Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-07-01
NEGRO POPULATION
SPECIAL BULLETIN ISSUED BY
THE CENSUS OFFICE.
Statistics as to Numbers, Age, Hit
eracy and Those Engaged in Gain
full Occupations.


ject the negroes of the United States. the
requests that have come to the census Of
flee for information upon the subject. The
major part of the volume was prepared
by Prof. w. F. Wilcox of Cornell Uni
versity, special agent for the census bu-
reau. The section on the negro farmer
was prepared by Frof. w. E. D. Du Bois
Ph.D., who occupies the chair of econom-
| les and history at the Atlanta University.
The volume includes 1913 pages in quarto
size and includes almost everything about
the negroes in the United States upon
which statistics were available or obtain
able. In general summary of the work.
prepared by Prof. Wilcox, the following
is found:
Number of Negroes.
The number of negroes in the United
States, including the entire area covered
| by the twelfth census continental United
States, Alaska and HawaiD and Porto
Rico Is nine and one-fifth million (9,204,-
53D, perhaps a larger number than is
found in any other country outside of At
RIGA.
Nearly nine-tenths (s9.7 per cent? of the
negroes living in continental United
States are found in the southern (south
Atlantic and south centraD states, and
three-tenths OLA per cent? in Georgia.
Mississippi and Alabama.
The largest numbers of negroes living
in compact masses are found in certain IN
ban counties, several of which lie outside
the great cotton-growing states. The four
each having over $4,000 negroes are Dis
trict of Columbia, coeXtensive with Wash
ington; Shelby county, Tenn, containing
Memphis; Baltimore city, Nd and Or
leans parish, La, coeXtensive with New
Orleans.
Greatest Proportion.
The district in which the proportion of ne
groes is greatest lies in the Mississippi al
iuvial region along both banks of the lower
Mississippi, where five-eighths of the popu-
lation is negro, the maximum being in Is
saquena county, Miss, with more than
| fifteen negroes to each white person.
The center of the negro population has
Dekalb county, northeastern Alabama,
about four miles from the western bound
airy of Georgia, and thrty-three miles south
of the southern boundary of Tennessee.
The center of the negro population has
moved since 1880 from a point in Dinwiddie
county, Va. Uwenty-seven miles southwest
ot Petersburg), 416 miles southwest to the
above mentioned point.
There is some evidence of slight tend
ency to local separation between the two
races IN the south since 1880, the center of
population for southern negroes being
seventy-Dine miles from that for southern
whites in 1880 and ninety-four miles in 1900
the negroes live in the country-that is, out
side of cities having at least $500 inhabi-
tants-this per cent being far greater than
| that of the whites (57-3 per cent?
Negroes constitute about one-fifteenth
(66 per cent? of the city population and
about one-seventh Q5 per cent? of the coun-
try population of continental United states
In the south, negroes are about one, one
of the population, both in cities (309 per
cent? and in country districts (32.6 per
cent?.
In the north and west they are about
one-fortieth CA per cent? of the city popu-
lation and one-ninetieth OIL per cent? OF
the country population.
The median age Of negroes Is 1874 years,
that is, half the negroes in the United
States are below that age
The median age is years below that or
the whites (23.4 years., difference close
ly connected with the high birth rate and
high death rate of the negroes.
The median age of negroes Indians and
Mongolians, or non-Cauca sans in 1880 was
10 years; in 1900 it was 1877 years, the in
crease of IT years since 1880 being prob
ably connected with decline both in the
birth rate and in the death rate.
1lliteracy among negroes Is about seven
times as common as among whites and this
ratio between the races has not altered ma
terially in the last ten years.
uliteracy among southern negroes is more
than four times that among southern
whites.
Breadwinners.
There are nearly four million 1892, 800
negroes in continental United States en-
gagged in gatnful occupations
These persons, who may be called bread
winners, constitute 45.2 per cent of the
total negro population, while for the total
white population the per cent Is 37.3, and
for southern whites 342
Negro breadwinners constitute 622 per
cent of all negroes at least ten years of
age. For whites the corresponding per
cent is 4S.6, and for southern whites 400.
The relatively high per cent for negroes
Is closely connected with the marked pre-
valence of female labor in that race Among
females at least 10 years of age. 4o.7 per
cent of the negroes and only 10 per cent of
the whites and IL per cent of the sout he m
whites report money getting occupations,
a difference which accounts for about three
fourths of the difference in the proportion
of breadwinners in the two races.
There are twenty-Seven Occupat ions in
which at least 10000 negroes were reported
as engaged in 1900 These occupations
gave employment to 3,SO7 COS negroes
In the following thirteen of these twenty
seven occupations the proportion of negroes
among all breadwinners in the occupation
in continental United States was greater
in 1900 than in 1890 Servants and walters,
draymen, hackmen, teamSters, etc, miners
and quarrymen saw and planning mill EN-
ployes, porters and helpers Din stores, etc).
teachers, nurses and midwveS, clergymen,
makers, iron and steel workers and en-
gineers and firemen mot locomotive).
In the following 10 of these q leading
occupations the proportion of negroes
among all breadwinners in the occupation
in continental United States less in
1900 than 1890: Launderers and laundressas,
steam railroad employees carpenters and
joiners, BARRIERS and hairdressers, tobacco
and cigar factory operatives seamstresses.
3anitors and Sections housekeepers and
stewards. fishermen and oystermen and
blacksmiths.
Occupations in the South.
When the figures are confined to the
south, there are found to be leading oc-
equations, namely, servants and walters,
miners and quarrymen, saw and planning
mill employees, teachers, nurses and mid
wives, clergymen and iron and steel work.
ers, in which the per cent of negroes among
all persons in the occupation was larger in
1900 than in 1890: and leading occupa-
lions, namely. launderers and laundresses,
draymen. hackmen, teamsters, etc, steam
railroad employees. carpenters and joiners,
BARRIERS and hairdressers. tobacco and
cigar factory operatives housekeepers and
stewards, fishermen and oystermen. and