28 Negro Migration 



same as those of the white people. They work together 

 amicably, a bad crop affects both races, and mutual aid is 

 carried on to a remarkable extent in view of the funda- 

 mental difference in their culture. It is interesting and per- 

 haps confusing to note that between 1900 and 1910, despite 

 discrimination, the Negro population of Georgia increased 

 13.7 per cent, while the Negroes in the country as a whole 

 increased by only 11.2 per cent; Negro illiteracy decreased 

 in Georgia from 52.4 per cent to 36.5 per cent ; the number 

 of city homes owned increased 51.3 per cent, and the num- 

 ber of farms operated by Negro owners increased 48 per 

 cent, a rate not exceeded by any State in the South. 4 



These steps toward improvement are hopeful but cannot 

 in any sense be taken as an extenuation of the gruesome 

 facts as to lynching. The contrast does, however, bring 

 out the fact that there are two parallel and often conflict- 

 ing sets of forces in the problem, and that there is a 

 brighter side to the picture than that which appears in the 

 public press, — the side in which constructive workers with 

 Negro problems are primarily interested. 



* United States Census of 1910. Negro Population in the 

 U. S., 1790-1915; pp. 37, 419, 465, 609. 



