The conclusion of Mr. Leavell, himself a Mississippian, as to measures for the rehabilitation of Mississippi labor conditions, are very interesting. He believes that a permanent surplus of Negro laborers outside of the upper delta can be created by reorganizing agriculture with emphasis on live stock and forage, that this surplus could then be directed to the delta and to Arkansas so far as needed for producing cotton and food stuffs, that the balance of this surplus labor should be drawn permanently to northern industries, and that the older communities along the Mississippi could attract the necessary additional labor from the surplus created in the hills. He believes also that there should be schools emphasizing education toward the farm, fair dealing in all business transactions, equal treatment in the distribution of public utilities, equal treatment in the courts and the encouragement of Negro farm ownership, the abolition of the fee system in courts of justice, the insistence of white public opinion on full settlement with Negroes on plantations, and, above all else, that the fundamental need is for frequent and confidential conferences upon community problems and for active cooperation between the local leaders of the two races.
Mr. Snavely counts among the causes of the migration from Alabama and North Carolina, the changed conditions incident to the transition from the old system of cotton planting to stock raising and the diversification of crops. Mr. Williams undertakes to estimate the size of the exodus, some of its effects and the initial remedies for keeping the Negroes in the South. Some of these are better pay, greater care for the employees, better educational facilities, the opportunity to rent and purchase sanitary homes, justice in the courts, the abolition of "jim crowism" and segregation.
One of the most interesting parts of the report is that which deals with the Negro migrant in the North. It is doubtful, however, that the author has done his task so well as Mr. Epstein did in treating intensively the same situation in Pittsburgh. This part of the report is too brief to cover the field adequately. There are few statistics taken from the censuses of 1900 and 1910 to show the increase of Negro population in the North during this period. Then comes a rapid survey of the districts receiving large numbers of Negroes during the migration. Attention is directed also to the adjustment of the Negroes to northern industry, race friction and the bearing of the Negro migration on the labor movement culminating in the riot of East St. Louis. Delinquency in the migrant population and the reports on the crime, health and housing conditions of the Negroes in the North are also discussed. That part of the report on constructive efforts toward adjustment of the migrant population in the North gives much information as to how the leading citizens of both races have coöperated in trying to solve the problems resulting from this sudden shifting of large groups of people.
Twenty-Five Years in the Black Belt. By William J. Edwards. The Cornhill Company, Boston, 1918. Pp. 143.
This is a valuable biographical work in that the reader gets a view of conditions in the South as experienced and viewed by a Negro educated at Tuskegee and inspired thereby to spend his life in another part of the State of Alabama, doing what he learned at this institution. The author mentions his growth, the founding of the Snow Hill School, the assistance of the Jeannes Fund, and the ultimate solutions of his more difficult problems. The book becomes more interesting when he discusses the Negro problem, the exodus of the blacks and the World War.
The aim of the author, however, is to acquaint the public with the problems and difficulties confronting those who labor for the future of the Negro race. He complains of the land tenure, the credit system by which the Negroes become indebted to their landlords, the lack of educational facilities, and the consequent ignorance of the masses of the race. To enlist support to remedy these evils wherever this condition obtains, the life of the author who for twenty-five years has had to struggle against hardships is hereby presented as typical of the thousands of teachers white and black now suffering all but martyrdom in the South that the Negroes may after all have a chance to toil upward.
The book is not highly literary. The style is generally rough. Interesting facts appear here and there, but they did not reach the stage of organization in passing through the author's mind. The value of the book, however, is not materially diminished by its style. It certainly reflects the feelings and chronicles the deeds of a large group of the American people during one of the most critical periods of our history and must therefore be read with profit by those interested in the strivings of the people of low estate. Persons primarily concerned with industrial education will find this sketch unusually valuable. To throw further light on this systematic effort to elevate the Negroes of Alabama the author has given numerous illustrations. Among these are Uncle Charles Lee and His Home in the Black Belt, Partial View of the Snow Hill Institute, A New Type of Home in the Black Belt, Typical Log Cabin in the Black Belt, the Home of a Snow Hill Graduate, Graduates of Snow Hill Institute and Teachers of Snow Hill Institute.
Women of Achievement. By Benjamin Brawley. Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society, Chicago, 1919. Pp. 92.