better-organized churches is $1,677,183.02, with a total indebtedness
on nineteen of them of $318,595.91. In twenty of the twenty-six annual
collections aggregate $226,216.25.
Out of 100 "store-front" churches visited only seven own or are buying
the property they use. The total value of the property of these seven
churches is $44,300. Four of the seven have an indebtedness of $7,300;
and the four that kept records showed a total annual collection of $5,170.
_The pastors._--A sharp division both as to education and experience
is found between the pastors of the regular churches and those of
the "store-front" churches. Generally the larger churches have the
better-trained, more experienced, and more highly salaried ministers.
Exceptions are found in the case of one or two "holiness" churches.
The ministers in these various churches represent a range of training
from that of such seminaries as Newton Theological and institutions like
Yale University, University of Chicago, and Northwestern University, down
to that of the sixth grade in grammar school. Some have had no schooling
at all. The number of specially trained ministers totals twenty-one.
Six of these are graduates of recognized northern institutions, while
fourteen are graduates of recognized Negro institutions such as Lincoln
University, Howard University, Virginia Union University, and Livingston
College. Four are graduates of standard high schools and four of other
high schools below the standard rating. The remainder fall below the
sixth grade. Among this last group it is not unusual to hear that "God
prepares a man to preach; he does not have to go to school for that. All
he must do is to open his mouth and God will fill it. The universities
train men away from the Bible."
The range of active service in the ministry is from two months to
forty-four years. Here again the larger established churches have the
ministers of longer service. Typical examples are found in churches like
Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, whose pastor has had forty-four
years of service; Shiloh, thirty-seven years; Bethesda Baptist Church,
thirty-seven years; Grace Presbyterian Church, thirty-two years (all at
this one church); Original Providence, thirty-five years; Berean Baptist
Church, thirty years.
4. SOCIAL AND CIVIC AGENCIES
Social agencies in the Negro communities are an expression of group effort
to adjust itself to the larger community. Within the Negro community
there are two types, those especially for Negroes and those which are
branches of the agencies of the larger community but located conveniently
for use by Negroes.
[Illustration: TRINITY M.E. CHURCH AND COMMUNITY HOUSE
Located at Prairie Avenue near Thirty-first Street, purchased recently
by Negroes.]
[Illustration: SOUTH PARK M.E. CHURCH
The congregation moved from a store-front church to this edifice at
Thirty-second Street and South Park Avenue in less than three years
after the church was established.]
[Illustration: PILGRIM BAPTIST CHURCH
Located at Thirty-third Street and Indiana Avenue. Formerly a Jewish
synagogue, purchased recently by Negroes.]
A. AGENCIES ESPECIALLY FOR NEGROES
_Chicago Urban League._--This organization is one of the thirty-two
branches of the National Urban League whose headquarters are in New York
City. It was established in Chicago in 1917 during the period of heaviest
migration of Negroes to the city. The numerous problems consequent upon
this influx guided the development of the League's activities. Its
executive board and officers are whites and Negroes of high standing
and influence in both the white and Negro groups, and it is supported
by voluntary subscriptions. Within four years this organization has
taken the leading place among all the social agencies working especially
among Negroes. It has a well-trained staff of twelve paid workers, and
its work is carried out along the lines accepted in modern social work.
The League has organized its activities as follows: Administration
Department, Industrial Department, Research and Records Department,
Children's Department, settlement work.
The work of the Administration Department involves, in addition to
general management, co-operation with other agencies and co-ordination
of their efforts for community improvement through interracial meetings,
conferences, and joint undertakings.
The Industrial Department during 1920 placed more than 15,000 Negroes in
positions, made industrial investigations in sixteen plants, provided
lectures for workingmen in plants and for foremen over Negro workers.
It also investigates complaints of workers, selects and fits men for
positions, secures positions for Negroes where Negroes have never worked
before, and assists in other ways the adjustment of Negroes in industry.
More than 25,000 persons passed through the department during 1920.
The Department of Research and Records makes the investigations on the
basis of which the programs of the League are carried out. Its information
is a permanent and growing body of material useful to all agencies and
persons interested in obtaining reliable information concerning Negroes
in Chicago.
The Children's Department handles cases of boys and girls and co-operates
with the schools, juvenile protective organizations, the juvenile court
and probation department, and various other child-helping institutions.
A total of 540 such cases were adjusted during 1920.
During 1919 a total of $28,659 was raised and used in the support of
the Chicago Urban League.
The Wendell Phillips Settlement on the West Side is under the supervision
of the League. The settlement has a day nursery and provides a center
and leadership for twenty-five groups in the West Side community.
_Wabash Avenue Y.M.C.A._--This organization is a branch of the local
Young Men's Christian Association, but because of its location and the
peculiar social problems of its membership and vicinity, it has become
one of the strongest agencies of the community. Its work is among boys
and young men, many of whom are industrial workers in various plants.
Community work is vigorously promoted. In 1920 an enthusiastic group
of 1,137 boys was enlisted in a neighborhood clean-up campaign, and 100
community gardens were put in operation. Moving pictures and community
singing were provided during the summer months. The following list gives
some statistics of activities for the first nine months of 1920.
SOCIAL ACTIVITIES
Attendance at building 140,740
Attendance at reading-room 19,402
Attendance at Bible classes 1,514
Attendance at industrial clubs 5,394
Attendance at entertainments 6,542
Meals served 100,610
Dormitory attendance 71,396
Persons directed to rooms 614
Persons assisted 1,526
Persons reached through community work 10,406
Personal religious interviews 396
Men referred to churches 196
PHYSICAL WORK
Men used swimming-pool 3,604
Boys used swimming-pool 14,096
Men and boys used shower baths 24,332
Participated in leagues and tournament 3,906
Spectators 44,742
Men attended gymnasium classes 5,622
Boys attended gymnasium classes 17,106
In addition to the foregoing work this institution has promoted efficiency
and industrial clubs among Negro workers in industrial plants, three
glee clubs, noonday recreational programs, and nine baseball teams.
During 1919 the total contributions for support were $15,353, of which
$3,100 came from Negroes. The membership dues of the latter, however,
totaled $16,000 and receipts from operation amounted to $143,747.
_Chicago Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People._--This organization aims to carry out the general policies of the
National Association as far as they apply to Chicago. The national purpose
is to combat injustice against Negroes, stamp out race discriminations,
prevent lynchings, burnings, and torturings of Negroes, and, when they
do occur, to demand the prosecution of those responsible, to assure to
every citizen of color the common rights of an American citizen, and
secure for colored children equal opportunity in public-school education.
In Chicago, the principal efforts of this organization have been in the
line of securing justice for Negroes in the courts and opposing race
discriminations in public accommodations. Its most active period followed
the riots of 1919. With a number of competent attorneys, white and Negro,
it gave legal support to Negro riot victims and followed through the
courts the cases of many Negroes accused of participation in rioting.
[Illustration: SOCIAL AGENCIES USED BY NEGROES]
_Community service._--The South Side Community Service is a re-established
organization growing out of the Soldiers and Sailors' Club. It aims
to provide wholesome recreation and leisure-time activities for its
neighborhood. At Community House, 3201 South Wabash Avenue, it serves a
number of organizations, arranges supervised dances, dramatics, programs,
and other entertainment for the groups.
_Wendell Phillips Settlement._--The Wendell Phillips Settlement is
located on the West Side at 2009 Walnut Street and has been under the
supervision of the Chicago Urban League since 1918. It has a day nursery,
serves as a center for twenty-five different groups, and provides the
only public meeting place for Negroes apart from the churches, on the
West Side. There is a Boy Scout division and a division especially for
women and girls.
_Butler Community Center._--The Butler Community Center is located on the
North Side in a neighborhood with about 2,000 Negroes. About 250 persons
use the Center regularly. There are classes in citizenship, hygiene, Negro
history, sewing, and china painting. There is an organization of Camp
Fire Girls and a Boys' Group. Through courses of lectures instruction
is given in hygiene, sanitation, and first aid.
_Phyllis Wheatley Home._--The Phyllis Wheatley Home was established
several years ago to provide wholesome home surroundings for colored
girls and women who are strangers in the city and to house them until
they find safe and comfortable quarters. The building at 3256 Rhodes
Avenue, which has been purchased, accommodates about twenty girls.
_Home for the Aged and Infirm._--The Home for Aged and Infirm Colored
People on West Garfield Boulevard is supported almost entirely by
contributions from Negroes.
_Indiana Avenue Y.W.C.A._--The Indiana Avenue branch of the Y.W.C.A. on
the South Side is under the general direction of the Central Y.W.C.A.
of Chicago. Its directors are Negro women. Many girls are directed
in their activities by volunteer group leaders from the community.
The Industrial Department secures employment for Negro girls. A small
number of girls live in the building at 3541 Indiana Avenue, and a room
directory is maintained through which safe homes are secured for girls
who are strangers in the city, or who have no family connections. Mrs.
Martha G. McAdoo is the executive secretary.
_Elaine Home Club and Johnson Home for Girls._--The Elaine Home Club and
the Julia Johnson Home for Girls are small institutions which provide
living accommodations under careful supervision for young working girls.
_Hartzell Center._--Hartzell Center is a social institution under
the direction of the South Park Methodist Episcopal Church. It has a
commercial school, in which typewriting and stenography are taught, a
cafeteria, and some social activities.
_Illinois Technical School._--The Illinois Technical School for Colored
Girls, a Catholic Institution, serves as a boarding and technical school
for colored girls. It accommodates about 100 girls. Sister Augustina is
the superintendent.
_Woodlawn Community Association._--This is a neighborhood organization
originally intended to interest the Negroes of the Woodlawn community
in taking pride in their property and in making the neighborhood more
desirable for residence purposes. It has extended its functions to
include community activities and civic welfare program.
_Louise Training School for Colored Boys._--This school is at Homewood,
Illinois, about twenty-five miles from Chicago; until 1918 it was located
at 6130 South Ada Street. It receives dependent boys between eight and
fifteen years of age. Some of these boys are placed in the institution
by the Cook County authorities. The institution can accommodate only a
few. At present thirty-two boys are cared for in the dormitory. This is
the only institution in the city for dependent colored boys.
B. AGENCIES CONVENIENT FOR NEGROES
_American Red Cross._--The American Red Cross has a branch headquarters
at 102 East Thirty-fifth Street. It gives emergency relief, general
information and advice, and has been active in helping the families of
Negro service men. During the riot of 1919 it provided food for thousands
of Negroes who were cut off from work.
_United Charities._--The United Charities, which provides relief and
other help for needy families, has four branches convenient for use by
Negroes: one at 2959 South Michigan Avenue, near the center of the main
Negro residence area on the South Side; another at 1701 Grand Avenue,
near the West Side Negro residence area; another at 102 East Oak Street,
near the North Side area; and another at 6309 Yale Avenue, convenient
for Negroes living in Woodlawn, in the vicinity of Ogden Park and in
the southern part of the South Side residence area.
_The Illinois Children's Home and Aid Society._--This society has two
field representatives who find homes for dependent Negro children and
supervise their placing. Since 1919 it has placed and supervised more
than 168 Negro children.
_Abraham Lincoln Center._--The Abraham Lincoln Center is at Langley
Avenue and Oakwood Boulevard. Although originally not used by Negroes,
the movement of the Negro population southward has added many of them
to the group of people using its facilities. There is a boys' group, a
branch library, and a neighborhood visitor. Negroes are welcomed in most
of the activities of this center. Miss Susan Quackenbush is the resident.
[Illustration: THE CHICAGO URBAN LEAGUE BUILDING
Located at 3032 South Wabash Avenue.]
[Illustration: THE SOUTH SIDE COMMUNITY SERVICE BUILDING
Located at 3201 South Wabash Avenue.]
C. MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS
_Provident Hospital and Training School._--Provident Hospital and Training
School is supported and controlled by whites and Negroes. It has a mixed
board of directors. Practically all its physicians and all its internes
and nurses are Negroes. For the year ended June, 1919, the hospital
handled 1,421 patients, served 682 persons through its dispensary, and
gave free medical care to 143. Of the total number of patients in the
hospital during 1919, 1,248 were Negroes, and 173 were white. Support
of the institution comes from patients and donations. During 1919 the
receipts from patients totaled $36,445.81; from donations $5,782.07.
Donations in drugs totaled $1,505.95, and from the dispensary $112.05.
The expenses for the year were $42,002.35. The hospital has an endowment
fund of $47,350, invested in securities. It has a training school for
Negro nurses whose faculty is made up of prominent white and Negro
physicians and surgeons.
_Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium._--The two branches of this institution
which are in Negro neighborhoods, at 2950 Calumet Avenue and 4746
South Wabash Avenue, and the Children's South Side Dispensary, 705 West
Forty-seventh Street, are municipal agencies so located that they are
convenient for Negroes.
