Data shows people have been leaving Cleveland since the 1930s

Was it the Great Flood of 1927? Perhaps the mechanization of farms? Failed industries? No matter what the cause the facts show that since the 1930s both the black and white population of Bolivar County has decreased. Federal Census data shows that beginning in the 1930s both races have dwindled. Delta State Professor Albert Nylander has been studying the data.

“If you go back 100 years there’s actually been a higher percentage of blacks that have left the Delta than whites,” Nylander explained. “About 49 percent of blacks have left the Delta since 1930 and about 46 percent of the whites.”

More blacks moved after the 1927 Flood causing areas like Detroit and Chicago to expand its black population and carry that Delta heritage and influence through such things as blues music and food to the far reaches of Yankee country.

The “white flight” has taken place more in the past four decades dating back to 1970. And according to Nylander a “remigration of blacks to Mississippi.”

The Delta area was hit quite hard according to Nylander’s research.

“In 1930, the core 11 counties of the study in the Delta had 418,000 people and in 2010 we had 223,000 — a change of almost 47 percent. And if you break that down by race from 1940 to 2010, white population went from 116,000 to 61,000 and black population went from 313,000 to about 156,000.”

Problems stemming from the Great Flood that created a more mechanized farm structure with less workers and the overall failure of the BAWI act.

“You begin to lose your employment base and Governor Hugh White started the ‘Balance Agriculture with Industry’ Act where they tried to bring in industry to support the loss of agriculture needs.”

The act brought in businesses but a large percentage of those went out of business creating higher unemployment numbers and more people having to move to find work. Through those factors, Bolivar County was hard hit with population losses each decade.

“Bolivar County has lost population every decade since 1930,” he explained. “We started at 71,000 and then decreased to 67,000, 63,000, 54,000, 49,000, 45,000 and 34,000. We’ve not had a positive net growth at any time during that time.”

The white population numbers for Bolivar County since 1940 has fallen from 18,070, rose to 19,868 in 1950, fell to 17,521 in 1960, rose to 18,750 in 1970 then started a for decade slide going from 16,986 (1980), 15,259 (1990), 13,507 (2010) and 11,446 (2010) for a negative change of 37 percent.