In Park Manor and Wakeford, between Sixty-ninth and Seventy-ninth

streets, Cottage Grove and Indiana avenues, excitement was created in

a new white settlement by an advertisement in a local paper addressed

to Negroes offering them houses there. The name of a white real estate

dealer living there was given. A demonstration followed, meetings were

held, and the real estate man was asked to explain. He asserted, and

it seems to have been the case, that the advertisement was the "spite

work" of an enemy.

Kenwood and Hyde Park: The neighborhood between Thirty-ninth and

Fifty-ninth streets, State Street and Cottage Grove Avenue, just south

of the Negro residence area, has been termed a "contested neighborhood,"

because of the recent influx of Negroes. The "Black Belt" was already

overcrowded, and its occupants were seeking relief from deteriorated and

insufficient housing. The coming of thousands of Negroes from the South

made it overflow. With Lake Michigan flanking the east, encroaching

industry the north, and overcrowded, hostile neighborhoods the west,

the overflow inevitably went south into the west portion of Hyde Park

and Kenwood. Scattered through the South Side were numerous houses

and apartments that had been vacant for many years; and sales were

gladly made to the Negroes, many of the recent southern migrants having

considerable funds. In 1919, of the 3,300 owners of property in the region

embracing parts of Kenwood and Hyde Park and adjacent territory, 1,000

were Negroes. Already a popular agitation against the Negroes had been

begun by real estate men who formed the Kenwood and Hyde Park Property

Owners' Association. They increased and organized the prejudice against

the Negroes in a campaign "to make Hyde Park white." They held meetings,

published a weekly newspaper, and called upon property owners and other

real estate dealers to pledge themselves against renting or selling to

Negroes. In carrying out their program, they resorted to vilification,

ridicule, and disparagement of Negroes, accusing them of destroying

property values and robbing white people of their homes.

_Outlying neighborhoods._--Few outlying places welcome Negroes as

residents. Morgan Park, however, has offered homes for Negroes, and the

Negro population there has increased from 126 in 1910 to 695 in 1920. They

live for the most part on one side of the town near their own churches;

they own their homes and keep them attractive. School accommodations

are poor, many children leaving school early for that reason.

Robbins, another suburb, is entirely Negro, having a Negro mayor. The

town is difficult to reach, unattractive, and uninviting. About 400

hard-working Negroes occupying seventy houses are trying to develop

a town against the handicaps of lack of capital, swampy lands, and

inaccessibility.

_Depreciation of property._--One of the strongest influences in creating

and fostering race antagonism in Chicago is the general belief among

whites that the presence of Negroes in a neighborhood inevitably and

alone depreciates the market value of real estate, and this belief is

commonly accepted as a valid reason for unfriendliness toward Negroes

as individuals and as a race. Therefore the Commission felt that it was

important to learn what basis there is for this belief.

The principal influence of Negroes upon property values in a neighborhood

is psychological, due to the deep-seated and general prejudice of whites

against Negroes, which begets and sustains the belief that Negroes

destroy property values wherever they go. The facts as ascertained by

the Commission show that Negro occupancy in a neighborhood is more often

due to a prior depreciation of the property there than the depreciation

is due to Negro occupancy; and that it is unfair to place the entire

responsibility for loss of property values in a neighborhood upon Negro

occupancy. In other sections of the city, where there are no Negroes,

depreciation of property values has been produced by contacts between

populations differing in race, religion, or social standards. Race

prejudice produces the present conditions of social injustice toward

the Negro, and uses the depreciation of property which it causes, as a

new ground for such racial prejudice.

In virtually every neighborhood in Chicago where Negroes now live they

were preceded by two or more distinct groups of occupants, and an earlier

and often long-continued depreciation of property values is one of the

explanations of their presence. This depreciation of values has come

from several causes, such as natural physical deterioration, vacation

of old and large houses through the death of their original occupants

or their removal to new neighborhoods, or the encroachments of vice, or

business, or factories, and the like. In this way Negroes have found an

opportunity to rent or buy at figures that were comparatively low and

within their limited means.

The extension of Negro occupancy into the district between State Street

and Lake Michigan and Thirty-first and Thirty-ninth streets followed

such an earlier depreciation; and later, similar conditions had similar

consequences in the district between State Street and Cottage Grove

Avenue and Thirty-ninth and Sixty-third streets, where there has been

the most active opposition to the Negro influx.

In the first named of these two districts there are now about 20 per

cent more Negroes than whites. During the eighties and nineties this

area embraced the most fashionable residence district in Chicago, and

almost the entire Negro population lived in the adjoining area on the

west--from State Street to Wentworth Avenue and north of Thirty-fifth

Street. When the fashionable people of this district began to move to

the North Side, the deserted section began to depreciate, and costly

houses recently occupied by wealthy owners were thrown upon the market

and began to pass through the hands of real estate dealers and into the

possession of people belonging to a different social class. Physical

deterioration also played its part. Between 1900 and 1910, when the

first Negroes moved into Wabash Avenue--one street nearer to the old

fashionable district--the houses were at least twenty years old and many

of them much older. Real estate men estimate the natural depreciation of

such buildings at from 2 to 2½ per cent per year; so that in many cases

property once exclusive and of a high class had depreciated at least 50

per cent before there was any prospect of Negro occupancy.

