The chief concern of investors, brokers,_The Negro in Chicago: A Study of Race Relations and a Race Riot

the ability of Negroes to meet obligations. There is a common belief, not

shaken even by the satisfactory experiences of those who have dealt with

them, that Negroes have no financial resources, and are thriftless and

improvident. Inasmuch as a large part of the present housing difficulty

hinges upon this point, the Commission made inquiries as to the thrift

of Negroes. A group of large banks in the "Loop" and in neighborhoods

of Negro residents were asked to give their experiences with Negroes

as depositors and investors. In spite of contrary opinion it appears

that the resources of Negroes in Chicago are astonishingly large. In

the summer of 1920 in one of the South Side banks operated by white men

Negroes had deposits of $750,000. One banker told of a Negro banker who

sold among the Negroes a bond issue of $150,000 on an old building on

Wabash Avenue, paying solicitors 10 per cent commission to make sales.

The savings deposits in his bank recently had grown very materially. It

was his experience that only a few Negroes buy bonds. They only inquire

casually about them.

The sales manager for bonds at a large savings bank, however, told of

the sale of $3,000 worth of bonds to a Negro woman who paid for them

from a roll of bills of $10 to $50. Another "downtown" broker told of a

Negro porter in a "Loop" hotel, who recently loaned $6,000 through his

firm.

The information as to Negro deposits, sought by the Commission, was

provided by seven trust and savings banks, three state banks, two national

banks, and one trust company. These were able to isolate and check up

their Negro deposits. One of the banks had $1,500,000 on deposit for

Negroes; another $1,000,000. Still another had 4,000 Negro depositors.

A state bank had $650,000 on deposit for Negroes, another $150,000 and

one of the national banks had $47,000.

The average deposits of the Negroes are not so large as those of all

the depositors. The comparison, however, reveals a fair proportion when

it is considered that there are many very large individual depositors

and business houses among the whites. This is how the amounts run, by

institutions:

Average Individual Savings Balance Average Individual Balance

(White and Negro Combined) (Negroes Only)

$125.00 $ 50.00

108.88 66.76

545.00 332.00

400.00 200.00

120.00 60.00

235.00 100.00

125.00 10.00

196.00 105.00

186.82 300.00

230.00 186.00

It was the almost unanimous report that Negroes are more likely to

withdraw their accounts than are white people, that their accounts are

less permanent. In two instances only was the opinion expressed that

they were about the same with both races.

Accompanying the questionnaire to banks was a list of questions concerning

real estate loans. One of these was: "Does your bank make loans to Negroes

on real estate, collateral, commercial paper, or personal notes?" All

except one of the trust and savings banks replied in the affirmative.

One of the state banks buys commercial paper on proper security, but

not real estate loans because of the difficulty in selling them. One of

the national banks buys commercial or collateral paper on its merits,

without regard to color. Indeed, it appears that no color line is drawn

in this line of business except by the few institutions that decline

all loans to Negroes.

In general it was found that the Negroes are showing strong tendencies

to open bank accounts, that they are steadily improving in the amount

of deposits made, in the steadiness of their accounts, and in thrift in

general. However, it appears that in only a few of the banks are they

welcomed and in most of them they are only tolerated. In banks located in

neighborhoods in which Negroes live there is an amazing number of Negro

depositors, who receive, as a rule, friendly advice and help in their

financial transactions. Thus Negroes are taught banking formalities,

while thrift is encouraged, and a good spirit is developed among the white

employees toward Negro depositors. In some instances, however, Negroes,

like their white brothers, show suspicion of banking institutions when

they have suffered losses.

It appears also that, in addition to the growing desire to invest in

homes of their own, Negroes are showing a strong tendency to engage in

business ventures. They are developing insurance companies, co-operative

stores, retail stores of various kinds, and kindred enterprises.

_Negroes' lack of opportunities for banking experience._--In order to

carry forward successfully their business undertakings Negroes need

practical personal experience and training in banking and financial

methods. Yet there is a strong tendency to bar Negroes from employment

in banks, except as porters or in some unskilled capacity, and they are

thus denied the experience needed in solving financial problems among

their own race.

Bankers were asked: "If Negroes competent to learn practical banking

were available, could you employ them?" Here are some of the condensed

replies:

1. Other employees would refuse to co-operate with them and

associate with them.

2. They are not reliable as a rule.

3. Do not think so.

4. Yes.

5. No.

6. We have no objections beyond the fact that 95 per cent of

our depositors are white; consequently we would not care to

employ colored tellers or clerks in handling their business.

7. We could not have them in clerical positions.

8. In a general way we feel that the employment of Negroes by

banking institutions would cause trouble with certain classes

of our depositors.

9. Very difficult to work white and colored in same office or

cages. White customers prefer to have white clerks wait upon

them.

10. Clerks who were antagonistic to Negroes would bring

about constant difficulties through the misplacing of papers,

mistakes, etc., which would seem to be the fault of the Negroes.

11. Have found that a Negro will appear to be strictly honest

for a period of years and then turn around and prove not to be.

12. Our section of the city is entirely white, but with a fear

of colored invasion. There is, therefore, a strong prejudice

against them. We have only about half a dozen accounts with

colored people. Two of these are in the savings department

and are maintained with large balances. These two customers

are thrifty and careful with their money. The others are not.

13. In former years a bank position was eagerly sought and

considered exceptionally good. At present, because of higher

salaries which can be offered by concerns which make greater

earnings than banks and can therefore pay more, the banks are

not getting the same high grade of employees. With the former

class it would have been possible to appeal to their sense of

duty to help educate the Negroes and to overcome prejudice.

With present conditions it is not likely that this appeal would

have the same effect, and prejudice against Negroes would make

trouble in our routine.

14. Social factors enter. For instance, banks often have

dinners or other events for or among their employees. No "Loop"

hotel would put on an affair for whites and Negroes. There

is also the difficulty of washrooms, and lockers, etc., where

prejudiced employees could make a great deal of trouble.

It would seem, then, that there is not much chance for the hundreds of

intelligent Negro high-school and college graduates in Chicago to obtain

a practical education in banking methods through direct experience. Banks

owned by Negroes are few and small, and there is scarcely any opportunity

to obtain similar experience in Negro building and loan, insurance, and

other companies, which are also limited in number.

CHAPTER VI

RACIAL CONTACTS

INTRODUCTION

Contacts of whites and Negroes in the North and South differ according

to the institutions and traditions of the sections in which they have

been reared. In the South relations are fixed and generally understood,

although Negroes consider the institutions on which these relations are

based oppressive and consistently oppose them. There the "color line"

is drawn rigidly without reference to the desires or comfort of Negroes

or the free expression of their citizenship privileges. Because it is

nearer than the North to the institution of slavery, the South still

maintains an almost patriarchal relationship with its Negro population.

Small communities, the plantation system, and the great numbers of

Negroes in domestic service hold the two races steadily in contacts so

close that class as well as race lines are maintained with deliberateness

and persistence. Even where there are no laws specifically regulating

association of the races, the sentiment of the community is enforced,

frequently in disregard of existing general laws. Thus Negroes may not

eat in a restaurant with whites, sit in adjoining seats in a theater,

live in the same neighborhoods, work together on the same jobs, or attend

the same schools.

In northern communities the institutions are more liberal and with few

exceptions there are no restrictive laws applying specifically to racial

association. In fact, the trend of legislation and of court decisions

is strongly toward adopting and enforcing general regulations without

regard to race or color. Relations are less personal, contacts are wider

and more frequent.

From a very simple organization of relations in the South, Negroes are

transported to more complex relations based on more elaborate urban

distribution of responsibilities. Thus it happens that whites and Negroes

in Chicago may be found working together in industry, riding together on

street cars, attending the same schools, sharing political activities,

with an increasing number of Negroes holding public office, transacting

business in banks, stores, and real estate, competing in athletics in

public schools, colleges, and the Y.M.C.A., and conferring on social

problems in civic and reform clubs.

The increasing number of these contacts cannot fail to influence the

necessary adjustments. The general public seems to accept necessary

contacts with a minimum of outward friction, as is shown by thousands

of daily contacts. Each contact, however, where there is friction, is

a focus of comment, antagonism, resentment, prejudice, or fear. But

association in such places as hotels, restaurants, barber shops, dance

halls, and theaters is often limited by tradition and custom in the

North as strictly as by regulation in the South.

A. LEGAL STATUS OF NEGROES IN ILLINOIS

The legal status of Negroes in Illinois differs in no respect from that

of white persons. The limitations which affect Negroes are established

through rules imposed by persons who offer public services and

accommodations. When these rules are unfair, evasive, or even illegal,

they can be enforced only because of non-enforcement of existing laws.

Federal and state courts are in accord in holding Negro men and women in

Illinois to be citizens of the United States and of the commonwealth,

protected by the laws against discrimination or oppression on account

of their race or color.

There are two lines of decisions in Illinois relating to discriminations

on account of color. One line of cases prohibits discrimination in certain

public places and the other prohibits discrimination against school

children. All but two of these cases were tried since the passage of the

School Act and the Civil Rights Act, prohibiting such discrimination,

enacted in 1874 and 1885, respectively. The civil-rights cases[28] are

briefly reviewed below by a consideration of the school cases.

I. CIVIL RIGHTS IN PUBLIC PLACES

The Civil Rights Act, originally passed in 1885, was amended in 1903,

and again in 1911. Section 1 of this act now provides:

That all persons within the jurisdiction of said State of

Illinois shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment

of the accommodation, advantages, facilities and privileges

of inns, restaurants, eating houses, hotels, soda-fountains,

saloons, barber shops, bathrooms, theaters, skating rinks,

concerts, cafés, bicycle rinks, elevators, ice-cream parlors

or rooms, railroads, omnibuses, stages, street cars, boats,

funeral hearses, and public conveyances on land and water,

and all other places of public accommodation and amusement,

subject only to the conditions and limitations established by

law and applicable alike to all citizens; nor shall there be

any discrimination on account of race or color in the price

to be charged and paid for lots or graves in any cemetery or

place for burying the dead, but the price to be charged and

paid for lots in any cemetery or place for burying the dead

shall be applicable alike to all citizens of every race and

color.

Section 2 provides:

That any person who shall violate any of the provisions of

the foregoing section by denying to any citizen, except for

reasons applicable alike to all citizens of every race and

color and regardless of color or race, the full enjoyment of

any accommodations, advantages, facilities or privileges in

said section enumerated or by aiding or inciting such denial,

shall for every such offense forfeit and pay a sum not less

than $25 nor more than $500 to the person aggrieved thereby,

to be recovered in any court of competent jurisdiction in the

county where said offense was committed, and shall also for

every such offense be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon

conviction thereof, shall be fined not to exceed $500 or shall

be imprisoned not more than one year or both; and _provided_

further, that a judgment in favor of the party aggrieved,

or punishment upon an indictment, shall be a bar to either

prosecution respectively.

_Anna William_ v. _Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company_ (55 Ill.

185)--the first case of color discrimination which reached the supreme

court of Illinois--was heard in 1870, before the passage of the Civil

Rights Act. The court decided that a railroad company could not exclude

a Negro woman on account of her color from a certain car reserved for

the use of ladies. The evidence showed that the brakeman had refused to

permit the Negro woman to enter the "ladies' car" and pushed her away.

The jury awarded her $200 damages, which the court upheld as reasonable.

Before the Amendment of 1903, the Civil Rights Act of 1885 provided that

all persons should be entitled

to the full and equal enjoyment of the accommodation,

advantages, facilities and privileges of inns, restaurants,

eating houses, barber shops, public conveyances on land or

water, theaters, and all other places of public accommodation

and amusement, subject only to the conditions and limitations

established by law and applicable alike to all citizens.

In 1896, in _Cecil_ v. _Green_ (60 Ill. App., 61; affirmed, 161 Ill.

265), the court decided that the expression "all other places of public

accommodation" embraced only places of the same general character as

those enumerated, and therefore that soda fountains were not included

within the general term.

