THE SITUATION AT POINTS IN THE MIDDLE WEST
The most important city in this section to be affected by the
migration was Pittsburgh, the gateway to the West. The Pittsburgh
district is the center of the steel industry. For this reason, the war
caused the demand for labor to be extremely heavy there. Pittsburgh
was one of the centers to which the greatest number of negroes went.
Before the migration, a considerable number of negroes were employed
there. In 1900, the negro population of Allegheny county, in which
Pittsburgh is situated, was 27,753. In 1910 it was 34,217. When the
migration began, the county had about 38,000 negroes. Investigations
and estimates indicate that, at the end of 1917, the negro population
of the county had increased to almost 66,000. Epstein in his survey of
_The Negro Migrant in Pittsburgh_ said:[127]
From a canvass of twenty typical industries in the Pittsburgh
district, it was found that there were 2,550 negroes employed
in 1915, and 8,325 in 1917, an increase of 5,775 or 227 per
cent. It was impossible to obtain labor data from more than
approximately sixty per cent of the negro employing concerns,
but it is fair to assume that the same ratio of increase holds
true of the remaining forty per cent. On this basis the number
of negroes now employed in the district may be placed at
14,000. This means that there are about 9,750 more negroes
working in the district today than there were in 1915, an
addition due to the migration from the South.
According to Epstein, the migration had been going on for little
longer than one year. Ninety-three per cent of those who gave the time
of residence in Pittsburgh had been there less than one year. More
than eighty per cent of the single men interviewed had been there
less than six months. In the number who had been there for the longest
period, married men predominated, showing the tendency of this class
to become permanent residents. This fact becoming evident, some
industrial concerns bringing men from the South, having learned from
bitter experience that the mere delivery of negroes from a southern
city did not guarantee a sufficient supply of labor, made an effort to
secure married men only, and even to investigate them prior to their
coming. Differences in recruiting methods may also explain why some
employers and labor agents hold a very optimistic view of the negro as
a worker, while others despair of him. The reason why Pittsburgh has
been unable to secure a stable labor force is doubtless realized by
the local manufacturers. Married negroes come to the North to stay.
They desire to have their families with them, and if they are not
accompanied North by their wives and children they plan to have them
follow at the earliest possible date.
It would appear that the stability of the labor supply depended to a
very large extent upon the housing conditions. It was found that in
many instances men who had families went to other cities where they
hoped to find better accommodations. The Pittsburgh manufacturer will
never keep an efficient labor supply of negroes until he learns to
compete with the employers of other cities in a housing program as
well as in wages. The negro migration in Pittsburgh, however, did not
cause a displacement of white laborers. Every man was needed, as there
were more jobs than men to fill them. Pittsburgh's industrial life was
for a time dependent upon the negro labor supply, and the city has not
received a sufficient supply of negroes, and certainly not so many
as smaller industrial towns, although the railroads and a few of
the industrial concerns of the locality have had labor agents in the
South. Yet, in spite of the difficulties because of the obstructive
tactics adopted in certain southern communities to prevent the negro
exodus, they have nevertheless succeeded in bringing several thousand
negroes into this district. "One company, for instance," says Epstein,
"which imported about a thousand men within the past year, had only
about three hundred of these working at the time of the investigator's
visit in July, 1917. One railroad, which is said to have brought about
fourteen thousand people to the North within the last twelve months,
has been able to keep an average of only eighteen hundred at work."
These companies, however, have failed to hold the newcomers.
The problems created by this sudden increase of Pittsburgh's
population were very grave. In the early part of 1917, plans were
formulated to make a social survey of the migrants in Pittsburgh.
Cooperating in this survey were the University of Pittsburgh, the
Associated Charities, the Social Service Commission of the Churches of
Christ and the National League on Urban Conditions among Negroes.
In March, 1917, the director of the Department of Public Health,
instructed the sanitary inspectors to pay special attention to all
premises occupied by the "newcomers." Another step in this direction
was the establishment in that city of a branch of the National League
on Urban Conditions among Negroes.
