Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division

Russell Lee/Farm Security Administration

Rates of migration were accelerated by economic conditions. Because of increased world production and the onset of an international economic depression, American production of cotton - which had been a major export until the 1920s - was facing collapse. The need for labor steadily decreased as a result of mechanization, improved methods of irrigation, seed genetics, and more effective pesticides.