In 1912 the old vice area west of State Street and northwest of this

exclusive area was broken up. The inmates, numbering at that time more

than 2,000, moved into the nearest large houses available where they could

ply their trade clandestinely. They could afford high rents, and owners

and agents profited accordingly. Cabarets, cafés, and saloons sought the

side streets, and buffet flats were opened. Raids and prosecutions called

attention to the changed character of the neighborhood, and property

values sank still lower. Many buildings affected by this decline were

bought up by real estate speculators and sold to Negroes who were eager

for housing. One speculator bought more than 1,400 such houses.

Then came the automobile industries with their showrooms, gas stations,

manufacturing plants, and accessory shops, even invading the boulevards,

and the desirability of adjacent residence property still further

declined.

After the coming of the Negroes the depreciation continued. It was clear

that the character of the neighborhood had definitely changed. Negroes

were frequently unable to make the needed extensive repairs while they

were paying for their property. There are other instances in this area

where property not owned by Negroes declined in value chiefly because

of its neglect by landlords.

In the district west of Cottage Grove Avenue, adjacent to Hyde Park

proper, depreciation had proceeded in much the same manner. This

neighborhood was temporarily congested in the period of the World's

Columbian Exposition in 1893, and hotels and apartment houses were built

far in excess of normal needs. Real estate men of that district have made

much of this point, stating that many of the houses there had been vacant

as long as fifteen years. The first "undesirables" were not Negroes,

but other national or racial groups of whites who were objectionable

to the original residents. Several factors have combined to make this

section less and less desirable for residence purposes. It is close to

the Stock Yards, with their offensive odors; and railroads flank it on

both sides, with their smoke and noise. The coming of the automobile

industries, the opening of boarding-houses, the southward movement of

the vice element, all had their adverse effect on property values before

Negroes moved east of State Street.

The widespread and deep-seated racial prejudice among whites against

Negroes, heretofore mentioned as a psychological basis for the belief that

the presence of Negroes is disastrous to property values, is directly

reflected in the unwillingness of whites to buy property close to that

occupied by Negroes and in their desire to sell, even at a sacrifice, when

Negroes move into the immediate neighborhood. While frequently the demand

for property among Negroes financially able to buy has not been large

enough to absorb realty offered for sale because of the reasons given

here, there are, on the other hand, some neighborhoods where the Negro

demand has provided a market for property that had long been unmarketable,

and in these neighborhoods there has been some increase in the value of

such property. It should be noted that the understandable bitterness of

feeling on this question of Negro entrance into white residence districts

has been intensified in some cases through exploitation, by both white

and Negro real estate operators, of anti-Negro prejudice and fear of

loss on account of Negro occupancy.

In brief, Negro occupancy depreciates the value of residence property in

Chicago because of the social prejudice of white people against Negroes,

and because white people will not, and Negroes are financially unable

to buy at fair market prices property thrown upon the market when a

neighborhood begins to change from white to Negro occupancy; nevertheless,

a large part of the depreciation of residence property often charged to

Negro occupancy comes from entirely different causes.

_Financial aspects of Negro housing._--One difficulty of Negroes in

handling their own housing problem is the attitude of real estate

mortgage and loan concerns with respect to property tenanted or likely

to be tenanted by Negroes. Such property is assumed to be a bad risk,

and, as a consequence, Negroes are charged more than whites and find it

difficult to secure mortgages to assist in purchasing and are greatly

handicapped in their efforts to improve property. This situation has its

basis in various beliefs concerning Negroes that are often unwarranted.

It developed from the inquiries of the Commission that mortgage brokers

were influenced to a large degree by opinions of prospective buyers of

Negro mortgages, and these prospective buyers in turn were influenced

by beliefs for which there was little basis. It was assumed, for

example, that Negroes were unreliable in business dealings. Conferences

were held by the Commission with the real estate men who handled the

greatest portion of Negro property, and many other real estate men were

interviewed by the Commission's investigators. Their testimony indicated

a buying capacity far beyond what was expected and showed that Negroes

had a good record for meeting their obligations. One real estate man who

has made a large number of sales to Negroes, stated that in the whole

of his experience there had been but two forfeitures, and neither of

these was due to negligence or carelessness. An increasing tendency to

buy was noted. This was easily explained by other facts gathered by the

Commission which indicated that it was easier for Negroes to buy than

to rent property, that during the period of the migration hundreds of

dwellings were offered for sale to Negroes on long-term payment plans,

and that many migrants who had sold their homes, farms, and belongings

in the South came to the city prepared to make substantial payments on

property. Many Negroes now own houses valued at from $10,000 to $20,000,

and in one instance $30,000.

Regarding Negro habits of saving, inquiries were made at all the

principal banks of the city's business section and of the neighborhood

where Negroes live. Those who were able to check up on Negro depositors

reported large sums deposited and invested. One trust and savings bank

had Negro deposits of $1,500,000 and another of $1,000,000; one state

bank had $650,000 and another $150,000. A large banking institution in

the "Loop" district had 4,000 Negro depositors.

Opportunities for using their own capital to relieve their housing

problems were limited by lack of opportunities for obtaining business

experience. All the concerns questioned regarding the practicability

of employing Negroes in such institutions were of the opinion that it

would not meet with the favor of the other employees and patrons.

