Chicago, Cincinnati, Evansville, Indianapolis,
Pittsburgh, and St. Louis. The increase for these nine cities between
1880 and 1890 was about 36.2 per cent; between 1890 and 1900 it was
about 74.4 per cent; from 1900 to 1910 about 37.4 per cent; and from
1910 to 1920 about 50 per cent. In the first decade the increase was
more than three times the increase of the total Negro population; in
the second it was more than four times as large; in the third the
increase was nearly three times larger; and in the fourth nearly five
times as large as the increase of the same population. Likewise,
during the same period there was a great Negro influx to the larger
cities of the South, but the rate of increase was less than that of
the Northern cities. In fifteen Southern cities the percentage of
increase was about 38.7 per cent during the first decade; during the
second about 20.6 per cent; and from 1900 to 1916 the increase (based
on figures for sixteen cities) was about the same as that of the
preceding decades.[24]

These numerous instances of previous Negro movements show that the
recent migration is no new and strange phenomenon, that Negroes, like
other elements of the population of the United States, have shown a
tendency since their emancipation to move from place to place. This
recent exodus was simply a part of a long series of movements which
have been in progress for more than half a century. It is, therefore,
much like the others and differs from them only in its immense
volume. In the course of this migration, as we observed, the number of
Negroes who moved to the North and West was probably a half million--a
number which perhaps exceeds or certainly equals that which resulted
from all other movements from the South to the North during a period
of forty years. Herein alone, if such a view of it can be held at all,
lies its strangeness and remarkability as a social phenomenon.

FOOTNOTES:

[9] Scroggs, W. O., _Jour. Pol. Econ._, 25: 1034, Dec., 1917.

[10] Woodson, C. G., _A Century of Negro Migration_, pp. 117-20.

[11] _Ibid._, pp. 120-21.

[12] Scroggs, W. O., _Jour. Pol. Econ._, 25: 1035-37, Dec., 1917.

[13] Woodson, C. G., _A Century of Negro Migration_, p. 146.

[14] _Negro Population in U. S., 1790-1915_, Bureau of Census, pp.
69-70.

[15] _Journal of Pol. Econ._, 25: 1040, D. '17.

[16] _Negro Population in U. S., 1790-1915_, Bureau of Census, pp.
69-70.

[17] _Negroes in the U. S._, Bulletin 1