The amendment of 1903 included soda fountains, saloons, bathrooms,

skating rinks, concerts, bicycle rinks, elevators, and ice-cream parlors.

In _Baylies_ v. _Curry_ (30 Ill. App. 105; affirmed, 128 Ill. 36), decided

in 1889, a Negro woman, after being refused tickets at the box-office of

Curry's Theater, had a white woman purchase two tickets for her in the

balcony. Upon attempting to use them, the Negro woman and her husband were

referred back to the box-office and their money returned. The proprietor

introduced evidence to show that his theater was in a bad neighborhood,

and he had, therefore, adopted the rule of reserving certain rows for

Negroes in each section of the house. The supreme court, in affirming

judgment for $100 damages, said: "Beyond all question, the Civil Rights

Act prohibits the denial of access to the theater and to the several

circles or grades of seats therein, because of race or color."

In 1903, in _Grace_ v. _Moseley_ (112 Ill. App. 100), it was held that

the statute imposes liability only where the defendant denies or incites

a denial of service, not where he merely fails to provide service.

The amendment of 1911 provided that there should not be any discrimination

on account of race or color in the price charged for lots or graves in

any cemetery.

Relying upon this provision, Gaskill, a Negro, applied for a writ of

mandamus to compel the Forest Home Cemetery Company to receive the body

of his wife for burial (_People ex rel. Gaskill_ v. _Forest Home Cemetery

Company_, 258 Ill. 36, 1913). The cemetery company had passed a resolution

in 1907 that thereafter the cemetery would be maintained for the burial

of white persons only--except that colored persons owning lots in the

cemetery, and their direct heirs, should be admitted for burial. Gaskill

did not own a lot in the cemetery, but four of his children had been

buried there fifteen to twenty years before in single graves separated

from each other; and when he applied in 1912 for space for the burial of

his wife, the company refused permission solely on account of her color.

The court held that the 1911 amendment did not prohibit a cemetery

corporation, which did not have the power of eminent domain under its

charter and which had no monopoly of the burial places in its vicinity,

from making and enforcing a rule excluding colored persons from burial

in its cemetery. The case was taken on writ of error to the Supreme

Court of the United States (238 U.S. 606), but the writ was dismissed

for want of jurisdiction without further comment.

In _Dean_ v. _Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company_ (183 Ill. App. 317;

1913), Dean, a Negro, recovered damages of $300 from the railway company

for its refusal to allow him to ride in a station elevator because of

his color.[29]

II. DISCRIMINATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

The first school case was decided in 1874, before there was any

statute forbidding discrimination against Negro children in the public

schools.[30] In _Chase_ v. _Stephenson_ (71 Ill. 383; 1874) a taxpayer

filed a bill to enjoin the directors of a school district from maintaining

a separate school for Negro children; and the court held that the

directors had no authority to discriminate on account of color, and the

separate school was enjoined.

In March, 1874, "An Act to Protect Colored Children in Their Rights to

Attend Public Schools" was passed which provided:

That all directors of schools, boards of education, or other

school officers, whose duty it now is or may be hereafter

to provide in their respective jurisdictions schools for the

education of all children between the ages of six and twenty-one

years, are prohibited from excluding directly or indirectly

any such child from such school on account of the color of

such child.

Two school cases have since arisen at Quincy, Illinois. The first,

decided in 1882 (_People ex rel. Longress_ v. _Board of Education of

Quincy_, 101 Ill. 308), was a _quo warranto_ proceeding, attacking a

regulation of the school board, requiring all Negro children to attend

one school, and excluding them from all others. The court held that

the laws of Illinois prohibited such discrimination and the board was

without authority to make the regulation.

In the second Quincy case, decided in 1888 (_People_ v. _McFall and

Board of Education of Quincy_ 26 Ill. App. 319; affirmed, 124 Ill. 642),

the petition for _quo warranto_ charged that the Board of Education

had continued the illegal discrimination against Negro children ever

since the decision in the first case. The petition was supported by a

number of affidavits of Negroes. After a full hearing on affidavits and

counter-affidavits the trial court denied the petition. The appellate

court affirmed the judgment, characterizing the affidavits in support

of the petition as "vague and unsatisfactory"; and the supreme court

affirmed the judgment.

Quincy has fourteen schools, and the School Board has divided the city

into four school districts. The Lincoln School is exclusively a Negro

school and is the only school in the district in which most of the

Negroes live. All white children in that district are transferred to other

schools, and the few Negro children outside the Lincoln district are urged

to attend the Lincoln School. The Negro teachers and Negro principal

of the Lincoln School are paid higher salaries than other teachers in

Quincy, and are told that if they wish to maintain themselves in the

Quincy schools, they must persuade Negro children in other districts

to attend the Lincoln School. In this way the board has succeeded in

confining Negro children with few exceptions to the Lincoln School. Yet

some Negroes are attending five other schools, including the high school.

There have also been two school cases from Alton, Illinois. The first

case was _People_ v. _Board of Education of Upper Alton_ (127 Ill. 613),

decided in 1889. This was a proceeding by mandamus, begun in the supreme

court by John Peair, to compel the Board of Education to admit his two

children to the high school of Upper Alton. Certain issues of fact were

certified to the circuit court for trial by jury. The jury returned a

general verdict in favor of the Board of Education, notwithstanding the

following special findings in answer to questions asked by the relator,

John Peair:

_Q._: When application was made ... to the principal in charge

of the said building on behalf of relator's two children

for permission to attend school in said building, was such

permission refused by said principal because said children

were colored?

_A._: Yes.

_Q._: Have not the children of relator, John Peair, been

excluded from attending school in said high school building

by the defendants on account of the color of said children?

_A._: Yes.

The supreme court held that the general verdict in favor of the Board of

Education was "so manifestly the result of misdirection by the court as

to be entitled to no consideration," and a writ of mandamus was ordered.

The second school case from Alton, though begun in 1899, was not finally

decided until 1908. This was a petition for mandamus filed in the supreme

court by Scott Bibb to compel the mayor and city council of Alton to admit

his children to the Washington School which they had been attending, and

from which he alleged they were excluded on account of color and were

transferred to a school attended only by Negro children. The supreme

court certified the case to the circuit court of Madison County for

the trial of certain issues of facts. Before the supreme court finally

ordered the mandamus to issue in 1908 the case had been tried by a jury

seven times, had been before the supreme court five times, and the Bibb

children were grown up. It is interesting as a flagrant example of race

prejudice in the trial judge and jury.

In this case (_People ex rel. Scott Bibb_ v. _Mayor and Common Council

of Alton_, 233 Ill. 542) the supreme court said:

The issues in this case have been tried seven times by juries

in the circuit court, and in two of them the jury disagreed.

Upon the first trial where there was a verdict it was in

favor of the respondents, and it was certified to this court.

That verdict was set aside for manifest error prejudicial

to the relator in rulings of the court in the admission of

evidence. (_People ex rel._ v. _Mayor and Common Council of

Alton_, 179 Ill. 615.) There was another trial resulting in a

verdict in favor of the respondents, which was set aside on

account of a misdirection of the court in submitting to the

jury a question of law. (_People ex rel._ v. _Mayor and Common

Council of Alton_, 193 Ill. 309.) Upon another trial there

was a third verdict in favor of the respondents, which this

court set aside because clearly contrary to the facts proved

and without any support in the evidence. It was proved at that

trial, beyond dispute or controversy, that the respondents

were guilty of the charge contained in the petition, and the

evidence introduced by them had no tendency to prove that the

intention clearly manifested by their acts did not exist. The

verdict could only be accounted for as a product of passion,

prejudice or hostility to the law. (_People ex rel._ v. _Mayor

and Common Council of Alton_, 209 Ill. 461.) The attorney for

relator then urged that a peremptory writ should be awarded

on the ground that the evidence in the record clearly showed

the relator to be entitled to it. The relator, however, had

not requested the circuit court to direct a verdict in his

favor, and it was said that if such a motion had been made the

court would doubtless have granted it. The court said that the

issues were sent to the circuit court for trial in conformity

with the practice governing the trial of issues of fact in

actions at law before a jury, and it was not deemed advisable,

in the existing condition of the record, to set aside that

order. The case was sent back for another trial, and upon the

next trial the attorney for relator moved the court to direct

a verdict in his favor, and this the court refused to do,

assigning as a reason that this court had directed that the

issues be submitted to another jury. The excuse was so shallow

and baseless as to justify a conclusion that it was a mere

pretext to evade a compliance with the law as declared by this

court, and the verdict was set aside and the circuit court

directed, in the trial of the questions of fact, to proceed in

accordance with the opinion then filed and the earlier opinions

in the case. (_People ex rel._ v. _Mayor and Common Council

of Alton_, 221 Ill. 275.) The case has been again tried, and

a verdict in favor of the respondents, unsupported by any

evidence, has been returned to this court. The evidence was to

all intents and purposes the same as upon the former trials,

and demonstrated, beyond the possibility of a doubt, that the

children of relator were excluded from the Washington School,

which was the most convenient of the public schools of the

city to which they had the right to be admitted, and that the

exclusion was solely on account of their race and color, and

for no other reason whatever. The evidence for the respondents

that nothing was said about schools or colored children by the

mayor and council in changing the ordinances for the purpose

of excluding colored children from schools attended by white

children; that the intention to exclude them was not declared,

or that orders were never issued to the police, or that the

mayor never intended the police force under his control to

do what they did and what he knew they were doing, had no

tendency whatever to prove that the children of the relator

were not excluded by the respondents on account of their race

or color. At the conclusion of the evidence the attorney for

the relator moved the court to direct a verdict finding the

issues in favor of the relator and presented to the court a

written instruction for that purpose, but the court denied

the motion and refused to give the instruction. In so doing

the court erred, and the error was in a matter of law, and

contrary to the law in this case as declared by this court in

previous opinions filed in the case.

The attorney for respondents says that we ought to approve

this verdict for the reason that the questions of fact have

been tried seven times in the circuit court; that the juries

have twice disagreed and five juries have decided in favor of

the respondents, and all the trials have been presided over by

learned judges. Great weight is justly given to the conclusion

of a jury upon controverted questions of fact where the verdict

appears to be the result of an honest exercise of judgment and

the weighing, with fair deliberation, of the credibility of

witnesses, but it is beyond dispute that this verdict, when

viewed in the most favorable light for the respondents, does

not represent any conclusion of the jury from the evidence, and

that all of the verdicts represent nothing but a refusal by

juries to enforce a law which they do not personally approve

or which is distasteful to them. In the first opinion filed

in this case it was said that it might be that the wisest

of both races believe that the best interests of each would

be promoted by voluntary separation in the public schools,

but that it is no less the duty of courts to enforce the law

as it stands, without respect to race or persons. We would

be remiss in our duty to enforce the law and would forfeit

the respect of all law-abiding citizens if we should approve

this verdict for no other reason than because it is one of

a series which represent, not the enforcement of law or the

discharge of duty, but a deplorable disregard for the law and

for the rights of citizens. The verdicts have all been more

offensive and dangerous assaults upon the law, the government,

and organized societies, than utterances of individuals or

societies who are opposed to all law, and which are regarded

only as the sentiments of the ignorant, depraved and vicious

who are the enemies of a government of laws. These verdicts

were pronounced, not by those who were avowed enemies of law

and government, but by those who constituted a part of the

governmental machinery for the enforcement of the law and

who had been sworn to discharge their duty in that regard.

Such verdicts not only denote opposition to the enforcement

of the law, but they also jeopardize the highest interests of

society and individuals. When the law, through the refusal of

jurors to regard their oaths, becomes impotent to protect the

rights of the humblest, the rights of no person are secure;

and jurors may take heed that they obey and enforce the law,

lest their refusal to enforce the law for the protection of

others becomes effective to deprive them of their legal rights

and substitute the beliefs of jurors and courts as to the

wisdom of laws enacted for their protection. The error of the

court in refusing to direct a verdict is not obviated by the

fact that there have been so many verdicts contrary to the

law and the evidence. The verdict must be set aside, and the

next question is whether the issues shall be again sent to

the circuit court for trial.

