Negro Migration during the WarScott, Emmett J. (Emmett Jay)
History
Negro Migration during the War
Scott, Emmett J. (Emmett Jay)
African Americans; Migration, Internal -- United States; World War, 1914-1918 -- Economic aspects -- United States
the census of 1910 of 68,070,294 native whites, 10,366,735 or 15.2 per
cent were living in some other division than that in which they were
born. Of 9,746,043 native negroes reported by the census of 1930,
963,153 or 9.9 per cent were living outside the division of birth.[12]
Previous to the present migration, the south Atlantic and the east
south central divisions were the only ones which had suffered a direct
loss in population through the migration of negroes.[13]
The census of 1910 brought out the fact that there had been
considerable migration from the North to the South, as well as from
the South to the North, and from the East to the West. The number of
persons born in the North and living in the South (1,449,229) was not
very different from the number born in the South and living in the
North (1,527,107). The North, however, has contributed more than five
times as many to the population of the West as the South has. The
number of negroes born in the South and living in the North in 1910
was 415,533, or a little over two-thirds of the total number living in
the North. Of the 9,109,153 negroes born in the South, 440,534, or 4.8
per cent, were, in 1910, living outside the South.[14] The migration
southward it will be noted, has been in recent years largely into the
west south central division, while the migration northward has been
more evenly distributed by divisions, except that a comparatively
small number from the South have gone into the New England States.[15]
The greater mobility of whites than of negroes is shown by the fact
that in 1910, 15 per cent of the whites and 10 per cent of the negroes
lived outside of the States in which they were born. This greater
mobility of the whites as compared with the negroes was due in a large
measure to the lack of opportunities for large numbers of negroes
to find employment in the sections outside the South. The World War
changed these conditions and gave to the negroes of the United States
the same opportunities for occupations in practically every section of
the country, which had heretofore been enjoyed only by the whites. In
1900, 27,000 negroes born in the North lived in the South. In 1910,
41,000 negroes born in the North lived in the South. This indicated
that there was beginning to be a considerable movement of negroes from
the North to the South because of the greater opportunities in the
South to find employment in teaching, medicine and business. The
migration conditions brought about by the war have probably changed
this to some extent. Previous to the World War, the States having
the greatest gain from negro migration were Arkansas, 105,500,
Pennsylvania, 85,000, Oklahoma, 85,000, Florida, 84,000, New York,
58,450 and Illinois, 57,500.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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