Undoubtedly many Negroes have come to the North in response to the
seductive arts of labor agents, who worked on a per capita commission
basis. These emissaries, both in the North and in the South, made
glowing promises of high wages, social equality, and better living
conditions above the Mason-Dixon Line. But these inducements were
probably not the underlying factor of the migration. They merely gave
opportunity for the expression of a growing discontent engendered
by many years of oppression. Segregation, lynchings, economic
exploitation, and the denial of educational freedom, justice and
constitutional right, had filled the Negro’s cup of bitterness to
overflowing. The South was to his mind still a place of bondage for
him and in the North he saw that long dreamed Land of Promise where he
might live more freely.
[Illustration: Typical Dwellings of Negro Migrants.]
Three hundred and ninety-five of the four hundred and seventy-four
when questioned as to who paid their transportation North replied that
they paid their own fare, while only seventy-nine admitted they were
brought here at the expense of railroads and other industrial concerns.
Numerous stories of persecutions by the White South on trumped up
charges of all sorts are told by these migrants. Many of them say they
had to leave their homes in secrecy and at night, and to walk to some
station where they were not known, before they could board a train for
the North. Many reported that they were unable to secure tickets at
home, and had to secure them from the North. If tickets were discovered
in the possession of a Negro, they were confiscated and destroyed by
the police. At times when three or more Negroes were found together,
they were suspected of “conspiring to go North”; some mythical
charge was brought against them, and they were arrested. Threats and
intimidation of all kinds were used against these migrants, both at
home and on the train. One very intelligent Negro of about forty who
owned property in Alabama related some of the persecutions which he
had borne while at home. He told of taking the train at night several
miles away from his own town, and of being accosted on board by a
white Southerner who pointed to the next car which contained several
coffins and said, “Yo Niggahs goin’ to Pittsburgh, eh? We all are jes
shippin’ five of yo back from thah. They froze to death in Pittsburgh.”
It may be interesting to remark that this occurred in June, 1917, when
Pittsburgh was sweltering in the heat of early summer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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