In this case the effort to obtain a fair trial of the issues

of fact before a jury has proved utterly futile, and upon the

trial now under review the court refused to direct a verdict

in passing upon a question of law raised by the motion of the

relator for such a direction. It is clear that after so many

trials there can be no further evidence produced by either party

but that all the evidence relating to the issues is before us.

We are of the opinion that it would be a wrong to the relator

to further delay him in establishing his rights and to compel

him to add to the trouble and expense already incurred in an

effort to compel obedience to the law. The verdict of the jury

is set aside and the issues will not be again certified to

the circuit court for trial but will now be finally disposed

of. The averments of the petition have been fully proved upon

repeated trials and the evidence is preserved in the record.

The evidence produced by the respondents affords no support

to their answer.

We therefore find that all the material facts alleged in the

petition are true as therein stated and that the relator is

entitled to a writ of _mandamus_ as therein prayed, and it is

therefore ordered that a peremptory writ of _mandamus_ issue

according to the prayer of the petition, that the respondents

pay the costs, and that execution issue therefor.

B. CONTACTS IN CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS

The public schools furnish one of the most important points of contact

between the white and Negro races, because of the actual number of

contacts in the daily school life of thousands of Negro and white

children, and also because the reactions of young children should indicate

whether or not there is instinctive race prejudice.

The Chicago Board of Education makes no distinction between Negro and

white children. There are no separate schools for Negroes. None of the

records of any teacher or principal shows which children are Negroes and

which white. The board does not know how many Negro children there are

in any school or in the city at large, nor how many of the teachers are

Negroes. It was impossible to obtain from the board, for example, a list

of the schools having a large Negro enrolment with which to begin the

investigation. An unfortunate but unavoidable incidental effect of the

investigation was the focusing of attention of principals and teachers

on the Negroes in their schools.

Frequently white teachers in charge of classes with Negro pupils are

race conscious and accept the conduct of white children as normal and pay

disproportionate attention to the conduct of Negro children as exceptional

and distinctive. As a result of the focusing of attention on Negro

children, the inquiry, which was intended to get balanced information,

developed a disproportionate amount of information concerning their

conduct as compared with that of whites. Teachers who considered both

races were inclined to believe that Negro children as a group had no

special weaknesses that white children as a group did not also exhibit;

that some Negro children, like any other children, were good, some were

bad, and some indifferent, and that no generalizations about the race

could be made from the characteristics or attitude of a few.

It became evident as soon as the investigation started that it was

necessary to distinguish between the northern and the southern Negro.

The southern Negro is conspicuous the moment one enters the elementary

schools. Over-age or retarded children are found in all the lower grades,

special classes, and ungraded rooms, and are noticeable all the way to

the eighth grade, where seventeen- and nineteen-year-old children are

sometimes found. In some schools these children are found in the regular

classes; in others there are special rooms for retarded children, and

as these groups are often composed almost entirely of Negro children,

there is an appearance of segregation which made necessary a study of

these retarded children from the South.

The southern child is hampered first of all by lack of educational

opportunity in the South. He is usually retarded by two or more years

when he enters the northern school because he has never been able

to attend school regularly, due to the short term in southern rural

schools, distance from school, and inadequacy of teaching force and

school equipment. According to a report by the United States Bureau of

Education on _Negro Education_[31] 90 per cent of the Negro children

between fifteen and twenty years of age attending school in the South

are over-age. Says this report:

The inadequacy of the elementary school system for colored

children is indicated both by the comparisons of public

appropriations and by the fact that the attendance in both

public and private schools is only 58.1 per cent of the children

six to fourteen years of age. The average length of the public

school term is less than five months in practically all of the

states. Most of the school buildings, especially those in the

rural districts, are in wretched condition. There is little

supervision and little effort to improve the schools or adapt

their efforts to the needs of the community. The reports of

the state departments of Georgia and Alabama indicate that 70

per cent of the colored teachers have third grade or temporary

certificates, representing a preparation less than that usually

given in the first eight elementary grades. Investigations made

by supervisors of colored schools in other states indicate

that the percentage of poorly prepared colored teachers is

almost as high in the other southern states.[32]

The inadequacy of Negro teachers' salaries is shown by the per capita

expenditure in six southern states for each white and Negro child between

six and fourteen years of age. The salary of the teacher, expressed in

per capita for each child, ranges from $5.27 to $13.79 for white pupils

and from $1.44 to $8.53 for Negro pupils. South Carolina pays its white

teachers ten times as much as its Negro teachers. Alabama pays its white

teachers about nine times as much. In Kentucky the per capita for white

and colored is about the same.[33]

Distribution of school funds by counties indicated a decreasing per

capita expenditure for the Negro as the proportion of Negroes in the

county increased. A table from the Bulletin shows:[34]

========================================================================

County Groups, | White | Negro | Per Capita | Per Capita

Percentage of | School | School | Expenditure, | Expenditure,

Negroes in the | Population | Population | White | Negro

Population | | | |

------------------+------------+------------+--------------+------------

Counties under | 974,289 | 45,039 | $7.96 | $7.23

10 per cent | | | |

------------------+------------+------------+--------------+------------

Counties 10 to | 1,008,372 | 215,774 | 9.55 | 5.55

25 per cent | | | |

------------------+------------+------------+--------------+------------

Counties 25 to | 1,132,999 | 709,259 | 11.11 | 3.19

50 per cent | | | |

------------------+------------+------------+--------------+------------

Counties 50 to | 364,990 | 661,329 | 12.53 | 1.77

75 per cent | | | |

------------------+------------+------------+--------------+------------

Counties 75 to | 40,003 | 207,900 | 22.22 | 1.78

100 per cent | | | |

=========================================================================

A southern state superintendent of education is quoted in the report,

as follows:

There has never been any serious attempt in this state to

offer adequate educational facilities for the colored race. The

average length of the term for the state is only four months;

practically all of the schools are taught in dilapidated

churches, which, of course, are not equipped with suitable

desks, blackboards, and the other essentials of a school;

practically all of the teachers are incompetent, possessing

little or no education and having had no professional training

whatever, except a few weeks obtained in the summer schools;

the schools are generally overcrowded, some of them having as

many as 100 students to the teacher; no attempt is made to do

more than teach the children to read, write, and figure, and

these subjects are learned very imperfectly.[35]

Another difficulty was suggested by the principal of a Chicago school

(Webster) where 30 per cent of the children are Negroes, who said:

"We base our educational ideas on certain backgrounds. The curriculum

in Chicago was planned for children who come from families who are

educated. It doesn't take children coming from uneducated families into

consideration. That isn't fair either to the white or colored children."

The problem of readjustment to life in a northern city also affects the

child's school life, and he is self-conscious and inclined to be either

too timid or too self-assertive. A Negro teacher in speaking of the

difficulties confronting the southern Negro, as well as the whole Negro

group, said:

The southern Negro has pushed the Chicago Negro out of his home,

and the Chicago Negro in seeking a new home is opposed by the

whites. What is to happen? The whites are prejudiced against

the whole Negro group. The Chicago Negro is prejudiced against

the southern Negro. Surely it makes a difficult situation for

the southern Negro. No wonder he meets a word with a blow.

And all this comes into the school more or less.

Another Negro teacher thus analyzes further the adjustment problems

which tend to make the Negro newly come from the South unpopular with

the Chicago Negro, as well as with the whites:

These families from the South usually come from the country

where there are no close neighbors.... Then the family is

transplanted to Chicago to an apartment house, and even in

with another family. The whole environment is changed and

the trouble begins. No sense of property rights, no idea of

how to use conveniences, no idea of how to live in the new

home, to keep it up, to live with everybody else so near.

On top of that, the father does not fit into his work, and

therefore cannot support the family; the mother goes out to

work, and what is the result? Poorly kept houses and poorly

kept children.... A normal home shows itself in the school,

and poor home conditions show up still more.

The Negro child born in the North is not found to an unusual extent among

the retarded children. He has been able to enter school on time and to

attend the full term of nine months; his teachers compare favorably with

those in white American and foreign neighborhoods, and his parents as

a rule have a better background. Many teachers say that the progress of

northern-born Negroes compares very favorably with that of whites.

I. PHYSICAL EQUIPMENT OF SCHOOLS

Since the Board of Education keeps no record of Negro children as such,

it could not furnish a list of the schools having a percentage of Negro

children. Therefore a list was made up of all the schools in the Negro

residential areas, the boundaries of these schools were obtained from the

Board of Education, and the percentage of Negroes in each school district

was worked out from the 1920 census figures. The schools listed in Table

X were found to be situated in districts where the Negro population

was 10 per cent or more. The figures at the right show the approximate

percentage of Negro children in the school, as given by the principal

of the school.

Fuller School is a branch of Felsenthal and has the same principal;

it is in a neighborhood where the percentage of Negroes is practically

the same as in the neighborhoods around Felsenthal, but there is a very

great difference in the percentage of Negro children in the two schools,

according to figures given by the principal. It appears from this that

the principal, who is a believer in separate schools, places the large

majority of the Negro children in Fuller School. Negroes in the vicinity

say that Fuller School is run down and neglected, that the staff of

teachers is below the average, that the school has no playground of its

own but must use the one at Felsenthal, and that all the unmanageable

children are sent there from Felsenthal. It is also believed by these

Negroes that Fuller is used as a feeder for the other schools in the

neighborhoods where there are fewer Negro children.

TABLE X

SCHOOLS IN DISTRICTS HAVING AN AVERAGE NEGRO POPULATION

OF 10 PER CENT OR MORE

==============================+=============+==============

|Percentage of|Percentage of

School | Negroes in |Negro Children

| District | in School

------------------------------+-------------+--------------

Colman | 81 | 92

Copernicus | 18 | 23

Doolittle | 65 | 85

Douglas | 72 | 93

Drake | 28 | 24

Emerson (branch of Hayes) | 70 | 75

Farren | 69 | 92

Felsenthal | 38 | 20

Forrestville | 20 | 38

Fuller (branch of Felsenthal) | 42 | 90

Haven | 24 | 20

Hayes | 70 | 80

Keith | 89 | 90

McCosh | 13 | 15

Mann (branch of Raymond) | 39 | 25

Moseley | 46 | 70

Oakland | 17 | 26

Raymond | 85 | 93

Sherwood | 20 | 25

Tennyson | 14 | 28

Webster | 50 | 30

Willard | 15 | 13

------------------------------+-------------+--------------

The points in regard to physical equipment stressed by a district

superintendent in the area containing the largest number of schools

attended mainly by Negroes were: date of erection, an assembly hall

located on the main floor, gymnasium, and, in the congested districts,

bathroom and lunchroom. Table XI shows such facts concerning these

schools.

[Illustration: MOSELEY SCHOOL

Located at Twenty-fourth Street and Wabash Avenue, 70 per cent Negro

attendance.]

It will be noted that only five of these schools, or 23 per cent, were

built since 1900, and four of these five are in sections where the Negro

population is less than 25 per cent. The ten schools serving the largest

percentage of Negroes were built, one in 1856, one in 1867, seven between

1880 and 1889, and one between 1890 and 1899. Of the 235 white schools

133, or 56 per cent, were built after 1899.