A survey made in 1917 showed that the housing situation was the most
serious aspect of the migrants' social problems, and that in order
to have improvements in other lines housing conditions must be made
better. Because of the high cost of materials and labor incident
to the war, because the taxation system still does not encourage
improvements and because of investment attractions other than in
realty, few houses had been built and practically no improvements had
been made. This was most strikingly apparent in the poorer sections of
the city. In the negro sections, for instance, there had been almost
no houses added and few vacated by whites within the previous two
years. The addition, therefore, of thousands of negroes just arrived
from southern States meant not only the creation of new negro quarters
and the dispersion of negroes throughout the city, but also the utmost
utilization of every place in the negro sections capable of being
transformed into habitations. Attics and cellars, storerooms and
basements, churches, sheds and warehouses had to be employed for the
accommodation of these newcomers. Whenever a negro had space which he
could possibly spare, it was converted into a sleeping place; as many
beds as possible were crowded into it, and the maximum number of
men per bed were lodged. Either because their own rents were high or
because they were unable to withstand the temptation of the sudden,
and, for all they knew, temporary harvest, or perhaps because of the
altruistic desire to assist their race fellows, a majority of the
negroes in Pittsburgh converted their homes into lodging houses.
Because rooms were hard to come by the lodgers were not
disposed to complain about the living conditions or the prices
charged. They were only too glad to secure a place where they
could share a half or at least a part of an unclaimed bed. It
was no easy task to find room for a family, as most boarding
houses would accept only single men, and refused to admit
women and children. Many a man, who with his family occupied
only one or two rooms, made place for a friend or former
townsman and his family. In many instances this was done from
unselfish motives and in a humane spirit.[128]
How the negroes are employed will throw more light on their situation.
The Epstein investigation showed that
Ninety-five per cent of the migrants who stated their
occupations were doing unskilled labor, in the steel mills,
the building trades, on the railroads, or acting as servants,
porters, janitors, cooks and cleaners. Only twenty, or
four per cent out of 493 migrants whose occupations were
ascertained, were doing what may be called semiskilled
or skilled work, as puddlers, mold-setters, painters and
carpenters. On the other hand, in the South 59 out of 529
claimed to have been engaged in skilled labor, while a large
number were rural workers.
The following table shows the occupations of migrants in Pittsburgh as
compared with statements of occupations in the South:
Occupations In Pittsburgh % In South %
Common laborer 468 95 286 54
Skilled
or semiskilled 20 4 59 11
Farmer -- -- 81 15
Miner -- -- 36 7
Sawmill workers -- -- 9 2
Ran own farm or
father's farm -- -- 22 5
Ran farm on crop
sharing basis -- -- 33 6
Other occupations 5 1 0 0
It seems clear that most of the migrants were engaged in unskilled
labor. The reason given by the manufacturers in accounting for this
disparity were that the migrants are inefficient and unstable, and
that the opposition to them on the part of the white labor prohibits
their use on skilled jobs.[1] Ninety-five per cent of the negro
workers in the steel mills were unskilled laborers. "In the bigger
plants," says the investigator, "where many hundreds of negroes are
employed, almost one hundred per cent are doing common labor, while
in the smaller plants, a few might be found doing labor which required
some skill." Epstein believes that this idea is often due to the
prejudice of the heads of departments and other labor employers. A
sympathetic superintendent of one of the large steel plants said that
in many instances it was the superintendents and managers themselves
who are not alive to their own advantage, and so oppose the negroes in
doing the better classes of work. The same superintendent said that
he had employed negroes for many years; that a number of them had been
connected with his company for several years; that they are just
as efficient as the white people. More than half of the twenty-five
negroes in his plant were doing semiskilled and even skilled work. He
had one or two negro foremen over negro gangs, and cited an instance
of a black man drawing $114 in his last two weeks' pay. This claim
was supported by a very intelligent negro who was stopped a few blocks
away from the plant and questioned as to the conditions there. While
admitting everything that the superintendent said, and stating that
there is now absolute free opportunity for negroes in that plant,
the man asserted that these conditions have obtained within the last
year.[129]
It was found that in the Pittsburgh district the great mass of workers
get higher wages than in the places from which they come. Fifty-six
per cent received less than $2 a day in the South, while only five per
cent received such wages in Pittsburgh. However, the number of those
who said they received high wages in the South is greater than the
number of those receiving them there. Fifteen per cent said they
received more than $3.60 a day at home, while only five per cent
said they received more than that rate for twelve hours' work there.