_Bombings._--The antagonistic sentiment attributable to the Negro housing

situation both incited and condoned the fifty-eight bombings of homes

committed between July 1, 1917, and March 1, 1921. In these bombings

two persons, a Negro girl and an infant, were killed, many whites and

Negroes were injured, and damage done to property amounted to more than

$100,000. Negroes who purchased or rented property and whites who sold

or leased it were bombed. Thirty-two bombs were exploded within the area

bounded by Forty-first and Sixtieth streets, Cottage Grove Avenue and

State Street. Although Negroes in some cases were warned of the exact

dates on which they were to be bombed, and policemen were sometimes

on duty at the places where bombs were exploded, only two arrests were

made. One of those arrested was immediately released and the other was

never brought to trial. Protests to the authorities from Negroes have

been without effect, and a strong feeling of insecurity and resentment

has developed among them. It appears from evidence presented to the

Commission that bombings have been systematically planned. Many white

residents, objecting to the violence suggested and used to keep out

Negroes, withdrew from the neighborhood protective organizations, fearing

that they might be held responsible for the resulting lawlessness.

These protective associations have denied responsibility and declared

that they used only legitimate methods, such as foreclosure of mortgages

and refusal to deal with Negroes. During the summer of 1920, they stated,

sixty-eight foreclosures were effected.

3. THE NEGRO COMMUNITY

The Negro community in Chicago is virtually a city within a city. It

affords opportunity to observe how it is accomplishing its own adjustment

to the larger community, and how it attempts to function in its own

behalf and for the betterment of the community at large.

Negroes have lived in Chicago since its founding. In fact, the first

settler, in 1778, was a Negro, Jean Baptiste Point de Saible. There

were Negro property owners at the time of the city's incorporation in

1837. Before the Chicago fire in 1871 they lived near what is now the

"Loop" business district, north of Harrison Street on Clark and Dearborn

streets and on Lake Street on the West Side. Their homes were burned in

1873, and after that they settled in the territory adjoining what later

became the "red light" district near Roosevelt Road.

_Organization of the Negro community._--Partly from necessity and partly

from choice, Negroes have established their own churches, business

enterprises, amusement places, social agencies, and newspapers. The number

of their business places increased from about 1,200 in 1919 to about

1,500 in 1920. There are 651 places of business operated by Negroes on

South State Street, and 549 on the principal cross streets. The majority

of these places are those rendering personal service--barber shops,

restaurants, hair-dressing parlors, and undertaking establishments.

There are also two banks.

Organizations for social intercourse are numerous, consisting principally

of churches, fraternal societies, and social clubs. There are 170

congregations holding services in church edifices and in "store-front"

churches. Olivet Baptist Church has more than 10,000 members, the largest

Negro church membership in the world. It employs sixteen paid workers,

and during the last five years has raised more than $200,000. These

churches are the principal center for "face-to-face" relations and aid

greatly in the process of adjusting Negroes to civic responsibilities.

Forty-nine of these congregations own property valued at fully a million

and a half dollars.

The social and civic agencies are expressions of the group effort to

adjust itself to the community. There are in the Negro community distinct

organizations of this kind designed especially for Negroes, and branches

of general agencies located conveniently for use by Negroes. Of the

former type the Chicago Urban League is the most notable example. This

organization is a clearing-house for social work among Negroes, and

its activities include social investigations, an industrial bureau, and

child welfare. It has an executive board and officers composed of both

whites and Negroes, and a highly efficient staff of Negro workers. During

1920 more than 25,000 Negroes were assisted through this organization.

Provident Hospital is another example of this type.

Of the latter type the Wabash Avenue Y.M.C.A. is an example. It is a

branch of the city Y.M.C.A., and has adjusted itself to the peculiar

social problems of its membership and community. Other agencies are the

Community Service, Wendell Phillips Settlement on the West Side, Butler

Community Center on the North Side, Phyllis Wheatley Home for Girls,

Home for the Aged and Infirm, Indiana Avenue Y.W.C.A., Elaine Home Club,

Julia Johnson Home for Girls, Hartzell Center, and Illinois Technical

School for Colored Girls (a Roman Catholic institution).

Of the general social agencies with branches convenient for Negroes

are the American Red Cross, United Charities, Municipal Tuberculosis

Sanitarium, Abraham Lincoln Center. Although some of these branches are

poorly supported and undermanned, they represent efforts of the community

to care for itself. During 1920 six social agencies and twenty-seven

churches raised among Negroes $445,000 for social-welfare work.

IV. RACIAL CONTACTS

The problems arising out of various occasions, both voluntary and

enforced, for race association in Chicago, have, for convenience, been

included in this report under the general classification of "racial

contacts." Attention is given to contacts in the public schools, in

public recreation places, on transportation lines, and in other relations

exclusive of industry and housing which require special treatment. Negroes

in Illinois are legally entitled to all the rights and privileges of

other citizens. Actually, however, their participation in public benefits

in practically every field is limited by some circumvention of the law.

1. CONTACTS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

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

between the white and Negro races because of the daily association

of thousands of Negro and white children at an impressionable age.

The Chicago Board of Education makes no distinction between the races

and keeps no separate records. Certain schools, therefore, with white

American, Negro, and white foreign-born preponderances, were selected

for special study.

_Physical equipment of schools._--Twenty-two schools located in and

near areas of Negro residence were selected and visited. Of these only

five, or 23 per cent, have been built since 1900, and four of these

five schools are in regions where the Negro population is smallest. The

ten schools serving the largest percentage of Negroes were built, one

in 1856, one in 1867, seven between 1880 and 1889, and only one after

1890. Of the 235 schools attended almost wholly by whites, 133, or 56

per cent, were built after 1899. The old buildings will not accommodate

modern equipment and cannot be enlarged. The absence of modern buildings

is in part due to the old residence areas in which Negroes must live.