_South Side Dispensary._--This is at 2531 South Dearborn Street and is
supported by the Northwestern University Medical School. It gives free
care to those unable to pay for medical services.
D. SUPPORT OF INSTITUTIONS BY NEGROES
Social agencies, although their work is limited as respects the Negro
group, have for many years taken second place to the churches in
self-support. This is accounted for largely by the fact that social work
in general has been regarded as a philanthropic rather than a co-operative
matter. With Negro social and philanthropic agencies, especially during
the period of general unsettlement following the migration, the number
of possible beneficiaries greatly increased, while the group of Negroes
educated in giving to such agencies grew more slowly. Recently, however,
support from Negroes for their own institutions has gradually been
increasing. An example is found in the Urban League. In 1917 Negroes
contributed $1,000 and in 1919 $3,000. During 1920 six social agencies
and twenty-seven churches raised among Negroes approximately $445,000.
Although Negroes contribute in some measure to agencies like the United
Charities and American Red Cross, there is no means of knowing or
accurately estimating the amount.
CHAPTER V
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM
A. A STUDY OF NEGRO FAMILIES
Consideration of the housing problem as a continuing factor in the
experience of Negro families led to an effort to study it from a new
angle of approach--through histories of typical families in the Negro
community.
The data thus gathered afford an opportunity to present an interpretative
account of Negro family life, setting forth the intimate problems
confronting Negroes in Chicago, their daily social difficulties, the
reflection in their home life of their struggle for existence, just how
they live, how they participate in the activities of the Negro community
and the community at large, their own opinions concerning civic problems,
their housing experience, how much they earn and how much they save, how
much they spend and what value they receive from these expenditures,
how they spend their spare time, and how they seek to improve their
condition in the community.
A selection was made of 274 Negro families living in all sections of
Chicago. Three Negro women, well equipped to deal intelligently and
sympathetically with these families, gathered this information. These 274
families lived in 238 blocks, the distribution being such that no type
of neighborhood or division of the Negro population was overlooked. The
questionnaire employed contained five pages of questions and required an
interview of about two hours. Special effort was made to secure purely
social information without the aid of leading questions.
I. GENERAL LIVING CONDITIONS
For the most part the physical surroundings of the Negro family, as
indicated by these family histories, are poor. The majority of these
houses fall within the classifications noted as Types "C" and "D" in
the discussion of the physical condition of housing.[22]
On the South Side, where most of the Negro population lives, the low
quality of housing is widespread, although there are some houses of a
better grade which are greatly in demand.
The ordinary conveniences, considered necessities by the average white
citizen, are often lacking. Bathrooms are often missing. Gas lighting is
common, and electric lighting is a rarity. Heating is commonly done by
wood or coal stoves, and furnaces are rather exceptional; when furnaces
are present, they are sometimes out of commission.
Under the heading of "Housing Conditions" such notations as these are
often found:
No gas, bath, or toilet. Plumbing very bad; toilet leaks; bowl
broken; leak in kitchen sink; water stands in kitchen; leak
in bath makes ceiling soggy and wet all the time. Plastering
off in front room. General appearance very bad inside and
out. Had to get city behind owner to put in windows, clean,
and repair plumbing. Heat poor; house damp. Plumbing bad;
leaks. Hot-water heater out of order. Needs repairing done
to roof and floors. In bad repair; toilet in yard used by two
families. Toilet off from dining-room; fixtures for gas; no gas;
just turned off; no bath; doors out of order; won't fasten.
Sanitary conditions poor; dilapidated condition; toilet won't
flush; carries water to bathtub. Plumbing bad; roof leaks;
plastering off; no bath or gas; general repairs needed; very
dirty. Plumbing bad; plastering off in toilet; window panes
broken and out; no bath or gas. Plastering off from water that
leaks from flat above; toilet leaks; does not flush; washbowl
and bath leak very badly; repairs needed on back porch; rooms
need calcimining. No water in hydrant in hall; no toilet,
bath, or gas; general repair needed. Water not turned on for
sink in kitchen; water for drinking and cooking purposes must
be carried in; toilet used by four families; asked landlord
to turn on water in kitchen; told them to move; roof leaks;
stairs and back porch in bad order. Sewer gas escapes from
basement pipes; water stands in basement. House dirty; flues
in bad condition; gas pipes leak; porch shaky. No heat and
no hot water; no repairing done; no screens; gas leaks all
over house; stationary tubs leak. Water pipes rotted out; gas
pipes leak. Toilet leaks; plastering off; windowpanes out.
Plastering off; large rat holes all over; paper hanging from
ceiling.
This is the common situation of the dweller in the districts mentioned.
The variations are in degree rather than kind. To dwellings a little
better in sanitation and repair than those just described, the adjective
"fair" was given.
Occasionally a Negro family manages to escape from this wretched type of
dwelling in the "Black Belt." Some who were financially able purchased
homes in Woodlawn, for example, where they live much as white residents
do, supplied with the comforts and conveniences of life and in fairly
clean, wholesome surroundings. There, as a rule, the physical equipment
of their dwellings is good and is kept in repair. In some instances
they have hot-water heating, electric lighting, and gas for cooking
purposes. They ordinarily redecorate once a year, take proper care of
their garbage, keep the lawns cut and the premises clean; and otherwise
reveal a natural and normal pride of ownership.
In this respect the Negro residents of Woodlawn are far more fortunate
than many of their race brothers who have purchased dwellings in the
"Black Belt." Many of these purchases have been made by migrants on
long-time payments, and large expenditure would be required to put the
houses in repair and keep them so. Purchases made by Negroes in Woodlawn
have been chiefly of substantial dwellings, not necessarily new but in
good condition and needing only ordinary repairs from time to time.
II. WHY NEGROES MOVE
Except where the property is owned by Negroes there is frequent moving.
The records obtained of these movements give a great variety of reasons.
A strong desire to improve living conditions appears with sufficient
frequency to indicate that it is the leading motive. Buying a home is one
of the ways of escape from intolerable living conditions, but removal to
other houses or flats is more often tried. For example, a man who now
owns his home near Fifty-first Street and South Wabash Avenue--living
there with his two brothers and five lodgers--has moved six times, "to
live in a better house and a better neighborhood." A family now living
near Thirty-first Street and Prairie Avenue, resident in Chicago since
1893, has moved four times, three times to obtain better houses in better
neighborhoods and once to get nearer to work. A man and wife living
near Fifty-third and South Dearborn streets have moved four times since
coming to Chicago in 1908. A family living on East Forty-fifth Street
and paying $60 a month rent for six rooms has moved twice since 1900
to "better and cleaner houses." Another family paying $65 a month for
eight rooms on East Bowen Avenue has moved twice since 1905 into better
houses and neighborhoods. "Better house" and "better neighborhood" were
the most frequently given reasons.
Of kindred nature are these: leaky roof; house cold; dirty;
inconvenient; did not like living in rear flat; to better
conditions; better houses away from questionable places;
landlord would not clean; first floor not healthy; small and
undesirable; not desirable flat; poor plumbing; didn't like
neighborhood; moved to better quarters; landlord would not
repair; house too damp; no windows; owner would not fix water
pipes; more room wanted; better environment for children;
better street; no yard for children; better people; house in
bad condition; more conveniences for roomers.
III. THE FAMILY GROUPING
The normal family is generally recognized as consisting of five
persons--two parents and three children. Properly they should make up
a single group and live by themselves. The 274 families studied were
chosen as follows: in the most populous district, from Thirty-first
to Thirty-ninth streets and from Wentworth Avenue to Lake Michigan,
ninety-nine family histories were taken; in the district north of
Thirty-first Street to Twelfth Street and from Wentworth Avenue to the
Lake, forty-six; in the narrow strip in Hyde Park known as the Lake Park
district, thirty-seven; in the district from Thirty-ninth to Sixtieth
streets and from Wentworth to Cottage Grove Avenue, thirty-six; on the
West Side, sixteen; in the Ogden Park district, fifteen; on the North
Side, fourteen; and in Woodlawn, eleven. For convenience, as well as to
show contrasts or like conditions, the material has been analyzed and
interpreted by districts.
[Illustration: HOMES OF WHITE AND NEGRO EMPLOYEES OF AN OUTLYING
INDUSTRIAL PLANT
TIME CONSUMED IN TRANSPORTATION TO AND FROM THE ARGO PLANT
BY ANY CONSIDERABLE NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES.
LONGEST RIDE FOR WHITE EMPLOYEES:
ARGO TO LEMONT, VIA CHICAGO & JOLIET ELECTRIC R.R. 32 MINUTES
LONGEST RIDE FOR NEGRO EMPLOYEES:
ARGO TO STATE & 31ST ST. VIA ARCHER AVE. & STATE ST.
SURFACE LINES, WITH TWO TRANSFERS 67 MINUTES
ARGO TO STATE & 39TH ST. VIA 63RD ST. & STATE ST.
SURFACE LINES. WITH TWO TRANSFERS 60 MINUTES]
There was found a wide variation in the family groups, comprising six
classifications, in three of which no lodgers appear. A lodger here means
an adult not a member of the immediate family. Thus relatives, unless
infants or children, are classed as lodgers. The three groups without
lodgers are: (1) man and wife; (2) two parents and children; (3) a parent
and children. The other three groups with lodgers are: (1_a_) man and
wife and lodgers; (2_a_) man, wife, children, and lodgers; (3_a_) man
or woman, surviving head of the family, with lodgers.
Of the total 274 family groups there were 104 without lodgers and 170,
or 62 per cent, with lodgers. For the most part the lodgers were found in
"2_a_" classification--in families. There were ninety-two such groups and
only sixty-one families with no lodgers. Forty-two couples had lodgers,
and in thirty-six instances a man or woman living alone had lodgers.
Thirty-nine couples were living alone, and in only four instances was
there a parent alone with a child.
The Negro colony in Woodlawn approaches most nearly the normal family
grouping. Home ownership in that district is fairly common, and the
houses for the most part are substantial and well fitted and suited to
the families. In the eleven Woodlawn families there was but one where
the mother or father was dead or not living with the family. Lodgers
were found in only four of the eleven families: two were couples, one a
family, and the other a single woman. In the eleven families there were
seventeen children.
A marked contrast with this section is found in the congested Negro
district between Thirty-first and Thirty-ninth streets. Out of a total
of ninety-nine families seventy-two had lodgers, or 72 per cent as
contrasted with 36 per cent in Woodlawn and 62 per cent for the total
274 cases. In this district there were forty-two families with children,
thirteen couples without children, and seventeen where a man or woman
took lodgers. There were only fourteen families without lodgers, and
thirteen couples living alone.
North of Thirty-first Street in this South Side area were similar
conditions. Of forty-six households studied, twenty-seven, or 58.7 per
cent, had lodgers: of these sixteen were families with children, nine
were couples and two were man or woman with children. Of the households
without lodgers, there were twelve families with children, five couples
living alone, and two instances of parent and child.
The percentage of families with lodgers was highest in the Lake Park
district, 75.6 per cent. On the West Side it was 68 per cent, a trifle
higher than for the entire 274 families. On the North Side it was 57
per cent, on the South Side between Thirty-ninth and Sixtieth streets,
41.6 per cent, and in the Ogden Park district 40 per cent.
The Ogden Park district, with a relatively low percentage of families
having lodgers, resembles the Woodlawn district in many respects. The
houses are built for single families and are largely owned by Negroes
who have lived in that locality for many years. Of the fifteen families
there visited, nine had no lodgers; and of the seven with lodgers, four
were families and two were couples without children.
_Room crowding._--A study of Negro housing made in 1909 by the Chicago
School of Civics and Philanthropy brought out the fact that, although
Negro families find it extremely difficult to obtain a flat of three or
four rooms, they do not crowd together as much as white immigrants; that
Negroes take larger flats or houses and rent rooms to lodgers to help
pay the rent, and thus lessen crowding among the members of the family.
Among the 274 families studied by the Commission there was comparatively
little overcrowding. One room to a person is a standard of room occupancy
generally accepted by housing authorities as involving no overcrowding.
Of these 274 Negro households, only sixty-seven exceeded the standard.
There were, of course, wide divergences from the standard. For example,
there were eight instances of six persons living in five rooms; six of
eight persons living in six rooms; four of six persons living in four
rooms; one of six persons living in three rooms; one of seven persons
living in three rooms; two of seven persons living in four rooms; two of
eight persons living in five rooms; one of nine persons living in five
rooms; and one of eleven persons living in five rooms.
In the cases of unusually large families, either in the number of children
or lodgers, there was a corresponding increase in the number of rooms.
Thus in the case of fourteen persons making up one family, they were
living in ten rooms.