Sixty-seven per cent of the 453 persons stating their earnings here,
earn less than $3 a day. Twenty-eight per cent earn from $3 to $3.60 a
day, while only five per cent earn more than $3.60 a day. The average
working day for both Pittsburgh and the South is ten and four-tenths
hours. The average wage is $2.85 here; in the South it amounted to
$2.15. It may be interesting to point out that the number of married
men who work longer hours and receive more money is proportionately
greater than that of the single men, who have not "given hostage to
fortune."
Judging from what has been said about the habits of living among the
negro migrants in Pittsburgh, they are of the best class of their
race. Chief among those to be mentioned is their tendency to abstain
from the use of intoxicants although it has often been said that the
cause of the migration from the South was due to the desire of negroes
in prohibition States to go where they may make free use of whisky.
In this city it was observed that out of 470 persons who answered
questions with reference to whether or not they imbibed only 210 of
them said that they drank, while 267 made no use of intoxicants at
all. It was also observed that among those who have families, the
percentage of those addicted to drink is much smaller than that of
others who are single or left their families in the South. This,
no doubt, accounts for the orderly conduct of these negroes who,
according to statistics, have not experienced a wave of crime. The
records of the courts show numerous small offenses charged to the
account of negroes, but these usually result from temptations
and snares set by institutions of vice which are winked at by the
community.
These negroes, on the whole, are thrifty and will eventually attach
themselves permanently to the community through the acquisition
of desirable property and elevation to positions of trust in the
industries where they are employed. Evidences of the lazy and
shiftless and the immoral are not frequent, because of a sort of
spirit of thrift pervading the whole group. Many of the families have
savings accounts in banks, and practically all of the married men
separated from their families in the South send a large portion of
their earnings from time to time. Money order receipts and stubs of
checks examined show that these remittances to distant families range
from between $5 to $10 a week. Others have seen fit to divert
their income to objects more enterprising. They are educating their
children, purchasing homes and establishing businesses to minister to
the needs of their own peculiar group.
In view of the desirability of most migrants in this city, several
persons have seen fit to make a comparison of the negro and foreign
labor, with a view to determining whether or not the employment
of negroes in the North will be permanent, as they may easily be
displaced by the foreigners immigrating into this country in the
future. The consensus of opinion is that the blacks are profitable
laborers, but that their efficiency must be decidedly increased to
compete with that of the white workers. Some of the faults observed
are that they are as yet unadapted to the "heavy and pace-set labor
in the steel mills." Accustomed to the comparatively easy going
plantation and farm work of the South, it will take some time for
these migrants to find themselves. "They can not even be persuaded to
wait until pay day, and they like to get money in advance, following
the habit that they acquired from the southern credit system. It is
often secured on very flimsy pretexts and spent immediately in the
saloons and similar places." Yet the very persons who make this
estimate of the negro laborer say that the negroes born in the North
or who have been in the North some time are as efficient as the
whites, and that because of their knowledge of the language and the
ways of this country, they are often much better than the foreign
laborers who understand neither.
The principal industrial centers in Ohio to which the migrants went
were Cincinnati, Middletown, Akron, Dayton, Springfield, Youngstown,
Columbus and Cleveland. The city which took the lead in endeavoring
to handle the migration problem was Cleveland. This was due to
a considerable extent to the fact that the housing conditions in
Cleveland were especially bad. Investigations made in the summer of
1917 by the Chamber of Commerce showed that housing conditions never
were so in need of remedying as they were at that time. The influx of
negroes, thousands of whom were living in box cars on railway sidings,
was only one feature of the problem, investigators say. In nearly
every part of the city, and especially in the vicinity of large
manufacturing plants, workers are herded together, paying as much as
$8 a week for a single room for a whole family.[130]
The Cleveland Welfare Federation appointed a committee composed
of representatives of both races, to study problems made acute in
Cleveland by the recent incoming of probably 10,000 negroes from the
South. At the first meeting of this committee, August 3, 1917, the
city welfare department announced that 61 per cent of the men in the
workhouse at Warrensville were negroes and that of 100 women 66 were
negroes. The normal proportion of negroes in the workhouse before
the migration began was about 10 per cent, he said. This had mounted
rapidly in the last year. It was brought out that the cause of
this increase lay in housing congestion, lack of opportunities for
recreation and because negro migrants are ignorant of the city's
customs, laws and ordinances. A subcommittee was therefore appointed
to look into this matter, as well as into that of perils surrounding
newly arrived negro girls. A subcommittee was also appointed to study
housing congestion and health problems. The secretary of the Cleveland
Real Estate Board reiterated that there were 10,000 houses, renting
at $25 and under, needed at the present time for both negro and white
residents, and that, owing to labor difficulties and the high price
of building materials, very little had been done to relieve the
situation. He stated that a partial solution could be found in
inducing both negro and white people who could afford to build or
buy houses to do so, and thus free more houses for those who can not
afford to buy them. It was asserted that unless something should be
done before cold weather the housing problem would become acute.[131]
To assist in meeting the house shortage a group of prominent negroes
organized "The Realty Housing and Investment Company."[132]
The negro churches and other organizations cooperated in the effort
to solve the problem of caring for the newly arrived negroes. In
December, 1917, all the organizations and agencies working to aid
the migrants were united in the Negro Welfare Association of
Cleveland.[133] William R. Connors, a negro social worker, was
employed as executive secretary of the new organization, beginning
January 1, and offices were opened in the Phyllis Wheatley Association
Building at East 40th Street and Central Avenue. The budget for the
first year was estimated at about $5,000.
