It should be noted that unlike some of the other migrations it has not been directed to any particular State.

It has been from almost all Southern States to various parts of the North and especially to the largest cities.[20] What classes then have migrated?
In the first place, the Negro politicians, who, after the restoration of Bourbon rule in the South, found themselves thrown out of office and often humiliated and impoverished, had to find some way out of the difficulty.

Some few have been relieved by sympathetic leaders of the Republican party, who secured for them federal appointments in Washington.

These appointments when sometimes paying lucrative salaries have been given as a reward to those Negroes who, although dethroned in the South, remain in touch with the remnant of the Republican party there and control the delegates to the national conventions nominating candidates for President.

Many Negroes of this class have settled in Washington.[21] In some cases, the observer witnesses the pitiable scene of a man once a prominent public functionary in the South now serving in Washington as a messenger or a clerk.
The well-established blacks, however, have not been so easily induced to go.