_Some Constructive Suggestions Looking Toward the Solution of a Race
Problem Through Race Co-Operation._
It would indeed be presumptuous on our part to attempt in this little
study to solve the race problem. Our purpose was to present the facts
as they actually exist and let the reader draw his own conclusions.
However, a few suggestions looking to a constructive policy of meeting
the need caused by the Negro migration in Pittsburgh may not be amiss.
The main problem of the Negro migrant in Pittsburgh, as the reader has
already realized, is his social and industrial maladjustment, his lack
of organization, and absence of intelligent guidance. The National
League on Urban Conditions among Negroes is attempting to meet this
need by acting as adjusting agency, guide, educator and organizer. This
League is composed of white and colored men, whose aim is to secure
co-operation among the races and to act as a social medium between
the two peoples. Within the last year this League has established
eighteen different branches in various cities. Each of these branches
is headed by a trained Negro Social worker, who tries to get in touch
with the migrants as soon as they arrive in the town, and through the
co-operation of local social agencies and business officials, endeavors
to put each man into the right place. The League acts as a socializing
factor among the colored people with the aim of securing closer
co-operation between the two races. The success of these branches is
evidenced by the fact that in some cities the League’s staff had to
be increased three and four times the original number within the last
year, and in some instances these branches were established at the
invitation of Chambers of Commerce.
A representative of the League who has spent some time in studying
the situation in Pittsburgh thinks that it is comparatively easy for
the League’s Secretary here to get in touch with the newcomers as
soon as they arrive, and to endeavor to eliminate a great deal of the
industrial maladjustment which is due to the ignorance of the newcomer.
This can be done, he claims, through the co-operation of the more than
forty colored newspapers in the South, through the various branches of
the League, and through definite arrangements at the Railroad stations.
By keeping in touch with the employers and industrial concerns, the
local Secretary could also succeed in reducing the number of men who
are misplaced and misfits in their present jobs.
Some suggestions as to the work the League could do in Pittsburgh, are
thus outlined by the representative of the League.
“Besides the advertising in the newspapers, and the co-operation of
the League’s branches some Traveler’s Aid work may be done as a result
of the heavy Negro migration to Pittsburgh. Definite service might be
arranged at the railroad stations for directing newcomers to reliable
lodging houses, so as to protect them from unfavorable surroundings.
Likewise aid from the police department can be sought to eliminate a
large number of crooks and gamblers who thrive off the earnings of
newly arrived migrants in the congested sections.
“The industrial work is an essential part of our program, including
general employment, opening new opportunities and vocational guidance.
An important part of this work will be with the industrial plants
employing large numbers of Negro migrants. The Secretary will make
an especial effort to reduce the large Negro labor turnover in the
various industrial plants by noon-day and Sunday talks, by distributing
literature among the men and by assisting corporations in getting the
most reliable type of Negro labor and then seeing to it that this
labor is properly treated and given opportunities for advancement.
Vagrancy must not be tolerated in Pittsburgh especially when work is so
plentiful.
“The Housing work will be broad and cover both an effort to obtain more
sanitary houses for Negroes to live in, as well as less congested,
unhealthy and hence less immoral living conditions in certain parts of
the city. The difficulties might be partially overcome by encouraging
the organization of a Building and Loan Association and by interesting
real estate dealers, builders and owners who handle or own property in
desirable districts to improve the same for Negro tenants; by urging
individual home ownership, and, with more chance of success in the
Pittsburgh district, by convincing industries of the basic necessity
for building family homes.
“Health and sanitation are of vital interest to Negroes and to
Pittsburghers. One of the first efforts will be a campaign to reduce
the high illness and death rates among the Negroes. In co-operation
with the Bureau of Sanitation, physicians and Negro Institutions
and Organizations, an educational campaign can be waged giving wide
publicity to the facts obtained and suggesting remedies concerning,
a. The danger and use of patent medicines; b. Carelessness in dress; c.
Improper ventilation; d. Care of infants, etc. Following this campaign
a general effort may be made to clean up Negro neighborhoods, to obtain
better and cleaner streets and sidewalks, better sanitary inspection,
police service and if possible, a free bath house for the lower Hill
district.”
