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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - III. Population and Migration - 8. Migration - 2. A Closer View - 3. The Great Migration to the Urban North
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Chapter 8. Migration 191
living in the North is even more striking when it is remembered that there
were more than two and a half times as many whites born in the South as
there were Negroes. Thus, when discussing the causes as to why the stream
of Negro migrants to the North before 1915 was so small, it should be
remembered that the Southern whites followed the same pattern. And the
Great Migration of Negroes after 1915 is the more significant when it is
realized that it was much bigger—relative to the size of the respective
population—than the corresponding migration of Southern whites.
3. The Great Migration to the Urban North^®
For the average Negro, living conditions in the North have always been
more favorable than in the South. The North has—in spite of considerable
discrimination—offered him more economic opportunities (in relief if not
in employment), more security as a citizen, and a greater freedom as a
human being. The concrete import of this general statement will become
clearer as we proceed in our inquiry. Nevertheless, this great difference
did not, by itself, cause more than a tiny stream of northward migration
for almost two generations.
On the whole, the difference was probably widening after 1870. Jim
Crow legislation and disfranchisement were being perfected in the South
in the decades around the turn of the century. Lynching and legal inse-
curity did not start to decrease until the i890^s, and the drop was not great
until the 1920’s. Schools for Negroes were generally improved but not
so fast as for the whites and not nearly so fast as in the North. The slow
trend toward Negro landownership was broken just after the turn of the
century. The natural increase of the Southern population was large, and
the corresponding expansion of employment opportunities retarded.
Negroes were not allowed to share much in the opportunities that did
develop. Whites began to monopolize the new cotton growing in the
Southwest and also to infringe on the traditional ‘‘Negro jobs.” Except for
a small proportion of Negro professionals and businessmen who served
their own people, few Negroes in the South had opportunity to improve
their economic position. At least in a subjective sense—^which is the impor-
tant thing in discussing human motivation—the difference in desirability
between South and North widened as Southern Negroes became more
educated and came to know the outside world better.
In the North, industrial expansion was tremendous after the Civil War,
creating new employment opportunities for millions of immigrants. The
few Negroes in the North were largely kept out of industrial employment
but found a ready demand as domestics and in other service jobs. In many
places it was a fashion among the wealthy to hire Negroes as servants in
preference to European immigrants. Many middle class whites also came
to prefer Negroes—^largely because they did not object to the hardest work
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