The Twin City star. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1910-19??, 1916-11-18
CAUSE OF UNREST AMONG
C0L0RED LABORERS SOUTH
Movement Northward Due 20 Lew
Wages and Other Handieaps.

Wilson Jefferson, In concluding I'm
the Evening Post Of New York an
exhaustive discussion Of the effect OF
the European war upon the colored
American, says: To get a glimpse Of
the possibilities wrapped up in Negro
labor one has only to investigate the
more progressive Of the manufactur-
Ing cities Of the south. Birmingham,
Ala, depends almost wholly upon the
Negro for Its unskilled and semiskilled
labor. Nashville, Atlanta, Memphis
and Jacksonville do likewise. But In
all Of these towns, save in some in
stances in Birmingham, wages are too
low. housing conditions are poor and
the advantages for recreation and
pleasure exceedingly limited.
1t will be from these localities that
Negroes will emigrate to the middle
west and east and to localities where
wages are good and where there are
opportunities for pleasure and self i'm
provement No class of labor remains
satisfied indefinitely under oppressive
conditions. The Negro laborer is NO.
exception to the rule, He has tried
the south. He is willing to try the
sast and middle west. All he has
awaited is genuine call. based upon
Q real and lasting need
This movement eastward and west
ward of unskilled Negro labor Will
both directly and indirectly help the
professional Negro. The younger ele-
ment Of Negro workers, those Of ambi-
ton and Of some training in the
schools, will be constantly emerging
from the unskilled to the semiskilled
and skilled classes, with q consequent
increase In their payrolls and q bet
terment In their methods of living.
This will give the Negro profession.
al man hold in many not strictly
Negro communities and will give him
what few of his colleagues now pos
sess In the larger centers--a clientele
that will be Of all colors and Of all
races. It will allow those Of marked
natural ability to rise higher i'm their
profession than they would II limited
In their practice to only one race and
class.
A decidedly better treatment Of the
Negro. both in the north and in the
south, will grow out of this scattering
Of the race. The old condition grew
out Of the fact that the demand for his
labor has been limited and the supply
Other influences, some sin
lster and some not so sinister, have
worked against him. In the south II
has been that old and seemingly inerad.
lcal prejudice which would give to him
only those things which the white man
lid not want.
Not infrequently the ostracism that
came to the Negro in the east and mid
lie west came by virtue Of the fact
hat In religion, In race and sometimes
n politics he has been an outsider. II
@ not unnatural In the small communi-
y for the priest to intercede with the
Employer for his flock and for those Of
lis persuasion. Neither is It out Of
he ordinary for the politician to de-
ire to control Jobs out Of the narrow
'ange Of political appointments.
Closer ties still are those Of race and
and nationality. The Negro
with merely sentiment on
lis side. has not been able to overcome
hese barriers. But, II all signs fail
lot, the conflict now raging will so
essen the effectiveness Of these agen-
les that the black man will not find
difficult to win a place and hold It
q our larger Industrial and economic
cheme Of things.