The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-09-01
NEGROES IN SOUTH
LATEST CENSUS FIGURES SHOW
THAT THEIR NUMBER is
INCREASING
POPULATION OF BLACK BELT
Numerical PrepORderance of Col
Orcd Race Is Already Over
WheininE, and Is Stead
i-y Growing.

During the last ten years the negro
population of the Black Belt of Alabama
has increased much more rapidly than
the white, says The Nation. There are
twelve contiguous counties in that state
in each CT which the whites constitute
less than one-third of the inhabitants.
Their combined area is 1857 square miles,
or something more than that of Massa-
chusetts and Rhode Island taken to-
gether. In 1850 these counties had an ag-
gregate white population of 1921. They
have now 1902. In the same period The
negroes increased from 1885 to $50, 93S.
AS against an absolute white increase of
1911 is TO be set a negro gain of 81, 257.
Relatively, the difference between the re-
spectiVe rates of growth of the two
races has not been so great, but 1t has
for all that been quite marked. There
are now less than 10 per cent more white
people in the region under consideration
than there were in 1880 while there are
upwards of II per cent more negroes.
For at least twenty years the negroes
have been gaining on the whites. IN
$780, out of every -ge90 Inhabitants Of
these counties, 21S were white, now only
l99 Two decades ago the negroes out
numbered the whites by 30, 90I-today by
26S 1856.
Bordering on these overwhelmingly
black counties are nine others In each
of which there is a. negro majority, but
in each of which the whites constitute
more than one third of the entire popu-
1ation. In these nine counties, considered
as a whole, the negroes have, during the
last ten years, increased more rapidly
than the whites In 1890 they had JIG, oI5
negroes and $3.50 white inhabitants,
They have now a. black population of
81 rI,if Of
been. therefore, in the decade an IN
- crease of 1880 blacks and of 1887
whites The respective rates of Increase
were I7.02 and 1925 per cent. Twenty
years ago. out of every 1000 of their resi-
dents, Az were whitei now only 40 are
IN 1891 attention was called in these
columns to the possibility that the condl-
1ions under which the census of 1900 was
taken might have resulted in an imper-
feet count in the black belts of the South.
The figures for 1900, now made public by
the census office seem to show that In
the negro counties of Alabama at least.
there was in 1850 an Under enumeration or
the inhabitants. Between 1890 and 1890 the
apparent increase in the population OF
these counties was at the rate of less
tLan per cent, as against more than
Il per cent for the decade from 1880 to
1900 Failure to enumerate In 1880 all the
negroes OF. Alabama is probably the rea-
son why the rate of negro increase Tor
the last ten years appears to be greater
than the white Between 1880 and 1890
the census purports to show that the
white population increased at the rate Of
Is 80 per cent, and between 1890 and 1850
at the rate of 20. 0S per cent. During the
earlier decade the percentage. of negro in
crease is said to have been Is. %, and dur
ing the later 81. 81 Had the relative rates
of growth for the two races indicated by.
,i,an nd n
they continued for a few decades, the
race problem would in Alabama have
ceased to be serious As it is, a COMPARE
son of the figures of the census for 1850
with those of 1900 shows that forty years
of revolutionary changes have had no
appreciate effect in disturbing the rela-
tive numbers of the two races. ,.,y7
Since 1850 the state has gons through a
terrible war. Slavery in it has been
abolished Its negroes were enfran-
cbised ard subsequently have been, in
fact if not in law, again distinguished. In
a community which before the war was
purely agricultural, manufacturing and
mining industries have sprung up and
have flourished. Yet, in 1850. out Of every
10000 inhabitants of Alabama, 4,540 were
negroes and in 1890 1924 were still of the
weaker race. The constitutional conyen-
ton of the state now in session will have
need of the wisdom of it's wisest. The
revelations or the census emphasize the
Importance of the work which Mr. Book
er T. Washington and his associates
are doing. Tuskegee is in the midst OF
this Alabama black belt. in which, as we
have seen, there are more than four ne
groes to every white. OF the Caueasians
One-fifth "a disproportionately large part}
dwell in the cities and towns, of which
they constitute nearly half the inhabi-
tants. In the purely rural regions the
negro's numerical preponderance is al
ready overwhelming and is steadily in
creasing. The territory included in these
counties is among the most fertile of the
South 1t is capable of supporting a
large population. That population for an
indefinite time to come will be negro.
VIII it also be prosperous. civilized and
moral? Tuskegee is striving to have
the question answered in the affirma-
tive.
The only other Southern state for which
the race figures have been made public
IS Arkansas. In that state during the
last decade the negroes have increased
more rapidly than the whites as the,;
have done in every census period but
one for the last eighty years Out of
every 1860 inhabitants 2,797 were In 1904
negroes. They are. however, in a ma
Jor1ty in six counties only In five of
these their preponderance is very great
ana seems to be increasing In M one
OF the five Go the whites CONSTITUTES one
fourth of the population. and in one they
barely number one-eighth of the whole.
J EDUCATION In SCOTLAND.