Exactly! Blacks could have moved North in 1900, no problem. But they didn’t. There was no Berlin Wall they had to cross. According to modern liberals, they were living amongst a group of racist KKK type whites who hated them, oppressed them, and held them down. And yet the overwhelming majority of them didn’t leave. Either the oppression blacks faced down here has been overstated, or the tolerant attitude of the folks outside the South has been overstated, or both.
If Connecticut or some other Yankee state had had a mass influx of blacks in 1902, to the point that they threatened to become the majority in the state, and to dominate politics, do you not think the officials there would have thrown every obstacle possible in their path? Poll taxes, literacy tests, grandfather clauses, zoning laws? Not to mention that they wouldn’t have allowed that many to come in in the first place.
Actually a lot did. There were two strong migrations connected with the war industries in World War I and II.
According to modern liberals, they were living amongst a group of racist KKK type whites who hated them, oppressed them, and held them down.
Which is pretty much true. Blacks down South certainly were not loved, and the laws and social practices that were enacted to oppress them and keep them in their place were well documented. Things up North may have been marginally better in some respects but still wasn't welcoming. So if you're hated and oppressed where you are, why move 500 miles for more hatred and only marginally better treatment in other areas?
Either the oppression blacks faced down here has been overstated, or the tolerant attitude of the folks outside the South has been overstated, or both.
I would say the second point. The tolerant attitude of people up North towards blacks has been overstated.
If Connecticut or some other Yankee state had had a mass influx of blacks in 1902, to the point that they threatened to become the majority in the state, and to dominate politics, do you not think the officials there would have thrown every obstacle possible in their path? Poll taxes, literacy tests, grandfather clauses, zoning laws? Not to mention that they wouldn’t have allowed that many to come in in the first place.
We'll never know.