Source: David Halberstam. The Fifties (1997)
The Great Migration of the 1950s of African-Americans moving north was a continuing evolution that went back decades (BTW, the media does a much better job covering revolution compared to evolution). The Great Migration that began before World War I ended a kind of racial American Colonialism: "Separate But Equal" was a brand of colonialism practiced on African-Americans by whites.
While African-Americans in the South were able to migrate, they did so at a terrible disadvantage in that they didn't have the level of education that would lead to an easier transition and a more prosperous life. When the supply if European immigrants drastically decreased during World War I, northern factory owners turned to African-Americans in the South. World War II caused the next giant surge in the Great Migration North, and the South desperately tried to hang on to their cheap African-American labor force.
The Chicago Defender was founded in 1905, and the newspaper became the voice of African-Americans in the North and South. The publisher was Robert S. Abbott, who saw African-Americans in the South as being merely the possessions of the White Establishment. Abbott printed not only his rage, but the rage felt by African-Americans. By 1919, 2/3's of the Defender's readers lived in the South. The more whites tried to ban the Defender, the more legitimate the newspaper became in the eyes of African-Americans.
While African-Americans in the South were able to migrate, they did so at a terrible disadvantage in that they didn't have the level of education that would lead to an easier transition and a more prosperous life. When the supply if European immigrants drastically decreased during World War I, northern factory owners turned to African-Americans in the South. World War II caused the next giant surge in the Great Migration North, and the South desperately tried to hang on to their cheap African-American labor force.
The Chicago Defender was founded in 1905, and the newspaper became the voice of African-Americans in the North and South. The publisher was Robert S. Abbott, who saw African-Americans in the South as being merely the possessions of the White Establishment. Abbott printed not only his rage, but the rage felt by African-Americans. By 1919, 2/3's of the Defender's readers lived in the South. The more whites tried to ban the Defender, the more legitimate the newspaper became in the eyes of African-Americans.
Usually, a pioneer within an African-American family in the South went North to scout for work, and to at least have a place to live waiting for the rest of the family when they migrated North. The greatest reason for the accelerated surge in the Great Migration after WW II was due to technology - the mechanical cotton picker. Once the mechanical cotton picker was in the fields, white Southerners couldn't wait to see African-Americans go North, and in most areas of the South, it was actually encouraged.
The mechanical cotton picker changed the landscape in the U.S., but historically the invention hasn't really registered compared to other developments such as the television. The inventor of record was John Daniel Rust, who was among the countless number of Southerners over the previous decades that had tried to create a machine that separated the cotton seed from the boll without destroying the cotton.
Rust always had an inventive mind, and the mechanical cotton picker became his obsession. Many before had figured out how to get the cotton out of the boll with spinning spindles, but then the problem was how to get the cotton off the spindles. The cotton seemed to obey its own physical laws, and the machines that Rust (and others) created made an absolute mess of the cotton. One night in 1927, Rust remembered that cotton tended to stick to his wet hands (due to the dew); Rust took a nail and wetted it, and cotton stuck to the nail. It was at that point Rust was sure he could be successful.
The mechanical cotton picker changed the landscape in the U.S., but historically the invention hasn't really registered compared to other developments such as the television. The inventor of record was John Daniel Rust, who was among the countless number of Southerners over the previous decades that had tried to create a machine that separated the cotton seed from the boll without destroying the cotton.
Rust always had an inventive mind, and the mechanical cotton picker became his obsession. Many before had figured out how to get the cotton out of the boll with spinning spindles, but then the problem was how to get the cotton off the spindles. The cotton seemed to obey its own physical laws, and the machines that Rust (and others) created made an absolute mess of the cotton. One night in 1927, Rust remembered that cotton tended to stick to his wet hands (due to the dew); Rust took a nail and wetted it, and cotton stuck to the nail. It was at that point Rust was sure he could be successful.
Rust needed to build a machine that could work on rough terrain, and the possibilities of things going wrong were endless. Rust's furst successful prototype was in 1933, and it picked more cotton in one hour than a person could in one week. But in 1933, no one wanted a machine that would create MORE unemployment during the Great Depression.
By 1936 Rust completed his prototype, and the initial response among whites in the South was that the machine should be dumped in the nearest river. By 1940, Rust was desperate and broke, yet he still worked on his machine; Rust went all-in with one more effort to succeed. Rust didn't know that Allis-Chalmers, a large company, was trying to contact Rust, since they had decided that his old patents were feasible.
Rust sold his patents to Allis-Chalmers, and the company hired Rust as a consultant. But when Allis-Chalmers finally manufactured a mechanical cotton picker in 1949, it made so few that the company lost its exclusive rights to Rust's designs. All the while, Harvester was going down the same road, and had started to manufacture mechanical cotton pickers by 1948. By then the machine was seen as the solution to the labor shortage created by the post-WW II surge of the Great Migration North.
