90 Negro Migration 



block to programs inaugurated in order to foster greater 

 interest in the farm and rural life. Inter-racial good will, 

 or even the individual acquaintanceship which must precede 

 inter-racial good will are well-nigh impossible. From the 

 point of view of the development of a class of influential 

 leaders, the shifting of the tenant classes is equally dis- 

 advantageous. 



GENERAL STANDING IN THE COMMUNITY. 



There is no doubt that the backbone of the rural Negro 

 population is the group of successful Negro owners and 

 renters who have demonstrated their productivity and use- 

 fulness to the community. The Negro race looks to this 

 class for its leaders and supporters of rural institutions. 

 The low incomes of wage-hands and tenants preclude their 

 participation to any marked degree in the financing of insti- 

 tutions and their initiative, undeveloped because of the 

 dependency of their position, is not sufficient to make them 

 successful leaders. 



In race relations, also, the existence of this class of farm- 

 ers, permanently attached to the land, is very beneficial. 

 The fact that they are taxpayers heightens the respect which 

 members of the white race have for them. The fact that 

 their occupancy is more permanent allows acquaintance- 

 ship to grow and stimulates confidence in their activities. 



SUMMARY. 



These complex differences among the tenant classes bring 

 the realization that much more is involved in land tenure 

 in the South than the mere technical details of farming. 

 Tenure systems penetrate even deeper than the economic 

 life of the rural districts. They are determinants also of 

 the social structure. Figures on changes in land tenure 

 are therefore convenient methods of measuring a whole 

 series of very complex economic and social changes in rural 

 life. 