“The question of amusement and recreation is likewise important, as
they have a direct bearing on good citizenship. Definite co-operation
can be established with such existing organizations as the Y. M. C.
A., Washington Park Playground, Settlements, and the churches which
have the facilities for such work. Boy and girl clubs can be organized
under capable leaders. A supervised community dance can do much toward
helping the newcomer to better adjust themselves socially.”
“Delinquency, especially juvenile crime, should be handled in
connection with the courts, probation officers and schools; the League
furnishing through its office Big Brothers and Sisters with the idea
of organizing this work on a larger scale later on. The penal and
reformatory institution serving the Community should be reached to help
discharged and paroled prisoners to obtain a new start and be reclaimed
for their own good and that of society.”
“A very close relationship must exist between our charity and the
organized charities, because our association does not provide for
relief. An effort will be made to develop co-operation among welfare
organizations already existing in the community, to prevent expensive
duplication of work and to assure good feeling and harmony among
workers.”
“The details of this work may be reviewed from time to time by an
executive committee, which should consist of from ten to fifteen
persons chosen from the membership of the association.”
APPENDIX
_TABLE NUMBER XXVII_
_Increase in Number of Colored Children in the Schools of the Hill
District from January to October 1917, and Number of Children from
Southern States Since January, 1917._
+----------------+------------------+--------------+--------------+
| | Total Number of | Children who | % of Increase|
| NAME OF SCHOOL | Colored Children | Came from | within the |
| +------------------+ Southern | last 10 |
| | Jan. Oct. | States | Months |
+----------------+--------+---------+--------------+--------------+
| Franklin | 69 | 99 | 37 | 44 |
| Miller | 36 | 57 | 17 | 58 |
| Madison | 20 | 28 | 3 | 40 |
| Moorhead | 178 | 222 | 55 | 25 |
| Minersville | 181 | 271 | 97 | 50 |
| Letsche | 91 | 160 | 55 | 76 |
| McKelvy | 88 | 120 | 33 | 36 |
| Somers | 201 | 289 | 45 | 39 |
| Watt | 422 | 529 | 62 | 26 |
| Rose | 129 | 198 | 62 | 53 |
| | ---- | ---- | ---- | |
| | 1415 | 1973 | 466 | |
+----------------+--------+---------+--------------+--------------+
Total Average Increase 40%
Table number XXVII was compiled from the figures supplied by the
principals of the ten schools listed. These schools are located in
the Hill District. The figures indicate the increase in the one section
only, and do not include all the children who have been brought from
the South, but whose parents reside in other sections of the city. The
marked increase in the total number of colored children and the great
increase in the number of children who have come to this city within
the last ten months is significant.
As one would expect the majority of these children are in the lower
four grades. This was the case even before the migration but is
especially true since the migration. Many of the children from the
South either had no schooling at all, or were attending schools with
lower standards than ours.
The problem of over-aged pupils is very significant among the Negro
children. A principal in one of these schools who has recently made a
little study of over-aged pupils in these eleven schools finds that the
percentage of Negro children eleven years and over in the lower four
grades, is far greater than that of the whites (sixteen percent Negro
as compared with four and seven tenths percent whites). This, the same
principal remarks, is in spite of the fact that the tendency of the
schools is often to promote children upon the basis of their size and
age, rather than because of academic attainment. What is more the white
children in most of these schools come from homes where the parents
are not Americans, but foreigners who often do not speak the English
language.
The causes for the backwardness of the Negro children are deep-lying,
and are interlinked with their racial traits, social, economic and home
environments. Practically all school principals stated that in the
first four years the Negro child keeps well up with its white school
mates, but that after the fourth grade, the Negro child often falls
behind and cannot keep up with the whites.
It was apparent from our interviews with these principals that most
of these men and women are quite alert and eager to find some means
of remedying this difficult situation. Many of them have endeavored
for a long time to cope with this problem, and a few think they have
found ways to render more rapid progress of these children possible.
