THE SITUATION IN ST. LOUIS
It will be both interesting and profitable to follow these migrants
into their new homes in the North. Among the most interesting of these
communities is the black colony in St. Louis. St. Louis is one of the
first cities of the border States, a city first in the memory of the
unsettled migrant when the North was mentioned. During a long period
thousands had gone there, settled down for a while and moved on,
largely to Illinois, a sort of promised land. Conservative estimates
place the number of negro migrants who have remained there at 10,000.
The number of migrants passing through this city, its reception
of them, the living conditions provided and the community interest
displayed in grappling with the problem are facts extremely necessary
to an understanding of the readjustment of the migrants in the North.
The composition of the city's population is significant. It has a
large foreign element. Of the foreign population Germans predominate,
probably because of the brewery industry of the American white
population. The southern whites are of longest residence and dominate
the sentiment. The large industrial growth of the town, however, has
brought great numbers of northern whites. The result is a sort of
mixture of traditions. The apparent results of this mixture may
be observed in these inconsistencies; separate schools, but common
transportation facilities; separate playgrounds, but common bath
houses; separate theaters and restaurants with the color line drawn as
strictly as in the South.[102] There has been considerable migration
of whites to this city from Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and
Mississippi.
As there are separate schools in St. Louis, the statistics of the St.
Louis system may serve as an index to the sources and the increase
of the negro population. The school population was known to increase
approximately 500 between 1916 and 1917.[103] The school registration
shows communities in which have settled numbers of families from the
same State and even the same town. For example, in the vicinity of the
Dessalines School in the 1700 block on 12th Street, North, Mississippi
colonists are in preponderant majority. The towns represented here are
located in the northeastern part of that State. In the vicinity of
the L'Overture School are distinct colonies from west Tennessee and
Alabama. On Lawton Avenue, another popular street, Mississippians also
are in majority. What makes migration to St. Louis from these
States easy is probably its convenient location and direct railway
communication with them. There has been no influx from Texas and
Florida.
How St. Louis secured her migrants makes an interesting story. The
difficulty of apprehending labor agents can be appreciated when it is
recalled that the most zealous efforts of authority in the majority
of cases failed to find more than a trace of where they had been
operating. It was asserted by many of the migrants to this city,
however, that they had been approached at some time by agents. Large
industrial plants located in the satellite city of St. Louis sent men
to Cairo, a junction point, to meet incoming trains and make offers.
There developed a competition for men. They were first induced to
accept jobs in smaller towns, but lack of recreational facilities
and amusements and the monotony of life attracted them to the bright
lights of St. Louis. The large alien population of this city at the
beginning of the war made some employers anxious about the safety
of their plants. The brick yards had been employing foreigners
exclusively. When war began so many left that it was felt that their
business was in danger. They advertised for 3,000 negroes, promising
them $2.35 per day. The railroad construction companies sent out
men to attract negroes to the city. They assert, however, that their
agents solicited men only after they had started for the North.[104]
The industries of St. Louis had much to do with the migration. In
this city there are more than twenty breweries. None of these employ
negroes. St. Louis also has a large shoe industry. In this line no
negroes are employed. A short while ago a large steel plant employing
foreigners in large numbers had a strike. The strike was settled but
the management took precautions against its repetition. For each
white person employed a negro was placed on a corresponding job. This
parallel extended from unskilled work to the highest skilled pursuits.
The assumption was that a strike, should it recur, could not cripple
their industry entirely. About 80 per cent of the employes of the
brick yards, 50 per cent of the employes of the packing houses, 50
per cent of the employes of the American Car and Foundry Company are
negroes. The terra cotta works, electrical plants, united railways and
a number of other foundries employ negroes in large numbers.[105]
The range of wages for unskilled work is $2.25 to $3.35 per day, with
an average wage of about $2.75. For some skilled work negroes receive
from 35 cents to 50 cents an hour. Wages differ even between St. Louis
and East St. Louis, because of a difference in the types of industries
in the two cities. Domestic service has been literally drained, and
wages here have been forced upwards to approximate in some measure the
increase in other lines.
