In north
central Florida near Apalachicola fifteen or twenty per cent of the
labor left. In middle Florida around Ocala and Gainesville probably
twenty to twenty-five per cent of the laborers left, chiefly because
of the low wages. The stretch of territory between Pensacola and
Jacksonville was said to be one of the most neglected sections in the
South, the migration being largely of farm tenants with a considerable
number of farm owners. There were cases of the migration of a whole
community including the pastor of the church.[67]

Live Oak, a small town in Sewanee county, experienced the same
upheaval, losing a large proportion of its colored population.
Dunnelon, a small town in the southern part of Marion county, soon
found itself in the same situation. Lakeland, in Polk county, lost
about one-third of its negroes. Not less than one-fourth of the black
population of Orlando was swept into this movement. Probably half of
the negroes of Palatka, Miami and De Land, migrated as indicated by
schools and churches, the membership of which decreased one-half.
From 3,000 to 5,000 negroes migrated from Tampa and Hillsboro county.
Jacksonville, the largest city in Florida, with a population of about
35,000 negroes, lost about 6,000 or 8,000 of its own black population
and served as an assembling point for 14,000 or 15,000 others who went
to the North.[68]

By September, 1916, the movement in Alabama was well under way. In
Selma there was made the complaint that a new scheme was being used
to entice negroes away. Instead of advertising in Alabama papers, the
schemes of the labor agents were proclaimed through papers published
in other States and circulated in Alabama. As a result there was a
steady migration of negroes from Alabama to the North and to points in
Tennessee and Arkansas where conditions were more inviting and wages
higher. Estimates appear to indicate, however, that Alabama, through
the migration, lost a larger proportion of her negro population than
did any one of the other southern States.[69]

From Eufaula in the eastern part of the State it was reported in
September that trains leaving there on Sundays in 1916 were packed
with negroes going north, that hundreds left, joining crowds from
Clayton, Clio and Ozark. There seemed to be a "free ride" every Sunday
and many were giving up lucrative positions there to go. The majority
of these negroes, however, went from the country where they had had
a disastrous