| Individual reasons (43 or 20.5 per cent of 210). | Total—43. | ||
| Restlessness.—16 | Attraction of New York City.—15 | Former residence, unattractive.—6 | |
| "Thought I would like the place as a change;" wanted "to be goin somewhere." | "I wanted to come out this way." | "To say I was leaving home like everybody else." (From St. Martin's Island.) | |
| "Was in Rhode Island and wanted a change." | "Wanted to come to a larger (place); to travel to see the world." | "Got tired of Boston and came to New York." | |
| "Thought I'd like to make a change." | "Passing through several summers; stopped." | "Got tired of Virginia; came to visit friend; remained." | |
| "Wanted to make a change." | "Came out with friends who were coming; been back and forth." | "Got tired of Baltimore; thought I'd see some of New York." | |
| "To change cities and see New York." | "Was running on the boat to New York and stopped for a while." | "Got tired of home, that's all." | |
| "Thought I would like change; to be going somewhere." | "Just to see New York; was traveling and stopped." | "To get away from home for a change." | |
| "Just for a change." | "Took a notion to come; wanted to come North." | Miscellaneous.—6 | |
| "Just for a change." | "Liked New York after seeing it as a sailor in the Navy." | "Came to get married." | |
| "Thought I'd make a change; came North to try it." | "Thought I would like New York." | "Stopped on way to Boston, robbed in Jersey City." | |
| "Just to be coming." (To New York) | "Thought I'd like New York." | "Came to America to go to school." (From S. Hampton, Bermuda.) | |
| "For recreation; to change cities." | "Wanted to see the place." | "To learn architecture." | |
| "Traveling and stopped." | "To see the place and be with sister." | "To visit friends; got married." | |
| "Split the difference of time." | "To see the city; friend wrote me of sights of the great city." | "To see and learn and improve my ability." | |
| "Felt like traveling." | "Heard talk of enjoyable life here." | ||
| "Had a roaming mind—came here from Chicago." | "Came here from Cincinnati; had read a great deal of New York City and wanted to see it." | ||
| "Felt like traveling." | |||
Another individual cause operates especially upon the more able and intelligent classes and sends them to Northern cities. The restriction by "Jim Crow" legislation and by custom of the rights and privileges of persons of color in Southern communities leads some of them to migrate North. They long for a larger liberty for themselves and particularly for their children, which the hard conditions of Southern communities do not give. They come North to gain this and to escape the proscriptions.[15] They settle in the cities. A similar force probably operates in a few sections of the South to send Negro families to the security of the urban centers.[16]
The final conclusion from these facts concerning the causes operating upon the Negro population has been clearly indicated in the above discussion. Such fundamental economic and social causes do not cease to operate suddenly. So far as the development of the South is concerned, the agricultural, industrial and commercial movement is in its infancy, and it will doubtless be of an indefinite growth. The secondary and individual causes will continue to play their part. The Negro will be affected in a manner similar to that of the Southern white population. Any rural improvement or "back-to-the-land" movement should recognize that along with the whites, Negroes will continue to migrate to the urban centers and that they will come to the cities in comparatively large numbers to stay. The problem alike of statesman, race leader, and philanthropist is to understand the conditions of segregation and oppositions due to race prejudices that are arising as a sequel to this urban concentration and to co-operate with the Negro in his effort to learn to live in the city as well as the country.
Although it requires serious attention, the situation is a hopeful one. Improvement in the living and working conditions has its effect upon the health and morals of Negroes just as it has in the case of other elements of the population. Intelligence is essentially a matter of education and training. Good housing, pure milk and water supply, sufficient food and clothing, which adequate wages allow, street and sewer sanitation, have their direct effect upon health and physique. And municipal protection and freedom from the pressure of the less moral elements of the environing group go a long way toward elevating standards of morality. In spite of the limits which the neglect and prejudice of a white public sets to opportunities for improvement, Negroes do show progress along these lines.
Speaking first of the health of Negroes in cities, an index is given in the general death-rate.[17] In the period from 1871 to 1904, the death rate for the white and Negro populations of several Southern cities is summarized by Mr. Hoffman.[18] Of the consolidated death-rate of the white population, he says,
For only two cities are the returns complete for the entire period of thirty-four years. The tendency of the rate has been persistently downward from 26.7 per 1,000 in 1871 to 20.6 in 1886 and 17.4 in 1904. Commencing with the rate for the year 1871, the general death-rate of the white population of Southern cities shows an upward direction at different times during twelve years, and a downward direction during twenty-one years, following in this respect practically the same course as the corresponding death-rate for Northern and Western cities combined. The year of maximum mortality was 1878, due to a yellow fever epidemic, while the year of minimum mortality was, as in the case of the Northern and Western cities, 1903.
In reference to the table for the Negro population he says,[19]
Without exception, the death-rates are materially in excess of the corresponding death-rates of the white population, but there has also been in this case a persistent decline in the general death-rate from 38.1 per 1,000 in 1871 to 32.9 in 1886 and 28.1 in 1904. Commencing with the rate for the year 1871, the general death-rate of the colored population of Southern cities at different times assumed an upward direction during fifteen years and a downward direction during eighteen years, departing in this respect from the corresponding mortality of the white population of Southern cities and the general population of Northern and Western cities, the tendency of which was more distinctly towards a definite improvement. The year of maximum mortality for the colored population was 1873, while the year of minimum mortality was 1903.
The general correspondence and few divergencies of the two death-rates are more clearly seen from the following diagram,[20] adapted from Hoffman's study already cited: