The Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1931-1952, 1932-02-25
Southern Negroes Status Has Undergone
Many Great Changes Since the World War

NEW YORK. - Since the World
War, great changes have taken place
in the status of the Negro in the
South-changes on distribution OF
population, industry, type and char.
acter of education, rural life and in
the attitude CT the white and col
ored people with respect to each
other, DR.. R. R. Motion, principal OF
Tuskegee Institute, told a large and
appreciative audience at Columbia
University last Wednesday.
Speaking on "The Negro in the
South" DR.. Motion said the immi-
grafton of large number of Ne
groes from the South during the last
decade has lcssened to some extent
the tension between the races in
that region, that the social race
problem for long time was consid-
cre1 as an exclusively Southern
problem, and while the bulk of Ne
groes of this country yet to be found
in the fifteen Southern states, it has
now come about that the larger
groups of Negro population are not
in the South but in the cities of
the North.
"The number of Negroes in New
tire population of any city in the
South, with the possible exception
of Memphis and New Orleans, and
probably will equal the entire popu-
lation of Birmingham OF Atlanta"
DR.. Motion cited.
A National Problem
"The Negro population has not
only shifted north in large numbers,
but it also is true that Negroes have
migrated in largNnumbers from the
rural to urban centers of the South.
The migration of the Negro popula-
ton from rural to urban centers
and from the South to the North
and Middle West has, in measure,
widened the range of interest in the
status of the black man. Negro
advancement is not now so distinctly
a Southern problem-in a real sense
it is national. The sense of respon-
sibiity for the Negro has extended
to all parts of the country and has
become a national problem.
"The shifting of the population
from the rural districts into urban
centers of both North and South has
greatly affected the Negro in agri-
culture. Negroes are not increasing
their holding in farm land as they
formerly did. Reports on property
owning in Georgia, North Carolina
and Virginia indicates that there is
an actual falling off in the purchase
of land. and in Georgia the records
show that the total acreage owned
by Negroes has greatly decreased
during the last seven years. This
reflects an actual abandonment of
farm lands by Negroes who have
left to enter industrial centers. This
fact has given some concern to lead
ers of thought.
"The Negro has from the begin
ming had large share in the de-
velopment of the South. 1t has been
indirect. perhaps. but nevertheless it
has been a significant contribution.
and has been made through his work
on the farm and in the mechanical
trades and industries. He has in
creased in influence and effective
ness of service and now is sharing
the business development of the
South. The National Negro Business
League, founded by Booker T.
Washington, has been a great slim
illus to Negro business. In insur-
ance, banking and general merchan-
dising the NEGRO is becoming more
and more factor, and it is not gem
orally known that there is something
like 40 newspapers in the South
published by Negroes.
Every Southern state is making
a large contribution each year for
education for whites and blacks.
Nothing like as much as is needed,
md nothing like as much for Ne
yroes as for whites; but there is