 The cotton culture had been affected by the invasion of the boll weevil, which attacked the plants; and mechanization of agriculture, reducing the need for workers.In this period, many African-American families, who still constituted most of the farm workers, also left Arkansas and other parts of the rural South to escape Jim Crow oppression and seek better employment in Northern and Midwestern cities in the Great Migration.In the latter part of this period, some migrated to the West Coast, where the defense industry developed during and after World War II offered higher paying jobs.