The Colored Race 123 



the District of Columbia, the border states appear to have lost 

 rather than gained, and during the last decade there becomes 

 perceptible a southward movement of the colored element from 

 the border states into those bordering the Gulf, particularly 

 into Mississippi and Arkansas, where they have increased 

 proportionately to the whites. I^et the states under consider- 

 ation be divided into two groups, the first comprising Dela- 

 ware, Maryland, District of Columbia, Virginia, West Vir- 

 ginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, and 

 Kansas, and the second. South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, 

 Alabama, Mississippi, lyouisiana, Texas, and Arkansas. In 

 the first of these groups the increase of the white population 

 from 1880 to 1890 was at the rate of 22 per cent., while that 

 of the colored element was but 5.50 per cent. In the second 

 group the rate of increase of the white was 29.63 per cent., 

 while that of the colored race was but 19.10 per cent. In 

 the first group the number of colored to 100,000 white dimin- 

 ished from 80,116 to 73,608, or only 8.12 per cent. There is, 

 therefore, a perceptible tendency southward of the colored 

 people, which, while by no means powerful, has resulted in 

 drawing a notable proportion of that element from the border 

 states, and in producing in two of the far Southern states a 

 more rapid increase of the colored element than of the white. 



"Of the states under discussion, three, namely, South 

 Carolina, Mississippi, and Louisiana, contained in 1890 a 

 larger number of colored people than of white. Of the pop- 

 ulation of South Carolina more than three- fifths are colored. 

 Five other states, namely, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North 

 Carolina, and Virginia, contained a colored element ranging 

 from one-third to one-half of the population." 



So much for the Census. This southward movement of the 

 colored from the border states into the gulf states, is what we 

 might naturally expect. The climate and .soil are more con- 

 genial to the race, but more especially does it show an avoid- 

 ance of contact and competition with the den.ser white popu- 

 lation of the Northern, Middle, and Western States. The 

 crowds of poor and alien whites which flock to us from 

 Europe, throw themselves into the main streams of popula- 



