Negro Migration From the Shreveport Area. Causes and Suggested Remedies [Cover title]

[Shreveport, Louisiana]: [Shreveport Journal], 1945. Good. 9" x 6". Stapled selfwrappers. Pp. 8. Good: several ink blots, affecting a couple characters of text; outer bifolium loose from bottom staple; faint water stains to edges; a few penciled notations and visible scratches.

This is an offprint of a report lamenting the migration of African Americans from the Shreveport area due to racism and fear. It provides suggestions to improve race relations and working conditions for African Americans in the South, and was written by the first Black juvenile detective in Caddo Parish, Frank Jameson.

Per contemporary newspaper accounts, Frank Jameson served as a case worker for the Caddo Relief Administration and as "Negro probation officer" for Caddo Parish from the 1930s to the 1970s. His work led to the 1935 organization of the "colored children's bureau" of Shreveport, a welfare group, and by 1953 he was the first Black member of a Caddo Parish juvenile investigation team. Jameson died in 1977, and the Caddo Parish Police Jury published a resolution in his honor, calling him "a gentleman of the highest character . . . a credit to his family, community, church and those with whom he worked." T

his investigative report was originally printed in the Shreveport Journal in 1945. In the report, Jameson referred to the migration of African Americans from Shreveport and the broader South as a "first-rate problem" for the labor force and the economy. He conducted interviews with African Americans who had migrated out as well as those still in the Shreveport area. His investigation found that the flight was not in search of "so-called 'greater opportunities'" but instead due to "a deep, dreaded underlying feeling of fear . . . of group helplessness . . . of violent harm . . . of impending doom." To combat this fear, Jameson posited that city and industry leaders could "establish a feeling of security, freedom from harm, and the impression of helpfulness and concern among and for Negroes." The report related job opportunities and other benefits for African Americans in the South and warned of the cost of real estate and living out West. It also included a reminder that "the 'Negro Section' is a part of all America, not just the South."

A compelling investigation conducted by an advocate for Black lives in Shreveport, urging better living and working conditions to combat racism and fear. OCLC shows no holdings of this offprint.