The gymnasiums in fifteen of these twenty-two schools of predominant

Negro attendance are poorly equipped, and in the other seven schools

there are none. Playground space is about the same in all the schools,

and there was no exceptional overcrowding in schools attended largely

by Negroes except in one case where by the "shift" system a double

attendance was made possible. In the schools of mixed attendance one

instance was conspicuous: Fuller School--a branch of Felsenthal which

is well equipped, and under the same principal, who is an advocate of

segregation--is in a neighborhood where the percentage of Negroes is the

same as that around Felsenthal, but it has no playground, is run down,

and neglected. Yet it has 90 per cent Negroes, while Felsenthal has 38

per cent. Unmanageable white children are sent to Fuller.

_Retardation._--The question of retardation[106] of Negro children is of

serious concern in race relations, since this fact is urged by advocates

of separate schools as an unnecessary handicap for white children and a

reason for segregation. Twenty-four schools were selected, with the aid

of the Board of Education: six attended mainly by Negroes, six mainly

by white Americans, and twelve mainly by children of immigrants. Of a

total of 34,593 children there were 18,230, or 53 per cent, retarded--the

same percentage as in the entire city; 10,250, or 30 per cent, normal;

and 5,910, or 17 per cent, accelerated. In the schools attended mainly

by white Americans, 49 per cent were retarded; in those attended mainly

by children of immigrants 49 per cent; and in those attended mainly by

Negroes 74 per cent. The percentage of retardation in schools attended

mainly by Negroes ranges from 57 to 80 per cent; in schools attended

mainly by children of immigrants from 32 to 71 per cent; and in schools

attended mainly by white Americans from 40 to 62 per cent.

Predominating causes of this retardation of Negro children, according to

the Board of Education's classification, are: "late entrance to school,"

"family difficulties," "fathers or mothers working," "lack of education

in parents." The majority of retarded Negro children are southerners, and

their retardation can be readily understood when the gross inadequacies

of southern schools for Negroes are considered.

Among the whites, late entrance, inability to speak English, ill health,

backwardness, and low mentality are the various causes. It is interesting

to note that while it is often maintained that Negroes are mentally

weak and incapable, classification of retardation figures according to

causes does not bear out that theory. Negro children retarded from "late

entrance" have made excellent records in attaining a normal rating, some

completing three grades in a year.

One hundred and sixteen Negro children were picked at random for an

intensive inquiry by the Commission into causes of retardation. Of these,

101 had been in school before coming to Chicago; and of the 101 children,

eighty had lived in the South and had gone to southern schools; those

born and educated in the North showed no greater rate of retardation than

the whites. For much of the retardation the school facilities for Negroes

in the South appear to be responsible. In Mississippi, for example, only

eighty days' schooling is required in counties that do not absolutely

reject the compulsory-education law. Other causes found were inadequate

care and instruction at home due to the ignorance of parents, mothers

working out, poor parental discipline, and the physical condition of

homes.

_Contact problems._--A wide variety of opinions was found among principals

and teachers concerning the relations of white and Negro children.

Several principals were distinctly antagonistic to Negroes, and in their

schools the race relations of the pupils were not cordial. The most

important factor in determining the attitude of teachers as well as of

pupils was the attitude of principals. Kindergarten teachers found a

natural, pleasant relationship existing between the young white and Negro

children. As children grew older they became more race conscious, and in

the high schools friction frequently arose from race groupings in class

and social organizations. Negro teachers are assigned to schools attended

by both Negroes and immigrants, and apparently have no difficulties with

pupils or parents. Difficulties and bad feeling have been provoked by

the disposition of certain white teachers to adapt their instruction in

accordance with their assumptions concerning Negroes' mental and emotional

characteristics, putting stress on singing and handicraft instead of on

basic studies in arithmetic and grammar.

2. RECREATION

In its investigation of recreation places, the Commission listed 127

parks, playgrounds, recreation centers, and beaches under the supervision

of the Municipal Bureau of Parks, Playgrounds, and Bathing Beaches, and

of the South Park, West Park, and Lincoln Park commissions. Of these,

thirty-seven are in or near Negro areas. Though this figure represents a

fairly adequate distribution, it is not an accurate picture. Twenty-three

of these places are playgrounds attached to schools, fourteen being in,

and nine near, Negro areas; and only thirteen have more than 10 per

cent use by Negroes. Three bathing-beaches are within, and two near,

Negro areas, while only one has more than 10 per cent use by Negroes.

There are seven recreation centers near Negro areas, none within, and

only one with more than 10 per cent use by Negroes. Armour Square, for

example, is a recreation center bordering on the area of the largest Negro

population; but the hostility of whites, especially gangs of hoodlums,

attacks on Negro children, and the indifferent attitude of the director

render attendance by Negroes extremely hazardous. Of a daily attendance

of 1,500, less than 1 per cent are Negroes, despite the fact that over

50 per cent of the immediately surrounding population is Negro. Natural

barriers of distance, unofficial discrimination of officials, and the

hostility of neighborhood groups are largely responsible for the lack

of participation.

The beaches have presented the most difficult problems of race control.

The riot of 1919 began at the Twenty-ninth Street Beach, and since the

riot numerous smaller clashes have occurred there. At Thirty-eighth

Street, also on the edge of the largest area of Negro residence, Negroes

are entirely excluded, the policeman on duty and the attendant in

charge assisting in this exclusion to prevent clashes. In neighborhoods

with a small Negro population, attendance at the recreation places is

always much below the percentage of Negroes to the total population in

such neighborhoods, this being due to the hostility shown by whites,

especially of the hoodlum element, and also to the reluctance of Negroes

to go where they feel unwelcome.