TABLE XI

PHYSICAL EQUIPMENT OF TWENTY-TWO SCHOOLS ATTENDED

LARGELY BY NEGROES[36]

====================================================================

-------------+----------+---------------+-----------+-------+-------

Colman | 1887 | None | None | Yes | Yes

Farren | 1898 | Third floor | Combined | Yes | Yes

Hayes | 1867 | Fourth floor | Combined | Yes | Yes

Keith | 1883 | None | None | Yes | Yes

-------------+----------+---------------+-----------+-------+-------

Assembly halls and gymnasiums were totally lacking in seven of the

twenty-two schools, and in the remaining fifteen the assembly hall

was on the third or fourth floor, where, according to the district

superintendent, it cannot have maximum use for community purposes. A

really useful assembly hall, he stated, should be on the ground floor,

opening directly on the school yard, and capable of being shut off

entirely from the rest of the building so that it could be lighted and

heated separately for evening gatherings. Only three of these fifteen

schools had separate gymnasiums. In the others the gymnasium was combined

with the assembly hall. There was little in the way of apparatus;

what there was consisted mainly of hand apparatus, including clubs,

dumbbells and basket-balls, that could be used in the assembly hall

or the corridors. The district superintendent emphasized the need for

gymnasiums in Negro residential areas because the children were weak

physically and needed special exercises.

Playground space for schools attended largely by Negroes compares

favorably with that for schools attended largely by whites, though Douglas

School (92 per cent Negro), with 1,513 pupils, has only one playground

96×125 feet. Most schools have two playgrounds, one for boys and one for

girls. The only other school having such limited play space as Douglas

is a foreign school, Von Humboldt, where there are 2,500 pupils and the

playground is 50×100 feet. Like Douglas, this is a double school with

inadequate space for the children inside the school and outside. Sometimes

there is a public playground near by which relieves the congestion on

the school playground except in the case of Keith School (90 per cent

Negro), the principal of which emphasized the need for a playground near

her school.

In a group of twenty-four schools, six of which are attended mainly by

Negroes, six mainly by white Americans, and twelve mainly by children of

immigrants, it was found that there was no unusual crowding of classrooms

in those attended mainly by Negroes except in the case of Douglas School.

Conditions were practically the same in the three groups of schools.

Indications of overcrowding are the average number of seats in a

classroom, the average number of pupils per teacher, and the double-school

or shift system. There is little variation among the three groups of

schools in the number of seats in the classroom and the number of pupils

to each teacher, except that the school having the largest number of

pupils to each teacher (57) is Colman, 92 per cent Negro. Although there

are no double schools in the group attended mainly by white Americans,

one of the six schools attended mainly by Negroes and five of the schools

attended mainly by children of immigrants are double schools. Under this

system, which is a makeshift in a neighborhood where another school is

needed to take care of the children, the children go to school in two

shifts, one shift an hour later than the other, and leave correspondingly

later in the afternoon. Under this arrangement more children are at

the school during the major part of the day than can be seated in the

classroom and the full school curriculum can be carried on only under

pressure, as one group of children must always be hurried on before the

next group appears.

II. SCHOOL CONTACT PROBLEMS

Information as to problems of contact in the schools was gathered from

conferences to which the principals of high and elementary schools were

invited, and by personal visits to the schools. Thirteen elementary

schools were visited, seven of which had an enrolment of less than 50

per cent Negro, and six of which had an enrolment of more than 50 per

cent Negro. The schools with the smaller percentage were: Drake (30),[37]

Felsenthal (20), Forrestville (38), Haven (20), Oakland (26), Webster

(30), and Kenwood (a very small number of Negroes). The schools having

a majority Negro were Colman (92), Doolittle (85), Douglas (93), Farren

(92), Keith (90), and Moseley (70).

The high schools visited were Englewood, Hyde Park, and Wendell Phillips.

In Englewood and Hyde Park the percentage of Negroes was very small,

while in Wendell Phillips the Negro children were about 56 per cent of

the enrolment.

The opinions of principals and teachers about Negro children are a

cross-section of public opinion on the race question with all its

contradictions and irritations. It must therefore be borne in mind in

reading this section on school contacts that whether Negro children are

reported good or bad, bright or dull, quarrelsome or amiable, whether

antagonism and voluntary grouping or their lack are reported, there is

an inevitable tendency for the teacher to see the facts in the light of

any prejudice or general views she may have on race relations.

It was thought, for example, that for the purposes of this discussion

the schools could be put in two general groups: those with less than 50

per cent Negroes and those with more than 50 per cent Negroes. But it was

immediately apparent that no generalizations could be made on the basis

of the percentage of Negro children in the schools, because sometimes two

principals of schools having the same proportion of Negro pupils reported

widely different experience with reference to friction; and in some

cases principals of schools with a small percentage of Negroes reported

friction, while other principals of schools with a larger percentage

reported harmonious relations. The most important factor determining the

attitude of the teachers in a school was invariably the attitude of the

principal. Though there were many cases where individual teachers held

views entirely different from those of the principal, yet the attitude

of the principal was usually reflected in the expressed opinion of the

teachers and in the atmosphere of the school.

But there is no explanation for total disagreement between two teachers

in the same school as to whether or not there is race friction in the

school except difference in points of view on the race problem. This

factor is to be taken into consideration in weighing the testimony of

teachers regarding school contacts of the races.

The attitude of some of the principals and teachers was revealed in their

fear that their schools, with 20 per cent or 30 per cent Negro children,

would be regarded as largely Negro schools. The principal of a school

with 30 per cent Negro children considered it an insult to be asked

to have his school take part in a song festival with schools largely

attended by Negroes. A teacher in a school 26 per cent Negro was much

incensed because the Board of Education had sent Negroes to the school

to talk to the children on cleaning up the neighborhood. She said that

the white children did not seem to mind and listened interestedly; it

was the teachers who considered it an outrage that Negroes should come

to "tell a community seven-eighths white to clean up."

Since the elementary schools and high schools present rather different

problems, due to the greater number of social activities in the latter,

it was decided to consider the two groups separately.

1. ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

The contacts in the elementary schools fall naturally under three heads:

classroom contacts, building and playground contacts, and social contacts.

_Classroom contacts._--There was much less variety of opinion in regard

to classroom contacts than the other two. Most teachers agreed that there

was little friction so far as school work was concerned, even when it

meant sitting next to one another or in the same seats. Most kindergarten

teachers found the most natural relationship existing between the young

Negro and white children. "Neither colored nor whites have any feeling

in our kindergarten," said one principal in a school 30 per cent Negro

(Webster); "they don't understand the difference between colored and white

children." In visiting one school the investigator noticed that the white

children who objected to holding hands with the Negro children in the

kindergarten and first and second grades were the better-dressed children

who undoubtedly reflected the economic class and race consciousness of

their parents. The Armour Mission near the school had excluded Negroes

from its kindergarten, thereby fostering this spirit among the whites.

A teacher in Doolittle (85 per cent) told of a little white girl in

another school who cried because she was afraid the color from the Negro

children's hands would rub off on hers; in her present school she has

known no such instances in the kindergarten. This conduct is paralleled

in instances in which Negro children who have never had any contact with

white children in the South are afraid of them when they first come North.

Most of the teachers in the higher grades reported that there were no

signs of race prejudice in the room. A teacher at Oakland (26 per cent)

said that white girls sometimes asked to be moved to another seat when

near a very dirty Negro child, but that this often happened when the

dirty child was white. This teacher said it was the white mothers from

the South, not the children, who wanted their children to be kept away

from the Negroes. "The white children don't seem to mind the colored,"

she said. "I have had three or four mothers come in and ask that their

children be kept away from the colored, but they were women from the

South and felt race prejudice strongly. But they are the only ones who

have complained."

A teacher in a school 90 per cent Negro said that when doubling up in

the seats was necessary whites and Negroes frequently chose each other.

A teacher at Moseley (70 per cent), when the investigator was present,

called upon a white girl to act as hostess to a Negro girl who had just

come from the South, and the request was met with pride and pleasure

by the white girl. On the same occasion a white boy was asked to help a

Negro boy with his arithmetic, and the two doubled up and worked together

quite naturally.

"Race makes no difference," declared the principal of a school 92 per cent

Negro (Colman). "The other day I had them all digging in the garden, and

when they were all ready to go in I kept out one colored boy to help me

plant seeds. We could use another boy, so I told Henry to choose anyone

out of two rooms and he returned with an Italian. The color makes no

difference."

A few instances of jealousy are cited. In one of them resentment ran

high because when a loving cup was presented in McKinley (70 per cent)

for the best composition, it was awarded by a neutral outside jury to a

white girl. The principal of this 70 per cent Negro school, in addition

to finding the Negro children jealous, considered their parents insolent

and resentful. On the investigator's first visit she said that military

discipline was the only kind for children, and that absolute segregation

was necessary. At the next interview she said she preferred her school

to any other; that there was never any disciplinary difficulty, and that

white children who had moved from the district were paying car fare to

finish their course at her school.

_Discipline._--There was considerable variety of opinion among the

teachers as to whether Negro children presented any special problems of

discipline. The principal of a school 20 per cent Negro (Felsenthal),

for example, said that discipline was more difficult in this school than

in the branch where 90 per cent were Negroes (Fuller). This principal

is an advocate of separate schools. She was contradicted by a teacher

in her school who said she had never used different discipline for

the Negroes. In schools where the principals were sympathetic and the

interracial spirit good the teachers reported that Negro children were

much like other children and could be disciplined in the same way. One or

two teachers reported that Negro children could not be scolded but must

be "jollied along" and the work presented as play. This is interesting

in view of the frequent complaint of the children from the South that

the teachers in Chicago played with them all the time and did not teach

them anything.

_Attitude toward Negro teachers._--Few Negro teachers were found in the

schools investigated.

At Doolittle (85 per cent) there were thirty-three teachers, of whom two

were Negroes. There was also a Negro cadet. At Raymond (93 per cent) there

were six Negro teachers and a Negro cadet in a staff of forty. At Keith

(90 per cent) there were six Negro teachers in a staff of twelve. Two of

these principals said that their Negro teachers compared favorably with

their white teachers and that some of them were excellent. Asked whether

there was much antagonism if a Negro teacher was assigned where all the

children were white, the principal of a 93 per cent school (Raymond)

said there had been one or two such cases. "They are most successful in

the foreign districts on the West Side. The European people do not seem

to resent the presence of a colored teacher."

Another principal said that this was especially true where the foreign

element was Jewish. A Negro teacher in a West Side school, largely

Italian, is considered one of the ablest teachers in the school and

proved herself highly competent during the war, when she assisted with

the work of the draft board in the district.

One or two principals said that they would not have Negro teachers in

their schools because the white teachers "could not be intimate with

colored teachers," or because Negro teachers were "cocky," or because "the

_Defender_ preaches propaganda for colored teachers to seek positions in

white schools." Sometimes an effort was made to explain the principal's

objection to Negro teachers by saying that Negro children had no respect

for Negro teachers. One principal whose white teachers were rather below

the accepted standard said that the one colored teacher who had been

there was obliged to leave because of the children's protest against her.

A Negro teacher in a 20 per cent school (Haven) was valued highly by

the principal, who advised with her as to what measures could be taken

to prevent the appearance of race feeling. This teacher formerly taught

in a school where there were no Negro children and had experienced no

difficulty in either type of school. "The children just seem to forget

I am colored," she said.

In Farren School (92 per cent) a teacher of a special room for children

recently arrived from the South expressed the belief that these children

"have a distinct and decided fear of the white teacher and it's up to

the teacher to change this fear into respect." They were very timid at

first, she said, due to the new environment and the contact with so many

more people, especially white. This timidity lasted for about a year

and then these children became more like Chicago children.

_Building and playground contacts._--At six out of the thirteen elementary

schools some friction about the buildings and on the playgrounds was

reported, and none at the other seven schools. On further analysis it

appeared that the friction reported was general at only two of the six

schools. At the other four the instances cited seemed either to involve

a few troublesome individuals or to be quarrels among Negro children

rather than between Negroes and whites. The two schools reporting general

antagonism between Negro and white children had about 30 per cent Negro

children. The principals of these schools said that the white children

were dominated by the Negroes and did not dare stand up for their

rights. The testimony of the principal of one of these schools showed a

disposition to regard many acts as characteristically racial. For example,

she needed no further evidence that a Negro boy had cut up a white boy's

cap than the fact that it was cut with a safety-razor blade. Although

both white and Negro boys commonly carry safety-razor blades to sharpen

their pencils, she thought of razors only in connection with Negroes.