The five-room dwelling was the most common, with fifty-nine families;
six-room, forty-seven; seven-room, forty-two; four-room, forty-one.
In the Ogden Park district the standard of one person to one room was most
closely adhered to. All the fifteen families studied in that district were
housed in four-, five-, or six-room dwellings; ten of them in five-room
dwellings. In Woodlawn the tendency was toward somewhat larger dwellings.
There were no four- and five-room dwellings, but five of seven rooms
and three of six rooms, one each of eight and three rooms. The four-room
dwelling was most prevalent on the North Side. Of the fourteen families
studied there, six were in such dwellings. There were two dwellings of
six rooms, two of seven, one of five, two of three, and one of eleven
rooms.
On the West Side, also, thirteen of the sixteen families were housed
in four-, five-, six-, or seven-room dwellings, the five-room type
predominating. In the Lake Park district the five-room type was most
frequent, there being eleven of these out of a total of thirty-seven,
six of six rooms and seven of seven rooms, the next largest group being
five of eight rooms.
On the South Side in the district from Thirty-first to Thirty-ninth
Street, out of a total of ninety-nine there were eighteen families in
five-room dwellings, seventeen in four-room, nine in three-room, ten in
six-room, fourteen in seven-room, and eight in ten-room dwellings. In
the district north of Thirty-first Street the predominating size was
six-room dwellings, of which there were eleven, and there were nine
of four rooms, seven of five rooms, and seven of seven rooms, the rest
scattering from one-room dwellings to one dwelling of thirteen rooms.
From Thirty-ninth to Sixtieth streets, six-room dwellings were most
frequent, there being eight of these out of a total of thirty-six,
and there were seven of five rooms, six of six rooms, and six of seven
rooms. The dwellings occupied by Negroes south of Thirty-ninth Street,
it should be noticed, are larger than those north of that street.
The grouping of the 274 families according to number of persons is as
follows:
Families Persons to Family
48 4
40 2
35 3
37 5
30 7
29 6
22 8
17 9 or more
16 Not recorded
-----
274
Four persons to a "family" was the most common type, there being
forty-eight of these out of the 274. In the Woodlawn and Ogden Park
districts the group of three was predominant. The North Side district
grouping of two persons to a family is partly due to the inclusion of
nine "groups" of one person each who were interviewed mainly for data
bearing upon industrial relationships. The tables show a total of sixteen
such groups in the eight districts; but they are not deemed sufficient
to vitiate the statistics.
Negroes have more space in their living quarters than do other Chicago
people housed in similar grades of dwellings. They were usually found in
dwellings of five rooms for each family, while the prevailing size among
the foreign groups was four rooms, as disclosed by the Chicago School
of Civics housing studies from 1909 to 1917. In the School's earliest
study of the Negroes it was said:
The colored families do not as a rule live in the small and
cramped apartments in which other nationalities are so often
found. Even the families who apply to the United Charities
for relief are frequently living in apartments which would be
considered adequate, as far as the number of rooms is concerned,
for families in comfortable circumstances.
Some marked exceptions, of course, were found.
The four-room dwelling was found to prevail among the Slovaks of the
Twentieth Ward, the Lithuanians of the Fourth Ward, the Greeks and
Italians in the neighborhood of Hull-House, the various central and
southern European nationalities who work in the South Chicago steel mills
and live near-by, and among the Jews, Bohemians, and Poles of the West
Side.
_The lodger problem._--The prevalence of lodgers is one of the most
conspicuous problems in the Negro housing situation. It is largely a
social question. The difficulty of finding a home adequate for a family
of four or five persons at a reasonable rent has forced many Negroes to
take over large buildings in better localities and in better physical
condition but with much higher rents. To meet these rents they have
taken lodgers. It was seldom possible to investigate the character of
the lodgers. The arrangement of these large houses, originally intended
for single-family use, prevents family privacy when lodgers are added,
making a difficult situation for families with children. Again, the
migration brought to the city many unattached men and women who could
find no other place to live except in families. Thus it happens that
in Negro families the lodger problem is probably more pressing than
in any other group of the community. Not only do lodgers constitute a
social problem for the family, but, having little or no interest in the
appearance and condition of the property, they are in many instances
careless and irresponsible and contribute to the rapid deterioration of
the buildings.
As previously explained, the term "lodgers," in this report, includes
relations as well as other adults unrelated to the family. It was apparent
in the study that there was a large number of relative-lodgers in Negro
families. The recent migration from the South had a distinct bearing
on this situation. Many Negroes came to Chicago at the solicitation of
relatives and remained in their households until they could secure homes
for themselves. The migration further accounts for the accentuation of
the lodger problem during the period immediately following it. The 274
family histories include 1,319 persons, of whom 485, or 35 per cent, were
lodgers, living in 62 per cent of the households. The greatest number
of households with lodgers were those living in five-room dwellings.
There were thirty-eight such households. Living in six-and seven-room
dwellings were thirty-four families with lodgers. Families with only
one lodger were most numerous. There were fifty-five such families as
compared with thirty-nine having two lodgers, twenty-five with three
lodgers, twenty-three with four lodgers, thirteen with six lodgers,
eight with five lodgers, and seven with more than six lodgers.
Naturally the lodger evil was found in its worst form in the congested
parts of the South Side. In the district from Thirty-first to Thirty-ninth
streets seventy-two of the ninety-nine families had lodgers. In twenty-two
families there was but one, however, as against twelve with three and
four, eleven with two, and six with five and six lodgers. Two families
had ten each, and one had thirteen. This last case was that of a widow
who rented nine sleeping-rooms in her ten-room house, in addition to
catering at odd moments. It was a typical rooming-house as distinguished
from a family taking lodgers. One family that had ten lodgers consisted
of a man, his wife, and a son twenty-five years old; they had eight
bedrooms, seven opening into a hall. The other family that had ten
lodgers consisted of the parents and two children, a boy of eight and a
girl of seven, and had a ten-room house. The lodgers were two men and
three women, with five children. Five of the ten rooms were used as
sleeping-rooms.
In the district north of Thirty-first Street an increased number of
lodgers appeared in only one family, that of a man and his wife, without
children. They lived in a ten-room house, using eight of the rooms for
sleeping purposes and accommodating seven male and five female lodgers.
In the district from Thirty-ninth to Sixtieth Street was one instance
of seven male lodgers in a seven-room house with the man who owned the
property. Two of the lodgers were his brothers. There was no heat and
no bathroom. The house had been reported to the health department.
In the Lake Park district one, two, or three lodgers were the rule,
only five of the twenty-eight families with lodgers in that district
being outside of those three classes. Eight lodgers were found in an
eight-room dwelling. The family consisted of man and wife, and the only
female lodger was their niece. Five rooms were used for sleeping purposes.
In the other district no instances of excessive overcrowding due to
lodgers were found.
Complaint has often been made of the numerical preponderance of lodgers
over children among Chicago Negroes, and comment has been made on the
economic significance. It has been suggested, for example, that economic
pressure had lowered the birth-rate among Negroes and increased the
infant-mortality rate. As indicated by the 274 family histories, the
number of lodgers among the Negro population exceeds the number of
children, that is, the number of boys less than twenty-one years and
girls less than eighteen. The School of Civics and Philanthropy, in its
housing studies, counted as children those less than twelve years of
age. On this basis it found in its study of the Negroes of the South and
West sides that there were less than half as many children as lodgers
on the South Side, but a more normal situation in the West Side. Even
extending the ages of children, as has been done in the present report,
the situation does not appear in a much better light.
The proportion of lodgers and of children in the districts covered by
the Commission is shown in Table IX.
TABLE IX
=====================================================================
| Percentage of | Percentage of
District | Lodgers | Children
-------------------------------------+---------------+---------------
South Side: | |
Thirty-first to Thirty-ninth | 45.9 | 15.4
Twenty-second to Thirty-first | 37.8 | 20.4
Thirty-ninth to Sixtieth | 30.1 | 21.4
West Side | 21.8 | 32.0
Lake Park | 42.1 | 16.9
North Side | 15.2 | 25.0
Woodlawn | 26.9 | 30.0
Ogden Park | 12.3 | 45.0
+---------------+---------------
Total of 274 families | 35.0 | 22.7
-------------------------------------+---------------+---------------
By way of comparison similar figures from other housing studies of the
Chicago School of Civics might be mentioned, the children in each instance
being less than twelve years old.
Among the Slovaks of the Twentieth Ward, 13 per cent were lodgers and
32 per cent children; in South Chicago, 27.3 per cent lodgers and 25.7
per cent children; among the Greeks and Italians near Hull-House, 13
per cent lodgers and 30 per cent children; among the Lithuanians of the
Fourth Ward, 28 per cent lodgers and 27 per cent children.
As far as the South Side is concerned, the situation with regard to the
balance between lodgers and children has become aggravated since the
earliest School of Civics report was issued, whereas the situation on
the West Side has improved somewhat.
Where there were children and lodgers together, a considerable number of
instances were found which suggest probable injury to health or morals,
and sometimes both. Even where lodgers are relatives, impairment of
health and morals is threatened in certain circumstances, especially if
the over-crowding is flagrant. For example, a household on South Dearborn
Street near Thirty-fourth Street consisted of a father, mother, a son of
nineteen years, and a baby girl of four months, with three lodgers, two
men and one woman--seven persons living in seven rooms and sleeping in
all parts of the house. One of the lodgers was a sister-in-law, another a
nephew by marriage, and the third, a stranger, had a bedroom to himself.
In a ten-room house in East Thirty-second Street parents having a boy of
eight years and a girl of seven years were found to have taken in ten
lodgers, two of whom were men. In another instance five children, four
of them boys of eight, five, four, and two years and a girl of eleven,
lived with their parents and two lodgers in a six-room house.
In Ogden Park, a district which shows a high percentage of children,
lodgers sometimes are added to the family. In one house of five rooms,
for example, there were found living twelve persons--father, mother, two
sons, sixteen and seventeen years of age, four daughters, thirty-three,
twenty-four, twenty-two, and thirteen years of age, and four lodgers--a
daughter, her husband, and their two infants. There were only two bedrooms
for the twelve persons. Another instance was that of a family of father,
mother, four sons, nine, five, three, and two years, and two daughters,
seven years and three weeks, with a sister of one of the parents for a
lodger. The nine persons lived in five rooms. There were only two beds
in the house, and one of the bedrooms was not in use.
On the South Side near Thirty-first Street there was a case where a
man lodger occupied one bedroom, the other being used by the parents
and their eight-year-old daughter--four persons in a four-room flat.
On South Park Avenue near Twenty-ninth Street two lodgers, a son-in-law
and a nephew, occupied two of the six rooms, while the husband and wife,
a son of twenty-three years, and a daughter of twenty-one years lived
in the other four rooms, which included the kitchen and dining-room.
A similar instance was found, on Indiana Avenue near Thirtieth Street,
where two male lodgers lived with a family consisting of the parents,
a son of twenty, and a daughter of eighteen, all in six rooms, two of
which were not sleeping-rooms. On Lake Park Avenue near Fifty-sixth
Street a family, including father, mother, and daughter of twenty, slept
in the kitchen in order that three lodgers, one male and two female,
might be accommodated in the five-room flat. In a five-room flat on
Kenwood Avenue near Fifty-third Street the two male lodgers occupied
both bedrooms, while the mother and her boy of nine and girl of seven
years lived in the kitchen and dining-room. Seven persons were found
living in a six-room house on East Fortieth Street; they were father,
mother, a son of five years, a daughter of seven years, and an infant,
with a male and a female lodger, friends of the parents. Virtually the
whole house was used for sleeping purposes.
These are examples of the arrangements that sometimes occur when children
and lodgers are found in the same dwelling. The fact that in the main
Chicago Negroes live in more rooms per dwelling than immigrants, whose
standard of living has not yet risen, does not necessarily mean that
the Negroes have a greater appreciation of a house with more rooms.
The explanation in many cases is that the Negroes take whatever living
quarters happen to be available, which often are large residences
abandoned by well-to-do whites, and then adapt their mode of living to
the circumstances. Lodgers are one of the sources of revenue that aid
in paying the rent. Negro families often expressed a desire to live by
themselves if they could find a dwelling of suitable size for reasonable
rent. They sometimes complained of lodgers and declared that they would
prefer not to take them at all, especially women lodgers. The objection
to married couples and unattached men was not so pronounced.
Smaller houses thus would seem to be a factor in the solution of the
lodger problem. A Negro real estate dealer was asked if the Negro was
as contented or as much disposed to live in a cottage as white people,
or whether he wanted to live in spacious quarters where he could draw a
revenue from roomers. The reply was that the Negro would rather live by
himself. This is evidenced by the fact that many Negroes would rather
live in an apartment and rent two or three rooms than take a large house
and have it full of roomers.
