Racial Violence and Black Migration in the American South, 1910 to 1930

TLDR

The study tests whether racial violence and black out‑migration from southern U.S. counties during the Great Migration influence each other reciprocally. The authors analyze county‑level data from ten southern states, incorporating a new lynching inventory, to test the model across 1910‑1920 and 1920‑1930. The analysis shows that counties with more lynchings had higher black out‑migration, and that higher out‑migration was associated with fewer subsequent lynchings, indicating mob violence drove black migration.

Abstract

We test a model of reciprocal causation between racial violence and black net out-migration from southern [U.S.] counties during the era of the Great Migration. Using county-level data for ten southern states including a new inventory of southern lynchings we find support for the model during two decades 1910-1920 and 1920-1930. Out-migration of blacks was heaviest from counties where more lynchings had occurred and in turn counties that witnessed relatively more out-migration of blacks experienced fewer lynchings of blacks. We conclude that mob violence was an important social force driving blacks from certain areas of the South. (EXCERPT)