the migration was due to a complex of
economic and social causes in the form of low wages, poor conditions
of labor, lynching, minor injustices in the courts and dissatisfaction
with educational facilities. In regard to the first cause, it is known
that at the time of the migration wages in this State were extremely
low. In 1916 some counties paid only $10 and $12 a month for farm
labor; others paid $13 and $15 a month for the same kind of labor.
After the movement got well started, however, there was a tendency on
the part of most of the farmers to advance wages a little, so that
some counties showed an average of $14, others $17, and not a few
others as much as $20 a month. It should be added that these wages
were in most cases supplemented by free housing and sometimes by food.
In another instance it was found that many Negroes left the farming
districts because of unsatisfactory labor conditions due to failure on
the part of the planters to keep in close touch with their laborers.
There was utter neglect on their part to look after certain details of
plantation life as they particularly affected the single men. For
example, in many cases, no provision was made to have their food
properly cooked, their clothes mended, to keep them supplied with
fresh meat, to repair the houses in which they lived, and to furnish
them with gardens. On the other hand, it was noted that those planters
who carefully looked after these details had no difficulty in holding
their laborers.
In regard to lynching as a cause of migration from Georgia, it is not
easy to state exactly its effect on the movement, because the
lynchings which occurred immediately before and during the migration
were in the boll-weevil section where the economic conditions were
also at their worst. Nevertheless, several planters whose premises
were crossed by lynching parties held that their losses in regard to
labor were heavier than those of the surrounding plantations because
of the state of terror into which their tenants had been thrown by
these lawless bands. In two instances occurring respectively in 1915
and 1916, in the boll-weevil section of this State, moreover, lynching
parties killed not only the guilty Negroes but also others who were
innocent. In another instance the mob, after murdering the criminal
and terribly beating and terrorizing many others not implicated in the
crime, proceeded across the county and killed the mother and another
relative of the accused. These bloody deeds had the effect of
developing in the Negroes a feeling of insecurity of life and thus
caused them to seek the North as a place of refuge.
Another reason why Negroes left Georgia was the resentment of the
minor injustices done to them in the courts. In this State, and in a
number of others as well, there prevails a system whereby the county
and police officials are compensated by a fee for their services, that
is, they are paid so much a head for every man they arrest. The effect
of this system is to render these officials overzealous in rounding up
Negroes for gambling, drinking and other petty infractions of the law.
As punishment for these small violations of the law Negroes are
usually sentenced to work on the county roads for certain periods of
time. In the rural districts where recreational facilities are
wretchedly poor, Negroes feel themselves justified in indulging in
these things as means of amusement and, therefore, when they are
arbitrarily arrested and severely punished therefor, they feel that
gross injustice has been done to them.
The poor educational facilities in Georgia, furthermore, were a source
of dissatisfaction which caused many to leave. A recent report on the
educational conditions in the State showed that the per capita
expenditure in public school teachers' salaries for each white child
between six and fourteen years of age is about six times the per
capita expenditure for each Negro child between the same ages. It is
also a fact that up to 1917 the only provision made by the State for
agricultural, industrial, high and normal schools was an appropriation
of $8,000 as an aid to the Georgia State Agricultural and Mechanical
School, which is largely supported by Federal funds. The Negro
teachers, moreover, are poorly trained and their salaries are
unusually small.[65]
The causes for Negro migration from Mississippi[66] are significant.
In the first place, there was in southeast and east Mississippi a lack
of capital for carrying labor through the fall and early winter until
time to start a new crop. This lack of capital was brought about by
one or more of three causes, namely, a succession of short crops, the
more recent advent of the boll-weevil, and a destructive storm in the
summer of 1916. In the second place, there was a reorganization of
agriculture behind the boll-weevil ravage, which required a smaller
number of laborers a hundred acres. In the next place, migration was
due to the hunger wages paid in this State. The wages ranged from
seventy-five cents on farms in the southwest to one dollar or one
dollar and a quarter a day in northern counties. These were wholly
inadequate to maintain the Negro laborers in a high state of physical
efficiency. The attractions of the Northern urban and industrial
centers too were also causes of the movement from Mississippi. These
attractions were of two kinds, namely, (1) decidedly higher wages for
unskilled labor, and (2) better living conditions, such as housing,
which seemed superior to the rough cabins of Southern plantations,
better chances of obtaining justice in the courts in cases where both
whites and Negroes were involved, better schools than Mississippi
afforded, and equality of treatment in public conveyances such as
street cars and railway trains.
In the foregoing pages we have noted the causes of the migration from
three of the Southern States. Here we desire to pursue this line of
thought a bit farther, though, we hope, not at the risk of monotony,
in order to emphasize these causes in such a manner as to give an
impression of what was in general back of this movement from all the
states involved. In this regard we are to be guided by the testimonies
of Mr. W. T. B. Williams, who, under the direction of the U. S.
Department of Labor, made a general survey of the conditions which
gave rise to this Negro exodus.
One cause of the migration which seemed to have been general was low
wages. Small pay was indeed one of the leading grievances of the
Negroes. Up to 1917 on Southern farms common laborers received from
fifty cents to seventy-five cents, and rarely a dollar, a day. The
wages for women and children were thirty-five and forty cents a day.
It is true, in some instances, meals were given with these wages, but
oftener this was not the case. The following examples are typical of
the wages for common laborers in such industries as saw-mills and
cotton oil mills:
Newbern, N. C. $1.00 to $1.50.[67]
Americus, Ga. 1.25
Jackson, Miss. 1.25 to 1.75.
Laurel, Miss. 1.65 to 2.00.
Hattiesburg, Miss. 1.40 to 1.65.
