movement was unknown to those who might have
been interested in taking a census of those departing and partly to
the fact that perhaps after the movement was known to be in operation
no counting was resorted to because no one believed that the exodus
would amount to anything of importance. When, however, the exodus
reached such proportions as to demand serious attention, steps were at
once taken to ascertain its volume.

Numerical estimates regarding the size of this migration have been
made in different ways.[30] In one case they have been based upon the
statements of observers who have watched trainloads leave the South,
in another they have been based upon the growth of numbers in
different Northern cities, in still another upon records of insurance
companies, and finally upon the number of railway tickets sold to
Negroes. On these bases estimates have ranged from 150,000 to upwards
of 750,000. To illustrate this, a few examples will be cited. Dr. W.
E. B. Du Bois estimated that 250,000 Negroes had migrated to the North
during 1916-17.[31] The estimate of the Colored Citizens' Patriotic
League was 300,000,[32] and that of the Chairman of the National
League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes was 350,000.[33] Dr. James H.
Dillard set the minimum at 150,000 and the maximum at 350,000,[34] and
Mr. Ray Stannard Baker put the number up to 400,000.[35] From these
various estimates given it is at once obvious that no accurate
statement as to the number of Negroes who left the South can be made.
It is known, however, that a very large number must have moved,
because in many instances the Negro population in villages, towns and
counties in some of the Southern States was greatly depleted, while
the same population of Northern urban communities increased from one
to four-fold. The census shows that in 1920 there were in the North
and West only 472,418 more Negroes than there were in those sections
in 1910. It is clear that a smaller number went North, for there was
some natural increase, and we have the fact that many have
returned[36] to warrant the conclusion.

In this discussion of the volume of the migration it may not be out of
place to show how the various States of the South furnished their
quota toward making up this total number of migrants. In this regard
our data are incomplete in that they were compiled some time before
the movement was checked. The following table,[37] however, will give
one some notion as to th