As reports spread of plentiful job opportunities that existed above the Mason-Dixon line, the workers' situation began to change. They heard fantastic promises but were cautious and awaited reports from pioneers who went north to test the waters. One worker said, "Of course everything they say about the North ain't true, but there's so much of it true, don't mind the other."
Every conceivable method was used to draw the black labor supply from the South. Labor agents from northern companies stood on street corners offering train passes to the young, male, and strong. It soon sparked a migration fever. Black newspapers carried job advertisements touting good wages and other advantages of living in the North. They also published success stories about recent migrants already making more money than they had ever dreamed possible. Their letters confirming success were read out in churches, barbershops, and meeting halls. Southerners soaked up all the information available: Was this real? Would they pay? What was it like up North?
Still, not everyone wanted to go north, and in fact the migrants were not typical southerners in many ways. Over half came from cities and towns and had long abandoned work on the land. The great majority departing from the Alabama steel towns of Birmingham and Bessemer were experienced miners heading for the coal fields of Kentucky, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Despite the rural nature of the South, the migrants came from a variety of nonfarming occupations. Surveys done in Pittsburgh and Chicago showed that only a quarter of the migrants in those cities came from agricultural backgrounds.
Rarely did young and old, able-bodied and dependent, parent and child migrate together. It was too expensive. Young men between eighteen and thirty-five who had worked as unskilled industrial laborers were usually the first to go. Many were married and had children and expected to reunite with their families as soon as they had "made their way."
The reasons for leaving varied: "freedom and independence," better wages, educational opportunities for their children. Still others intended to stay only long enough to save some money and return. One migrant, asked why she left the South, replied: "I left Georgia because I wanted better privileges." Did that mean mixed schools and association with white people generally? "No," she responded, "I don't care nothing about that, but I just want to be somewhere where I won't be scared all the time that something is going to break loose."
The migrants headed to the large industrial centers - Detroit, Pittsburgh, New York, and most of all, Chicago. Leaving home was a wrenching experience, though mitigated by exhilaration as hope for the future in some instances drowned out the accustomed sounds of the past. A migrant from Gulfport, Mississippi, reported from Chicago, "I'm tickled to death over this place. Sorry I was not here years ago."
Though many influences surrounded them, migrants made their own decisions about when and where to go, what type of job to take once they got there. They constantly attempted to control the world around them by negotiation, bargaining, and compromise.
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