But in the formal character of the school curriculum they have
little freedom to develop their own schemes. These principals have
practically all agreed that a system of motor-education which would
emphasize the practical and industrial side rather than the purely
academic, would not only benefit a large number of white children, but
would prove absolutely invaluable for the colored children who, they
believe, are more motor-minded than the whites. It would certainly,
they think, solve the over-age problem to a large extent, and would
make the children better prepared to avail themselves of the economic
opportunities offered by our urban industrialism.
_TABLE NUMBER XXVIII_
_Detailed Budget Study of Fifteen Families Including the Income and
Expenditures for Seven Consecutive Days During the Month of September,
1917._
+-----+------+----+---------+-----+------+--------+--------+--------+
No. in|Family|Food|Clothing |Rents|Church|Medicine|Luxuries|Insurance
Family|Income| | and | Per | | | |
| | |Household|Week | | | |
| | | ex. and | | | | |
| | | carfare | | | | |
+-----+------+----+---------+-----+------+--------+--------+--------+
| 4 $25.25 $4.67 $2.85 $3.25 .... $0.86 $0.20 ....|
| 3 15.00 7.91 1.20 2.40 .... .50 .05 ....|
| 4 18.00 10.98 8.66 2.50 .... .40 .... $0.45|
| 3 28.50 6.38 9.29 2.50 $1.10 2.45 .30 ....|
| 2 17.00 3.77 19.60 2.10 .... .... .... ....|
| 3 18.00 10.25 4.05 2.00 .... .... .33 .72|
| 3 21.00 7.35 .30 3.50 .... .... 2.10 ....|
| 2 18.00 4.07 8.02 3.75 .... .25 .20 ....|
| 5 23.10 12.78 6.24 2.75 .... .... 1.60 1.50|
| 3 18.50 4.12 26.65 2.00 .... .... .... ....|
| 2 15.00 8.43 1.24 4.25 .... .... .05 ....|
| 2 16.50 9.51 .... 3.00 .... .... .20 .80|
| 3 18.00 6.10 1.07 4.00 .... 1.00 .... ....|
| 5 17.00 13.17 3.00 3.00 .... .05 1.75 .25|
| 5 14.00 7.87 2.48 6.00 .60 .... .... .65|
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
Table number XXVIII is a study of the budgets of fifteen migrant
families for seven consecutive days. The income includes the earnings
of both husband and wife. The figures on the expenditures are
approximately correct, although it was possible that in some families
there were no big food expenditures the first day, and in other
families food might have been left over after the seventh day.
The wide variation in the expenditures of these families on all the
necessary articles is significant, and is probably indicative and
typical of the maladjusted life and the diversity of the living
conditions of the migrants. The wide variety of food expenditures is
due primarily to the inordinate expenditures for meat, which in one or
two instances reached over eight dollars per week. This is typical of
the lack of balance of the diet.
The few cases of disproportionate expenditures on household goods were
made by migrants who had bought some furniture for their new quarters.
It is interesting to note, however, that these families were compelled
to skimp on their food, as their food bills are the lowest. Under
luxuries we included all expenditures on tobacco, liquor, candy and the
like. The few cases of considerable expenditures in this column are
due largely to the liquor bills. The little use of these articles in
most families is apparent from the table. The table as a whole, also,
indicates the high cost of the living necessities of these migrants in
Pittsburgh and their comparatively low wages.