_Contacts._--Most difficulties in parks and playgrounds have not

been caused by the behavior of Negroes there. Such complaints against

Negroes as have come from these contacts have concerned groups of rough

or domineering children at the playgrounds rather than adults. Two

playgrounds on the South Side make such complaints.

_Race relations of the children._--Lack of racial antagonism was reported

at a large number of playgrounds. Apparatus was used by both groups

without friction. Negro and white children mingled freely in their games

and in the swimming-pools, and both Negroes and whites played on baseball

and athletic teams. The occasional playground fights usually lack any

element of racial antipathy. "There might be personal misunderstandings

and disagreements between a white and a black just the same as between

two whites," said the director of Union Park, "but I wouldn't lay it

to race prejudice. They work together and play together and seem to

harmonize in most instances." When this director came to Union Park a

year ago he found a tendency among Negroes and whites to separate into

race groups, but steps were taken to bring them together in games of

various kinds, and toward the end of the season the director felt that

they "harmonized better and worked together more cordially than they did

before." When the Commission's investigator visited Union Park Playground

he saw small children of both races playing together on the same pieces

of apparatus--a Negro child on one end of a teeter ladder and a white

child on the other. Occasionally there is a disturbance, usually starting

from a dispute over the apparatus; but on the whole the children play

together peacefully.

_Voluntary racial grouping._--Voluntary racial grouping appears to be

more characteristic of the large parks and beaches which adults frequent

than of the playgrounds, which are used mainly by children. One instance

of voluntary grouping among children was found at Copernicus Playground.

The playing space is in the shape of an "L," one end intended for boys

and the other for girls, but by common consent the children divide along

race lines rather than sex.

In the general use of Lincoln and Washington parks the Negroes and whites

stay in separate groups. There has never been any difficulty, according

to the Lincoln Park representative, arising from the fact that Negroes

have taken possession of a spot desired by whites for a picnic or other

amusement. No part of either park is especially set aside for the use

of one race, and groups of both Negroes and whites are seen everywhere

in the parks, but they do not mingle.

Some directors attempt to regulate these contacts to avoid any mingling

of groups. At the Municipal Pier, for example, an investigator learned

that when Negro couples went on the dancing-pavilion floor the floor

manager informed them that they were not dancing properly and took them

to one side to acquaint them with the approved style of dancing; no

matter how well they danced, they were to be prevented from going on

the floor by the manager's judgment of their dancing. More recently,

however, Negroes have reported that they have been able freely to use

this dance floor.

Clashes in the various recreation places as early as 1913 were found to

have been started mostly by gangs of white "roughs." On one occasion,

for example, the secretary of boys' work of the Wabash Avenue department

Y.M.C.A. (for Negroes) conducted a party of nineteen Negro boys to Armour

Square. They had no difficulty in entering the park, but on leaving

they were assailed by crowds of white boys. Some of them were tripped,

trodden upon, and badly bruised. They took refuge in a neighboring

saloon, where they remained for a half-hour, when a detachment of police

scattered the white gang. On another occasion a group of boys from the

same institution were driven from the lake at Thirty-first Street.

In 1915 Father Bishop, of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, took a group

of Negro boys to Armour Square to play basket-ball. The entire party,

including Father Bishop, were beaten by white boys and their sweaters

taken from them. In the same year an attempt was made by a Negro boys'

club director to take seventy-five Negro boys through the Stock Yards.

They had received tickets of admission to the stock show. In spite of

the presence and efforts of four adult leaders, these boys were struck

by sticks and other missiles while passing from one section of the show

to another. Police assistance was required to get them from the pavilion

to the street cars.

Gangs of white boys, sixteen and seventeen years of age, from the

neighborhood of Fifty-ninth Street and Wentworth Avenue frequently

interfered with Negro participants in baseball games in Washington Park,

especially during the spring and summer of 1918 and 1919. They also

annoyed Negro couples on the park benches. Where the Negro showed fight,

minor clashes resulted. Park officials have not been able to restrain

the ill feeling which these conflicts engender.

Clashes were noted in Ogden Park as early as 1914 and frequently since

that time. A Negro playground director testified that he and other

Negroes had been slugged while attending band concerts or attempting to

use shower baths after a game in the park. At the boathouse in Washington

Park, in the early summer of 1920, there were numerous clashes between

Negroes and whites. In the following year, however, considerably fewer

instances of friction were reported. Playground directors are of the

opinion that friction is likely to occur where groups of Negro children

for the first time come into parks theretofore exclusively used by

whites. Adjustment is likely to follow after this period. In some cases,

however, when the proportion of Negroes has grown larger than that of

whites, a Negro director has been placed in charge of the park with the

unofficial understanding that it should be turned over to Negroes.

The two causes of neighborhood antagonism back of the friction in

the parks most commonly cited are the housing and sex problems. The

playgrounds and parks usually share in a general way the sentiments of

the mixed neighborhoods in or near which they are located.

One source of racial disorders is lack of co-operation between park and

city policemen. The park police stop a fight between white and colored

children and send them out of the park. When the fight is renewed outside

the park they have no power to interfere. Spectators may then get into

the fight, and serious clashes may be well under way before the city

police can be summoned.

