<P> In the early 20th century, invasion of the boll weevil devastated cotton crops in the South, producing an additional catalyst to African Americans' decisions to leave the South . From 1910 to 1940, and then from the 1940s to 1970, more than 6.5 million African Americans left the South in the Great Migration to northern and midwestern cities, defecting from persistent lynching, violence, segregation, poor education, and inability to vote . Black migration transformed many Northern cities, creating new cultures and music . Many African Americans, like other groups, became industrial workers; others started their own businesses within the communities . Southern whites also migrated to industrial cities, especially Chicago and Detroit, where they took jobs in the booming new auto industry . </P> <P> Later, the Southern economy was dealt additional blows by the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl . After the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the economy suffered significant reversals and millions were left unemployed . Beginning in 1934 and lasting until 1939, an ecological disaster of severe wind and drought caused an exodus from Texas and Arkansas, the Oklahoma Panhandle region, and the surrounding plains, in which over 500,000 Americans were homeless, hungry and jobless . Thousands left the region forever to seek economic opportunities along the West Coast . </P> <P> President Franklin D. Roosevelt noted the South as the "number one priority" in terms of need of assistance during the Great Depression . His administration created programs such as the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1933 to provide rural electrification and stimulate development . Locked into low - productivity agriculture, the region's growth was slowed by limited industrial development, low levels of entrepreneurship, and the lack of capital investment . </P> <P> World War II marked a time of change in the South as new industries and military bases were developed by the Federal government, providing badly needed capital and infrastructure in many regions . People from all parts of the US came to the South for military training and work in the region's many bases and new industries . Farming shifted from cotton and tobacco to include soybeans, corn, and other foods . </P>

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