She also believed that "Negro children of kindergarten age are unusually

cruel," and that "Negroes need a curriculum especially adapted to their

emotional natures." Again she said that a Negro boy who asked to be put

back from the third to the first grade, because the third-grade work was

too hard for him, was typical of Negro children, who "shut down on their

intellectual processes when they are about twelve or fourteen years of

age." In view of the numbers of Negro children in the higher grades who

are advancing normally, this is obviously an unwarranted generalization.

[Illustration: FARREN SCHOOL

Located at Forty-eighth Street and Wabash Avenue, 92 per cent Negro

attendance.]

There were some signs of friction at a school 20 per cent Negro (Haven)

when a school largely Italian was combined with it, but the situation

was handled tactfully by the principal and there had been no trouble.

At a school 85 per cent Negro (Doolittle), where the white element was

Jewish, all the teachers reported that there was no antagonism between

the races.

_Voluntary grouping._--The only school where the investigator noticed

Negro and white children playing in separate groups was Webster (30 per

cent), whose principal reported antagonism between Negroes and whites.

At the other schools natural mingling was reported by some teachers or

observed by the investigator. At a school 26 per cent Negro (Oakland)

three teachers said that Negro and white children did not mingle on

the playgrounds, while another teacher said they all played together

regardless of color. The principal and twelve teachers at a school 85

per cent Negro (Doolittle) agreed, with the exception of one teacher

who was a southerner, that there was never anything but the most natural

mingling in the classrooms, about the building and on the playground. At

a school 30 per cent Negro (Drake), the principal of which stated that

the relations between the races were not harmonious, the investigator

observed a free and natural grouping of Negroes and whites of all ages

on the playground. The principal explained that this was "a forced rather

than a natural grouping because of lack of apparatus for all." The white

children at a school 20 per cent Negro (Haven) were Italians, Jews, and

Greeks, and all the races played so naturally together that passersby

frequently stopped to watch them.

_Social contacts._--There are few social organizations and gatherings

in the elementary schools. The principal of a school 93 per cent Negro

(Raymond) said that there were clubs through all the grammar grades and

that the friendliness between the two races was marked, but added:

We have not more than fifty or sixty white children in this

particular building. One white child was elected vice-president,

the first white child elected in eight years. It shows the

friendly relationship when a white child could be elected

to office with a large preponderance of colored children. A

Jewish boy was elected to a smaller office of clerk. The white

children are not foreign. In their meetings the question of

color never arises at all.

In a few instances principals had found that graduation presented some

difficulties, as white mothers would appear at the school a few days

before and request that their children do not march with Negro children.

"About the only time I see a white mother is near graduation," said the

principal of a school 38 per cent Negro (Forrestville). "They always

say they wouldn't care for themselves, but a friend might see and they

would feel ashamed." "White children prefer not to march with colored

at graduation," said a teacher at Oakland School (26 per cent), "and

mothers sometimes come to ask that it be so arranged that their girls

can march with white girls. They usually say that for themselves they

don't mind, but friends might see and wonder why that should be."

A number of the schools have orchestras or occasional musical programs.

The investigator heard one orchestra of eleven pieces in Doolittle School

(85 per cent), which played remarkably well. All but one of the children

were Negroes. A teacher in Webster School (30 per cent), where there

was reported to be constant friction between Negro and white children,

gave an incident of a Negro boy in the school playing the violin with

a white accompanist and being enthusiastically applauded by the children.

The principal of a 92 per cent Negro school (Colman) reported an

unpleasant experience when pupils from her school were invited to take

part in a musical program at a West Side Park.

A group of sixty went with two white teachers in charge. On

the way over a group of foreign women called out insulting

remarks to the teachers, but no one paid any attention. After

the program the group started marching out of the park and

were met at the gate with a shower of stones. The teacher

told the children to run for their lives, and they all had

to scatter and hide in the bushes in the park or run toward

home if they could. A rough set of boys had got together and

were waiting for those children, stones all ready to throw.

Since that time we have never accepted an invitation to sing

outside our own neighborhood. Invitations have come from time

to time, but the children all come with excuses. All of them,

children and parents throughout the neighborhood, are afraid

but you can't get anyone to come out and say it.

_Attitude of parents._--Principals and teachers were questioned about

their relations with the parents of both Negro and white children--whether

they received co-operation from the parents in matters of discipline;

what was the attitude of the parents toward Negro teachers; and whether

many requests were received from Negro or white parents for transfers

to schools where there were fewer Negroes.

In general it may be said that the principals who found Negro parents

unco-operative, unambitious, and antagonistic were those who believed

in separate schools, found Negro children difficult to discipline, and

would have no Negro teachers in their schools. Such principals declared

that Negro parents were "10 to 1 in the complaints brought into the

office,"[38] and that "they fuss over everything and tell their children

not to take anything from a white child." They also cited cases of

insolence and threats which appeared to be exceptional rather than

typical.

Some teachers said the reason they did not receive any co-operation

from Negro mothers was because a large proportion of them were working.

Tardiness and absence were due mainly to this cause, according to one

principal, though a teacher of a room for retarded children in another

school said there was little tardiness and practically no absence in

her group. This teacher expressed the conviction, as did many others,

that Negro parents were appreciative of school advantages and eager

to have their children learn. Principals who came in contact with both

Negro and foreign parents found the Negro parents much more interested

and ambitious than the foreigners. Even the principal of a school 30

per cent Negro (Webster), who was somewhat prejudiced in her attitude

toward Negroes in the school, said she had more Negro than white boys

able to go to work whose parents wished them to remain in school.

Negro teachers were apparently acceptable to Negro parents, only one

of the principals or teachers interviewed reporting objections by Negro

parents. One teacher in a school 30 per cent Negro (Webster) said that

Negro parents had their children transferred there from schools with

more Negroes, so that they would have white teachers. The district

superintendent said he had had some difficulty in placing Negro teachers

in Negro schools, which he attributed to the fact that Negro parents

felt that Negro teachers had not had the same opportunity for thorough

training as white teachers. Some Negro parents, however, had indicated

that their attitude was not due to belief that Negro teachers were

inadequately trained, but to fear that too general placing of Negro

teachers over Negro pupils was a step toward segregation.

The principal of a school 90 per cent Negro (Keith) thought Negro mothers

preferred Negro teachers because several had said to her that the "colored

teachers understand our children better."

The district superintendent in the area including most of the schools

largely attended by Negroes said that few requests for transfers were

made during the year, but he believed more were made at the request of

Negro than of white parents. A number of these Negro children transferred

not to go to a school largely white but to a school 70 per cent Negro,

because they said they were afraid to go to the school in their own

district which was across Wentworth Avenue. The race feeling between

certain groups in this district was very intense, according to the

superintendent. It was especially violent between the Negro children

and the Italians and between the Jews and the Bohemians. The principal

of a school 93 per cent Negro (Raymond) also testified to the spirit of

antagonism along Wentworth Avenue:

Wentworth Avenue is the gang line. They seem to feel that

trespass on either side of that line is ground for trouble.

While they will admit colored members to the school without

any trouble for manual training, they have to be escorted over

the line, because of trouble, not from members of the school,

but groups of boys outside the school. To illustrate: We took

a kindergarten group over to the park. One little six-year-old

girl was struck in the face by a man. The condition is a

tradition. There does not seem to be any malice in it. "He is

from the east side," or "Hit him, he is from the West Side,"

are remarks frequently heard.

Transfers from schools with a predominant Negro membership were reported

by one or two principals and teachers in schools with a Negro minority,

who said that the Negro mothers objected to having their children in

schools "where there are so many common niggers." One of the principals

said she had many requests from Negro mothers for transfers from the

branch of the school with 90 per cent Negroes to the main school with 20

per cent. The Commission did not find in its inquiry among Negro mothers

that such an objection was prevalent, but that most of the transfers

requested were due to the reputation of the school for being overcrowded,

poorly taught, and generally run down.

2. HIGH SCHOOLS

_Classroom and building contacts._--In the high schools the ordinary

contacts in classes and about the building become subordinate to the

more difficult problems created by the increased number of social

activities--athletics, gymnasium exhibitions, clubs, and parties.

The dean of Englewood High School, which has only about 6 per cent Negro

children, said that the white and Negro children mingled freely with

no sign of trouble or prejudice but thought that if more Negro children

came to the school the spirit would change. A teacher in this same school

who had formerly been at Wendell Phillips, where the majority are Negro,

said that a spirit of friendliness had grown up there between the two

races, and race distinction had disappeared.

[Illustration: WENDELL PHILLIPS HIGH SCHOOL

Located at Thirty-ninth Street and Prairie Avenue, 52 per cent Negro

attendance.]

There was only one Negro teacher in the high schools of Chicago at

the time of this investigation, the teacher of manual training at

Wendell Phillips. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois and

had substituted around Chicago for several years. Although they spoke

very highly of him, none of the principals of three high schools with

small Negro percentages and in which there were vacancies could use him.

The principal of Wendell Phillips, with a large proportion of Negroes,

told, however, of a different experience when this teacher was at that

school. "In answer to complaints by pupils I told them that this man was

a graduate of the University of Illinois, a high-school graduate in the

city, and a cultured man. 'Go in there and forget the color, and see if

you can get the subject matter.' In the majority of cases it worked."

Racial friction about the buildings and grounds was not reported by any

of the high-school principals. "I have not known of a fight between a

colored and a white boy in fifteen years," said the principal of Hyde

Park.

Two principals said that the Negro children voluntarily grouped themselves

at noon, either eating at tables by themselves in the lunchroom or

bringing their own lunches and eating in the back part of the assembly

hall. The gymnasium instructor at Wendell Phillips said that she had

no difficulty in her work if she let the children arrange themselves.

The gymnasium instructor at a school with a small proportion of Negroes

said that the white girls had objected to going into the swimming-pool

with Negro girls, but that she had gone in with the Negro girls, which

had helped to remove the prejudice.

_Athletic teams._--In the field of athletics there seems to be no

feeling between the white and Negro members of a school team, but the

Negro members are sometimes roughly handled when the team plays other

schools. "The basketball team is half and half," said the principal of

Wendell Phillips. He reported some friction in previous years but said

that "this year it is not shown at all." "They played a strenuous game

with Englewood last week. A colored boy was roughly treated by the other

team. Our white boys were ready to fight the whole Englewood team."

The principal of Hyde Park High School also said that there was no

feeling in his school against Negro members of athletic teams, and that

he did not know of a single instance in which a Negro boy was kept off

an athletic team if he was the best for the place.

Two Seniors in a high school mainly white (Tilden) thus described the

way they handled the Negro members of a visiting basket-ball team:

On the way over here fellows on the outside bawled them out,

but our fellows sure got them on the way home. There were three

black fellows on the team and those three got just about laid

out. Our team wouldn't play them, so there was a great old

row. Then, when they went home some of our boys were waiting

for them to come out of the building to give them a chase. The

coons were afraid to come out, so policemen had to be called

to take them to the car line. The white fellows weren't hurt

any, but the coons got some bricks.

_Transfers between high schools._--Requests for transfers from Wendell

Phillips to Englewood and Hyde Park schools had been made by both white

and Negro children, according to the principals of the latter schools. The

permits of the Negro children had frequently been revoked after they had

been admitted to classes, and the children returned to Wendell Phillips.

A teacher at Wendell Phillips pointed out the injustice of transferring a

child in the middle of a term. After a child has been admitted to classes

he should be permitted to remain through the semester, she believed, for

otherwise a full term's work was lost because the courses in the schools

were different. "All this transferring is nonsense, anyway," she said.

"Children should be made to go to school in the district where they live

and that would end the trouble."

This teacher told of an incident at Tilden School when a group of Negro

boys registered for entrance:

About sixty colored boys entered Tilden High School either

for the regular high-school course or prevocational work and

were thrown out by the Tilden boys. They made it so hot for

the colored boys that the sixty had to withdraw. Some came

back here; others dropped out of school entirely. It's pretty

bad when one set of boys can put out another set and nothing

is done to punish one and call back the other group.

