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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - III. Population and Migration - 8. Migration - 3. The Great Migration to the Urban North
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194 An American Dilemma
out elements, unconscious influences and ^^chance” factors. The precipitating
^^cause” of migration of an individual might be such an event as the spurn-
ing of a young man by his sweetheart, or the death of a grandmother who
was too old to be moved.^®
What actually happened to a great number of Negroes at the start of
the Great Migration must have been that they were unsettled, like every-
one else, by the War and by all the changes occurring in the industrial
system and the labor market. They found their chances in the South
particularly bad. In addition, they heard about new openings in the North.
Negroes already in the North wrote letters to relatives or friends in the
South. Such letters were often passed around the community or their
contents were passed on by word of mouth among the illiterates. To these
means of communication were added those of the Negro press and the
labor agents. Negro newspapers stimulated migration not only by printing
advertisements of specific jobs, but also by editorials and news comments
on the better conditions for Negroes in the North. These affected individual
Negroes and also set the topic of friendly social discussion in many Negro
communities.
It is impossible to estimate the influence of agents, both white and
Negro, sent out by Northern industries. At first they were ignored by the
Southern whites, but during the boom days of 1917 and thereafter, their
activities were hampered in many ways, both legally and illegally. Not
only were there agents with specific promises of jobs and money to pay
the railroad fare of Negroes who desired to take these jobs, but there were
rumors of agents who did not exist except in the distorted perceptions or
imaginations of rumor-spreaders. Negroes who were influenced by such
rumors did not have much difficulty in getting jobs during the War, but
they had to pay their own railroad fare when they had not expected to.
A desire to improve oneself economically by going North was, of course,
a chief motive for migration. Many had heard about specific job opportu-
nities, and rpany had friends who had become well-to-do in the North, but
just as important was the general myth of Northern prosperity. Generally,
the Negro was sought as an unskilled laborer and in such an occupation, for
the most part, he had to stay. The North, as well as the South, has been
hesitant to mix the machine and the Negro and yet, whether measured
in terms of proportions in ^^desirable” occupations, aVerage income, avail-
ability of unemployment relief, or of other types of social security benefits,
the Negro is considerably better off in the North than in the South.*^
Allied with the desire for economic improvement was a desire for social
improvement. Like many other oppressed people, Negroes placed a high
premium on education. In the North, Negroes not only had access to more
• For evidence, see Chapter 13.
’’For tUtistical documcalation of these statemenu, sec Chapters 13, i4» 15 (^nd 16.
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