A short editorial from a 1917 Georgia newspaper documents the heavy numbers involved in what has come to be known as the Great Migration -as more and more African-Americans abandoned their homes in the Southern states preferring life in the North. It is believed that between the years 1910 through 1940, some 1.6 million African Americans participated in this exodus. The Southern journalist who penned these three paragraphs clearly felt a sense of personal rejection:
"The worthless ones are remaining here to be cared for... The departure of these Negroes is not spasmodic. It is a steady drain of the best class of laborers that the South now has. Just what remedy is to prevent it we do not know."
Another article about the great migration can be read here.
Click here to read a history of African-Americans between the years 1619 through 1939.
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