Two boys at Tilden who took part in this affair gave this version of

the incident:

About thirty colored boys registered at Tilden last fall, but

we cleaned up on them the first couple of days and they never

showed up again. We didn't give them any peace in the locker

room, basement, at noon hours, or between classes--told them

to keep out of our way or we'd see they got out. The fellows

who were in school before we didn't tackle--they know where

they belong. There's one colored fellow in our class everybody

likes. He's a smart nice fellow to talk to, and he doesn't

stick around when you don't want him. He didn't say anything

when we made the new coons step around, but I guess he didn't

like it very well.

It was this same group of boys who objected to playing a visiting

basketball team with three Negroes on it and "just about laid them out."

_Social activities in high schools._--In high schools, with their older

pupils, there is an increased race consciousness, and in the purely

social activities such as clubs and dances, which are part of high-school

life, there is none of the general mingling often found in semi-social

activities such as singing and literary societies. Although Negro pupils

do not share in the purely social activities, they do not organize such

activities among themselves.

"The colored never come to social affairs," said the dean of one school.

"They are so much in the minority here that they leave all organizations

to the whites." The principal of this school told of having seen two

colored girls at a class party who danced together for a while and

left. "It is the only time I've seen the two races at the same social

gathering."

The dean of Englewood said: "We have colored children in singing clubs,

in the orchestra, in literary societies, in class organizations, and on

athletic teams. Always when there is a class party there will be five

or six colored children. They will always dance together, but they are

present and welcomed by the white. Between dances it is not uncommon to

see white and colored talking."

An incident showing lack of feeling against individuals of special

achievement was given by the principal of this last school:

Several years ago we organized a voluntary orchestra which met

after school. The director accepted all applications, among

them a number of colored boys. The white boys balked; it should

be white membership or they would leave. As it was near the

end of the year the orchestra was dissolved. The next year I

suggested to the teacher that he fill the orchestra places by

a general tryout, so understood, but really with the policy

of excluding the colored. This was done and a white orchestra

organized. Shortly, the father of H. F., a colored boy who had

been excluded, protested in my office, saying that his boy

had been excluded because of race prejudice and that he was

going to carry his protest to the Board of Education, for he

knew his boy played better than any boy in school. I admitted

that it was a choice in the school of white orchestra or no

orchestra, but that if his boy was the fine musician he said

he was I would gladly see what could be done. Soon after that

H. appeared on a school program and played with remarkable

skill and technique. He was applauded enthusiastically and

recalled three times. Straightway the orchestra members asked

him to play with them. He became unusually popular throughout

the school. His standing was the highest and he was awarded a

scholarship of $100 allowed by the Board of Education for the

best student. He was also chosen to represent the school on

the Northwestern University scholarship, and in his Freshman

year he won another scholarship for the next year. The death

of his parents made it necessary for him to leave college to

support his brothers and sisters. At this time he was stricken

with infantile paralysis. The interest on Liberty bonds taken

out by the high school is paid in to H., and when the colored

people gave a benefit for him the pupils sold 500 tickets. He

is improving and teaching violin to thirty pupils at present.

His sister is in the school now on a scholarship and is doing

remarkably well also.

At Wendell Phillips the situation was quite different, for there were no

school or class social affairs which were general. There were invitational

affairs to which the Negroes were not invited. All the clubs in the

school were white, Negroes being excluded. The principal said he would

not insist on mixed clubs until he saw the parents of the children mixing

socially. The glee club was an especially difficult problem because of

its semi-public as well as social character. The Negro children maintained

that a glee club composed entirely of whites was not representative of a

school in which the majority were Negroes. The Negroes had not responded

to the suggestion of the principal that they form a glee club of their

own, and as the white children would not be in a glee club with Negro

children, there was constant friction over this club.

Other principals expressed the conviction that the racial problem

of school social affairs could not be solved until the prejudice and

antagonism of adults had disappeared. One principal said he had had to

call off an arrangement for a class affair because the hotel would not

accommodate the Negroes. Another principal thought that the schools

would not wait to follow the lead of the parents in forgetting the race

prejudice but would themselves be the greatest factor in destroying it.

_Relations with parents._--In most cases the high schools were receiving

splendid support from Negro parents in matters of discipline. "I have

never had a case where the parent did not back up the teacher in the

treatment given to a colored child," said one principal, speaking of

cases where children had got into difficulty when they complained that

the teacher had "picked on them" because they were Negroes. The parents

always made the child withdraw the statement and admit that the trouble

was not due to color at all.

3. TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOLS

Reports were received from three technical high schools, Lane, Tilden,

and Lucy H. Flower. Lane and Tilden had few Negro students, while in

Lucy H. Flower the Negroes were about 20 per cent. The principals of

Lane and Tilden said they were not conscious of any racial difference in

their pupils, that no special methods of instruction were necessary for

the Negro children, that there were no quarrels with a racial background

in the schools, and no voluntary or compulsory groupings of white and

Negro. The principal of Lucy H. Flower found racial differences between

the Negroes and whites which she believed created special problems of

education and discipline. The children got along together very well in

school, and whatever quarrels there were, the principal thought were due

to personal dislikes rather than to race prejudice. The colored girls

grouped themselves voluntarily at noon and at dismissal time, and the

white girls did the same.

III. RETARDATION

1. RETARDATION IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

With the assistance of the Board of Education a selection was made

of three groups of schools to be studied for comparative retardation.

The group comprised six schools having the largest percentage of Negro

children, six attended mainly by whites in neighborhoods where the family

income might be comparable, and twelve attended mainly by children of

immigrants. Table XII gives the number and percentage of accelerated,

normal, and retarded children for each school, for each group, and for

the whole group of twenty-four schools.

This table shows the much greater amount of retardation among schools

attended by Negroes than in schools attended by white Americans or by

children of immigrants. The percentage for the group attended by Negroes

is 74, while for the different schools in the group it varies from 67

to 81. For the two groups of schools attended by white Americans the

percentage of retardation is the same, 49, though there is greater

variation among these schools than among the schools attended by Negroes.

In the group attended by children of immigrants, for instance, only 32

per cent are retarded in the Jungman (Bohemian) School, while 71 per

cent are retarded in the Holden (Polish) School. A similar discrepancy

appears in the group attended by white Americans, where the figure is 40

per cent for the Armstrong School and 62 per cent for the Byford School.

TABLE XII

NUMBER AND PERCENTAGE OF CHILDREN IN ACCELERATED, NORMAL, AND RETARDED GROUPS

IN SCHOOLS ATTENDED MAINLY BY WHITE AMERICANS, BY NEGROES, AND

BY CHILDREN OF IMMIGRANTS

=========================================================================================

| | age | | age | |Ungrad.[39]| age | |

-------------------+------+--------+------+--------+--------+----------+--------+-------+

| | | | | | | | |

Armstrong | 202 | 21 | 365| 39 | 355 | 19 | 40 | 941 |

Byford | 118 | 9 | 361| 29 | 783 | -- | 62 | 1,262 |

Harper | 291 | 17 | 609| 35 | 829 | -- | 48 | 1,729 |

Howe | 220 | 17 | 421| 35 | 577 | -- | 48 | 1,218 |

Key | 173 | 25 | 205| 29 | 314 | -- | 46 | 692 |

Morse | 169 | 14 | 450| 37 | 581 | -- | 49 | 1,200 |

+------+--------+------+--------+--------+----------+--------+-------+

Total |1,173 | 17 | 2,411| 34 | 3,439 | 19 | 49 | 7,042 |

| | | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | | |

Coleman | 54 | 8 | 124| 17 | 561 | 2 | 75 | 743 |

Doolittle | 267 | 16 | 261| 16 | 1,099 | 24 | 68 | 1,651 |

Douglas | 136 | 9.3 | 197| 13.7 | 1,126 | -- | 77 | 1,463 |

Keith | 77 | 11 | 93| 14 | 497 | -- | 75 | 667 |

Moseley | 62 | 7.5 | 95| 11.5 | 551 | 122 | 81 | 830 |

Raymond | 112 | 13 | 179| 20 | 578 | -- | 67 | 869 |

+------+--------+------+--------+--------+----------+--------+-------+

Total | 708 | 11 | 949| 15 | 4,412 | 148 | 74 | 6,217 |

| | | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | | |

Bryant | 385 | 21 | 735| 37 | 809 | 15 | 42 | 1,944 |

Hammond | 161 | 12 | 503| 34 | 795 | -- | 54 | 1,459 |

Jungman | 375 | 35 | 350| 33 | 357 | -- | 32 | 1,082 |

| | | | | | | | |

Chopin | 298 | 17 | 631| 36 | 818 | 1 | 47 | 1,748 |

Hibbard | 392 | 29 | 445| 32 | 535 | -- | 39 | 1,372 |

Holden | 122 | 11 | 208| 18 | 759 | -- | 71 | 1,089 |

| | | | | | | | |

Goodrich | 157 | 14 | 240| 22 | 693 | -- | 64 | 1,090 |

Jackson | 360 | 15 | 731| 32 | 1,174 | -- | 53 | 2,265 |

Jenner | 176 | 11 524| 33 | 875 | -- | 56 | 1,575 |

| | | | | | | | |

Herzel | 609 | 25 | 731| 30 | 1,085 | -- | 45 | 2,425 |

Lawson | 466 | 16 | 944| 32 | 1,407 | 20 | 52 | 2,837 |

Von Humboldt | 528 | 22 | 848| 34 | 1,072 | -- | 44 | 2,448 |

+------+--------+------+--------+--------+----------+--------+-------+

Totals |4,029 | 19 | 6,890| 32 |10,379 | 36 | 49 |21,334 |

three groups |5,910 | 17 |10,250| 30 |18,230 | 203 | 53 |34,593 |

-------------------+------+--------+------+--------+--------+----------+--------+-------+

The retardation figures for the group of twenty-four schools studied

are close to those for the city at large, 53 per cent retarded in the

special group and 51 per cent for the city at large. In the accelerated

group the percentage of accelerated Negro children, 11, is smaller than

the percentage of accelerated white children, 17, or the percentage of

accelerated foreign children, 19. This variation is not so striking as

that in the normal group where only 15 per cent of the Negro children

appear to make normal progress as compared with 34 per cent of the white

children and 32 per cent of the foreign children. From this it would

appear that there are factors in the lives of many Negro children which

prevent them from making normal progress.

The degree of retardation, as shown in Table XIII is again quite different

for the white and Negro groups.

The largest single groups of backward white American and foreign children

are retarded less than one year (42 per cent of the white American and

39 per cent of the foreign group), and the numbers decrease rapidly

as the degree of retardation increases. In the case of the Negroes 19

per cent are retarded less than one year. The decrease as the degree

of retardation increases is slower than in the white groups, and many

more children are retarded two, three, four, five years and more. In

the white American group only one child out of 3,439 retarded children

is retarded five and one-half to six years, while there are forty-one

in the corresponding Negro group out of a total of 4,412. One white

child is retarded six and one-half to seven years, while seventeen Negro

children are retarded this amount; twelve foreign children out of 10,379

retarded children are retarded six to ten years, and thirty-seven Negro

children are found in these groups.

Though the main reasons for the high degree of retardation among Negro

children are set forth in the next section under "Causes of Retardation,"

a partial explanation is to be found in the fact that Negro parents

are frequently more interested in keeping their over-age children in

school than white parents, especially foreign parents, whose anxiety to

have their children leave school as soon as they are old enough to get

work-permits is well known.

_Causes of retardation._--It is generally understood of course that

comparisons of Negro with white children are hardly fair, since Negro

children have not had the same opportunities as whites to make normal

progress.

A study was made of the reasons why children were retarded in the

groups of schools attended mainly by Negroes, by white Americans, and by

children of immigrants. Records were obtained at the schools for 1,469

Negro children and 1,560 white children who were listed according to

the Board of Education's classification for retarded children.