Lodgers are often found in the smaller dwellings occupied by Negroes.
Rent is often the determining factor in the selection of the smaller
dwelling. When it is so high that it forms too large a proportion of
income, economic necessity often drives the Negro family to admit one or
more lodgers at the expense of overcrowding and its attendant harmfulness.
This was noted in certain districts where the dwellings as a rule were
small.
_Rents and lodgers._--An effort was made to determine the economic
necessity for lodgers as expressed by the relation of the wages of heads
of families to the amounts of rent paid. It is assumed that in a normal
family budget rent should not exceed one-fifth of the income of the head
of the family. Wide variations from that proportion were revealed.
Facts as to both rent and wages were difficult to secure, owing to the
variable earnings of various members of the family, variable sums received
from lodgers, and other factors. For example, seventeen occupants owned
their houses. In seventy-eight other cases information obtained by the
investigators was not adequate or could not, for various reasons, be
used in calculations.
The remaining 179 cases out of the 274 provided data from which the
following facts are presented: In three instances the rent exceeded the
income of the head of the family; in thirty-one instances the rent equaled
one-half the income of the head of the family, and in an equal number it
amounted to one-third. In one case the rent was equal to three-fourths
of the income, and in twenty-three cases the rent equaled one-fourth.
Thus eighty-nine instances were disclosed in which the rent was in excess
of one-fifth of the income of the head of the family. In most of these
cases, particularly the extreme ones, the income of the head of the
family was greatly supplemented by money received from lodgers or from
earnings of other members of the family.
The remaining ninety families in which the rent amounted to one-fifth
or less of the income of the head of the family were divided as follows:
Twenty-four fell in the one-fifth column, twenty-seven in the one-sixth
column, fourteen in the one-seventh column, eleven in the one-eighth
column, while fourteen were in the "low" column. The last named included
those ranging from one-ninth to one-twenty-third.
On the South Side, in the district from Thirty-first to Thirty-ninth
Street, rents exceeded the one-fifth proportion in one-half of the
sixty-two families studied, two of them paying rent in excess of income,
eight paying one-half of income for rent, fourteen paying one-third, and
seven paying one-fourth. Of the remaining thirty-one families in that
district, seven fell in the one-fifth column, twelve in the one-sixth
column, six in the one-seventh column, four in the one-eighth column
and two in the "low," being one-ninth and one-eleventh.
Rents were high also in the Lake Park district, where twenty-five
families of a total of thirty-six were paying in excess of the one-fifth
proportion. Fourteen of these paid one-half of the income for rent, five
paid one-fourth, four paid one-third, one paid three-quarters, and in
one instance rent exceeded income. In only five instances was the normal
one-fifth paid, two paid one-sixth, two paid one-seventh, while two paid
one-ninth and one-eleventh respectively.
In the district north of Thirty-first Street, eighteen out of a total
of thirty-eight families paid in excess of the one-fifth proportion,
four paid one-half, nine paid one-third, and five paid one-fourth.
Six families paid the normal one-fifth, five paid one-sixth, two paid
one-seventh, one one-eighth, and six less than that, running as low as
one-twenty-third.
The Ogden Park area was found to be a district of low rents. None of the
eight families studied paid as much as the normal one-fifth. Two paid
one-sixth, one paid one-seventh, three one-eighth, one one-ninth, and
one one-twelfth.
The other districts did not show much variation from the normal proportion.
Examination was made of all the factors in instances where the rent
equaled one-half or more of the income of the head of the family or
amounted to one-third. With regard to the former it was assumed, for the
purpose of the study, that it compelled renting rooms to lodgers. With
regard to the one-third column, lodgers were assumed to be an economic
necessity when they offered the only source of income in addition to that
of the head of the family. On these bases it was found that in forty-six
families supplementary income afforded by lodgers was necessary, that
in three instances they were the sole source of the income, while one
instance was presented of a widow whose children partly supported her,
but insufficiently for their common needs.
While in most instances of high rents and low income on the part of the
head of the family good reason appeared for taking lodgers, in not a few
instances further analysis revealed other sources of income which might
indicate that there was no economic necessity for lodgers. There was one
instance on Forest Avenue, for example, where the relation of the rent
to the father's income was one-third, but where his sons earned more
than double his income. In another family on South State Street near
Thirtieth Street, the father earned $125 a month and paid $50 a month
rent, but additional income was derived from the wife, son, and daughter,
in addition to that obtained from lodgers. There was likewise the case
of a waiter living on Lake Park Avenue whose rent was $30 a month as
against wages of $10 a week. In addition to the tips he doubtless received
in his work, his wife earned $18 a week, and $6 a week was derived from
lodgers. In one instance a man living near Fifty-sixth Street and Wabash
Avenue paid rent equal to one-third of his wages, but had considerable
income from investments.
Such instances tend to explain why only forty-eight families were found
in which lodgers seemed to be an economic necessity in aiding to pay
rents, when eighty-nine cases were revealed in which the rent was in
excess of one-fifth of the wages of the head of the family. The family
histories also showed that various means besides lodgers supplemented
the insufficient income of a family head. In some cases the wife or
children worked, and not infrequently their incomes exceeded those of
the father.
Lodgers were often found in families where the income from that source
did not appear to be needed. This was the case in a number of families
with unusually high wages and abnormally low rents. High wages and
low rents explain most of the cases shown where the rent ranges from
one-ninth to one-twenty-third of the income of the head of the family. In
the one-twenty-third case the couple lived in two rooms on South State
Street for which they paid $6 a month. The man earned $35 a week in an
iron foundry, while the wife added $18 a week to the common fund. Another
instance was that of a man who paid $16 a month rent and earned $48 weekly
at the Stock Yards. His wife and a relative added $23.60 a week to the
family income. A man in Ogden Park whose income as a contractor was $48
a week paid $16 a month rent. A man living on the West Side earned $48
a week and paid $15 a month rent. His children added $43.50 a week to
the family income.
Even in circumstances such as these, lodgers were sometimes taken. In
one case where the rent was one-tenth of the wages of the head of the
family the man paid $15 a month rent for a five-room dwelling out of his
$36 weekly wages earned in a coke plant at Gary. His son and lodgers
increased the monthly income by $28. There was a teamster earning $30
a week who paid $15 a month rent for a six-room dwelling in which nine
persons lived. The proportion of rent to his wages was as one to eight.
His wife, one of his children, and lodgers added to the income. As in
numerous instances where the income was high, a large amount was spent
for food in this family.
An instance was found of a man earning $9.50 to $10.50 a day. His wife
was a caterer. There was a daughter of fifteen years. They took three
roomers. There was no need for the woman to work, but she said she wanted
the money. She was a good cook, having served in that capacity in the
South, and she said she earned $15 when she went out for a week-end of
catering. In this instance there seemed to be little need for lodgers.
Another case was that of a man and his wife and two grown children living
in a nine-room dwelling on Calumet Avenue and having nine lodgers. The
man was earning $40 a week, and the lodgers paid $33.50 a week. The wife
occasionally did day work, earning $3.65 a day. The monthly expenditure
for food was $100, clothing $33, and rent $60.
Another instance was that of a widow with three children who lived on
State Street near Thirty-seventh Street, in a three-room flat. Though the
children's earnings amounted to $78 a week, the inevitable lodger was
present, contributing $4 a week to the common fund. This little family
spent $120 a month for food.
Large amounts spent for food were not uncommon in some families that
took lodgers. A typical instance was that of the man and wife with three
children and two lodgers who lived on Prairie Avenue. The man earned
$25 a week, while $82 a month was derived from the lodgers. Food for
the family alone cost $100 a month.
A man on North Wells Street earned $57 a week for the support of his
wife and three adopted children. They lived in an eleven-room house
which also accommodated the man's sister and brother. One of the sons
earned $75 a week, and the lodgers paid $45 a month. This family spent
$180 a month for food. Another earned $22 a week in the Stock Yards.
Besides his wife and child they had in their nine-room house on East
Thirtieth Street six lodgers paying $20 a week. This family spent $100
a month for food and $34 for clothing. Another man and wife on Forest
Avenue paid $25 a month rent and spent $88 a month for food and $43 for
clothing. They derived $3.75 a week from their two lodgers. A similar
case was that of a family which lived on East Thirty-second Street. The
man earned $30 a week in a foundry. He and his wife have one child, and
they had ten lodgers, who paid $72 a week. In this family $80 was spent
for food each month and $50 for clothing.
The heaviest expenditure for food in any one family was $330 a month.
This was explained by the fact that there were twenty table boarders.
The husband earned $22.50 a week, and there were three lodgers who paid
$13 a week. The boarders collectively paid $13 a day. Rent was $55 a
month, and $25 a month was spent for clothing.
Other reasons for the ready acceptance of lodgers in Negro dwellings
were apparent, among them friendship and the desire to be obliging and
to assist others in a new environment. Most Negroes would regard it as
a breach of good faith to encourage friends and relatives to come to
Chicago from the South and then fail to help them after their arrival.
This accounts for the frequent designation of "relatives" and "friends"
among the lodgers. Sometimes these lodgers seemed to be permanent, but
often they were taken only until they could adjust themselves.
During the period of greatest migration, 1915-20, hundreds of unattached
men and women could be seen on the streets as late as one or two o'clock
in the morning, seeking rooms shortly after their arrival in Chicago.
One instance was reported of a family to whose house four men came at
midnight looking for rooms. Lack of lodging-houses or of hotels where
accommodations could be had at reasonable prices was partly responsible
for this swarm of migrants seeking shelter in private homes. The meager
provision of such places for the accommodation of unattached Negroes
has been a factor in the lodger problem.
IV. HOW NEGRO FAMILIES LIVE
How Negroes earn their living in Chicago, what occupational changes
those from the South have undergone since arrival, how their present
occupations differ from those in their former homes--information on
all these points was gained from the family histories. Almost without
exception, the Negroes interviewed declared that their economic situation
had improved in Chicago. In most instances they were able to earn more;
some said they were obliged to work harder but felt well recompensed
because of their improved economic condition.
From the occupations of persons included in the study it appears that
there is a distinct departure from the domestic and personal service in
which Negroes were commonly found a few years ago. Among the 274 families
visited, the heads of 225 families were men. Of this number eighteen
were idle at the time of the investigation, in the summer of 1920, nine
were professional men, nineteen were in business, twenty-two were in
some skilled trade or work, 110 were doing unskilled work, and only
forty-seven were engaged in personal service. The latter term includes
such occupations as doorman in a hotel or club, bellboy, bootblack, cook,
waiter, porter, elevator operator, and chauffeurs who lack training as
mechanics. These are chiefly functions which bring employees in contact
with the public or with white employers in a more or less personal
capacity.
Before coming to Chicago, forty-five of the 225 were farmers. Practically
all of these entered the field of unskilled occupations here. Only
sixty-four of the 225 had been doing unskilled work in their former
home. Six more did skilled work in their former homes than were doing
such work in Chicago; two more were in personal service; two less were
in business; and one more was in a profession.
Of these 225 family heads, 122 migrated to Chicago, chiefly from the
South, during the period from 1916 to 1920 inclusive. Three periods in
the industrial history of the family head were taken: (1) occupation in
the former home; (2) occupation on first arrival in Chicago; and (3)
adjustment to new conditions in Chicago and occupation at the time of
investigation, during the spring and early summer of 1920.
Many of these migrants had not yet made their adjustment to the new
occupations at that time. However, certain tendencies were manifest.
For example, in the former home thirty-one were farmers and forty-five
were unskilled workers. In the period of adjustment seventy-seven were
doing unskilled work. The unskilled occupations had apparently, in the
shifting about, absorbed the farmers. The difficulty of continuing in
skilled occupations in the North was evidenced. In the South fourteen
of the 122 men were engaged in skilled occupations of some sort; in
the period of adjustment there were fifteen; but at the time of the
investigation there were but twelve.
In the South nineteen of the 122 were in personal-service occupations;
during the transition period, eighteen; and at the time of the
investigation, sixteen. In the South seven were in business; during the
period of transition, three; and at the time of the investigation, five.
In the South four were in practice as professional men; during the period
of transition only three; while at the time of the investigation there
were five, one just beginning to practice.
As to whether any previous occupational training was used or abandoned
after coming to the North, it appeared that of the 225 only 91 utilized
such training. In 134 cases previous training was not used, but these
included many who were farmers in the South.
Of forty-nine who had been engaged in personal-service occupations before
coming to Chicago, only twenty still continued in such work. Six were
unemployed at the time of the investigation, nineteen were in unskilled
work, one was doing skilled work, and three were in business.
