Negroes Moving North As Boll Weevils Eat Them Out of Their Work, Dec. 1, 1922

Negroes Leaving South for North by Thousands Result of Boll Weevil

Columbia, S.C., Dec. 1—(By the Associated Press)—Thousands of Southern negroes, discouraged by the failure of the cotton crops under the boll weevil conditions and attracted by comparatively high wages in industrial districts, are leaving the farms of the South for Northern cities, according to railroad officials, who today confirmed dispatches from Cleveland, saying another negro migration was in good progress. Many, also, are reported going from states further south to North Carolina, where an extensive road building program is underway.

Although the exodus is widespread, it is not the organized variety, these officials said. It is of an individual nature, many of those traveling North being negroes who worked in industrial centers during the World War, and others being kinsmen of negroes who have remained in the North and who are now sending money to bring their relatives to new homes.

From the front page of the Fayetteville Observer, Dec. 1, 1922