The housing facilities for negroes, though not the best, are superior
to such accommodations in most southern cities. There are about six
communities in which the negroes are in the majority. Houses here are
as a rule old, having been occupied by whites before they were turned
over to negroes. Before the migration to the city, property owners
reported that they could not keep their houses rented half of the
year. According to the statements of real estate men, entire blocks
stood vacant, and many vacant houses, after windows had been broken
and plumbing stolen, were wrecked to avoid paying taxes on them. Up
to the period of the riot in East St. Louis, houses were easily
available. The only congestion experienced at all followed the
overnight increase of 7,000 negroes from East St. Louis, after the
riot. Rents then jumped 25 per cent, but normal conditions soon
prevailed. Sanitation is poor, but the women coming from the South, in
the opinion of a reputable physician of the city, are good housewives.
New blacks have been added to all of the negro residential blocks.
In the tenement district there have been no changes. The select negro
residential section is the abandoned residential district of the
whites. Few new houses have been built. An increase of rent from $5 to
$10 per month is usually the sequel of the turning over of a house to
negroes.
Community interest in the situation was at first dormant but not
entirely lacking. The migration was well under way before there was
any organization to make an adjustment in this unusual situation.
Interested individuals made sporadic efforts to bring pressure to bear
here and there, but the situation was not really appreciated until the
outbreak in East St. Louis. There is an active branch of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and just recently
there has been established a branch of the National League on
Urban Conditions among Negroes to deal with the peculiarly local
problems.[106]
East St. Louis, another attractive center for the migrants, is unique
among northern industrial cities. It is an industrial offshoot of St.
Louis, which has outstripped its parent in expansion. Its geographical
advantage has made it a formidable rival even with its less developed
civic institutions. Perched on the banks of the Mississippi River,
with twenty-seven railroads radiating from it, within easy reach
of the coal mines, there has been made possible a rapid and uneven
growth. It has doubled its population for three successive decades.
Revolving around this overgrown center are a number of small towns:
Brooklyn, Lovejoy, Belleville, Venice, Granite City and Madison. Its
plant owners live in St. Louis and other cities, and consequently have
little civic interest in East St. Louis. Land is cheaper, taxes
are low. In fact, some of the largest concerns have been accused of
evading them entirely. It has been artificially fed and, in process
of growth, there have been irregularities in the structure of the
community which eventually culminated in the greatest disgrace of the
North, the massacre of about one hundred negroes.
Fifty years ago before the river dividing St. Louis from East St.
Louis was bridged, men rowed over from St. Louis for their cock
fights, dog fights and prize fights. Escaped prisoners found a haven
there. The town was called "The Bloody Isle." The older population
is made up of whites from West Tennessee, Mississippi, Kentucky and
Georgia. The men who have risen to political prominence in the
city are for the most part saloon keepers. As many as 100 saloons
flourished in the town before the riot. The city government has always
been bad. The attitude of the citizenry appeared to be that of passive
acceptance of conditions which must not be interfered with. As an
example of the state of mind, much surprise was manifested when an
investigation of the rioting was begun. Criminals have been known to
buy immunity. The mayor was assassinated some time ago and little or
no effort was made to punish his murderers.
Long before an influx was felt, it had been foreseen and mentioned by
several men, most notably, Mr. Charles Nagel, Secretary of Commerce
and Labor under President Taft. The East St. Louis plants had been
going to Ellis Island for laborers. When this supply was checked,
steps were taken to secure negroes. Agents were sent to Cairo to get
men en route further North. One advertisement which appeared in a
Texas paper promised negroes $3.05 a day and houses. It is estimated
that as a result of this beckoning the increase in population due to
the migration was 5,000. A number of other negro migrants, however,
work in East St. Louis and live in St. Louis, Lovejoy and Brooklyn,
a negro town. The school registration of the city showed that the
largest numbers of these blacks came from Mississippi and West
Tennessee. Despite the advertisement for men in Texas newspapers, few
came to this city from that State.[107]
The industries requiring the labor of these negroes were numerous.