Forty-nine women were heads of families as revealed by the 274 family
histories. This does not include all the Negro women shown by the
histories to be engaged in gainful occupations in Chicago. Often daughters
were working. There were thirty instances in which man and wife both
worked outside of the home. Before coming to Chicago 129 wives were
employed, while in Chicago sixty-seven wives were gainfully employed,
including the thirty who were working in addition to their husbands.
During the period of transition, it appears, they helped out, since the
records show that 132 were then at work. But the tendency plainly is to
abandon the practice as soon as the family becomes settled in the new
environment.
Of seventeen women who had worked as house servants in their former
homes, seven were found in factories, three in offices, two in stores,
and five in unskilled manual labor.
Some of the transitions in occupation are especially interesting. One
oil-field worker in the South had become a shoemaker. A farmer had become
a postal clerk. A former superintendent of a label factory attended
high school during the adjustment period and became an undertaker. One
who was a schoolboy in the South worked in a hotel on coming to Chicago
but became a grocer. A barber in Kansas City became first a painter in
Chicago, then a janitor. A bottler from Memphis, Tennessee, went to work
in the Stock Yards but became a canvasser. A farmer from Alabama worked
first in the Yards and later in woolen mills.
One man was a porter in a store in Mississippi. In Chicago he became a
chauffeur. A farmer from Louisiana on arriving worked as a butcher and
then secured employment in a tannery. A porter in a wholesale grocery
in Memphis, Tennessee, who worked first in Chicago as a lard maker in a
packing-house, later became a building laborer. A preacher from Tennessee
worked at Swift's packing-house until he could become established in a
church.
A Mississippi plumber who served as a butter maker for a time after
reaching Chicago became a contractor within three years. A hotel porter
from Alabama came to Chicago in 1918 and went to work in a steel foundry
and later in a soap factory. A farmer who worked on shares in Georgia
tried work in the Stock Yards in Chicago, but changed to a paint shop. An
Alabama man who worked in a sawmill there found a job in a steel foundry
in Chicago, and later went to the Stock Yards. A man who worked in an
ice plant in Texas became a railroad porter after coming to Chicago and
then found a job as a butcher at the Stock Yards.
A man who began life as a bootblack in Atlanta came to Chicago in 1893
and sold newspapers until he could enter business for himself. For
many years he has been a jeweler. In the South his wife was a musician
by profession. To aid her husband in his struggle she worked in a box
factory for a time after arriving in Chicago.
Clergymen sometimes abandon their profession for more remunerative
employment. One of these came to Chicago from Boston in 1904. For a time
he worked as a fireman and later in a packing-house. One who served
as a waiter on first coming to Chicago became an insurance agent, and
another, who was a reporter on a Negro newspaper on arrival in Chicago,
became the manager of a manufacturing company.
Few migrants continued in Chicago the employment in which they worked
in the South.
The family histories show that the Stock Yards industry absorbed many
of the migrants, and a large number went to work in the steel mills and
iron foundries, as well as in lighter manufactures.
Many Negro women have become hairdressers and manicurists after a course
in a school of "beauty culture" which also teaches the use of cosmetics.
Considerable skill is often required in this work, and the earnings often
supplement very substantially the husband's income and may be sufficient
to make an individual self-sustaining in case of need. Hairdressing is
most frequently done in the homes.
An occasional teacher, cateress, or seamstress was found among the Negro
women. Some of them remained in personal-service occupations, but a
decided tendency was noticeable toward office and factory employment.
In summary it is scarcely necessary to remark that wages in the North far
exceed those in the South. The difference in some instances is so great
that many foolish expenditures are indulged in before the relatively
higher cost of living is appreciated, or other conditions are properly
understood. High wages, supplemented by income from other sources, often
proved a temptation to unnecessarily heavy expenditures for material
comforts, such as food and clothing. With relation to food it did not
appear that Negroes were deliberately taken advantage of in their buying,
but that they frequently bought articles without considering prices that
had been refused by others because they were deemed excessive.
Insurance of one kind or another was often carried in the families
studied. In spite of high living costs, a considerable number of families
were found to have bank accounts, Liberty bonds, War Savings stamps,
and good interest-paying investments.
The testimony of Negroes who at some time had lived in the South was
mainly that they were obliged to work harder for what they got North.
They also declared that they were unable to save as much as they hoped
or expected, because of high prices. But in the great majority of
cases satisfaction was expressed over the improvement in their economic
situation. While their movements in search of better housing in Chicago
were extremely frequent, they still felt that they were better housed
than in their former homes, where bathtubs, steam heat, and electric
lighting were almost unknown. Being accustomed to a certain measure of
dilapidation in their home surroundings in the South, the Negro is not
necessarily dismayed by the extent of dilapidation in Chicago's Negro
housing, though usually it is not long before he begins to think of more
substantial dwellings in better surroundings than those he first obtains.
Also in Chicago he finds available and accessible to his home many
churches, some with large memberships and adequately housed; the best
schools he has ever known; fine hospitals and dispensaries at his command;
some playgrounds, bathing-beaches, parks, and similar facilities for
his recreation and that of his children; settlement houses; libraries;
and many other civic and recreational societies that make a strong
appeal to his interest and promote his ambition for physical and mental
development. He finds many motion-picture theaters and other amusements
for his leisure hours.
Where the habit has not already been established, he is learning to make
liberal use of all these facilities through the guidance and direction
of Negro newspapers and organizations working especially for the
improvement of the Negro group. There are indications of improvement in
moral standards, health, and civic consciousness through these contacts
and the use of these up-building social agencies.
The opinions of migrants and their feeling toward the community were
solicited. It appeared that above all they prized the social and political
freedom of the North. Satisfaction was expressed over the escape from "Jim
Crow" treatment in the South. They valued the independence possible in
the North, and sometimes spoke of having come North "out of bondage." They
recalled frequently the "shameful treatment received by the Negroes from
the white people in the South," the "intimidation and discrimination,"
and they were surprised and sometimes amazed at the fact that they could
go and come at will in Chicago, that they could ride in the front of
a street car and sit in any seat. Satisfaction was also expressed over
the fact that they could get a job at good wages and did not have to buy
groceries at plantation stores where they felt they had been exploited.
Thus, while they may have to work harder and may find it difficult for
a long time to adjust themselves to the environment, few indicated any
intention of returning to the South. In some instances, where adjustments
have not been made, some discouragement was evidenced, and they sometimes
expressed the feeling that they were no better off in Chicago than in
their former homes. The prevailing sentiment, however, was in favor of
remaining in spite of some greater difficulties.
Often Negroes from the South said they missed the care-free social
greetings and relationships that prevail in the rural South. They thought
that people in the North were "colder," that they did not show sufficient
hospitality.
Asked what conditions they would change if they could have their way,
the most frequently expressed desire was for more and better housing.
Improvement of social, moral, or political conditions followed. Some
emphasized the necessity of improving the management of the migrants
from the South, whose new-found freedom had led them to become offensive
in their conduct. Interviews with migrants, however, indicated that
instruction was being received without offense from many social agencies
on how to act, dress, and speak in such a manner as not to create
unfavorable impressions.
There were some complaints of political exploitation and of being
obliged to live in proximity to gambling and vice that were encouraged
by political bosses in their neighborhoods.
The inquiry showed that membership in clubs, lodges, and kindred
organizations was almost as universal as church affiliation. There
were only a few families in which no member had any association with a
fraternity or club.
V. A GROUP OF FAMILY HISTORIES
The general statistical treatment of these 274 Negro families takes
away many of their human qualities. For this reason a selection has
been made of various types of Negro families in order that a rounded
picture of the whole unit may be given. The family stories that follow
include typical migrant Negroes from the South--common laborers, skilled
laborers, salaried, business, and professional men. They illustrate
the commonplace experiences of Negroes in adjusting themselves to the
requirements of life in Chicago.
AN IRON WORKER
Mr. J----, forty-nine years old, his wife, thirty-eight years, and
their daughter twenty-one years, were born in Henry County, Georgia.
The husband never went to school, but reads a little. The wife finished
the seventh grade and the daughter the fifth grade in the rural school
near their home.
They worked on a farm for shares, the man earning one dollar and the
women from fifty to seventy-five cents a day for ten hours' work. Their
home was a four-room cottage with a garden, and rented for five dollars
a month. They owned pigs, poultry, and a cow, which with their household
furniture, were worth about $800. The food that they did not raise and
their clothing had to be bought from the commissary at any price the
owner cared to charge.
They were members of the Missionary Baptist Church and the wife belonged
to the missionary society of the church and the Household of Ruth, a
secret order. Their sole recreation was attending church, except for
the occasional hunting expeditions made by the husband.
_Motives for coming to Chicago._--Reading in the _Atlanta Journal_,
a Negro newspaper, of the wonderful industrial opportunities offered
Negroes, the husband came to Chicago in February, 1917. Finding conditions
satisfactory, he had his wife sell the stock and household goods and
join him here in April of the same year. He secured work at the Stock
Yards, working eight hours at $3 a day. Later, he was employed by a
casting company, working ten hours a day and earning $30 a week. This is
his present employment and is about forty minutes' ride from his home.
Both jobs were secured by his own efforts.
The family stayed in a rooming-house on East Thirtieth Street. This
place catered to such an undesirable element that the wife remained
in her room with their daughter all day. She thought the city too was
cold, dirty, and noisy to live in. Having nothing to do and not knowing
anyone, she was so lonely that she cried daily and begged her husband
to put her in three rooms of their own or go back home. Because of the
high cost of living, they were compelled to wait some time before they
had saved enough to begin housekeeping.
_Housing experience._--Their first home was on South Park Avenue. They
bought about $500 worth of furniture, on which they are still paying. The
wife then worked for a time at the Pullman Yards, cleaning cars at $1.50
a day for ten hours' work. Their house leaked and was damp and cold, so
the family moved to another house on South Park Avenue, where they now
live. The house is an old, three-story brick, containing three flats. This
family occupies the first flat, which has six rooms and bath. Stoves are
used for heating, and gas for light and cooking. The house is warm, but
dark and poorly ventilated. Lights are used in two of the rooms during
the day. The rooms open one into the other, and the interior, as well
as the exterior, needs cleaning. There are a living-room, dining-room,
and three bedrooms. The living-room is neatly and plainly furnished.
The daughter has married a man twenty-three years old, who migrated first
to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, then to Chicago. He works at the Stock
Yards. They occupy a room and use the other part of the house, paying
half the rent and boarding themselves. A nephew, who was a glazier in
Georgia, but who has been unable to secure work here, also boards with
Mr. and Mrs. J----, paying $8 a week. He is now unemployed, but has been
doing foundry work. Mrs. J---- occasionally does laundry work at $4 a day.
_How they live._--The cost of living includes rent $25; gas $5.40 a
month; coal $18 a year; insurance $9.60 a month; clothing $500 a year;
transportation $3.12 a month; church and club dues $3 a month; hairdresser
$1.50 a month. Little is spent for recreation and the care of the health.
The family carries insurance to the amount of $1,700, of which $1,200
is on the husband.
The meals are prepared by the wife, who also does the cleaning. Greens,
potatoes, and cabbage are the chief articles of diet. Milk, eggs, cereals,
and meat are also used. Meat is eaten about four times a week. Hot bread
is made daily, and the dinners are usually boiled.
_Relation to the community._--The whole family belongs to the Salem
Baptist Church and attends twice a week. The wife is a member of the
Pastor's Aid and the Willing Workers Club, also the Elk's Lodge. The
husband is a member of the Knights of Pythias. He goes to the parks,
bathing-beaches, and baseball games for amusement. The family spends
much of its time in church and helped to establish the "Come and See"
Baptist Mission at East Thirty-first Street and Cottage Grove Avenue.
They have gone to a show only once or twice since they came to the city.
During the summer they spend Sunday afternoons at the East Twenty-ninth
Street Beach.
Heavier clothes were necessary because of the change of climate, and
more fresh meat is used because of the lack of garden space and the high
cost of green vegetables.
The wife thinks that northern Negroes have better manners, but are not
as friendly as the colored people in the South. She says people do not
visit each other, and one is never invited to dine at a friend's house.
She thinks they cannot afford it with food so high. She thinks people
were better in the South than they are here and says they had to be good
there for they had nothing else to do but go to church.
She feels a greater freedom here because of the right to vote, the better
treatment accorded by white people, the lack of "Jim Crow" laws. She
likes the North because of the protection afforded by the law and the
better working conditions. "You don't have an overseer always standing
over you," she remarked.
Life here is harder, however, because one has to work all the time. "In
the South you could rest occasionally, but here, where food is so high
and one must pay cash, it is hard to come out even." The climate is
colder, making it necessary to buy more clothes and coal. Rent also is
very much higher here. They had to sell their two $50 Liberty bonds.
