The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1911-01-11
NEGRO MIGRATING NORTH
POPULATION FLEE FROM
COTTON FIELDS OF SOUTH.
Marked Effect of Boil WeeyIT

Insect Is Solving the ''ProbIem'' I'm
Mississippi and Louisiana. 1OO,-
600 Negroes Have Left Delta Sec
ton in Past Two Years.
NEW ORLEANS boil wee
vii is solving the negro problem in
certain sections of the south. It is
driving the negroes from the rich
cotton lands and scattering them
over the country. This state is now
a white state, the Caucassians out
numbering the negroes by 10000.
In Mississippi the whites are gaining
on the blacks, and elsewhere, owing
to the flight of the negroes before
the ravages of the boil weevil, the
white race is springing into numer-
ical ascendancy.
Following the war the negroes set
tied in large numbers in the Yazoo
delta of the Mississippi, the Tensas
basin of Louisiana and other rich
cotton lands. In many sections the
blacks Outnumbered the whites 16
to /. The negroes enjoyed great
prosperity, and in the Yazoo delta
particularly black communities grew
up with negro doctors and negro
lawyers, while negroes engaged in
every line of business. In 1908 with
the appearance of the boil weeviI
prosperity was checked In the va
ZOO delta in 1908 there was a popu-
lation of 245,O0O; today the number
is $4,000 Including the Louisiana
an Arkansas districts the total loss
in this section of the south is 10O,-
600 during the past two years, and
SO per cent is negro.
Negroes Panic Stricken.
When the boil weevil began it's
ravages in the delta two years ago
the negroes were not able to fight
it. In order to do this every plant
of cotton in which the boil weeviI
may hibernate must be destroyed by
fire, and it is almost as much work
after the cotton is picked to destroy
all possible habitation for the insect
as to grow the crop.
The negro naturally does not take
this care, for he likes to enjoy a rest
after his crop has been harvested.
Unlike the white man he was not
able to turn his attention to the
raising of other crops, the cultiva-
ton of cotton being all that he
knew. When therefore two years
ago the negro farmers of the new
Africa woke up to find their cotton
crops destroyed by the boil weeviT
a sudden panic seized on them, and
negro exodus started, the like OF
which had not been seen since the
days of the Kansas craze in the
'7O's.
The negroes fled by rail, by boat,
by cart, selling their possessions for
anything they could get. The panic
reached such proportions a year ago
that the whites interfered and took
such action as they could to pre-
vent the negroes from leaving.
Widespread Migration.
A very vigorous campaign was
made through the boil weevil dis
trict by the United States department
of agriculture, the state authorities
and the railroads uniting to calm the
panic, to quiet the negroes and to
show them what was necessary to
fight the boil weevil. Much good was
accomplished in that way and the
exodus was checked, but neverthe-
less a smaller but steadier stream
of negro emigration has been kept
up ever since.
Generally it was the poorer and
more shiftless negroes that left.
Some moved only a hundred miles
away, just beyond the boil weevil
line, and another year will see a new
panic on their part and see them
moving northward or eastward
again. A number moved out of
Louisiana and Mississippi altogether,
Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kansas re-
ceiving many of the immigrants,
crr ~ ~ h.