The organization acted as a clearing house for all the problems
confronting the negro people there and cooperated with other agencies
in the following activities: relief work, nursing service, legal aid,
employment, promoting thrift, providing recreation through the public
schools and otherwise, studying the delinquency problem, caring for
discharged prisoners in cooperation with the workhouse and promoting
community singing. It investigated the social conditions among
negroes, with a view to establishing those agencies which are needed,
or to point out the needs to the organization already established. It
endeavored to educate the negro public to a full appreciation of the
possibilities of a definite social program and to its responsibility
for seeing that it is carried out.
In June, 1916, a call was issued for a statewide conference of
representative white and colored people to be held at the capital of
the State, Columbus, on July 12, 1916, to take steps toward caring for
the 100,000 negro migrants believed to have remained in Ohio. Among
those who signed the call were J. Walter Wills, President of Cleveland
Association of Colored Men; Reverend H.C. Bailey, President of
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; W.S.
Scarborough, President of Wilberforce University; Charles Johnson,
Superintendent of Champion Chemical Company, Springfield, and Edward
T. Banks, member of Charter Commission, Dayton.[134] The mayors of
Ohio cities named delegates to the conference. At this conference the
Ohio Federation for the Uplift of the Colored People was formed,
and an extensive program designed to improve economic and social
conditions was outlined. Branches of the Federation were soon
established at Akron, Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Dayton, Piqua,
Steubenville, Youngstown and other points.
Reports showing labor, housing, general welfare and health conditions
among the negroes throughout the State were compiled and distributed
broadcast. It was also decided to send lecturers through Ohio cities
to visit negro centers for the purpose of instilling within the race
a desire for better living conditions. A campaign was waged also to
bring about greater censorship of motion pictures. Efforts were made
to have the State Council of National Defense and the State and City
Labor Bureaus actively interest themselves in the problem of negro
employment.[135]
The State of Ohio also undertook an investigation of the migration
movement. Reports to the Ohio branch, Council of National Defense,
indicated a very serious situation resulting from the exodus of
negroes. An investigation at direction of Governor Cox was conducted
by the Council and State Department, to get as much information as
possible concerning the unprecedented migration. The first work was a
study of health conditions in several cities by the State Department
of Health, which took immediate steps to correct evils. The negroes
who were coming into the State were being crowded into the negro
sections of the various cities in such a way that the health of these
communities, in many cases was being seriously threatened. The Council
of National Defense asked the Ohio branch for information on
the migration, particularly to learn if it had been artificially
stimulated and accelerated by agencies that have paid so many dollars
a head for every negro from the South.[136]
Detroit, because of its importance as an industrial center, was one of
the places to which the largest number of migrants to Michigan
went. The negro population of the city in 1910 was 5,741. It is
now estimated that the city has between 25,000 and 35,000 blacks,
three-fourths or more of whom have come there during the past two
years. As elsewhere, the majority of the negroes are in unskilled
occupations. There is, however, a considerable number of skilled and
semiskilled workers. Detroit was formerly a city where the negro was
restricted to a very few lines of work.
