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There were many push factors involved. A tiny insect called the boll weevil swept across the South, destroying their main crop, cotton, while displacing thousands of farm laborers. Between 1890 and 1910, the political push factor involved the institution of Jim Crow laws which, among other things, disenfranchised the African-American community with laws that prevented them from voting through the installation of property requirements, literacy tests, poll taxes, and the “grandfather clause.” In addition, they had to live with the daily fear of being lynched in the South; at least two people were lynched every week. There were also many pull factors involved. The shortage of labor in the North was caused by the First World War which generated a greater demand for labor and also diminished the supply of laborers in the North. Industries in the North needed workers to produce materials for war. The influx of European immigrants was halted by the war; by 1918, there were almost as many Europeans leaving the United States as entering. |