_Economic sufficiency._--With all this, Mrs. J---- gets more pleasure
from her income because the necessities of life here were luxuries in
Georgia, and though such things are dear here there is money to pay for
them. Houses are more modern, but not good enough for the rent paid.
They had to pay $2 more than the white family that moved out when they
moved in.
_Sentiments on the migration._--Mrs. J---- says "some colored people
have come up here and forgotten to stay close to God," hence they have
"gone to destruction." She hopes that an equal chance in industry will
be given to all; that more houses will be provided for the people and
rent will be charged for the worth of the house; and the cost of living
generally will be reduced. She does not expect to return to Georgia and
is advising friends to come to Chicago.
A FACTORY HAND
In his home town in Kentucky, Mr. M---- was a preacher with a small
charge. Now, at the age of forty-nine, in Chicago, he works in a factory
and is paid $130 a month. He has an adopted son, twenty-three years of
age, who is an automobile mechanic in business for himself, drawing an
income of $300 a month.
Mr. M---- might still be a preacher on small salary but for the
intervention of his wife. He came to Chicago about 1900. His wife came
from Nashville, Tennessee, in 1902, and they were married in 1904. Mrs.
M---- felt that she was too independent to "live off the people" and
persuaded her husband to give up the ministry. He got a job as foreman
at a packing-house, where he earned $25 a week for a ten-hour day. Next
he worked for the Chicago Telephone Company, and finally secured the
position with a box-manufacturing company which he now holds.
_Family life._--The M----s have adopted three children, having had none
of their own--the adopted son already mentioned, an adopted daughter now
twenty years of age, and another foster son of thirteen. The latter is
in a North Side school. The girl is in a normal school in Alabama. Both
Mr. and Mrs. M---- completed high school. All speak good English.
Wife and husband have separate banking accounts. Living expenses for such
a large family are, of course, heavy. For example, the bills for food
aggregate from $42 to $45 a week, and more than $200 a year is paid in
insurance premiums. Frequently a woman is hired to come in and help with
the housework. Food in good variety is used. Illness prevented adding
to the bank accounts during the year of 1920. An operation performed
on Mrs. M---- cost $650 and the illness of Mr. M---- and the daughter
consumed between $900 and $1,000.
_Housing experience._--The M----s' first home in Chicago was a cottage
in the "Black Belt." They wanted a large house and found one on South
State Street. The neighborhood, however, was displeasing to them, and
they moved to the North Side to be near a brother's children. The house
was too small, and they moved again to another North Side address. Again
the neighborhood proved distasteful, so they bought the three-story
dwelling on the North Side where they now live. It is in good sanitary
condition and is supplied with gas. As lodgers they have the wife's
sister and brother, who are actually members of the family.
_Community participation._--They belong to the Baptist church.
Affiliations of a secular nature include the Masons, the Household of
Ruth, the Court of Calanthe, the Eastern Star, the Heroines of Jericho,
the North Side Men's Progressive Club, the Twentieth Century and Golden
Leaf clubs, and the Young Matrons and Volunteer Workers. Mrs. M---- is
president of a settlement club and a member of the Urban League. After
coming to Chicago three years passed before she mingled much with people.
She had always done community work in her southern home and feels that
her reluctance here was due to the fact that she did not know what the
northern people were like. She found them friendly enough when at last
she did associate with them.
_Sentiments on community problems._--They came to Chicago because they
had visited here and liked it well enough to come back and settle.
Conditions are not all that they would like. They would like to see
Negroes allowed to live anywhere they choose without hindrance, they
would suppress moving pictures that reveal murder, drinking, and similar
acts that lead young people to commit crimes. They would also like to see
newspapers abandon their habit of printing articles that are derogatory
to the Negro, thus creating prejudice, and of printing items unfit for
children. Also they would like to see better homes for Negroes.
For the Negroes, they feel, life in the North is considerably easier
than in the South, since they can always get plenty of work and do not
have to work so hard as in the South. The mixed schools in the North are
especially appreciated because no discrimination can creep in. The general
lack of segregation on street cars, in parks, and in similar public places
also pleases them. Still they see difficulties for southern Negroes who
come North to live and are easily led astray. Southern Negroes are not
accustomed to the new kinds of work and are inclined to slight it. This
is, of course, unsatisfactory to their employers and accounts in some
measure for the frequency with which they change jobs. This may also
account for the fact that white people are averse to paying migrants well.
A RAILWAY MAIL CLERK
Mr. L---- was graduated from the Carbondale (Ill.) high school and the
Southern Illinois State Normal School, while Mrs. L---- was graduated
from Hyde Park High School and the Chicago Normal School. The latter
is a music teacher. Before coming to Chicago, Mr. L---- was a school
principal in Mounds, Illinois, and Mrs. L---- also was a teacher. They
are northern people, the husband having been born in East St. Louis and
the wife in Chicago. They have a daughter, three years of age, and have
living with them a niece and nephew, six and five years old, as well as
two adult women relatives.
_Economic sufficiency._--As a railway mail clerk, Mr. L---- earns $125
a month. He owns a house and lot in Carbondale and carries insurance on
his life and property. They spend $37.50 a month for rent, about $10
for miscellaneous items, $15 a week for food, $4 a month for gas, $1
for barber's services, and always $10 a month is added to the family's
bank account.
_Housing and neighborhood expenses._--In April, 1919, a flat building
south of Sixty-third Street, previously occupied by white people, was
opened to Negroes. The L---- family were the first of the Negroes to
move in. A few white families wished to remain and lived in the same
building with the Negroes. Mr. L---- says: "We objected, as they were
not the kind of people we wanted to live with. My sister-in-law acted
as agent of the building, and the condition of some of the flats was
terrible. The owner was arrogant when the Negroes first came in, but
he soon found that we would not be pleased with just anything. He told
us he saw that we were particular and wanted things nice, and, said
he, 'Seeing that you are that way, I'll do the best I can for you, as
I believe you will take care of the flat.' The Negroes insisted on the
laundry being cleaned and it is now being used."
The L---- family has had three stoves since moving in. After thoroughly
renovating the building and making many of the repairs themselves, the
sanitary conditions are good, and the owner makes no further objection
to maintaining the good order of things.
The white people of the neighborhood objected to having the building
occupied by Negroes. White boys of the neighborhood stoned the building,
and its tenants were obliged to call upon the police for protection. This
antagonism now seems to have disappeared. The white and Negro children
play together amicably.
_Community participation._--Mrs. L---- attends the First Presbyterian
Church regularly and Mr. L---- is a member and secretary of the board of
trustees of the A.M.E. Mission. He is a Mason and a member of the Woodlawn
Community Organization, which has the betterment of the neighborhood
as its aim. He plays tennis for recreation and goes to concerts and
the movies for entertainment. The children in the family have made use
of public playgrounds and libraries. Bathing-beaches have been sought
occasionally, and contacts have been made with the St. Lawrence Mission,
a neighborhood institution.
_Opinions on race relations._--Mr. L---- thinks that agitation is of
no assistance to the problem and draws attention to the fact that lack
of agitation on the part of newspapers averted a riot in connection
with one recent racial disturbance. "Housing is the greatest difficulty
confronted by the migrant from the South." It is his opinion, further,
that the Negroes are not understood, that the white people fear them
until they become really acquainted with the Negroes. "Contact," he
says, "is the only thing that will help to make conditions better. It
is just a question of understanding each other."
A MULATTO
Mr. A---- was born in Chicago and his wife in Helena, Arkansas. He was
educated in the Chicago public schools, and his wife attended Fisk
University, Nashville, Tennessee, and afterward the Chicago Musical
College.
Mr. A---- is light in complexion and is frequently mistaken for a white
man. Several years ago, without announcing his race, he obtained work in a
label factory and remained for some time until it was discovered that he
was not a white man, and therefore the only Negro in the establishment.
The officials, being the first to learn his racial identity, decided to
keep him as long as no objection came from the other white employees.
In a few years he became superintendent of the factory, which position
he held for eight years. He was treated as an equal by members of the
firm, who visited him at his home and invited him to their club. He was
also president of the company's outing club.
A short time ago he decided to enter business for himself, and both he
and his wife took courses in an embalming school. He now has a business
with stock and fixtures valued at $10,000.
_Economic sufficiency._--His business income affords a comfortable
livelihood and a surplus for investment. He has bought one house and
built another. These two are valued at $8,000 and yield $90 monthly.
He also owns stock in the Pennsylvania Railroad and a fire insurance
company, has $300 invested in Liberty bonds and owns a $1,000 automobile.
_Community participation._--Mr. and Mrs. A---- attend Congregational
church services every Sunday and get much pleasure from concerts,
lectures, and shows in the "Loop." Their principal recreation is motoring.
Mr. A---- is president of an association of business men and of a
charity organization. He is a member of several fraternal organizations,
contributes to Provident Hospital, United Charities, and the Urban
League. His wife is an active committee member of a charity organization.
_Opinions on local race problems._--Mr. A---- thinks there would be
no housing problem if prejudice were not so marked. He mentioned a
subdivision east of Stony Island Avenue where it is specifically stated
that Negroes are not desired. Homes there are being sold for prices within
the reach of Negroes, and he feels that at least 500 Negroes would be
glad to pay cash for such homes anywhere in Chicago if they were given
the opportunity. He feels that proper protection should be given Negroes
against bombers.
A TRANSPLANTED HOUSEHOLD
Mr. B---- is seventy-two years old and his wife sixty-four. They came to
Chicago during the migration. They had difficulty in finding work suited
to their advanced age and in accustoming themselves to the simplest
changes in environment. Neither of them can read or write.
_Home life in the South._--In Alabama they owned an eight-acre farm
and a four-room house and raised hogs, chickens, and cows. They both
had worked twelve hours a day for years and by denying themselves even
a comfortable home had saved $2,000. They were members of a church,
although they could not actively participate in church or other affairs
of their rural community. When the migration fever struck them they sold
their property, drew out their $2,000, and followed the crowd.
_Home life in Chicago._--They first secured rooms and began the search
for work. Mr. B---- finally secured a job in a livery stable at $18
a week, but the work was uncertain and the wages insufficient. Mrs.
B---- went to work cleaning taxicabs. Illness and frequent lapses in
work depleted their savings. They rented an eight-room house and took
in lodgers, hoping to insure a steady income. They have nine lodgers in
these eight rooms, in addition to themselves. There is no furnace heat;
the bathroom is out of repair, the halls dark and dirty, and they are
using their old furniture brought from the South. Three of the women
lodgers came from the same Alabama community. The habits and customs of
this household are unchanged. They go out seldom, and all of the women
smoke pipes and use snuff.
Of the original $2,000 which Mr. B---- brought with him, he has $250 left.
They make no use of civic and social agencies and do not go to church
because they think Chicago Negroes are unsociable. They prize the
fact, however, that work is plentiful for the lodgers, and they have no
intention of returning South.
A BARBER FROM MISSISSIPPI
Mr. D---- was a migrant and a member of a party of over a hundred Negroes
who left Hattiesburg, Mississippi, in the autumn of 1916.
He was a barber at home and earned an average of $25 a week. Mrs. D----
was a good housewife. They owned a house and lot valued at $1,000 and
furniture valued at $500. They have two children.
_Motive for coming to Chicago._--Mr. D---- had always read the _Chicago
Defender_, and usually got in a supply of these papers to sell to
his customers and to supply topics for barber-shop discussion. His
daughter, then a student at Straight College in New Orleans, was to be
graduated that year, and he went to New Orleans to spend a week. While
there he worked in a barber shop. He found that the migration was being
much discussed. One day a man came into the shop and said he was a
representative of a northern industry that was anxious to get Negroes
to come North and work for it. He argued that the North had freed the
Negroes, but had left them in the South where they had not received good
treatment, so that at this late date the North was trying to right an
old wrong and was now offering to Negroes a chance to work. On the other
hand the Negroes were indebted to the North for their freedom.
When Mr. D---- returned home he sold his barber shop and left for the
North with his wife and children.
_Life in Chicago._--Opening a place of business in Chicago, he called
it the Hattiesburg Barber Shop. It is patronized largely by Hattiesburg
people who came up in his party. His earnings are larger here, but at
first his wife was forced to work in the Stock Yards at $10 a week to
help meet the family budget. Occasionally now she works as a hairdresser.
They pay $46.50 a month for rent. Their clothing bill amounts to $650
a year. Last year they spent $200 for medicine and an average of $18 a
week for food. Their insurance premiums total $6 a month.
_Community participation._--In the South the entire family was active in
church affairs. In Chicago they have continued their church connections,
and Mr. D---- is one of the officials at the Olivet Baptist Church. They
go to church four times a week.