The wartime pressing needs of the industrial enterprises have caused
the barriers to be removed. The available evidence that Detroit has
removed the barriers from the employment of negroes in many lines
is considerable. There were calls for 336 truckers, 160 molders, 109
machinists, 45 core makers and for a number of other miscellaneous
skilled and semiskilled men. Most of the women were wanted in domestic
and personal service in private homes, but 32 calls came from a
garment factory, 18 from a cigar factory and 19 for ushers in a
theater.
Their wages were exceptionally high according to Dr. George E. Haynes'
intensive study of the returns of 407 families. One received between
$30 and $39 a month; three received between $40 and $49, six received
between $60 and $69; 20 received between $70 and $79; 96 received
between $80 and $89; 6 received between $90 and $99; 27 received
between $100 and $119; 21 received between $120 and $129, and 4
received $140 or more a month. There was a man working at $6.30 a
day. The number of days they were employed a month could not be
ascertained. There were 161 men whose monthly wages were doubtful
or unknown, two men were the owners of a business and five were
unemployed. Of the 45 women who were the heads of families, 13 were
doing day's work at $2 a day and one at $2.50 a day, but the number
of days they were employed could not be ascertained and so the monthly
wages could not be calculated. There were two women earning between
$40 and $49 a month and three earning between $70 and $79 a month. The
monthly wages of 26 were doubtful or unknown. "As far as these figures
are typical of the wages of negro workmen in Detroit," says Dr.
Haynes, "they show that the prevailing wages of the men are from
about $70 to $119 a month; for, 159 of the 194 men whose wages were
ascertained were receiving wages ranging between these amounts. The
prevailing wage for women is about that of those doing day work, $2 a
day."[137]
In Detroit, as in other places, there is conflict of opinion as to
the value of the negro as a laborer. The survey of the migrants there
showed that there were diverse views about the suitability of negro
labor. Mr. Charles M. Culver, General Manager of the Detroit Employers
Association, thought some employers were highly pleased with negro
workmen and some were not. He said:
There are two lines of adverse opinion about the negro as a
workman; first, nine-tenths of the complaints of employers
are that he is too slow. He does not make the speed that the
routine of efficient industry demands. He is lacking in the
regularity demanded by routine of industry day by day.
Second, the negro has been observed to be disinclined to
work out-of-doors when the cold weather comes. Employers have
discussed this and have not found the negro satisfactory
on this point. Unless the negroes overcome this practice
employers will turn to other sources of supply when their
present extreme needs are past. Employers must have a labor
supply upon which they can depend at all seasons--laborers who
will work out-of-doors winter as well as summer.
Speaking of the colored women employed in the manufacture of garments
by the Krolick Company, Mr. Cohen, the superintendent, said his
greatest difficulty was in overcoming the timidity of the girls and in
inducing them to believe they can become successful operators and earn
good wages.
The peculiar situation caused by the sudden increase of the city's
negro population was met by organized efforts directed, in the main,
by the local branch of the National League on Urban Conditions among
Negroes, which here also took the lead in helping the migrants adjust
themselves.[138] Among the important things done by the league were
the establishing of a vocational bureau, a bureau of investigation
and information regarding houses, and a committee on recreation; the
inaugurating of a ten cent "newcomers" community dance, which was held
every Tuesday evening in a public school in the heart of the negro
district; the development of athletic features for the immigrants, and
the organization of a branch of "Camp Fire Girls." The league induced
one of the largest foundries to build low-priced homes for its negro
employes near the plant. It also somewhat relieved the housing problem
by the purchase of leases from the proprietresses of a number of
disorderly houses which were closed by the police. In each case the
league persuaded some manufacturer to take over the lease, and in this
way a large number of negro families were accommodated. It also kept a
list of vacant houses and was surprised to find how many of them were
not listed by commercial real estate agents.
The league persuaded the police commissioner to appoint a special
officer, selected by the league especially for the newcomers. It is
his duty to mingle with crowds on the streets where the newcomers
congregate and urge them not to make a nuisance of themselves by
blocking sidewalks, boisterous behavior and the like. He was also
provided with cards directing newcomers to the office of the league
when in need of employment. The league itself kept a close watch on
the negro underworld of Detroit and immediately apprised the police
when dives were developed especially to prey on the immigrant.
The Board of Commerce cooperated in a movement for the investigation
and improvement of working conditions of negro employes in the various
manufacturing plants in Detroit. The Board of Health gave considerable
assistance in obtaining better and more sanitary housing conditions.
