property and lives of the members of our race are going to be
protected on land from Maine to Mississippi.' Let us have the courage
to say to the white American people, 'Give us the same rights which
you enjoy, and then we will fight by your side with all of our might
for every international right on land and sea.' If this kind of talk
is not loyalty, then I am disloyal; if this is not patriotism, then
I am unpatriotic; if this is treason, then I am a traitor. It is not
that I love Caesar less, but these black Romans more, who have been
true to the flag for two hundred and fifty years. It is infinitely
more disgraceful and outrageous to hang and burn colored men, boys and
women without a trial in the times of peace than it is for Germans
in times of war to blow up ships loaded with mules and
molasses."--Reverend A. Clayton Powell, New York, N.Y.]

[Footnote 42: Johnson, _Report on the Migration from Mississippi_.]

[Footnote 43: Work and Johnson, _Report on the Migration during the
World War_.]

[Footnote 44: Ibid.]

CHAPTER IV

THE SPREAD OF THE MOVEMENT

In the first communities visited by representatives of northern
capital, their offers created unprecedented commotion. Drivers and
teamsters left their wagons standing in the street. Workers, returning
home, scrambled aboard the trains for the North without notifying
their employers or their families. The crowds that blackened the pool
rooms and "hangouts" faded away as the trains continued to leave.
Wild rumors about the North crept into circulation and received
unquestioning credence. Songs about Pennsylvania, the spontaneous
expression of anxiety and joy over the sudden revelation of a new
world, floated about on the lips of the children. Homes were thrown on
the market and sold at ruinously low prices.

It was observed that the beginnings in each new community exhibited
the same characteristics. This is due in part to a pretty universal
state of unrest among negroes throughout the South. Although the first
State entered by representatives of northern capital was Florida,
their efforts were not confined to that commonwealth. And again,
although the Pennsylvania and Erie Railroads were the first to import
negroes in large numbers, they were not alone in the field very
long. The steel mills of the East and the railroads of the West
soon followed--each selecting States from which egress was easy and
convenient. The authorities of the cities of Florida