ify others of the time and place of
special trains. The type of negro leaving is indicated in the decline
in the church membership. Over 300 of those who left were actively
connected with some church. During the summer of 1917, 100 houses
stood vacant in the town and over 300 were abandoned in the McShein
addition. As the crops were gathered people moved in from the country,
from the southern part of the State and from the "hills" generally to
take the places of those who had left for the North.

There was no concerted movement from Clarksdale, a town with a
population of about 400 whites and 600 blacks; but families appeared
to slip away because of the restlessness and uneasiness in evidence
everywhere. From the rural district around there was considerable
migration to Arkansas, but considerable numbers were influenced to
leave for Buffalo and Chicago. Mound Bayou lost some of its population
also to Arkansas and the North, as they could buy land cheaper in the
former and find more lucrative employment in the latter. Natchez did
not suffer a serious loss of population until the invasion of the boll
weevil and the floods.

Hattiesburg, a large lumber center, was at the beginning of the
exodus, almost depopulated. Some of the first migrants went to
Pennsylvania but the larger number went to Chicago. It became a
rallying point for many negroes who assembled there ostensibly to
go to New Orleans, at which place they easily provided for their
transportation to Chicago and other points in the North. From Laurel
in Jones county, a large sawmill district, it is estimated that
between 4,000 and 5,000 negroes moved north. About 3,000 left Meridian
for Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit and Pittsburgh. Indianola, a town with
a number of negro independent enterprises, also became upset by
this movement, losing a considerable number of progressive families.
Gulfport, a coast town a short distance from New Orleans, lost about
one-third of its negro population. About 45 families left Bobo for
Arkansas, and 15 families went to the North. Johnstown, Mississippi,
lost 150 of its 400 negroes.[74]

The owners of turpentine industries and lumber plants in southeastern
Mississippi were especially affected by the exodus. In Hinds, Copiah,
Lincoln, Rankin, Newton and Lake counties, many white residents rather
than suffer their crops to be lost, worked in the fields. It was
reported that numbers of these whites were leaving for the Delta and
for K