n8 Negro Migration 



of Georgia or to States West or North. The entrance 

 of the United States into the war and the simultaneous en- 

 trance of the boll weevil into Georgia set at work factors 

 which had previously been of little relative importance and 

 the city-ward movement was increased. 



The same currents in rural migration were, however, 

 noticeable. The new currents were superposed on them 

 and in some cases they offset the old currents. The results 

 of the first hand investigation of migration during the 

 summer of 1917, made for the U. S. Department of Labor, 

 give a detailed picture of this movement. It is interesting 

 to note, in connection with the boll weevil as a cause of 

 migration, that this pest entered the very section of the State 

 which had been gaining most heavily by migration, 

 and that the labor agents from the North, who were 

 probably aware of the disorganization caused by this pest, 

 operated more extensively in the rural districts of south- 

 west Georgia than anywhere else. The following quotation 

 from the report based upon personal interviews with Georgia 

 planters in 1917 indicates the new characteristics of the 

 movement. 



"The reports of plantation owners and farm demon- 

 strators indicate that only about 300 farmers and farm 

 laborers have migrated from the Piedmont section, 1,200 

 from the central Black Belt, 3,200 to 3,500 from the 20 

 counties in the southwest Black Belt and Wiregrass suffer- 

 ing heavy and moderate damage from the boll weevil, and 

 1,200 from the Wiregrass and Coast counties, This indi- 

 cates a total of about 5,2 00 Negro fa rmers and farm 

 laborers who left the .State during **"* y^ars 1Q1 / ; and 1917." 



"T heir replies indicated that the lin e of heavy movement 

 correspo nded closely to the line of heavy dam age by the 

 we evil The ho11 w ppvjI ran not, however, be take n as the 

 onl vxause of the movement in this section. In this sec- 

 ti on three of the worst lynchings ev er seen in Georgia 

 occurred during 1915 and 1916. The planters in the imme- 