Table XIV shows clearly that the predominating cause of retardation among

Negroes is late entrance, which, according to the board's classification,

means that they did not enter school until more than six years of age.

This is generally explained by the fact that the family came from the

South, where there was no school near enough for the child to attend, or

the school was overcrowded, or the family was uneducated and indifferent.

In some cases the parents have come North, leaving the child with

grandparents who made no effort to see that it went to school.

TABLE XIII

NUMBER OF CHILDREN IN TABLE XII WHO ARE RETARDED ONE-HALF

TO ONE YEAR, ONE YEAR TO ONE AND ONE-HALF YEARS, ETC.

=============================================================

| YEARS

----------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-----+----

| ½ | 1 | 1½ | 2 | 2½ | 3 | 3½

SCHOOL | to | to | to | to | to | to | to

| 1 | 1½ | 2 | 2½ | 3 | 3½ | 4

----------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-----+----

Attended mainly by white Americans:

Armstrong | 143 | 84 | 62 | 31 | 15 | 13 | 3

Byford | 317 | 175 | 105 | 64 | 54 | 20 | 11

Harper | 364 | 234 | 106 | 67 | 28 | 12 | 6

Howe | 275 | 128 | 93 | 57 | 9 | 9 | 2

Key | 141 | 106 | 33 | 19 | 20 | 2 | 2

Morse | 229 | 160 | 81 | 56 | 27 | 14 | 8

----------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-----+----

Total | 1,470 | 887 | 480 | 294 | 143 | 70 | 32

Attended mainly by Negroes:

Colman | 109 | 114 | 109 | 66 | 50 | 46 | 27

Doolittle | 229 | 175 | 146 | 152 | 117 | 86 | 69

Douglas | 190 | 198 | 191 | 142 | 126 | 83 | 71

Keith | 94 | 66 | 71 | 78 | 54 | 34 | 30

Moseley | 95 | 104 | 96 | 54 | 59 | 31 | 34

Raymond | 135 | 115 | 111 | 69 | 50 | 39 | 27

----------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-----+----

Total | 852 | 772 | 724 | 561 | 456 | 319 | 258

Attended mainly by children of immigrants:

Bohemian:

Bryant | 369 | 224 | 107 | 51 | 36 | 15 | 3

Hammond | 306 | 225 | 114 | 69 | 47 | 13 | 10

Jungman | 173 | 87 | 49 | 27 | 12 | 6 | 2

Polish:

Chopin | 323 | 216 | 125 | 57 | 43 | 23 | 16

Hibbard | 252 | 158 | 68 | 28 | 18 | 5 | 4

Holden | 216 | 190 | 112 | 91 | 60 | 36 | 18

Italian:

Goodrich | 236 | 185 | 104 | 68 | 42 | 28 | 10

Jackson | 369 | 284 | 202 | 141 | 84 | 53 | 16

Jenner | 281 | 253 | 135 | 86 | 42 | 32 | 20

Jewish:

Herzel | 521 | 294 | 124 | 71 | 38 | 19 | 9

Lawson | 574 | 370 | 233 | 109 | 65 | 24 | 19

Von

Humboldt | 498 | 145 | 145 | 76 | 37 | 17 | 6

----------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-----+----

Totals | 4,118 | 2,710 | 1,518 | 874 | 524 | 271 | 133

----------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-----+----

Totals | 6,440 | 2,249 | 2,722 | 1,729 | 1,123 | 660 | 423

-------------------------------------------------------------

TABLE XIII

(continued)

======================================================

| YEARS

----------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+----

| 4 | 4½ | 5 | 5½ | 6 | 6½ | 7

SCHOOL | to | to | to | to | to | to | to

| 4½ | 5 | 5½ | 6 | 6½ | 7 | 7½

----------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+----

Attended mainly by white Americans:

Armstrong | ... | 4 | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...

Byford | 32 | 2 | 2 | ... | ... | 1 | ...

Harper | 4 | 3 | 1 | ... | 1 | ... | 1

Howe | ... | 4 | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...

Key | 1 | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...

Morse | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ... | ... | ...

----------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+----

Total | 40 | 14 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1

Attended mainly by Negroes:

Colman | 18 | 7 | 8 | 4 | 2 | ... | ...

Doolittle | 44 | 37 | 16 | 8 | 4 | 4 | ...

Douglas | 45 | 26 | 21 | 14 | 10 | 7 | ...

Keith | 32 | 17 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 3 | ...

Moseley | 26 | 20 | 15 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 3

Raymond | 12 | 10 | 6 | 2 | ... | 1 | ...

----------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+----

Total | 177 | 117 | 74 | 41 | 24 | 17 | 3

Attended mainly by children of immigrants:

Bohemian:

Bryant | 1 | 2 | 1 | ... | ... | ... | ...

Hammond | 8 | 2 | 1 | ... | ... | ... | ...

Jungman | 1 | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...

Polish:

Chopin | 9 | 2 | 1 | 2 | ... | ... | ...

Hibbard | ... | 2 | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...

Holden | 13 | 9 | 8 | 4 | 2 | ... | ...

Italian:

Goodrich | 9 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 2 | ... | ...

Jackson | 13 | 4 | 4 | 2 | ... | 1 | 1

Jenner | 10 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | ...

Jewish:

Herzel | 4 | 4 |... | 1 | ... | ... | ...

Lawson | 7 | 4 | 2 | ... | ... | ... | ...

Von

Humboldt | 6 | 2 | 1 | ... | ... | ... | ...

----------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+----

Totals | 81 | 36 | 25 | 17 | 6 | 3 | 1

----------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+----

Totals | 298 | 167 | 103 | 59 | 31 | 21 | 5

--------------------------------------------------

TABLE XIII

(continued)

=============================================

| YEARS

----------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+----

| 7½ | 8 | 8½ | 9 | 9½ | 10

SCHOOL | to | to | to | to | to | to

| 8 | 8½ | 9 | 9½ | 10 | 10½

----------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+----

Attended mainly by white Americans:

Armstrong | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...

Byford | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...

Harper | ... | ... | 1 | ... | ... | ...

Howe | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...

Key | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...

Morse | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...

----------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+----

Total | ... | ... | 1 | ... | ... | ...

Attended mainly by Negroes:

Colman | 1 | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...

Doolittle | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ...

Douglas | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | 2

Keith | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...

Moseley | ... | 1 | ... | ... | ... | ...

Raymond | 1 | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...

----------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+----

Total | 6 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2

Attended mainly by children of immigrants:

Bohemian:

Bryant | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...

Hammond | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...

Jungman | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...

Polish:

Chopin | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...

Hibbard | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...

Holden | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | 1

Italian:

Goodrich | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...

Jackson | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...

Jenner | ... | ... | 1 | ... | ... | ...

Jewish:

Herzel | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...

Lawson | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...

Von

Humboldt | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ...

----------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+----

Totals | ... | ... | 1 | ... | ... | 1

----------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+----

Totals | 6 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3

for three groups | | | |

---------------------------------------------

TABLE XIV

REASONS WHY 1,469 NEGRO CHILDREN AND 1,560 WHITE CHILDREN WERE RETARDED

IN GROUP OF TWENTY-FOUR SCHOOLS

Abbreviations:

LE - LATE ENTERING

Fn - FOREIGN

PD - PHYSICAL DEFECT

IH - ILL HEALTH

FD - FAMILY DIFFICULTIES

DV - DEFECTIVE VISION

DH - DEFECTIVE HEARING

VM - VARIANT MENTALITY

Bd - BACKWARD

LM - LOW MENTALITY

Fm - FEEBLE-MINDED

IA - IRREGULAR ATTENDANCE

TG - TEMP. IN GRADE

DC - DEMOTED FOR CONDUCT

==================================================================

SCHOOLS |TOTAL |LE | Fn | PD | IH | FD

--------------+-----+-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---

|N. |W. |N. |W. |N. |W. |N. |W. |N. |W. |N. |W.

--------------+-----+-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---

Attended mainly by Negroes:

Colman, | 29| 1| 20|...|...|...|...|...| 1|...|...|...

Doolittle, | 603| 6|190|...|...| 6| 3|...| 68|...|141|...

Drake, | 72| 58| 41| 11|...| 3|...|...| 4| 15|...| 3

Farren, | 171| 7| 49|...|...|...| 1| 1| 34| 1| 21|...

Felsenthal, | 173| 69| 58| 13| 3| 2|...|...| 6| 12| 56| 15

Forrestville,| 93| 5| 34| 2|...|...| 2|...| 4|...| 10|...

Haven, | 71| 59| 56| 9|...| 6|...|...| 2| 9|...|...

McCosh, | 18| 31| 7| 4|...| 2|...| 1| 5| 8|...|...

Oakland, | 50| 44| 18| 6|...|...| 1|...| 4| 5|...| 6

Raymond, | 133| 6| 64| 2|...| 2| 1|...| 7| 1| 18|...

Webster, | 52| 31| 27| 7|...| 1| 1|...| 5| 9| 6| 2

Attended mainly by White Americans:

Fiske | 2| 88|...| 3|...| 16|...| 2|...| 1|...| 34

Rowland | ...| 101|...| 13|...| 7|...| 2|...| 17|...| 3

Kenwood | ...| 25|...| 1|...| 5|...|...|...| 4|...| 4

Attended mainly by children of immigrants:

Farragut | ...| 107|...| 12|...| 10|...| 2|...| 11|...| 6

Goodrich | ...| 92|...|...|...| 28|...| 3|...| 8|...| 7

Jackson | ...| 255|...| 32|...| 48|...| 12|...| 38|...| 38

Jungman | ...| 21|...| 11|...| 2|...|...|...|...|...| 1

Kosciuszke | ...| 144|...| 23|...| 17|...| 4|...| 9|...| 18

Lawson | 1| 155|...| 7|...| 15|...| 1|...| 19| 1| 20

McCormick | ...| 21|...|...|...| 2|...| 1|...| 7|...|...

Seward | ...| 131|...| 19|...| 29|...| 2|...| 14|...| 10

Smyth | ...| 57|...| 3|...| 14|...| 1|...| 9|...| 4

Swing | ...| 46|...| 9|...| 2|...| 1|...| 7|...| 4

--------------+-----+-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---

Totals by |1,469|1,560|564|187| 3|217| 9| 33|140|204|253|175

--------------+-----+-----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---

Totals of | 3,029 | 751 | 220 | 42 | 344 | 428

------------------------------------------------------------------

TABLE XIV

(continued)

=============================================================

SCHOOLS | DV | DH | VM | Bd | LM | Fm

--------------+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--

|N. |W. |N. |W. |N. |W. |N. |W. |N. |W. |N. |W.

--------------+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--

Attended mainly by Negroes:

Colman, |...|...|...|...|...|...| 4|...|...|...| 1|...

Doolittle, | 7|...|...|...| 35|...| 73|...| 10|...|...|...

Drake, |...| 2|...|...|...| 7| 7| 12|...| 1|...|...

Farren, | 3|...| 1|...| 12| 2| 18|...| 11| 2|...|...

Felsenthal, |...| 2| 1|...| 7| 1| 33| 10| 3| 4|...|...

Forrestville,| 1|...|...|...| 4|...| 30|...| 1|...| 1|...

Haven, |...| 4|...|...|...| 3| 7| 19| 2| 4|...|...

McCosh, |...| 1|...|...|...|...| 1| 1| 1| 6|...|...

Oakland, | 1| 2|...| 2| 3| 6| 3| 5| 4| 3| 1|...

Raymond, |...|...|...|...| 1|...| 11|...| 6|...| 6|...

Webster, |...|...|...|...|...| 1| 4| 2| 9| 6|...|...

Attended mainly by White Americans:

Fiske |...| 1|...|...|...|...| 1| 21| 1| 2|...| 1

Rowland |...| 4|...|...|...| 9|...| 28|...| 10|...| 1

Kenwood |...|...|...|...|...| 2|...| 5|...| 1|...|...

