Booker T. Washington once implored southern Blacks to ''cast down your buckets where you are,'' in an effort to keep them from leaving the region. Washington's call fell upon deaf ears and soon, the mass migration from the Jim Crow South began.

The exodus was a result of greater economic and political opportunity for Blacks in the north. In the early 20th century, many southern Blacks left their roots for cities like Chicago, New York, Philadelphia and Boston.

Now in a dramatic shift, Blacks are returning down south for the same reasons they once left.

During the 1990s, the South's Black population increased by four million, more than any other region of the country. While the region still struggles with vast racial divides, many young African Americans are now returning to the land that was once inhabited by their parents and grandparents.

”Many Blacks are returning to the South for job opportunities and cheaper living,” said James Johnson Jr., director of the Urban Investment Strategies Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “But, many are also returning to take care of older family members they may have left behind years ago.”

Forty-six of the 100 largest Black-owned industrial and service companies are in the South, which is more than any other region in the country, according to Black Enterprise magazine. Forty-three of the 100 largest Black-owned auto dealerships are there, as well as 14 of the 25 biggest Black-owned banks. The top eight cities for African Americans in the magazine’s yearly list were all in the South: Atlanta placed first, followed by Washington, D.C., Dallas, Nashville, Houston, Charlotte, Birmingham, and Memphis.

“The South has undergone a demographic and economic transformation,” said Johnson. “One example is the city of Atlanta and its strong commitment to Black business development.”

Atlanta, the birthplace of Martin Luther King, Jr., has established itself as the Black capital of the South. Numerous Black colleges and a burgeoning hip-hop scene have also been a major attraction for young Blacks.

Besides education and music, housing has also been a major factor in attracting Blacks to the city. The Black population of metro Atlanta doubled between 1990 and 2004. In recent years, nearly twice as many Blacks as whites have been moving to the city.

Housing prices in much of the South have remained affordable. According to 2005 third-quarter data published by the National Association of Realtors, the median home price in the greater Atlanta and metro Dallas areas are below $180,000, which is about 20 percent below the national median price of $215,900. Meanwhile, the median price for a home in the New York

City area is about twice the national level.

The median price of a single family home in the metropolitan areas of the Northeast and West has climbed almost 15 percent in the last year.

In addition to Atlanta, Blacks are a majority of the population and political force in Baltimore, Ma; Richmond, Va.; Birmingham, Ala.; Jackson, Miss.; and New Orleans, La. In six states below the Mason-Dixon Line, namely Maryland, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana’s Blacks are at least a quarter of the population. More than 50 percent of the country’s 35 million Blacks live in this region.

The nation's retirement market has also been a big reason for the migration. Historically, retirement community developers have ignored Blacks because they are only 13 percent of the population. Another reason is that Blacks usually stay put when they retire, unlike whites.

“We never really had the ability to retire because we work for so long,” said Johnson

But Blacks' earnings are rising and so are their home ownership rates.

“The in-migration market has almost always exclusively been white,'' Dan Owens, founder of Carolina’s Active Retirement Association, told USA Today. “As baby boomers come along, there's a new generation with wealth and mobility in all segments.”

William Frey, a demographer for the Brookings Institution, believes Blacks see returning to the South as a homecoming.

“Whites who are moving there are doing it for the economy, the warm weather, the amenities; they're not moving there to eat grits and become Southerners,” said Frey. “For Blacks, the economy's important for them too. But they see it as coming home. There's a strong cultural bond.”

The South will comprise 40 percent of the nation's population by 2030, according to a new Associated Press poll.