were soon
established at Akron, Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Dayton, Piqua,
Steubenville, Youngstown and other points.

Reports showing labor, housing, general welfare and health conditions
among the negroes throughout the State were compiled and distributed
broadcast. It was also decided to send lecturers through Ohio cities
to visit negro centers for the purpose of instilling within the race
a desire for better living conditions. A campaign was waged also to
bring about greater censorship of motion pictures. Efforts were made
to have the State Council of National Defense and the State and City
Labor Bureaus actively interest themselves in the problem of negro
employment.[135]

The State of Ohio also undertook an investigation of the migration
movement. Reports to the Ohio branch, Council of National Defense,
indicated a very serious situation resulting from the exodus of
negroes. An investigation at direction of Governor Cox was conducted
by the Council and State Department, to get as much information as
possible concerning the unprecedented migration. The first work was a
study of health conditions in several cities by the State Department
of Health, which took immediate steps to correct evils. The negroes
who were coming into the State were being crowded into the negro
sections of the various cities in such a way that the health of these
communities, in many cases was being seriously threatened. The Council
of National Defense asked the Ohio branch for information on
the migration, particularly to learn if it had been artificially
stimulated and accelerated by agencies that have paid so many dollars
a head for every negro from the South.[136]

Detroit, because of its importance as an industrial center, was one of
the places to which the largest number of migrants to Michigan
went. The negro population of the city in 1910 was 5,741. It is
now estimated that the city has between 25,000 and 35,000 blacks,
three-fourths or more of whom have come there during the past two
years. As elsewhere, the majority of the negroes are in unskilled
occupations. There is, however, a considerable number of skilled and
semiskilled workers. Detroit was formerly a city where the negro was
restricted to a very few lines of work.

The wartime pressing needs of the industrial enterprises have caused
the barriers to be removed. The available evidence that Detroit has
removed the barriers from the employment of negroes in many lines