By 1936 Rust completed his prototype, and the initial response among whites in the South was that the machine should be dumped in the nearest river. By 1940, Rust was desperate and broke, yet he still worked on his machine; Rust went all-in with one more effort to succeed. Rust didn't know that Allis-Chalmers, a large company, was trying to contact Rust, since they had decided that his old patents were feasible.
Rust sold his patents to Allis-Chalmers, and the company hired Rust as a consultant. But when Allis-Chalmers finally manufactured a mechanical cotton picker in 1949, it made so few that the company lost its exclusive rights to Rust's designs. All the while, Harvester was going down the same road, and had started to manufacture mechanical cotton pickers by 1948. By then the machine was seen as the solution to the labor shortage created by the post-WW II surge of the Great Migration North.
What also increased demand for the mechanical cotton picker was that the cost of labor increased; for the first time land owners in the South had to offer competitive wages to attract workers. The cost of labor tripled, from .62 per 100 lbs of picked cotton in 1940 to $1.93 in 1945, and to $2.90 by 1948. And to make matters worse for Southern cotton growers, they found themselves competing against synthetics like Rayon. And worse-yet for the Southern whites, in their perspective, African-Americans after World War II had become "uppity", especially young African-American men.
Southern whites agreed that their future was with the coming mechanical cotton picker, and Harvester had built a factory in Memphis, which boded well. Harvester built 1000 machines in 1948, priced at $7600 ($76,000+ in 2015 dollars), and was mounted on a tractor . . . and it was tax deductible. 1948 was the year that convinced cotton growers to go mechanical; they had a good cotton crop, but they didn't have nearly enough workers to pick the crop.
Competition for building mechanical cotton pickers started in 1949, and cotton growers in California had the best experience using the machine. However, conditions in the Mississippi Delta were not as manageable compared to California. Pearson built 50 mechanical cotton pickers in 1949, and the company hired Rust to improve their machine so it would work properly in the Delta. Delta planters had a narrow window to pick their cotton, from the instant the crop was mature in late-September to around 20 October, when the rains always came, which amounted to about four weeks.
Demand for the mechanical cotton picker among younger cotton growers was very high, and it was in this agricultural landscape that the competition for dominance among the farm implement companies. Pearson (with Rust), Harvester, and John Deere were all competing against each other to convince cotton growers that their mechanical cotton picker was supreme.
Southern whites agreed that their future was with the coming mechanical cotton picker, and Harvester had built a factory in Memphis, which boded well. Harvester built 1000 machines in 1948, priced at $7600 ($76,000+ in 2015 dollars), and was mounted on a tractor . . . and it was tax deductible. 1948 was the year that convinced cotton growers to go mechanical; they had a good cotton crop, but they didn't have nearly enough workers to pick the crop.
Competition for building mechanical cotton pickers started in 1949, and cotton growers in California had the best experience using the machine. However, conditions in the Mississippi Delta were not as manageable compared to California. Pearson built 50 mechanical cotton pickers in 1949, and the company hired Rust to improve their machine so it would work properly in the Delta. Delta planters had a narrow window to pick their cotton, from the instant the crop was mature in late-September to around 20 October, when the rains always came, which amounted to about four weeks.
Demand for the mechanical cotton picker among younger cotton growers was very high, and it was in this agricultural landscape that the competition for dominance among the farm implement companies. Pearson (with Rust), Harvester, and John Deere were all competing against each other to convince cotton growers that their mechanical cotton picker was supreme.
By 1952, 10,000 mechanical cotton pickers were in use, and by 1955 the number was up to 20,000. By 1955, 25% of the total cotton crop was harvested by mechanical pickers, and by 1960, it was up to 55%. Also, it had taken 130 hours to pick a bale of cotton before, but with the mechanical cotton picker, it took 45 hours. From the beginning-to-the-end with cotton (seeds-to-harvest), mechanization meant that only 15 man-hours of work per acre were needed, compared to 155 man-hours of work per acre before the machine.
Rust died in 1954, living long enough to see his invention roll off assembly lines. However, his mechanical cotton picker didn't help small cotton growers as he had envisioned. What occurred was that the mechanical cotton picker became a boon to corporate agriculture.
** Emmitt Till postscript: Sheriff Strider's nephew, Jesse, was elected sheriff in nearby Grenada county, and he was the antithesis of his uncle. Jesse helped rid the county of the KKK, and he hired African-American deputies. Jesse even appeared on TV to endorse an African-American candidate for Congress, which turned the election in favor of the candidate . . . slowly, very slowly, some social change was occurring in the American South in the 1950s.
Rust died in 1954, living long enough to see his invention roll off assembly lines. However, his mechanical cotton picker didn't help small cotton growers as he had envisioned. What occurred was that the mechanical cotton picker became a boon to corporate agriculture.
** Emmitt Till postscript: Sheriff Strider's nephew, Jesse, was elected sheriff in nearby Grenada county, and he was the antithesis of his uncle. Jesse helped rid the county of the KKK, and he hired African-American deputies. Jesse even appeared on TV to endorse an African-American candidate for Congress, which turned the election in favor of the candidate . . . slowly, very slowly, some social change was occurring in the American South in the 1950s.