There were, moreover, serious unsatisfactory farming conditions which
did much to drive the Negroes from the South.[68] One of these was the
injustice done to tenants by their landlords. The custom was for the
tenant to furnish the stock, plant, cultivate and gather the crop, and
to receive in return one-half of everything, except the cotton seed,
which was by far the most important part of the crop, and of which he
received nothing. When the crop was made the tenant could not sell it,
because the law of the State gave only the landlord a clear title to
any cotton which was sold. In order to hold the Negro to the land the
landlord often employed this legal advantage by selling the whole crop
and refusing to settle with the Negro till late in the spring, when
the next crop had been well started. Then, the Negro was well attached
to the farm and was forced to accept anything or any terms which the
landlord chose to offer. In some cases Negroes dared not ask any
settlement for fear of bringing down upon them the wrath of their
landlords. In other instances often the landlords made no settlement
and arbitrarily dismissed the whole matter by telling the Negroes that
they were in debt.
Another general grievance growing out of unsatisfactory farming
conditions was the exorbitant rates of interest charged Negro farmers
by merchants and planters for money borrowed to aid them in raising
their crops. The system of lending sums of money was thus: The tenant
would contract for a money loan from the first of January, but he
received no money till the first of March and none after the first of
August. Notwithstanding this, the Negro tenant was compelled to pay
interest on the whole amount borrowed for the entire year and
sometimes even for the extra months up to the time of the deferred
settlement. This practice became so common and so obnoxious that the
Comptroller of the Treasury of the United States declared to the
Southern banks that it was usury and threatened the closing of these
banks if this practice was continued. That this practice was a fact
and had been long-standing the words of a prominent Southern man will
show. "There is money in farming," says he, "lots of it, but the Negro
farmer has been systematically robbed by the white man since the close
of the Civil War. If the Negro farmers were to be returned all the
interest in excess of 8 per cent charged them for money advanced them
they would to-day be living in brownstone mansions, just as the rich
white advancers do."[69]
Rough and cruel treatment of Negroes by whites, moreover, was also an
important driving cause behind the recent exodus from the South. It is
reported that this sort of treatment was meted out to Negroes in many
of the small towns and villages; but it was more prevalent and worse
on the farms and plantations. On the latter, especially in the lower
part of the South, the beating or flogging of laborers was such a
common occurrence that these places came to be considered veritable
peon camps. Besides, in many of the saw-mill establishments overseers
and bosses were accustomed to knock Negroes around with pieces of
timber or anything else that happened to be within their reach at the
needy time. This brought on much dissatisfaction and caused the
Negroes to become determined to leave at their first opportunity.
Furthermore, the Negro press was a very influential factor in aiding
the movement. This, however, was not a general thing, because most of
the Negro publications, for various reasons, either remained silent or
spoke only in a very feeble manner concerning the exodus. Two of these
publications, nevertheless, were very outspoken on the whole matter,
in that they urged the Negroes to leave the South by all means. The
principal one of these was edited in Chicago and its appeal was made
to the most lowly class of Negroes. During 1916 its circulation
increased manifold, and in some sections its work in stimulating the
movement, perhaps, had more effect than that of all the labor agents
put together. Knowing well the mental outfit of this class of Negroes,
it pursued the policy of summing up the troubles and grievances of the
Negroes, of constantly keeping them in the forefront, and of pointing
out the way of escape from this unpleasant state of affairs. It
continually emphasized in the most convincing ways the great
advantages and opportunities which were awaiting the Negroes who would
go North, and consistently omitted to mention any of the possible
disadvantages that might be encountered in the new environment.
It must be noted, moreover, that a good deal of mere sentimentalism or
irrational selection had much to do with the movement of many Negroes
from the South. "The unusual amounts of money coming in," says an
observer, "the glowing accounts from the North, and the excitement and
stir of great crowds leaving, work upon the feelings of many Negroes.
They pull up and follow the crowd almost without a reason. They are
stampeded into action. This accounts in large part for the apparently
unreasonable doings of many who give up good positions or sacrifice
valuable property and good business to go North. There are also
Negroes of all classes who profoundly believe that God has opened the
way for them out of the restrictions and oppressions that beset them
on every hand in the South; moving out is an expression of their
faith."[70]
In addition to these causes already given, we could enter into a
discussion of the certain unsatisfactory conditions which undoubtedly
had some effect on the migration. These are poor housing, inadequate
street improvement, poor sewerage, water, and light facilities,
exclusion from public parks, and segregating regulations.
FOOTNOTES:
[59] Scroggs, W. O., _Jour. Pol. Econ._, 25: 1040-41, Dec., 1917.
[60] _Ibid._, pp. 1040-41.
[61] Dillard, J. H., Rep. U. S. Dept. of Lab., _Negro Migration_, pp.
11-12.
[62] Dillard, J. H., Rep. U. S. Dept of Lab., _Negro Migration_, pp.
58-66, Snavety, T. R.
[63] Snavely, T. R., _Negro Migration in 1916-17_, Rep. U. S. Dept.
Lab., pp. 58-66.
[64] Woofter, T. J., Jr., _Negro Migration in 1916-17_, U. S. Dept.
Lab., pp. 86-89.
[65] Woofter, T. J., Jr., _Negro Migration in 1916-17_, U. S. Dept.
Lab., pp. 86-89.
[66] Leavell, R. H., _Ibid._, pp. 21-22.
[67] Williams, W. T. B., _Negro Migration in 1916-17_, Rep. U. S. Dept
Lab., p. 103.
[68] What will be said from this point on through the remainder of
this chapter will be based largely on information taken from the
preceding reference, pp. 100-111.
[69] Robertson, W. T., Mayor of Montgomery, Ala., _Contemp. Rev._,
114: 300, Sept., 1918.
[70] Williams, W. T. B., _Negro Migration in 1916-17_, Rep. U. S.
Dept. Lab., p. 101.