The most important remedies suggested to the Commission for the betterment

of relations between Negroes and whites at the various places of

recreation were: (1) additional facilities in Negro areas, particularly

recreation centers which can be used by adults; (2) an awakened public

opinion which will refuse to tolerate the hoodlum and will insist that

the courts properly punish such offenders; (3) selection of directors

for parks in neighborhoods where there is a critical situation who have

a sympathetic understanding of the problem and will not tolerate actions

by park police officers and other subordinate officials which tend to

discourage Negro attendance; and (4) efforts by such directors to repress

and remove any racial antagonism that may arise in the neighborhood

about the park.

3. CONTACTS IN TRANSPORTATION

The study of contacts between whites and Negroes in street cars and other

public conveyances was prompted by a usually unexplained emphasis on

apparently trivial incidents connected with public conveyances, together

with the observation that the greatest disturbances during the riot of

1919 commonly occurred along transportation lines and at transfer points.

Although many clashes and other instances of racial friction on the street

cars were not serious enough to be reported to the newspapers or to be

made the subject of complaint, information obtained by investigators

for the Commission showed that the attitude of both Negroes and whites

toward each other was being affected by contacts on the cars.

As affecting attitudes on race relations, transportation contacts,

while impersonal and temporary, are significant for several reasons.

Many whites have no contact with Negroes except on the cars, and their

personal impression of the entire Negro group may be determined by one

or two observations of Negro passengers. Unlike contacts in the school,

playground, and workshop, transportation contacts are not supervised, and

if there is any dispute among passengers the settlement usually rests

with themselves. Suspicion or prejudice on either side because of the

difference in race accentuates any misunderstanding. And transportation

contacts, at least on crowded cars, involve physical contact between

Negroes and whites, which rarely occurs under other circumstances and

sometimes leads to a display of racial feeling.

The Commission's investigators, white and Negro, men and women, made many

trips for observation on the twelve lines carrying the heaviest volume

of Negro traffic and therefore involving the greatest amount of contact.

Counts of passengers, Negro and white, were made, behavior and habits

were noted, and passengers and car crews were drawn into conversation.

Officials of surface and elevated lines, starters, and station men were

interviewed. Instances of friction which came to the attention of the

Commission were noted and the circumstances studied.

Traffic counts made by the Chicago Traction and Subway Commission in 1916

showed 3,500,000 surface-railway and 500,000 elevated-railway passengers

carried in a twenty-four-hour day. Negroes constitute 4 per cent of

the city's population and probably about that percentage of the city's

street-car traffic. Negro traffic, however, instead of being scattered

over the city, is mainly concentrated upon twelve lines which traverse the

Negro residential areas and connect those areas with the manufacturing

districts where Negroes are employed. Because of this concentration the

proportion of Negroes to whites on these twelve lines is much higher

than 4 per cent, and on such lines as that on State Street, the principal

business street of the South Side Negro residence area, it often happens

that the majority of the passengers are Negroes.

There is no "Jim Crow" separation of races on street cars in Chicago.

Contacts of Negroes and whites on the street cars did not provoke any

considerable discussion before the period of migration of Negroes from

the South, when occasional stories of clashes began to be circulated;

and even then, such friction as developed did not come prominently to

public attention. Only one incident involving a clash was reported in

the newspapers. Even since the migration began, there have been very few

complaints based upon racial friction. The Elevated Railroad Company,

whose South Side line has the largest Negro traffic of any elevated

line, replied to inquiries that, except during the riot of 1919, when a

few cases of racial disorder were reported, there had been no complaints

from motormen or trainmen since 1918, when a trainman was cut by a Negro.

No complaints from white passengers had been received since the spring

of 1917, when white office workers objected to riding with Stock Yards

laborers, mainly Negroes, on the Stock Yards spur of the elevated. White

laborers in the Stock Yards mostly live within walking distance of their

work, but Negroes found it necessary to use car lines running east to

the main area of Negro residence. The Chicago Surface lines replied that

complaints due to racial friction were negligible.

Many of the migrants are laborers who must use these lines going to and

from work, and many of them are rough-mannered and entirely unfamiliar

with standards of conduct in northern cities. Another serious factor

is the recent entrance of Negroes into industry. Before the war the

great majority of Negroes gainfully employed were engaged in some form

of personal service which did not require use of transportation lines

in their working clothes to and from the manufacturing centers. The

migrants, many of them coming to a city like Chicago with no "Jim Crow"

segregation, felt strange and uncertain as to how they should act. In

fact, peculiarities of conduct on the part of these were noted by Negroes

of longer residence in Chicago, and it has been remarked by whites and

Negroes that they could tell a Negro migrant by his uneasy manner and

often by his clothing. Conspicuous points of behavior of migrant Negroes

before they became urbanized, which many whites noted and commented

on were: "loud laughter and talking," "old and ill-smelling clothes,"

"roughness and his tendency to sit all over the car." These are easy

to understand when one considers the background of the southern Negro.

There are, on the other hand, exceptional cases where Negroes have walked

miles rather than take a car, thus avoiding possible embarrassment. A

Negro who has been in Chicago for a long time is not self-conscious about

sitting near white persons. Negroes who get into trouble with whites

about insisting on their right to a seat often belong to the class of

suspicious and sensitive Negroes who fear that an attempt is being made

to segregate them, and sometimes they are simply "greenhorns."

Soiled and ill-smelling clothing was found to be an objection applying

to white as well as Negro laborers. These complaints came, for the

most part, from clerical workers who objected to physical contact with

persons who might "rub off." A difficulty involving this feature was

adjusted by one packing company by dismissing its clerical workers and

its laborers at different hours. A frequent source of misunderstanding

has been a situation in which it appeared that Negroes had taken seats

intended for white women. In several such cases thoroughly examined

by the Commission's investigators the difficulties were found to have

resulted from misunderstood actions.