_Adjustments to Chicago._--They were quick to begin adjustment to their
new surroundings, profiting by the advice and instructions of their
present pastor. At the end of six months they felt themselves quite at
home. They feel the need for using more careful English and are more
formal in their greetings and relations with persons whom they meet.
They enjoy the "freedom of speech and action" allowed in Chicago, the
privilege of voting, the freedom from segregation, and the absence of
Jim Crow laws. They think Chicago is fair to Negroes in so far as laws
are concerned, but believe there should be better enforcement of the
laws. They find life easier here, although there is more work to be
done. They feel a great satisfaction in the more modern homes and other
comforts and pleasures they are able to obtain. Each month they add a
small amount to their bank account. They suggest that Negroes who have
become adjusted to Chicago should take pains in a kindly spirit to inform
newcomers concerning the proper deportment. They believe that if advice
is offered in the right manner it will always be gladly received. They
do not intend to return South.
A STOCK YARDS LABORER
A son-in-law of the B---- family, also from Mississippi, is employed
at the Stock Yards. His impressions throw light on the adjustment of
migrants and on their views. He said:
"A friend met me when I first came to Chicago and took me to the Stock
Yards and got me a job. I went to the front of the street car the first
time I entered one here because my friend told me to; I would not sit
beside a white person at first, but I finally got courage to do so.
"At Swift's the whites were friendly. There I was in the dry-salt
department at 22½ cents an hour. The foreman, a northerner, had been
there thirty-five years. He was fair to all. I worked with Americans,
Poles, and Irish. But the work was very hard, and I had to leave. I
carried my lunch with me. Negroes and whites there eat together when
they wish. I am now working at Wilson's. The Irish and Poles are a mean
class. They try to get the Negroes to join the union. When the Negroes
went to work Friday after the riot, most of the Irish and Poles quit
and didn't come back to work until Monday. They came back jawing because
the Negroes didn't join the union. White members of the union got paid
when their houses had been burned--$50 if they had families and $25 if
they were single. Colored members of the union got nothing when their
houses had been burned. That's why I won't join. You pay money and get
nothing. The whites worked during the riot; we had to lose that time.
I lost two weeks. It seemed strange to me. It looked unfair. They are
still mean and 'dig ditches' for us. They go to the foreman and knock
us, just trying to get us out of jobs. The foreman so far hasn't paid
any attention to it. I am working in the fresh-pork department, handling
boxes.
"The Negroes stick together and tend to their business. Some of the
Americans and Polish are very friendly. Everybody does his own work. We
use the same showers and locker-rooms. They don't want us to work because
we are not in the union. One asked me yesterday to join. The Poles said
non-union men would not get a raise, but we got it."
_Opinions on race relations._--"When I first came I thought the city
was wide open--I mean friendly and free. It seems that there is more
discrimination and unfriendly feeling than I thought. I notice it at
work and in public places. Wages are not increasing like the high cost
of living. As soon as one gets a raise, the cost of living goes up [May,
1920].
"The whites act just as disorderly on cars as the Negroes. Monday evening
two white laborers sitting beside a white woman cursed so much that I
had to look around. Nothing is ever said about such incidents.
"Rent goes up whenever people think of it. We have to pay $8 more since
April. Things are getting worse for us and we need to think about it.
Still it is better here than in the South."
AN OLD SETTLER
Mr. S---- was born in Baltimore in 1851. At the time of the gold rush
to California, his father took his family and started out to seek his
fortune. They had got as far as Chicago when his father was robbed and
the journey ended. Mr. S---- has lived here since. He has seen many
changes during his sixty-three years' residence in Chicago. When he came
here the city limits were Twelfth Street on the South and Chicago Avenue
on the North, and there were no street cars. The Negro population was
175. His parents took him on Sunday to the Railway Chapel Sunday School,
started in 1857 in two passenger cars by a Presbyterian minister, Father
Kent. The first building occupied by this congregation was on the site
where the Board of Trade now stands, 141 West Jackson Boulevard. This
was destroyed in the fire of 1871. The second church was at the corner
of State and Thirteenth streets, where the Fair warehouse now stands.
The next site of the church was that of the Institutional Church at
Thirty-eighth and Dearborn streets.
_Early housing experience._--Prejudice, Mr. S---- says, was unknown in
the early days. He has lived south of Thirty-first Street for thirty-five
years. They were the first Negro family to enter the block in which they
now live. He built his home there and has been living there twenty years.
A BASEBALL "MAGNATE"
Mr. G---- was born in La Grange, Texas, the son of a minister. As a boy
he worked on his father's farm, went to school, and progressed as far
as the eighth grade. He was a good baseball player. He played first in
Forth Worth, Texas, then in New York and Philadelphia, and finally came
to Chicago in 1907. The highest amount he had been able to earn was $9 a
week. His first job in Chicago netted him about $1,000 a year. In 1910
he had acquired ownership of the team, and now, at the age of forty,
it nets him $15,000 a year. His team has traveled extensively, having
covered the principal cities in the United States at least twenty-five
times.
_Home life._--Mrs. G---- was born in Sherman, Texas. She completed the
first-year high school at her home. She is a modest woman and a good
housekeeper. They have two children, a son of nine and a daughter of
three. Mr. G---- has moved four times in Chicago, seeking desirable living
quarters for his family. He owns a three-story brick building containing
nine rooms, the house in which he now lives. In addition he owns $7,000
worth of Liberty bonds and values his baseball team and other personal
property at about $35,000.
_Community participation._--Both Mr. and Mrs. G---- were church members
in the South. This membership is continued in Chicago. Mrs. G---- belongs
to an A.M.E. church and is interested in and helps support Provident
Hospital and Phyllis Wheatley Home for Girls, while Mr. G---- is a
member of several fraternal orders, City Federation of Clubs, and the
Appomattox Club. Their recreation is baseball and dancing, and they find
entertainment in attending theaters and orchestra concerts principally
in the "Loop." Mr. G---- is very much interested now in a playground
which is being established near his home and a tennis and croquet club
for young people in the same vicinity.
AN OLD RESIDENT
Before coming to Chicago in 1886 Mrs. L---- had lived in Washington and
Detroit. Mr. L---- was successively a railroad porter, a night watchman,
and a janitor. There are four children, three daughters and a son. Two
of the daughters are married and have families. One is a dressmaker,
another a stenographer, and another an accomplished musician. The son is
a typist. Several years ago Mr. L---- purchased a lot near Forty-seventh
Street on Wells Street on which he built his home. In this neighborhood
the family was reared. Mr. L---- died several years ago.
_Riot experience._--Although the L---- family has been living at
Forty-seventh and Wells streets for over thirty years, and relations
between the family and the white neighbors in the block were cordial,
gangs of hoodlums from other districts practically destroyed their
property. The house was attacked, some of the furniture was stolen, and
some was destroyed. The heavy pieces of furniture were broken up and
burned in the street. The building was so badly damaged that they were
forced to move into a boarding-house for a time.
_Community participation._--The L---- family lived in a section of
the city in which there were few Negroes, but maintained an active
relationship with organizations of the Negro community. They are members
of the A.M.E. Church and Sunday school and of two fraternal organizations.
Mrs. L---- is a member of the Linen Club of the Provident Hospital and
is actively interested in the Old Folks Home. Miss L----, one of the
daughters, is well known in the community as a musician and composer.
A PHYSICIAN
Dr. W---- and family came to Chicago in 1910. He had lived in Mexico
City until the revolution made living there hazardous. He was in good
circumstances, maintaining a comfortable household with servants. Since
he has been in Chicago he has had considerable difficulty in finding a
home in a neighborhood fit for rearing his children. He finally purchased
a home on Grand Boulevard which is valued at more than $25,000. It is a
three-story building with brown-stone front, ten rooms and two baths,
and many works of art installed by the artist, Holslag, who formerly
owned the house, and who himself painted some of the decorations. Dr.
W---- has spent several thousand dollars on the furnishings.
_Home life._--Besides the doctor and his family there are two other
relatives. The physician's income is adequate to maintain this
establishment and in addition two high-class automobiles. Mrs. W---- is
a social leader and does much entertaining. She is a patron of community
drama and attends grand opera and the leading theaters in the "Loop."
They were formerly Catholics but now attend the Bahai Assembly. Dr.
W---- is a member of two fraternal orders and two social clubs. Their
recreation is tennis, boating, motoring, and bathing. He is a director
of the Chicago Health Society. He is an examining physician and a member
of the board of directors in a life insurance company. Both are members
of the Art Institute and are active in supporting the settlements and
hospitals of the community.
In addition to her social duties Mrs. W---- continues the study of
music. She is chaperon at the regular dances of a post of the American
Legion held in the South Side Community Center; a member of the Library
Committee of the Y.W.C.A., and is interested in the entertainment of
Negro students of the University of Chicago.
They are living in a neighborhood in which several bombings of homes
of Negroes have occurred, but Mrs. W---- says that their relations with
the white neighbors are friendly.
A NATIVE OF CHICAGO
Mr. C---- was born in Chicago in 1869. His grandmother was part Indian
and his grandfather of Scotch extraction. The grandfather was born
in Cincinnati, and was graduated from Oberlin College. His father's
brother was a personal friend of Owen Lovejoy and Wendell Phillips. In
Leavenworth, Kansas, a monument had been erected to him as the first
Negro captain of a volunteer company. He fought with General Buckner
in New Orleans, was active as an abolitionist, and his wife was one of
the women sent to Kansas to establish schools among Negroes. She taught
school for thirty-six years and was one of the first women in the country
who were graduated as kindergarten teachers. His maternal grandfather
bought a home in Chicago in 1854 and lived where the Federal Building
now stands. At the time of Mr. C----'s birth his father lived on Plymouth
Court, then called Diana Place. They lived for thirty-one years on South
La Salle Street, where they owned their home.
_Economic sufficiency._--Mr. C---- is a graduate of the Chicago College of
Dental Surgery and practiced his profession until ill health forced him
into other fields. He has been a clerk in the county treasurer's office,
assistant bookkeeper in a white bank in Memphis, which position he held
for two years, and assistant electrician for a telephone company. Now,
at fifty-one, he is superintendent of the Western Exposition Company's
building. Twice he has lost his savings by bank failures. He lost $9,000
through the failure of the Day and Night Bank in Memphis, Tennessee. He
owns a house and lot, oil and mining stocks valued at $4,600, Liberty
bonds, Thrift stamps, and carries a small bank balance. His present home
is a four-room flat in a building on South State Street, which contains
forty apartments and two stores. With him lives the family of his younger
brother, who has a twelve-year-old son. He is a member of the Baptist
church and two fraternal orders. His chief recreation is swimming, and
he finds his entertainment in the "Loop" theaters and the city library.
A MISSOURI FAMILY
Mr. and Mrs. T---- came to Chicago in 1919, the wife arriving one month
before her husband. They had been living in St. Louis, Missouri, where
Mr. T---- was employed as a roller in an aluminum works. Prior to that
time he had been a houseman, and before that a teamster.
There are two children. One is fourteen years old and in the first-year
high school, and the other is seven and in the first-grade grammar school.
Mrs. T---- has always been a substantial aid to her husband, and, as
she says, she "doesn't always wait for him to bring something to her,
but goes out herself and helps to get it." Accordingly, when reports
were being circulated that Chicago offered good jobs and a comfortable
living, she came up to investigate while her husband held his job in
St. Louis.
_Home life in Chicago._--The family lives on State Street over a store.
They have moved four times since coming to Chicago in 1919, once to be
nearer work, once to get out of a neighborhood that suffered during the
riot, and twice to find a more desirable neighborhood for their family.
They are not satisfied with their present home and are planning to move
again as soon as a more suitable place can be found. With them live a
sister-in-law and her child, who are regarded as members of the family.
The house is in poor sanitary condition. The toilet is in the yard and
used by two families. There is no bath. The sister-in-law is a music
teacher but does not earn much. She pays board when she can afford it.
Mr. T---- is forty-seven and his wife forty-six years old. He is employed
at the International Harvester Company and earns $35 a week for a
nine-hour day. He consumes an hour and a half each day going to work.
Although Mr. T---- lived on a farm and too far from school to attend, he
taught himself to read and write. Mrs. T---- went as far as the eighth
grade in grammar school.
_Community participation._--The entire family belongs to a Methodist
church. Mr. T---- is a member of the Knights of Pythias and Mrs. T----
is a member of the Sisters of the Mysterious Ten. They have no active
recreation. For amusement they attend motion-picture shows in the
neighborhood. The children regularly use the playground near their home
and the Twenty-sixth Street Beach.
_Adjustment to Chicago._--Their most difficult adjustment has been in
housing. They think landlords should be forced to provide better homes
for the people in view of the high rents.