Attended mainly by children of immigrants:

Farragut |...| 3|...|...|...| 5|...| 23|...| 32|...|...

Goodrich |...| 3|...|...|...| 2|...| 23|...| 10|...|...

Jackson |...| 8|...| 1|...| 3|...| 45|...| 8|...|...

Jungman |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...

Kosciuszke |...| 2|...|...|...| 12|...| 4|...| 8|...| 1

Lawson |...| 2|...| 1|...| 25|...| 39|...| 19|...| 2

McCormick |...|...|...|...|...|...|...| 1|...| 8|...|...

Seward |...|...|...| 1|...| 2|...| 13|...| 11|...| 5

Smyth |...| 2|...|...|...|...|...| 14| 1| 5|...|...

Swing |...| 2|...|...|...| 1|...| 6|...| 6|...| 1

--------------+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--

Totals by | 12| 38| 2| 5| 62| 81|192|271| 49|146| 9| 12

--------------+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--

Totals of | 50 | 7 | 143 | 463 | 195 | 21

---------------------------------------------------------------

TABLE XIV

(continued)

======================================

SCHOOLS | IA | TG | DC

---------------+---+---+---+---+-------

|N. |W. |N. |W. |N. |W.

---------------+---+---+---+---+----+--

Attended mainly by Negroes:

Colman, | 1| 1|...|...| 2|...

Doolittle, | 68|...| 8|...|...|...

Drake, | 19| 5|...|...|...|...

Farren, | 21| 1|...|...|...|...

Felsenthal, | 13| 2|...| 1|...|...

Forrestville,| 6| 3|...|...|...|...

Haven, | 4| 5|...|...|...|...

McCosh, | 3| 9|...|...|...|...

Oakland, | 12| 9| 1| 2|...|...

Raymond, | 19| 1|...|...|...|...

Webster, | 1| 2|...|...|...|...

Attended mainly by White Americans:

Fiske |...| 6|...| 1|...|...

Rowland |...| 7|...|...|...|...

Kenwood |...| 3|...|...|...|...

Attended mainly by children of immigrants:

Farragut |...| 3|...|...|...|...

Goodrich |...| 8|...|...|...|...

Jackson |...| 19|...| 2|...|...

Jungman |...| 7|...|...|...|...

Kosciuszke |...| 39|...| 9|...|...

Lawson |...| 5|...|...|...|...

McCormick |...| 1|...|...| 1|...

Seward |...| 20|...| 5|...|...

Smyth |...| 5|...|...|...|...

Swing |...| 2|...| 4|...|...

---------------+---+---+---+---+----+--

Totals by |167|161| 9| 24| 3|...

---------------+---+---+---+---+----+--

Totals of | 328 | 33 | 3

both races | |

---------------------------------------

The next most important cause of retardation among the Negroes is family

difficulties. The fathers are often kept away from home weeks at a

time by their work. A large number of the mothers are working, and the

parents' lack of education is frequently the cause of a home life that

is below standard, physically and morally.

Among the whites, late entrance, inability to speak the language,

ill health, backwardness, and low mentality are the main causes of

retardation. While it is often maintained that the Negro is the mental

inferior of the white, these figures do not bear out that contention.

Also the retardation figures do not show the home life of the Negroes

to be productive of as much ill health as is the case with the whites.

Approximately the same number of Negro and white children were retarded

because of irregular attendance.

In addition there were forty-two Negro children and 155 white children

who were classified under two, three, or four different causes for

retardation. Children who were late entering also had some physical

difficulty, or children who were retarded because of family difficulties

were also of poor mental endowment. In some cases such double

classification represented a realization by the teacher that retardation

is a complicated and delicate thing which cannot be explained by one

hard-and-fast reason. Others, finding it difficult to decide whether

children were backward, of low mentality, or feeble-minded, classified

them under all three causes. In two instances Negroes were found to be

retarded because they were late entering and "foreign"--that is, they

were handicapped by an "initial lack of the English language."

_Intensive study of 116 retarded Negro children._--The presence of

retarded Negro children in the Chicago public schools within recent

years has been regarded by many teachers and principals as a problem of

Negro education. Some assume that this retardation is due to an inherent

incapacity for normal grade work. Inquiries of the Commission early

disclosed the fact that although the retardation rate of Negro children

was higher than that of white, the great majority of the retarded Negroes

were from southern states, and that Negro children born in the North had,

as a rule, no higher rate of retardation than the whites. In the belief

that the causes of retardation among Negro children could be found in

the same factors of social background and environment which operates to

retard white children, an intensive study was made of 116 Negro children

taken at random from among all the retarded Negro children in several

schools to learn what elements in their former life and present home

environment might explain their retardation.

Out of the 116 children 101 had been in school before coming to Chicago.

Of these eighty-six had lived in the South and attended southern schools.

Since this group was chosen at random, the large proportion from the

South tends to bear out the statements of school principals and teachers

that Negro children from the South constitute the bulk of retarded

children. Previous school records were obtained for eighty-four of these

eighty-six southern children, and in sixty-four cases the children were

retarded when they came to Chicago. Many of them were retarded two and

three years, and some three, four, five, and even six years. Forty-seven

of the sixty-four were retarded more than one year. In a number of cases

children who were in the normal grade for their age in the South were

put back one or two grades when they entered Chicago schools because

they were not equipped to do the work of this grade in the North.

The states from which these children came are Alabama, Arkansas, Florida,

Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina,

Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. Twenty-three of the eighty-six children

who had lived in the South were from Mississippi--the largest group

from any one state--and of these three were up with their normal grade,

eleven were retarded three or four years, one was retarded six years, and

one who was in the normal grade in the South was demoted two years. One

reason for the poor record of these Mississippi children is undoubtedly

to be found in that state's inadequate compulsory-education law which

provides a school term of eighty days in districts which do not reject

the law. Eight of the Mississippi children lived on plantations which

were so far from school that regular attendance was impossible.

Information gathered concerning the parents of these 116 retarded children

showed that in eighty-six cases the father was living with his family.

In six cases the father was dead, in one case he was insane, in fifteen

cases he had separated from or deserted the mother, and in eight cases

there was no report on the father.

The mother was found to be living with her family in 112 cases. In two

cases the mother was dead, and in two cases she had deserted father and

child.

All of the eighty-six fathers who lived at home were working, though

one was reported as working irregularly, and two as having deserted

their wives occasionally for periods of several weeks. In two of the

cases where the father had separated from the mother he was reported as

contributing to the support of the child.

In forty out of the eighty-six cases where the father was living at home

and working, the mother was also working, and in the fifteen separation

cases where the mother was supporting the child, she was working. The

fact that a total of fifty-five out of 112 mothers, or 49 per cent,

were working is undoubtedly a large factor in the retardation of the

children. The statement was frequently made by teachers that 40 or 50

per cent of the Negro mothers worked, and that the child was therefore

neglected, and the teacher could get no co-operation from the mother,

as she was never free to come to school to talk over matters affecting

the child.

Some teachers felt that many mothers worked where there was no economic

necessity, as the father was earning enough to support the family.

It should be noted in this connection that at the time this material

was gathered there were more opportunities for work than there were

men to fill them. Under ordinary conditions there would doubtless be

a certain amount of unemployment in these Negro families which would

cause more mothers to work from economic necessity. Many of the families

investigated, where both parents were working, were reported as getting

on very well, though there were some cases of real poverty. In a number

of instances the families could not seem to make ends meet on a good

income because they were ignorant and did not know how to spend their

money, or because they had not been able to adjust themselves to city

life.

Of the eighty-six fathers who were working, few were in skilled

occupations which would command a substantial wage. Most of the mothers

were engaged in work that took them away from home. A few did sewing,

hairdressing, and laundry work in their homes, but the large majority

went out to work. Work carried on in the home frequently has as bad an

effect on the child's school attendance as the mother's absence, for the

child is sometimes kept at home to help and often finds the work more

interesting than school.

The following occupations of mothers of retarded children were noted:

Day work 22

Stock Yards 12

Hairdresser 4

Laundry 4

Maid 4

Barrel factory 3

Seamstress 3

Domestic service 2

Box factory 1

Car cleaner 1

Cleaning (hospital) 1

Dishwasher 1

Elevator 1

Foundry 1

Housekeeper 1

Lamp-shade factory 1

Waist factory 1

_Education of parents._--Of the eighty-six fathers, thirty-one were

illiterate, and forty-eight had gone to elementary school but had

completed only the second, fourth, or sixth grade. Five of the fathers

had gone to high school, and two were college graduates.

The figures are slightly better for the mothers. Out of 112, twenty-one

were totally illiterate, seventy-six had gone to elementary school,

ten had been in high school or college, and five were not reported on.

Eighty-eight per cent of the mothers, therefore, and 91 per cent of the

fathers had less than a high-school education. Though there were many

illiterate or poorly educated parents who were eager for their children

to have advantages which they never had themselves, others, as in any

illiterate group, no matter what the color, failed to appreciate the

importance of school.

_Home discipline._--A number of teachers reported that they were unable

to discipline the children in school because they were undisciplined at

home. In seventy-three of the 116 homes there was found to be discipline,

in twenty-two a lack of discipline, and twenty were not reported on.

Discipline seemed to be the responsibility of the mother in the large

majority of cases, and many of the twenty-two undisciplined children

were boys who were beyond the control of the mother. In every case but

four where there was no discipline the mother was working, so that the

child did not receive much care during the daytime and the mother was

too tired to bother about discipline at night. Lack of discipline can

also be traced to the fact that the child has not always lived with the

parents but with relatives who have been lax in the matter of discipline.

_Home care._--The physical condition of the home, the preparation and

substance of the meals, may be expected to affect a child's health and

therefore his attendance at school. The homes of eighty-four children

were reported to be clean and twenty-five not clean, while seven were

not reported on. In twenty-one cases out of the twenty-five reported not

clean, the mother was working. In forty-seven cases out of the eighty-four

reported clean the mother was working. In many of the forty-seven cases

there was an aunt or grandmother who took care of the house.

In many homes the ignorance of the parents was obviously responsible for

failure to provide the kind of food adapted to the needs of the children.

A great deal of fresh meat, usually pork and bacon, potatoes, rice, and

coffee were the staples, while green vegetable, fruits, cereals, and

milk were noticeably lacking. Also, when the mother is away all day the

food is hastily prepared, which usually means that it is fried. The girl

who gets home from school before her mother has finished her day's work

usually starts the dinner, or brings something from the delicatessen.

Many children are given twenty-five cents with which to buy lunch, and

in three extreme cases the children were given money to buy all their

meals, with no supervision over what they ate.

_Difficulty of adjustment._--When all the causes contributing to

retardation were taken into consideration in the histories of the

116 retarded children studied, it was still obvious that the greatest

stumbling-block to normal progress was previous residence in the South.

The retardation of children from the South is explained in a variety of

ways.

Some of the children from the South did not get along well because

they had not been able to adjust themselves to city life. They had been

accustomed to the freedom and outdoor life of the farm and did not like

the confined life of the city. They felt timid and shy in the midst of

so many people, as they did not come much in contact with people when

they lived on southern farms four or five miles from the nearest town.

Most of these children had never gone to school for more than a few

months at a time, either because the school term was short or they lived

too far from the school to attend regularly. Consequently some of them

found the nine months' term irksome.

_Demotion._--A number of children were found to be over-aged for their

grades because they had been demoted one or two years when they came to

Chicago. Some of these had gone to school regularly in the South and were

of normal age for their grades, but the school term was so short that

it was impossible for them to complete the same amount of work in the

same number of years as children in northern schools. Children who were

in the fifth or fourth grade in the South had been put back to the third

or second grade on entering Chicago schools. This sometimes discouraged

them so much that they dropped out of school on reaching fourteen, the

age limit of the compulsory-education law.

The Negro in Chicago: A Study of Race Relations and a Race Riot · 第 17 / 28 章

The chief concern of investors, brokers, and real estate dealers is as to