Most of the difficulties in transportation contacts reported and generally

complained of seem to have centered around the first blundering efforts

of migrants to adjust themselves to northern city life. The efforts of

agencies interested in assisting this adjustment, together with the Negro

press and the intimate criticisms and suggestions for proper conduct

of Chicago Negroes, have smoothed down many of the roughnesses of the

migrants, and as a result friction from contacts in transportation seems

to have lessened materially.

4. CRIME AND VICIOUS ENVIRONMENT

Many students of the race problem look upon public crime records as a

register of the failure of Negroes to adjust themselves to the social

fabric. Study of infractions of law by Negroes, of provocation to

lawlessness, and of the history of their crimes would indeed reveal an

interesting background of their present behavior in relation to whites, if

such a study were possible from present records. The Commission carried

its investigations into this field and found no means of determining

how great a proportion of the city's crimes is committed by Negroes.

The prevailing impression that Negroes are by nature more criminal

than whites and more prone to commit sex crimes has restricted their

employment, increased unfair measures of restraint, and blackened the name

of the entire Negro group. Two important facts were apparent from the

Commission's study: (1) the danger inherent in the vicious environment

in which Negroes are forced to live, and (2) the misrepresentative

character of the statistics of Negro crime.

_Environment._--The limitations imposed on Negro residential areas have

provided undue cause and occasion for crime. The entire population, good

and bad, is thrown together, exposing children to the sight and temptation

of vice and immorality. Ninety per cent of the Negro population has

always lived near the city's former segregated vice districts, partly

because white sentiment excluded them from other neighborhoods, partly

because rents in the neighborhood of vice were low enough to meet their

meager economic resources, and partly because their weakness made their

protests against the proximity of vice less effective than the protests

of whites. When the vice districts were broken up and the inmates

scattered, they entered the better neighborhoods of Negro residence and

clandestinely plied their trade. In fact, according to the report of the

Chicago Vice Commission in 1911, at one time prostitutes were promised

immunity by the police if they confined themselves to a certain area

in which Negroes predominated. The spread of the Negro population has

always been accompanied by the spread of clandestine prostitution. The

Vice Commission's report said:

The history of the social evil in Chicago is intimately

connected with the colored population. Invariably the large

vice districts have been created within or near the settlements

of colored people. In the past history of the city every time

a new vice district was created downtown or on the South Side,

the colored families were in the district moving in just ahead

of the prostitutes. The situation along State Street from

Sixteenth Street south is an illustration.

So whenever prostitutes, cadets, and thugs were located among

white people and had to be moved for commercial or other

reasons, they were driven to undesirable parts of the city,

the so-called colored residential sections.

Most of the vicious resorts in the "Black Belt" are owned and operated

by whites and are not interfered with by the authorities. Protests

from Negroes have never succeeded in removing them. Opportunities for

wholesome recreation in the Negro districts are limited, and commercial

amusements, though probably no worse than in some other sections of the

city, are of a distinctly inferior type and carelessly supervised. In

such an infective environment it is not unnatural that many criminals

should be developed.

But the study of crime statistics, aside from showing the unreliability

of records due to careless methods of obtaining and presenting data,

revealed that Negroes suffer gross injustice in the handling of criminal

affairs. The general inaccuracy of criminal statistics is shown by the

fact, for example, that the police reported 1,731 burglaries, or persons

arrested for burglary, in 1919, while the Chicago Crime Commission

reported 5,509 burglaries during the first eleven months of that year.

The evidence at hand indicates that Negroes are debited with practically

all their crimes, while others are not. It further appears, from the

records and from the testimony of judges in the juvenile, municipal,

circuit, superior, and criminal courts, of police officials, the state's

attorney, and various experts on crime, probation, and parole, that

Negroes are more commonly arrested, subjected to police identification,

and convicted than white offenders; that on similar evidence they are

generally held and convicted on more serious charges, and that they are

given longer sentences. This bias, when reflected in the figures, serves

to bolster by false figures the already existing belief that Negroes

are more likely to be criminal than other racial groups.

V. THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO INDUSTRIES

Out of Chicago's Negro population of approximately 110,000 in 1920, it

is estimated that 70,000 were gainfully employed. The opportunity for

engaging in industry in large numbers came to Negroes following the

outbreak of the world-war. With the enormous demand from the belligerent

countries for American goods, existing establishments were enlarged and

new ones created. As an example of the increased demand for workers,

one of the packing-plants in the Chicago Stock Yards increased its force

during the war from 8,000 to 17,000. Immigration was almost wholly cut

off. The labor shortage became acute after the entrance of the United

States into the war in 1917. The migration of Negroes from the South

during that period was mainly in response to this demand.

Prior to the beginning of the war in 1914, Negroes had been virtually

limited to personal and domestic service in almost every city in the

North. In 1910 more than 60 per cent of those gainfully employed were

so engaged, 15 per cent in manufacturing, and 3 per cent in clerical

occupations. The Commission's inquiries covered 136 establishments

reporting five or more Negroes. In these were employed 118,098 whites and

21,987 Negroes--12,854 in manufacturing and 9,133 in non-manufacturing

industries.

