A Great Migration Toward the Pacific
Rev. J.E. Davidson leads a group of twenty-five Southern families to settle in Puget Sound, the beginning of a larger organized movement to escape racial violence.
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Rev. J. E. Davidson, pastor of the Mount Olivet Baptist Church in Tacoma, arrived Thursday morning with twenty-five African American men from Louisiana, Mississippi, and other Southern states. Davidson intends for these men, who are farmers, to establish lives as gardeners and fruit growers in the Puget Sound region. This group is reportedly the vanguard of a larger movement, organized by a society with headquarters in Boston, aiming to relocate thousands of Black citizens seeking to escape the hostile racial climate of the South. Supporters view the Pacific Northwest as a favorable location due to its climate, which avoids the extreme cold found in other Northern states.
“It is the impression among the leaders of the organization that the feeling existent toward the colored race in the south is inimical to their development as a progressive people.”
This migration highlights the organized effort by Black Southerners to relocate to the Pacific Northwest to escape Jim Crow-era violence. It serves as a significant precursor to the later Great Migration, demonstrating the agency of individuals and groups in seeking safety and opportunity.
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