The packing plants of Swift, Armour, Nelson and Morris employ large
numbers of negroes. In some of the unskilled departments fifty per
cent of the employes are black. The Aluminum Ore Works employs about
600 blacks and 1,000 whites. This is the plant in which occurred
the strike which in a measure precipitated the riot. The Missouri
Malleable Iron Works makes it a policy to keep three classes of men at
work and as nearly equal numerically as possible. The usual division
is one-third foreign whites, one-third American whites and one-third
blacks. The theory is that these three elements will not unite to
strike. Negroes are also employed in the glass works, cotton presses
and transfer yards. Their wages for unskilled work ranges from $2.75
to $3.75 generally for eight hours a day. Semiskilled work pays from
35 cents to 50 cents an hour.
The housing of the negro migrants was one of the most perplexing
problems in East St. Louis. The type of houses available for negroes,
before being burned during the riot, were small dilapidated cottages.
Congestion, of course, was a problem which accompanied the influx of
negroes. The incoming population, consisting largely of lodgers, was
a misfit in the small cottages designed for families, and they were
generally neglected by the tenant and by the local authorities.
The segregated vice district was located in the negro locality. The
crowding which followed the influx forced some few negroes into the
white localities. Against this invasion there was strong opposition
which culminated in trouble.[108]
The roots of the fateful horror that made East St. Louis notorious,
however, are to be found largely in a no less notorious civic
structure. Politics of a shady nature was the handmaiden of the local
administration. The human fabric of the town was made up of sad types
of rough, questionable characters, drawn to the town by its industries
and the money that flowed from them. There was a large criminal
element. These lived in a little corner of the town, where was
located also the segregated vice district. Negroes were interested in
politics. In fact, they were a considerable factor and succeeded in
placing in office several black men of their choice.
Trouble started at the Aluminum Ore Works which employed a large
number of whites and blacks. In February of 1917 the men struck while
working on government contracts. Immediately, it is claimed, negroes
were sought for in other States to take their places. An adjustment
was made, but it lasted only a short while. Then followed a second
strike at which the employers balked. In this they felt reasonably
secure for negroes were then pouring into the city from the South
during the spring exodus. There followed numerous evidences of
brooding conflict such as insults on the street cars, comments and
excitement over the daily arrival of large numbers from the South.
On one day three hundred are said to have arrived. Standing on
the streets, waiting for cars, lost in wandering about the streets
searching for homes, the negroes presented a helpless group. The
search for homes carried them into the most undesirable sections.
Here the scraggy edges of society met. The traditional attitude of
unionists toward negroes began to assert itself. Fear that such
large numbers would weaken present and subsequent demands aroused
considerable opposition to their presence. Meetings were held,
exciting speeches were made and street fights became common. The East
St. Louis _Journal_ is said to have printed a series of articles under
the caption, "Make East St. Louis a Lily White Town." It was a
simple matter of touching off the smoldering tinder. In the riot that
followed over a hundred negroes were killed. These, for the most part
lived away from the places of the most violent disturbances, and were
returning home, unconscious of the fate that awaited them. The riot
has recently been subject to a congressional investigation, but
few convictions resulted and those whites convicted escaped serious
punishment.[109]
[Footnote 102: A segregation law was passed by an overwhelming
majority. Negroes secured an injunction and the matter rested there
until the United States Supreme Court declared the segregation laws
invalid.]
[Footnote 103: St. Louis School Reports, 1916 and 1917.]
[Footnote 104: Johnson, _Report on the Migration to St. Louis_.]
[Footnote 105: Ibid.]
[Footnote 106: _Reports of the National Urban League_, 1916, 1917.]
[Footnote 107: Johnson, _Report on the Migration to St. Louis_.]
[Footnote 108: See _Congressional Report on the Massacre of East St.
Louis_.]
[Footnote 109: See _Congressional Report on the Massacre of East St.
Louis_.]