There was, moreover, a great demand for labor in the North, rendered effective by offers of higher wages than those paid in Alabama. There was at this time too a great surplus of labor throughout those sections affected by the boll-weevil, floods, and shortage of cars, which was ready to respond to this demand. This demand was made known to the migrants by Northern labor agents who played the part of middlemen in this exodus. The migration, through them, was made easy by the furnishing of free transportation and by the making of glowing promises to the Negro migrants.
Another potent influence was that of the persuasion of friends and relatives already in the North. In 1917, when an investigation of the movement was made, it was found that this was the principal influence operating to move the Negroes to the North. Former residents of some of the rural districts of the South who had gone North and secured a foothold wrote letters back to their friends and relatives telling them of their success in the new environment. They depicted in these missives wages which seemed fabulous sums when compared with those received in the South, told of the good conditions of their surroundings, and of numerous advantages and opportunities which they were enjoying, but which had been impossible for them to enjoy while in the South. Negro men, moreover, frequently sent large sums of money to transport their families to the North, and frequently sons in the North sent neat sums back to their parents in the South. These letters containing glowing reports concerning Northern conditions, and the large remittances to relatives and friends, played no small part in inducing thousands to move to try their fortunes in the new environment.
In Georgia[64] we find that the migration was due to a complex of economic and social causes in the form of low wages, poor conditions of labor, lynching, minor injustices in the courts and dissatisfaction with educational facilities. In regard to the first cause, it is known that at the time of the migration wages in this State were extremely low. In 1916 some counties paid only $10 and $12 a month for farm labor; others paid $13 and $15 a month for the same kind of labor. After the movement got well started, however, there was a tendency on the part of most of the farmers to advance wages a little, so that some counties showed an average of $14, others $17, and not a few others as much as $20 a month. It should be added that these wages were in most cases supplemented by free housing and sometimes by food.
In another instance it was found that many Negroes left the farming districts because of unsatisfactory labor conditions due to failure on the part of the planters to keep in close touch with their laborers. There was utter neglect on their part to look after certain details of plantation life as they particularly affected the single men. For example, in many cases, no provision was made to have their food properly cooked, their clothes mended, to keep them supplied with fresh meat, to repair the houses in which they lived, and to furnish them with gardens. On the other hand, it was noted that those planters who carefully looked after these details had no difficulty in holding their laborers.
In regard to lynching as a cause of migration from Georgia, it is not easy to state exactly its effect on the movement, because the lynchings which occurred immediately before and during the migration were in the boll-weevil section where the economic conditions were also at their worst. Nevertheless, several planters whose premises were crossed by lynching parties held that their losses in regard to labor were heavier than those of the surrounding plantations because of the state of terror into which their tenants had been thrown by these lawless bands. In two instances occurring respectively in 1915 and 1916, in the boll-weevil section of this State, moreover, lynching parties killed not only the guilty Negroes but also others who were innocent. In another instance the mob, after murdering the criminal and terribly beating and terrorizing many others not implicated in the crime, proceeded across the county and killed the mother and another relative of the accused. These bloody deeds had the effect of developing in the Negroes a feeling of insecurity of life and thus caused them to seek the North as a place of refuge.
Another reason why Negroes left Georgia was the resentment of the minor injustices done to them in the courts. In this State, and in a number of others as well, there prevails a system whereby the county and police officials are compensated by a fee for their services, that is, they are paid so much a head for every man they arrest. The effect of this system is to render these officials overzealous in rounding up Negroes for gambling, drinking and other petty infractions of the law. As punishment for these small violations of the law Negroes are usually sentenced to work on the county roads for certain periods of time. In the rural districts where recreational facilities are wretchedly poor, Negroes feel themselves justified in indulging in these things as means of amusement and, therefore, when they are arbitrarily arrested and severely punished therefor, they feel that gross injustice has been done to them.
The poor educational facilities in Georgia, furthermore, were a source of dissatisfaction which caused many to leave. A recent report on the educational conditions in the State showed that the per capita expenditure in public school teachers' salaries for each white child between six and fourteen years of age is about six times the per capita expenditure for each Negro child between the same ages. It is also a fact that up to 1917 the only provision made by the State for agricultural, industrial, high and normal schools was an appropriation of $8,000 as an aid to the Georgia State Agricultural and Mechanical School, which is largely supported by Federal funds. The Negro teachers, moreover, are poorly trained and their salaries are unusually small.[65]
The causes for Negro migration from Mississippi[66] are significant. In the first place, there was in southeast and east Mississippi a lack of capital for carrying labor through the fall and early winter until time to start a new crop. This lack of capital was brought about by one or more of three causes, namely, a succession of short crops, the more recent advent of the boll-weevil, and a destructive storm in the summer of 1916. In the second place, there was a reorganization of agriculture behind the boll-weevil ravage, which required a smaller number of laborers a hundred acres. In the next place, migration was due to the hunger wages paid in this State. The wages ranged from seventy-five cents on farms in the southwest to one dollar or one dollar and a quarter a day in northern counties. These were wholly inadequate to maintain the Negro laborers in a high state of physical efficiency. The attractions of the Northern urban and industrial centers too were also causes of the movement from Mississippi. These attractions were of two kinds, namely, (1) decidedly higher wages for unskilled labor, and (2) better living conditions, such as housing, which seemed superior to the rough cabins of Southern plantations, better chances of obtaining justice in the courts in cases where both whites and Negroes were involved, better schools than Mississippi afforded, and equality of treatment in public conveyances such as street cars and railway trains.
In the foregoing pages we have noted the causes of the migration from three of the Southern States. Here we desire to pursue this line of thought a bit farther, though, we hope, not at the risk of monotony, in order to emphasize these causes in such a manner as to give an impression of what was in general back of this movement from all the states involved. In this regard we are to be guided by the testimonies of Mr. W. T. B. Williams, who, under the direction of the U. S. Department of Labor, made a general survey of the conditions which gave rise to this Negro exodus.
One cause of the migration which seemed to have been general was low wages. Small pay was indeed one of the leading grievances of the Negroes. Up to 1917 on Southern farms common laborers received from fifty cents to seventy-five cents, and rarely a dollar, a day. The wages for women and children were thirty-five and forty cents a day. It is true, in some instances, meals were given with these wages, but oftener this was not the case. The following examples are typical of the wages for common laborers in such industries as saw-mills and cotton oil mills: