14 Negro Migration 



ating steadily, but in a less spectacular way.\ There has 

 been a northward movement, and there have been other 

 movements of more fundamental importance from one sec- 

 tion of the South to another ever since the emancipation of 

 slaves. 

 ' A study of these movements of Negroes from southern 

 plantations is important because it throws light on some 

 of the causes of the loss of population suffered by many 

 other rural districts of the United States. Diminishing 

 returns in agriculture, the effect of the opening of new 

 lands in the neighborhood, and discontent with rural insti- 

 tutions are underlying causes of movements of farmers 

 not only in the United States but also the world over. Ex- 

 c ept for race prejudice, which enters into most of the Negro 

 problem s, the economic and social forces which d rive the 

 Ne gro from one rural distr ict to another and from country 

 to t own are the same as those operating in the wh ite popu- 

 lation^ There are very few counties in the South where 

 the colored and white people do not move in the same 

 direction in response to the same situation. 



When the migration became rapid in 1916 and 1917, there 

 was extended public discussion as to its causes. Numerous 

 explanations were published, and there is some evidence 

 that the very discussion stimulated many to go North who 

 otherwise would not have reached the decision to move. 

 There is also ample evidence that the movement itself, once 

 begun, created a pressure towards further movement. This 

 pressure arose because Negroes not only wrote back, but 

 in many cases sent money back for their friends and rela- 

 tives to make the trip. Recently, therefore, the situation 

 has been complicated not only by abnormal war conditions 

 but also by the very magnitude of the movement. 



Fortunately this study was inaugurated before the inten- 

 sification of the migration made these abnormal factors 

 prominent. In its first stages the study was an effort to deter- 

 mine the significance of certain peculiarities of population 