AN EMBALMER
Mr. B---- was born in Texas, lived for a number of years in Tuskegee,
Alabama, moved to Montgomery, and thence to Chicago in the summer of
1906. His first position here was that of coachman for $30 a month,
room, and board. His next position was that of porter, working fifteen
hours a day for $30 a week. He accumulated a small amount of money, and,
wishing to enter business for himself, and not having sufficient funds
to attend a specialized school, he secured a job with an embalmer and
worked for him four years. In 1913 he entered the undertaking business
for himself. He is now buying a two-story brick building on a five-year
contract, to serve as a place of business and a home. The business is
young and was begun on small capital. To establish himself he exhausted
his little bank account and sold his Liberty bonds. His equipment is
still incomplete, and he rents funeral cars and other equipment necessary
for burials.
_Community participation._--Both Mr. and Mrs. B---- are members of
several local improvement clubs; they attend Friendship Baptist Church,
and each belongs to three fraternal orders.
_Sentiments on local conditions._--Mrs. B---- thinks the town too
large for much friendliness. Mr. B---- believes that there should be
a segregated vice district. His principal objection to the present
scattering of houses of prostitution is that his wife, who is frequently
obliged to return home late at night, is subjected to insults from men
in the neighborhood. He thinks there should be a law requiring that
landlords clean flats at least once a year.
A YOUNG PHYSICIAN
Dr. C---- is a good example of the numbers of young Negro professional
men in Chicago. His office is on State Street near Thirty-fifth. He was
born in Albany, New York, and his wife in Keokuk, Iowa. They have lived
in Chicago since 1915.
_Early experiences in profession._--Through a civil-service examination
Dr. C---- secured a place as junior physician at the Municipal
Tuberculosis Sanitarium. At the same time he passed with high rating an
examination for interneship at the Oak Forest Infirmary. At the latter
place he was promptly rejected because of his color, and at the former
he was asked to leave nine hours after he reported for duty.
_Economic status._--Dr. C---- owns a house and lot in his former home,
Albany, which he values at $14,000 and other property and stock holdings
valued at $13,000.
_Education._--Dr. C---- was graduated from the Brooklyn Grammar School,
the Boys' High School of Brooklyn, and Cornell University, where he
obtained his A.B. and M.D. degrees. Mrs. C---- is a graduate nurse.
He is at present an associate surgeon and chief of the dispensary of a
local hospital.
_Community participation._--He has already assumed a position of
leadership in the social activities of the community, is a trustee of
the new Metropolitan Church, a thirty-second degree Mason, a member
of the Knights of Pythias, Chicago Medical Society, American Medical
Association, Urban League, and a director of the Community Service, and
also an instructor at the Chicago Hospital College.
_Opinions on race relations._--He believes that the recent migration
of Negroes has been an advantage in teaching Chicago Negroes the value
of property ownership and co-operation. He thinks the scarcity of homes
for Negroes can be relieved by allowing Negroes "as much freedom as the
American dollar." Definite suggestions for improving conditions within
the race he gives as follows:
1. Establishment of a permanent medium for understanding between the two
races--a permanent commission to act in the adjustment of difficulties
of any kind. This body should be composed of Negroes and whites.
2. Rigid enforcement of existing laws.
3. A systematic campaign under the direction of the commission among
Negroes to teach them personal hygiene.
4. Negroes should join labor unions and refuse to serve as strike breakers.
5. When Negroes do act as strike breakers, the doctor thinks, race
friction is created and labor is cheapened. Negroes can obtain a square
deal from the unions only when they have joined them in sufficient
numbers to demand justice by becoming an important factor in the unions.
If they are not permitted in certain unions they should form groups of
their own for collective bargaining.
A YOUNG LAWYER
Numbers of young Negro lawyers are establishing themselves in Chicago, and
their influence already is being felt in the community. A good example
of this group is Mr. J----, who, although only twenty-eight years old,
has been actively practicing law six years. He was born in Kentucky and
has lived in Indiana, Kansas, Ohio, New York, and Oklahoma.
_Education._--He completed high school in Kansas, graduated from Oberlin
College, and then went to Columbia University, New York, and received
the degrees of Master of Arts and Bachelor of Laws. His wife completed
the junior year in college in New York, studied art in New York City,
and is skilled in china painting.
_Home life._--Mr. and Mrs. J---- have one child of four years. They live
in one of the 1,400 buildings owned by a real estate man of that district
who "notoriously neglects his property." The struggle to establish
himself during the first few years in Chicago was difficult. Now Mr.
J---- has the confidence of a large number of people, and a clientèle
which provides a comfortable income.
_Community participation._--Mr. J---- is a trustee of the institutional
A.M.E. Church, chairman of the United Political League, member of the
Y.M.C.A., Knights of Pythias, a Greek-letter fraternity and the Urban
League, and is a member of the Executive Committee of the Friends of
Negro Freedom.
_Civic consciousness._--He thinks that if working Negroes and working
white men can be led to regard one another as workingmen interested in
the same cause the color question will be forgotten. He believes that
prejudice is based on the economic system. With respect to housing he
thinks a Negro should, as an American citizen, be free to purchase real
estate wherever he is able to make a purchase; that as long as artificial
barriers are set up there can be no successful solution of the color
question; that a man's respect for the rights of others increases in
proportion to his intelligence, and that the press can be a great source
of evil or good in educating the people. He believes that there should
be clubs and educational meetings to instruct some of the less refined
classes of Negroes in conduct.
A MIGRANT PROFESSIONAL MAN
Mr. and Mrs. F---- lived in Jackson, Mississippi, until 1917, the year
of the migration, when they moved to Chicago. He followed his clientèle
and established an office on State Street near Thirty-first Street.
Mr. F---- received his commercial and legal training at Jackson College
and Walden University. Mrs. F---- is a graduate of Rust College and the
University of Chicago.
_Home life._--The F---- home evidences their economic independence. It
contains ten rooms and bath and is kept in excellent condition. They own
six houses in the South, from which they receive an income. Mr. F---- is
the president of an insurance company incorporated in Illinois in 1918,
which has a membership of 12,000. He has also organized a mercantile
company, grocery and market on State Street, incorporated for $10,000,
of which $7,000 has been paid.
They have two sons, nineteen and twelve years of age, and three adult
nephews living with them. One nephew is a painter at the Stock Yards,
another is a laborer, and the third a shipping-clerk.
_Community participation._--They are members of the Baptist church and
of the People's Movement, while Mr. F---- is a member of the Appomattox
Club, an organization of leading Negro business and professional men.
In addition to membership in three fraternal organizations, they are
interested in and contribute to the support of the Urban League and
United Charities.
_Opinions on race relations._--Concerning housing, Mr. F---- feels that
some corporation should build medium-sized cottages for workingmen. He
thinks that the changes in labor conditions make it hard for Negroes to
grasp immediately the northern industrial methods. Patience will help
toward adjustment, he thinks.
He thinks that colored women receive better protection in Chicago than
in the South. His experience in the courts leads him to believe that
Negroes have a fairer chance here than in the South. Agitation by the
press in his opinion can have no other effect than to make conditions
worse.
B. PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF NEGRO HOUSING
The purpose of this section of the report is to describe by a selection
of types the physical condition of houses occupied as residences by
Negroes. This description includes the structure, age, repair, upkeep,
and other factors directly affecting the appearance, sanitation, and
comfort of dwellings available for Negro use.
In 1909 the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy included Negro
housing in a series of general housing studies. This study was confined
to the two largest areas of Negro residence, those on the South and West
sides. Both of these were studied generally, and in each a selected area,
of four blocks in one case and three blocks in the other, was studied
intensively.
The South Side area included parts of the Second, Third, and Thirteenth
wards between Fifteenth and Fifty-fifth streets, with State Street as
the main thoroughfare. The four blocks bounded by Dearborn Street,
Twenty-seventh Street, Armour Avenue, and Thirty-second Street were
intensively studied. It was found that within these four blocks 94 per
cent of the heads of families were Negroes. The buildings were one- and
two-story, with a considerable amount of vacant space in the lots. Half
the lots had less than 50 per cent of their space covered. The houses were
for the most part intended for single families but had been converted
into two-flat buildings. Rooms were poorly lighted and ventilated, the
sanitation bad, and the alley and grounds about the houses covered with
rubbish and refuse.
Comparisons with other districts studied showed the following: Of houses
in a Polish district, 71 per cent were in good repair; in a Bohemian
district, 57 per cent; Stock Yards district, 54 per cent; Jewish and
South Chicago districts, 28 per cent; and in the Negro district, 26 per
cent. A study made three years later by the School of Civics covering the
same area showed a decrease of 16 per cent of buildings in good repair.
Five buildings had been closed by the Department of Health as no longer
fit for habitation. There were leaks in the roofs, sinks, and windows
of five-sixths of the dwellings. In describing a typical house in this
area, the report said:
There was no gutter and the roof leaked in two places, the sink
drain in the basement leaked, keeping it continually damp,
the opening of the chimney let the rain come down there, the
windowpane in front rattled from lack of putty. The conditions
in these houses are typical; almost every tenant tells of
rain coming in through roof, chimney or windows, and cases
of fallen plaster and windows without putty were too common
to be noted. One aspect of the situation that should not be
overlooked is the impossibility of putting these old houses in
good condition. Leaks may be repaired, plaster may be replaced,
windows may be made tight, and these things would certainly
improve most of the houses, but when all were done it would
not alter the fact that these are old houses, poorly built,
through which the wind can blow at will.
[Illustration: TYPES OF NEGRO HOUSING]
Lack of repairs to the houses in the "Black Belt" is accounted for by
the fact that owners do not regard the buildings as worth repairing, and
that tenants can always be found, even though it is necessary to reduce
rents somewhat. This reduction is indeed notable. The School of Civics
found that while in 1909 50 per cent of the houses examined on the South
Side rented for as much as $16 a month, in 1917 only 13 per cent could
command as high a rental as that; that in 1909 the prevailing rents were
$15 and $16 as against $10 and $12 in 1917.
On the West Side the area studied generally was that bounded by Lake
Street, Ashland, Austin, and Western avenues. Here the situation was
little better. One-third of the families visited in the three selected
blocks bounded by Fulton and Paulina streets, Carroll Avenue and Robey
Street were Negroes. The remaining two-thirds represented sixteen
nationalities. It was reported that the white residents could get
advantages and improvements for their houses that a Negro could not.
While 35 per cent of the houses were reported in good repair, 31 per
cent were described as "absolutely dilapidated" and in a worse state
of repair than those in any other districts studied except the Jewish
district. The report said:
Broken-down doors, unsteady flooring, and general dilapidation
were met by the investigators at every side. Windowpanes were
out, doors hanging on single hinges or entirely fallen off,
and roofs rotting and leaking. Colored tenants reported that
they found it impossible to persuade their landlords either
to make the necessary repairs or to release them from their
contracts; and that it was so hard to find better places in
which to live that they were forced either to make the repairs
themselves, which they could rarely afford to do, or to endure
the conditions as best they might. Several tenants ascribed
cases of severe and prolonged illness to the unhealthful
condition of the houses in which they were living.
That there was a continuing demand even for the shacks and shanties of
the "Black Belt" is evidenced in a report made by the Urban League of
Chicago in 1917 that only one out of every thirteen Negro applicants
for houses to rent could be supplied. At the height of the demand
applications for houses were coming in at the rate of 460 to 600 a day,
and only ninety-nine were available for renting purposes. This was due,
of course, to the growing stream of Negroes arriving daily from the South.
Covering the same area on the South Side as that studied by the School
of Civics in 1917 a canvass was also made in 1917 by Caswell W. Crews, a
student at the University of Chicago. He found that tenants had remained
in these dwellings in some instances as long as twenty years after their
unfitness had become evident, because the rent was low and they could
find nowhere else to go. He mentioned the mass of migrants from the South
who, because of their ignorance of conditions in Chicago as to what was
desirable and what was to be had for a given sum, fell an easy prey to
unscrupulous owners and agents. Mr. Crew's description said:
With the exception of two or three the houses are frame, and
paint with them is a dim reminiscence. There is one rather
modern seven-room flat building of stone front, the flats
renting at $22.50 a month and offering the best in the way of
accommodations to be found there. There is another makeshift
flat building situated above a saloon and pool hall, consisting
of six six-room flats, renting at $12 per month, but in a very
poor condition of repair. Toilets and baths were found to be
in no condition for use and the plumbing in such a state as to
constantly menace health. Practically all of the houses have
been so reconstructed as to serve as flats, accommodating two
and sometimes three families. As a rule there are four, five,
and sometimes six rooms in each flat, there being but five
instances when there were more than six. It is often the case
that of these rooms not all can be used because of dampness,
leaking roofs, or defective toilets overhead.