t with the intention of staying.
What has been described, of course, can not be construed to apply to
every one who left. There were those of the business and professional
classes who were promoted by other motives than those which impelled
the masses of migrants. There were, for example, migrants who in the
South had held positions of relatively high standing by virtue of the
fact that there do exist two institutional standards, the white and
the black. Measured by the requirements of the latter, they stood high
in the respect of the community, but when removed to the North they
suffered in the rank of their occupation. A college president or even
a school teacher had little opportunity in their respective fields
in the North. They had, therefore, migrated because deserted by their
neighbors they were left with a prospect of a diminishing social
importance.

Professional men followed their practice. In Chicago there are
at least six lawyers from Mississippi, with practically the same
clientele. At the height of the exodus, one of these came to Chicago
and secured admission to the bar in order that he might be in a
position to move quickly if his practice were too severely cut down.
Several physicians of the State have remarked that they would now be
in the East or the North if reciprocity with the State of Mississippi
were possible.[52] Business men have been reported to have moved North
for the sole purpose of collecting debts. Others are cooler and more
calculating in preparing to leave. One pharmacist, for instance, plans
to move within the next five years. It is true that some of those who
came in the movement would have come even if no one else had decided
to migrate. The influence of the general state of mind, however, on
the great majority is of most concern in determining the forces behind
the exodus.

Possibly the numbers to leave the South would have been considerably
smaller had there not been existent so universal a readiness to
respond to a call in almost any direction. The causes of this state of
mind are stated elsewhere. What is important here is the behavior of
the persons leaving which exerted such a compelling influence on their
neighbors. The actions are illustrative not only of the contagion
of the movement, but of the fundamental emotions of the negroes who
formed the exodus. Thus it was, for example, that the movement was
called the "exodus" from its suggestive resemblance to the flight of
the