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During World War I there was a great migration north by southern African Americans.
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In many of the communities the black press was read with great interest. It encouraged the movement.
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Their children were forced to work in the fields. They could not go to school.
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There were lynchings.
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After a lynching the migration quickened.
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Tenant farmers received harsh treatment at the hands of planters.
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To make it difficult for the migrants to leave, they were arrested en masse. They often missed their trains.
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The labor agent recruited unsuspecting laborers as strikebreakers for northern industries.
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But living conditions were better in the North. (Compared to the South)
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The migrants, having moved suddenly into a crowded and unhealthy environment, soon contracted tuberculosis. The death rate rose.