The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-07-02
CENTER SHIFTS TO
 DEKALB COUNTY
NEGRO CENSUS SHOWS TOTAL POPULATION OF s,s4o, ,78e-NINE- TY PER CENT OF THEM ARE IN SOUTHERN STATES

Washington, July 1.-The census bureau today issued the final bulletin on the negro population of the United States, which shows a total of s,s40, 7s9. The re- port indicates that between Il and lo per cent of the negro population mas or is believed by the enumerators to nave soine degree of white blood.
 The center of the negro population IS in, DeKalb county, Alabama, about four miles from the westren boundary or Geof- gia. having moved thence from Din- widdie county, Virginia, where seventy six miles northeast, since 17sO more than TT per cent of the negroes lived Tn the county against more than 57 per cent or the whites. l., the continental United States are in the southern states and three-tenths Of them are in Georgia, Mississippi and AlapaHla'
 Negroes constitute about one-ffteenth of the city population and about one seventh of the country population or con- tinental United States. There was an Tn crease among the negroes of l,S453lS, or IS per cent in continental United States but the rate of increase declined steao- ily through the nineteenth century.
 The negroes unlike the Indians and the native white have slight excess or fe- males Illiteracy among them IS about seven times greater than the Whites. There are 3,992,337 negroes in the united States engaged in gainful occupations Their death rate approximates @ per cent while that of the whites under the same calculation is IS per cent.
 .,rhe proportion of mulattos to all neg roes is usually higher in cities of the great cotton growing states than 1t IS In the district outside of the cities
 The district in which the proportion or negroes is greatest lies in the Mississippi alluvial region along both banks or the lower Mississippi where five-eighths or the population is negroes, the maximum in Iasauena county, Mississippi being more than fifteen negroes to each white person Negroes are a third of the popu- lation in the south, both in cities ana III country districts, while in the north they are about one-fortleth in the city ana ninetieth of the population of country dls- tricts In the country south, excluding the nonulation of the 242 cities which had at feast 25OO inhabitants, both fin 1890 and 1aa0 the negroes increased from 1s9O to 1eO0 over 16 per cent, in the 242 southern cities as a whole, they increased 2l.I per cent Their increase in the country dis tricts was about two-thirds as rapid as that within the same city area; their increase in southern cities was nearly five sixths as fast as that of the whites In the same cities in the north.
 In the five southern cities having at least 100000 inhabitants in 1900. the negro population increased 25.S per cent from 1890 to 1900; the white population in the same cities increased only POS per cent. This is the only groups of the southern cities in which the rate of increase or negro population exceeded that or the whites.
 The largest number of negroes liVing III comnaet masses are found in certain ur- han counties, several of which lie out eide the great cotton-growing states. The four each having over 75,000 negroes are; District of Columbia co-extensive with Washington; Shelby county, Tennessee, containing Memphis; Baltimore city Maryland and Orleans parish, Louisiana, computed with New Orleans.
 Half the negroes in the United States are below 19 years of age, this medium age being four years below the whites. Their illiteracy is much more common m country than in city districts, and the fe- ales, as with the whites, are the more ilMterate sex.
 Negro bread-winners constitute 62.22 per cent of all negroes at least ten years of age. For whites the corresponding per | cent is 4s.e and for southern whites 469. The relatively higher per cent for negroes l ie closely connected with the marked pre- | va1ence of female labor in that race. r,here are twenty-seven occupations in
 which at least 10O0 negroes were reported | engaged in 1900. These occupations gave employment to 3.s07,0OS negroes, or over 95 per cent of the aggregate of negro | bread-wnners The total number of negroes reported hv inc twelfth census was S,S30, ,7S9. To this
 rurnber may be added the 3sS.742 persons
 of pure or mixed negro blood in Porto
 D