The Twin City star. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1910-19??, 1917-03-10
RACE SEEKS new
ABIDING PLACES
Hundreds Of Thousands Have
Left tho Southland.
CAUSES OF GREAT EXODUS

Summary Of Facts and Figures In His.
tory Of Migration Of colorsd People
From the South Since the Beginning
Of ths European War-72ooo Are
skilled Laborers. 49,
BY RALPH w. TYLER.
Since the beginning Of the great Eu-
ropean war 326,876 colored people from
the south have gone north, the larger
per cent of whom have gone north
during the last eight months of 1915.
That this noticeable and unusual mi
grafton Of the race to the north should
attract country wide attention and in
vite very serious discussion in the pub
lie press Of both the north and south is
perfectly natural because Of the pos
sible effect this migration may have on
the economic and social conditions
north and south.
These 326,S76 natives Of the south
land going north have scattered
themselves over Ohio, Indiana, ILL
nois, Michigan, the northwestern states,
Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey,
New York, Connecticut and Massachu-
sets. Were DR.. Booker T. Washing
ton living, what would be his position
relative to this unusually large migra-
ton Of his race from the south?
Knowing him as did and enjoying his
confidence as l did, believe commit
no error in stating he would have siren
uously discouraged it.
That the shortage Of labor supply was
responsible for northern employers
sending south to take from "Dixie" the
muscle she had depended upon for
more than $50 years is apparent to all.
That the race long subjected to seq
regation, very meager school facili-
ties and the denial of suffrage should
regard the north, with its equal school
privileges and the right of suffrage un-
restricted, as promised land is but
natural.
Every time a burning Of Negroes, like
the recent horrible Waco (Tex.) affair,
occurs in the south, with an unjus-
tifable lynching of a reputable, well to
do colored man, like the recent Able
Vile Is. CO. affair, the Negroes In the
south ask the divine Creator in pite-
Gus walls the question, 20 Lord, how
longT When foreigners left to fight i'll
defense of their respective countries,
leaving jobs and positions vacant, and
the world war paraIyzed foreign immi.
grafton, compelling the northern en-
plOyer to send his agents south for
Negro laborers, so glad were they to
leave section where for $50 years
their labor and fidelity had been re-
Quilted with poor wages, scant school
facilities, discrimination, denial of suf-
frage and lynching that 326,876 of
them exclaimed. 1--WE are coming,
Father Abraham. three hundred thou
sand strOngw
From the most reliable sources, after
careful investigation, I find that these
326,S76 cOlored citizens who have NOV
ed north since 1914 came from the fol-
lowing states in the following num-
bers: Georgia, 46,S7O; South Carolina,
1880; North Carolina, $3.50; Flori-
da, 1O,S06; Mississippi, 34,21O; Louisi-
ana, 1880; Arkansas, 23,50O; Tennes-
see, 20,620; Virginia, 45,65O; Kentucky
1850; Texas, 1860; Oklahoma, $3.50.
Now, where did all. these 326,S76
blacks go-to what state? Crossing
the Mason and Dixon line, this black
caravan moved into what they have
long regarded as the promised land
and distributed themselves as follows:
$4,000 of them stopped in Ohio, $4,000
wendell their way to Indiana, $4,000
extended their pilgrimage to Illinois,
$4,000 went to Michigan, $4,000 stop
ped in Pennsylvania, $1,000 settled in
the Empire State, $4,000 took up their
habitat in Delaware and New Jersey,
$4,000 distributed themselves over the
New England states. /
OF these 326,S78 who have left the
south since the beginning of the Euro
pean war $4,000 of them were skilled
laborers, the remainder being common
laborers, who took the place Of Ital-
ians, Slavs and Hungarians on con-
struction work, in mines, mills and
manufacturing plants. Kentucky con-
tributed large per cent of the skilled
labor, possibly because Of her nearness
to the field of labor demand, and Vir-
ginia and Alabama, due doubtless to
the location in these states of the two
great Industrial schools, Hampton and
Tuskegee, were large contributors to
the skilled labor class.
My Investigations give me assurance
that the vast majority Of these persons
who have come north are steady, sober.
Industrious men of robust health who
seek an asylum in the free north, with
it's better wages and better opportuni-
ties for the education of their. progeny.
They went north not at the behest OF
politicians to colonize certain doubtful
districts, but they went north to DO
honest labor. The hope, because OF
why they came and the type OF men
who came, Is INDUCED that this mighty
migration Of blacks from the south to
tho north means an earlier solution or