EFFECT OF MIGRATION ON INCREASE OF NEGRO 121 



Temporarily, at least, the trek of Negroes into the north has checked the 

 increase of our Negro population in general. Whether or not it may result 

 later in a further increase, when the effects of the dislocation are outgrown, 

 will depend upon how the Negroes adapt themselves to the environment of 

 the north and west. 



The conditions encountered by the northern migrants in their efforts to 

 establish themselves were notoriously bad. The 1920 census following 

 closely the mass migration, found a disorganized, badly housed, and mal- 

 adjusted Negro population Death rates were high, and the birth rate was 

 relatively low. In the years following 1920 Negro birth rate, according to 

 our birth statistics, have increased in most northern states. For several 

 years births have exceeded deaths among the Negroes in most parts of the 

 north, whereas before 1920 deaths had exceeded births. The Negro death 

 rate has fallen. Infant mortality among northern Negroes has shown a 

 marked decline during the last decade. The Negro population of the north 

 was becoming established on a more satisfactory basis at least up to the 

 period of the recent financial depression, which has borne upon the Negro 

 with a special severity. The steady increase of northern Negroes indicated 

 by our annual reports on birth statistics is doubtless due in part to an under 

 estimate of the Negro population. It is probably due also in part to the 

 better establishment of the Negro migrants. When birth rates are meas- 

 ured by the number of children ever born to mothers who had borne a child 

 during the year, it is a significant fact that this number showed an increase 

 in northern Negro women. At the same time the number of children under 

 five per thousand women of children bearing age in 1930 was insufficient 

 for race maintenance in a stabilized population of northern Negroes. We 

 should, however, be cautious in interpreting the significance of this fact. 

 Recent migrants, even though prolific, could not be expected to have a high 

 proportion of children under five years of age. To do so most of them would 

 have to be in the region for five years in addition to a period required for 

 becoming settled and finding a mate. 



Despite a somewhat unfavorable showing at the present time the vital 

 statistics of Northern Negroes are distinctly improving. The American 

 Negro is gradually becoming immunized to tuberculosis which has long been 

 one of his greatest scourges. As a human animal he is probably, on the 

 whole, the physical equal of his white competitors. In some respects the 

 odds are in his favor. He is greatly handicapped in the inter-racial struggle 

 by venereal disease. With an average expectation of life of about 45 years 

 he has still a long way to go before his vital statistics are as favorable as those 

 of the whites. Urban life, which is biologically bad for all races, is rela- 