_TABLE NUMBER XXIX_
_Negro Families Under Care of the Associated Charities with Causes of
Dependency During the Year Ending September 30, 1917._
+-------------------------------------------+------+
| 1. Unemployed | 30 |
| 3. Child Labor | 1 |
| 4. Work shyness | 13 |
| 5. Disability through industrial accident | 2 |
| 6. Tuberculosis | 3 |
| 7. Other sickness | 34 |
| 8. Blindness or sight seriously impaired | 4 |
| 9. Other physical handicap | 1 |
| 10. Feeble mindedness | 2 |
| 11. Epilepsy | 1 |
| 12. Insanity | 1 |
| 13. Other mental disease | 5 |
| 14. Old Age | 10 |
| 15. Death or burial | 9 |
| 16. Alcoholic intemperance | 17 |
| 17. Sexual irregularity | 18 |
| 18. Desertion or non-support | 36 |
| 19. Imprisonment | 6 |
| 20. Juvenile delinquency | 11 |
| 21. Abuse or neglect of children | 32 |
| 22. Debt | 7 |
| 23. Pauperized by unwise charity | 2 |
| 24. Hereditary pauperism | 1 |
| 25. Begging tendency | 8 |
| 26. Illegitimacy | 7 |
| 27. Domestic incompetency | 10 |
| 28. Illiteracy | 3 |
| 29. Domestic infelicity | 1 |
| 30. Bad housing | 25 |
| 31. Non-adjusted immigrant | 3 |
| ----- | --- |
| Total | 303 |
+-------------------------------------------+------+
_Schedule Used in Interviewing the Negro Migrants._
I (1) NAME (2) Present Address (3) Since No.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
(4) Age (5) S. M. W. (6) Health
----------------------------------------------------------------------
(7) Occupation (8) Employer (9) Hours Daily (10) Weekly Wage
----------------------------------------------------------------------
(11) Kind of House (12) Rooms in House (13) Water Supply (14) Toilet
----------------------------------------------------------------------
(15) No. in House (16) No. in Bedroom (17) No. Beds (18) No. Windows
in Room
----------------------------------------------------------------------
(19) How Does He (20) Leisure Time
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Spend Money (a) Church
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Weekly? (b) Saloon
----------------------------------------------------------------------
(a) Room (c)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
(b) Board
----------------------------------------------------------------------
(c) or Family (21) Court Record
----------------------------------------------------------------------
II (a) Former Address (c) Last Employer (d) Hours Daily
----------------------------------------------------------------------
(b) Former Occupations (e) Weekly Wage
======================================================================
(f) Family (h) Weekly
(age) (g) Kind of Work Wage
----------------------------------------------------------------------
W. 2 (i) Why Left Home?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ch. 3 (j) Who Paid Carfare Here?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ch. 4 (k) Will Family Come Here?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ch. 5 (l) When?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ch. 6 (m) Live Where
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ch. 7 (n) When Will He Go Back
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ch. 8 (o) Why?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ch. 9
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Total Income
----------------------------------------------------------------------
SIGNATURE DATE
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ERRATA
Page 7--Line 1--for Districts read District.
Page 29--Line 9--for contained read continued.
Page 57--Line 5--for anti-migration read ante-migration.
Page 60--Table XXVI--third column headed “Total” should not appear.
Page 71--Instead of eleven schools, read ten.
Transcriber’s Notes
Page 5: “no definite stateture of their life here” changed to “no
definite statement of their life here”
Page 17: “hardly highe than six or seven feet” changed to “hardly
higher than six or seven feet”
Page 27: “to remark that this occured” changed to “to remark that this
occurred”
Page 49: “again demonsrating the petty character” changed to “again
demonstrating the petty character”
Page 51: “he had to contend himself” changed to “he had to content
himself”
Page 52: “Charges in the Juevnile Court” changed to “Charges in the
Juvenile Court”
Page 54: “the most optomistic of us” changed to “the most optimistic
of us”
“After the proceeding analysis” changed to “After the preceding
analysis”
Page 56 and 59: In the table, “Poleomelitis” and “Poliomelitis” changed
to “Poliomyelitis”
Page 61: “his racial power of resistence” changed to “his racial power
of resistance”
“The proceeding analysis” changed to “The preceding analysis”
Page 66: “in an uncontrolable situation” changed to “in an
uncontrollable situation”
Page 68: “to become the flotsman” changed to “to become the flotsam”
“It would indeed be presumptious on our part” changed to “It would
indeed be presumptuous on our part”
Page 72: “would make the chidren” changed to “would make the children”
Page 74: In the table, “Disalibity through industrial accident” changed
to “Disability through industrial accident”
The numbering in Table XXIX skips 2. This reflects the original.
There is no Table XIV in the original. Numbering has not been changed.
In a few cases, obvious errors in punctuation have been corrected.
In a few cases, inconsistent hyphenization has been standardized.
The mistakes mentioned in the Errata have been corrected.