Passage 15
In the two decades between 1910 and 1930， overten percent to the Black population of the United Statesleft the South， where the preponderance of the Blackpopulation had been located， and migrated to northern（5） states， with the largest number moving， it is claimed，between 1916 and 1918. It has been frequently assumed，but not proved， that the majority of the migrants inwhat has come to be called the Great Migration camefrom rural areas and were motivated by two concurrent（10） factors： the collapse of the cotton industry followingthe boll weevil infestation， which began in 1898， andincreased demand in the North for labor followingthe cessation of European immigration caused by theoutbreak of the First World War in 1914. This assump-（15） tion has led to the conclusion that the migrants‘ subse-quent lack of economic mobility in the North is tied torural background， a background that implies unfamil-iarity with urban living and a lack of industrial skills.
But the question of who actually left the South has（20） never been rigorously investigated. Although numerous investigations document an exodus from rural southernareas to southern cities prior to the Great Migration.no one has considered whether the same migrants thenmoved on to northern cities. In 1910 over 600，000（25） Black workers， or ten percent of the Black work force，reported themselves to be engaged in “manufacturingand mechanical pursuits，” the federal census categoryroughly encompassing the entire industrial sector. TheGreat Migration could easily have been made up entirely（30） of this group and their families. It is perhaps surprisingto argue that an employed population could be enticedto move， but an explanation lies in the labor conditionsthen prevalent in the South.
About thirty-five percent of the urban Black popu-（35） lation in the South was engaged in skilled trades. Some were from the old artisan class of slavery-blacksmiths.masons， carpenters-which had had a monopoly ofcertain trades， but they were gradually being pushedout by competition， mechanization， and obsolescence，（40） The remaining sixty-five percent， more recently urban-ized， worked in newly developed industries——tobacco.lumber， coal and iron manufacture， and railroads.Wages in the South， however， were low， and Blackworkers were aware， through labor recruiters and the（45）Black press， that they could earn more even as unskilledworkers in the North than they could as artisans in theSouth. After the boll weevil infestation， urban Blackworkers faced competition from the continuing influxof both Black and White rural workers， who were driven（50） to undercut the wages formerly paid for industrial jobs.Thus， a move north would be seen as advantageousto a group that was already urbanized and steadilyemployed， and the easy conclusion tying their subse-quent economic problems in the North to their ruralbackground comes into question.
1. The author indicate
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