The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1923-09-25

ACudCQOn OF the OOlldI. NeSuAE May
Be the Solution of the So-CalIed
Race Problem in South.
JACKSON, Miss.-The old south
is changing. Negro migration, if it
continues at its present rate, means
the disintegration of the solid south"
This is a prevalent view among lead
ing planters, business men and close
observers in Mississippi, which has
the greatest density of all the states,
81 per cent of its population being
black-in the Yazoo delta it runs as
high as so per cent colored
The ancient plantation system is on
its way, getting ready to vanish, as
has the frontier cowboy in the west.
The negro, like the white, is becoming
urbanized The trend from the cotton
fields to the small southern cities,
thence from these communities to the
industrial centers of the north. One
feature OF the present wave is that
it draws directly from farm to north
ern mill. Mississippi had a decline of
$4,000 in its negro population from
1910 to 1920, but it registered an urb-
an negro increase of 81 per cent. In
the last three years it has lost at least
10000 negroes. The boil weeyil has
broken up whole communities
some sections three-fourths of the old
cotton land is now lying idle-and
the industrial vacuum of the north
has pulled the agricultural workers in
masses. With them have gone many
negro professional and business men,
preachers, lawyers, doctors, BARRIERS,
merchants, undertakers, etc.
Old Attachments Broken
"The old attachments, in the main,
have been broken" said the foremost
authority on the race question in the
delta the other day. THE old anchor
age is gone
The Natchez region, for example,
was one where ever since slave days
the relation between the two races
were ideal A dozen years ago the
boil weevil appeared and the planters
could not cope with it; negro families
by economic necessity were impelled
to abandon homes where they had
lived for generations; the old life was
disrupted.
"The old reliable" type of negro is
fast disappearing. And the banjo now
exists only in the sentimental ballad
and the minstrel show-for a week
we have driven through the cotton
regions and the only music from the
cabins has been from monographs
and pianos, relics of the peak period
Despite the crop failure the field
hands all seem happy and gay, smii-
ing and laughing as ever, but the
banjo went out when the fivver came
in"
Migration From Mississippi.
Meanwhile Mississippi is scouting
for white immigrants, north, west and
south, and is trying to combat mi
grafton of the more stable negroes by
better school facilities. In 1920 the
state had l6l goo negro families, which
was a decrease of $500 in 10 years,
and in the last three years the de-
crease is set at $4,000 at the lowest
OF the negro farmers 49,, 1000 are ter
ants and $4,000 are farm owners.
Commercial organizations are prepar-
ing campaigns to attract white set
tiers from the debt laden exclusive
wheat regions of Kansas, Nebraska
and the Dakotas and from the Scan
dinavian countries if possible.
1T means the shifting of the race
problem to the north. The belief is
growing that within decade or two
the blacks will be pretty we'll diffused
throughout the country. In 1860 over
81 per cent of the negro population
was in the south and in 1910 80 per
cent was still in the south. Then came
the industrializing migration and in
1920 the south had IS per cent of the
negroes. IF dispersion keeps up 20 or
80 years from now half the negroes
may be in the north.