The aid of several mothers' clubs among the colored women was enlisted
to instruct immigrant mothers in the proper diet and clothing for
children in a northern climate. From the outset, the aim was not only
to put each migrant in a decent home but also to connect him with
some church. Many times the churches reciprocated with considerable
material as well as spiritual assistance.
Valued cooperation was given by the Young Negroes' Progressive
Association, a body of thirty-four young colored men, most of whom
attended the various schools and colleges about Detroit. They
have been the finest possible agents in the development of all the
different activities. In the adjustment of the negro, a definite
place must be given to the development of industrial efficiency.
In pursuance of this object the league, with the assistance of the
Progressive Association, carried on a movement.[139] Representatives
of the two organizations visit the various factories where large
numbers of negroes are employed and talk to them during the noon
hour on the necessity of creating the best possible impression at the
present time so that they may be certain of retaining their jobs in
the future. At the same time, the speakers circulate these cards:
WHY HE FAILED
He watched the clock.
He was always behindhand.
He asked too many questions.
He wasn't ready for the next step.
He did not put his heart in his work.
He learned nothing from his blunders.
He was contented to be a second-rater.
He didn't learn that the best part of his salary was not in his pay envelope.
--_Success._
[Footnote 127: Epstein, _The Negro Migrant in Pittsburgh_, p. 7.]
[Footnote 128: Epstein, _The Negro Migrant in Pittsburgh_, pp. 7-8.]
[Footnote 128: The latter objection is illustrated by the case of the
white bargemen of a big steel company who wanted to walk out because
black workers were introduced among them, and who were only appeased
by the provision of separate quarters for the negroes. While there is
an undeniable hostility to negroes on the part of a few white workers,
the objection is frequently exaggerated by prejudiced gang bosses.]
[Footnote 129: The same superintendent told of an episode illustrating
the amicable relations existing in his shop between white and black
workers. He related that a gang of workers had come to him with
certain complaints and the threat of a walkout. When their grievances
had been satisfactorily adjusted, they pointed to the lonely black
man in their group and said that they were not ready to go back unless
their negro fellow worker was satisfied.]
[Footnote 130: _Cleveland News_, August 11, 1917.]
[Footnote 131: _Cleveland Plain Dealer_, August 4, 1917.]
[Footnote 132: An advertisement of this company in the _Cleveland
Advocate_ was as follows:
Cleveland is short 10,000 houses:
The city on Lake Erie is face to face with the problem of
_"Housing the People!"_ We have been on the job day in and day
out and are pleased to announce that _we have just played a
master stroke_.
You may ask what is it? We will answer.
We have just secured the group of seven apartment houses which
are rapidly nearing completion on East 40th Street between
Central and Scoville Avenues. Three and four room suites
with bath, hot water, electric lights, gas ranges, heating
appliances, refrigerators, Murphy in-a-dor beds. Laundry just
waiting to be occupied. All for colored people.
]
[Footnote 133: _Cleveland Town Topics_, December 22, 1917.]
[Footnote 134: _Dayton News_, July 7, 1917.]
[Footnote 135: _Cincinnati Enquirer_, September 12, 1917]
[Footnote 136: _Columbus Dispatch_, August 1, 1917.]
[Footnote 137: Haynes, _Survey of the Migrants in Detroit_.]
[Footnote 138: The Urban League is maintained by the Associated
Charities and private individuals to study Detroit's negro problem and
improve the condition of the city's negroes. Forrester B. Washington
is director in charge of the league. The organization will aim to
direct negro sentiment and support along lines of best interests for
Detroit.--_Detroit News_, November 6. 1916.]
[Footnote 139: Two surveys of the migrants in Detroit were made. One
was under the auspices of the negro committee of the Home Missions'
Council of the Churches of Christ in America and was published under
the title, "Negro Newcomers in Detroit." This survey investigated
industrial opportunities, housing and recreation facilities, and
the work which the churches were doing and should do for Detroit's
newcomers.
The Church Extension Committee of the Detroit Presbytery made a survey
of the negro problem in Detroit. This survey showed that the negro
population of the city has grown from 5,000 in 1910 to 21,000 in 1917.
The negro churches of the city are utterly inadequate to take care of
the religious needs of the race here, it was shown.]