The Augusta Courier

Minnesota College Told That Northern States Will Develop South's Segregation Pattern With Increase Of Negro Influx

Shift Of Color Problem Will Change Things,
Mississippi Editor Predicts

William J. Simmons, editor of THE CITIZEN, the official journal of the Citizens' Councils of America, in a speech recently made at Carleton College, at Northfield, Minnesota, predicts that as soon as the Northern areas acquire the same proportionate share of the Negro population as that of the South that the Northern areas will develop a segregated system similar to that of the South's.

On this subject, Simmons said:

Your interest in segregation is very timely.

The migration of our Negro population from the South to the North and West is going forward at an extremely rapid pace. Consequently, you will be faced soon with the problem of devising an amicable system of race relations on a scale so massive that it may stagger your imagination.

System of Long Standing

The South has devised such a system over a period of almost ninety years. It is generally known as "segregation," although "social separation" might be a more precise term.

Let me outline briefly the extent of the problem confronting the North and West.

During the ten year period from 1950 to 1960, the net migration of Negroes from the South totalled 1,653,000. This number amounted to almost 17 per cent of the South's entire 1960 Negro population, a truly sizeable figure.

They Are Going North

In the same ten years, the Negro population of eight large Northern cities increased by 2,572,000. New York now has more Negroes than any other state in the nation - 1,417,500. And Washington, D. C., has the highest percentage of any city in the nation - 54 percent up 19 per cent over 1950.

There are several factors which account for the shift of the color problem to the North-the magnetic attraction of easy transportation, integrated schools, public housing, lavish welfare, open avenues to political power, and pressure groups to further special Negro interests. The exodus from the South is given impetus by the large-scale displacements of farm labor by mechanization.

The soaring Negro birth rate multiplies the rate of change. In the North, the Negro has tended to concentrate almost wholly in the large industrial cities. Normally, urbanization has resulted in declining birth rates, but the Negro has proved to be a marked exception to other ethnic groups. The Negro birth rate has attained its largest gains during a time when the race has become increasingly urban.

To help you visualize the magnitude of the problem we have learned to live with, and which is rapidly moving your way, let's compare our two states.

Populations Compared

Mississippi had a 1960 population of 2,178,141. Of this total, 915,743, or 42 per cent, were non-white.

Minnesota had a 1960 population of 3,413,864. Of this total, only 22,263, or seven-tenths of 1 per cent, were non-white.