170 Negro Migration 



towns has been especially marked. These small centers are 

 becoming more and more important in the colored population 

 because of the rate at which Negroes move through them 

 into the town or city and because of the influence of their 

 leaders and institutions upon the Negroes in the open coun- 

 try. Very recently a number ol cities in the Cotton Belt 

 have grown rapidly. When a city begins to grow through 

 manufacturing and distributing enterprises rather than by 

 enterprises solely dependent upon the surrounding country 

 districts, its white population increases much faster than its 

 colored population. Still, the Negro is attracted to these 

 places by the proportionate increase of domestic service and 

 common labor opportunities on the one hand, and the pro- 

 fessional, mercantile and race leadership opportunities on 

 the other. These cities, therefore, have substantial and in- 

 creasingly important Negro populations. 



Northern cities were increasing at a fairly rapid rate 

 through mi gration of Negroes before 19 10. but the migrants 

 ca me mostly from the Border States. The, Cotton States 

 we re exchanging population among them selves. With the 

 exception of the Southward movement into Florida, this 

 movement among the Cotton States was Westward. After 

 1910, however, and especially after the outbreak of the Euro- 

 pean War, opportunity in the industrial sections of the North 

 was not only greatly increased, but agricultural opportunity 

 in the Gulf Coast States was nullified by poor crops, floods, 

 and the cotton boll weevil. The movement since 1915, 

 therefore, has been Northward. 



Desire for superior earning power, standard of living and 

 standing in the community, enjoyed by the higher tenant 

 classes has been the chief cause of movement from one rural 

 district to another, but the superior advantages of the city 

 have attracted large numbers to urban districts. These 

 social advantages in the housing, protection, schools and 

 churches of the city play an increasingly important part in 

 the movement from country to city and from South to 



