Race Riot, 1900: A Study of Ethnic Violence

Abstract

For the Negroes of New York City the years 1890-1910 marked not only the dividing lines of two centuries, but a breaking point in a way of life. For three-quarters of a century the Negro population had remained relatively stable -a high infant and adult death rate was balanced by small increases of population through migration. Since the late 1880's, however, considerable numbers of migrants had come North from the border states (especially Virginia and North Carolina) and smaller but substantial numbers came to New York City from the islands of the West Indies. From 1890 to 1910, New York City's Negro population almost quadrupled. It ir>creased from 23,601 to 91,709. By 1910, a majority of the Negro population was Southern born :1 Negroes, declared one student in 1899, are coming on every boat from southern waters.2 This was the advance guard of the Great Migration.'