1. INCREASE IN NEGRO LABOR

Between 1915 and 1920 there was a remarkable increase in the number of

Negroes employed in industries which before 1915 had either employed

them in small numbers or not at all. In a total of sixty-two such plants

there was an increase from 1,346 in 1915 to 10,587 in 1920, or more

than 1,000 per cent. Labor shortage, or inability to obtain competent

white workers, was the reason given in practically every instance for

the large increase in Negro employees.

Frequent complaints have been made that large employers, particularly

the packers, imported Negroes from the South and were thus responsible

for the difficulties that followed. Definite effort was made to determine

the facts, but the Commission found no basis for the statement.

2. CLASSIFICATION OF NEGRO WORKERS

Absence of standards of classification for skilled, semi-skilled, and

unskilled work invalidated the Commission's effort to classify Negro

workers. In sixty-six industries with definite divisions in grades of

work, it was found that out of 12,529 Negroes employed, 927 were skilled,

267 semi-skilled and 11,335 unskilled workers. In other returns, not

capable of full classification, ten establishments reported 304 Negro

molders; there were thirty-one Negro molders in 1910. Twelve factories

reported 382 machine operators; in 1920 the census reports showed only

twenty-eight.

Wages of Negroes in the branches of employment where they were permitted

to work were generally the same as for white workers. There were

instances, however, of discrimination in placing or keeping Negroes at

work on processes in which they could not earn as much as in processes on

which white men were engaged. Also there were instances of discrimination

in piecework, the foremen invariably giving Negroes only the jobs yielding

a low rate. For common labor the average wage was 45 and 50 cents an

hour for an eight-, nine- and ten-hour day for men; $15 to $20 a week for

women, and an average of $15 a week, with room and board, for domestics

were the going wages.

3. EMPLOYERS' EXPERIENCE WITH NEGRO LABOR

Whether or not the Negro will be able to hold the position in industry

made possible for him by the war depends much on employers' attitude

toward him as a worker. Common explanations given before this period as a

reason for not employing Negroes more were that they were lazy, shiftless,

irresponsible, and inefficient. Generalizations of this sort demonstrate

their weakness in the fact that employers were not speaking from their

own experiences. To reach a fair conclusion employers of Negroes in

large numbers were interviewed by the Commission's investigators.

Employers drew a distinction between northern and southern Negroes; they

thought that the latter had shortcomings when they first began work,

but that this was due to former habits of work and familiarity with

only simple industrial processes. Many of these southern workers were

irregular at first in reporting for work and frequently drew their wages

before pay day, thus confusing the bookkeeping. They were soon forced,

however, to abandon these habits.

One question asked of all employers was: "Has your Negro labor proved

satisfactory?" Of the 137 establishments employing five or more

Negro workers, 118 reported that Negro labor had proved satisfactory;

nineteen reported that Negro labor had not proved satisfactory. The 118

establishments reporting Negro workers as satisfactory employed 21,640

Negroes, while the nineteen reporting them as unsatisfactory employed

697. Comparing the efficiency of Negro and white workers, seventy-one

employers interviewed (thirty-four manufacturers and thirty-seven

non-manufacturers) considered the Negro equally efficient, twenty-two

employers (thirteen manufacturers and nine non-manufacturers) considered

the Negro less efficient. The seventy-one establishments included almost

all the large establishments. A few gave the Negro a higher rating than

the foreigners because of his knowledge of English.

Regarding reliability, ninety-two employers gave opinions. Sixty-three

(thirty manufacturers and thirty-three non-manufacturers) believed that

Negroes did not require more supervision than white workers, while

twenty-nine (sixteen manufacturers and thirteen non-manufacturers)

thought they required more supervision. Of the employers interviewed,

fifty-seven expressed the opinion (twenty-three manufacturers and

thirty-four non-manufacturers) that "absenteeism" among Negro workers was

no greater than among whites, while thirty-six reported it was greater.

One plant employing 2,084 Negroes stated that the better living standards

and ambitions had brought up the rating of Negro workers during the war

period.

4. LABOR TURNOVER

Of the thirty-two employers giving figures on relative labor turnover,

twenty-four (eleven manufacturers and thirteen non-manufacturers)

reported the Negro turnover to be the same as the white, and twenty-eight

(eighteen manufacturers and ten non-manufacturers) believed the turnover

to be greater. Closely connected with the labor turnover among Negroes

is the question of "hope on the job," as one Negro expressed it. When

Negroes are not allowed to advance to better positions in a given plant,

or are discriminated against by foremen underrating their efficiency,

the turnover in the plant is high.

5. NEGRO WOMEN IN INDUSTRY

Before the war Negro women were even more definitely restricted than Negro

men in choice of occupations. Two-thirds of those gainfully employed were

in two occupation groups: "servants" and laundresses, not in laundries,

and domestic servants. Of the 137 establishments studied, forty-two had

no Negro women employees, forty-five kept no separate records, and fifty

reported a total of 3,407 Negro women workers. Although this study does

not include all industries employing women, the total given represents

a large increase over the figure of 998 Negro women enumerated by the

1910 census as engaged in all industries in Chicago.

Many of the establishments in question had employed large numbers of Negro

women as an experiment and had found them satisfactory. One mail-order

house employed as many as 650 girls for clerical work. When the plant

was investigated in 1920, there were 311 girls, 75 per cent of whom

were high-school graduates, while 12 per cent had had two or more years

in college. These employers said the girls felt that they were making

history for the race and were, if anything, a little over-zealous. They

were thought to be excitable and suspicious of the actions of the white

girls.

Millinery establishments, manufacturers of clothing, lamp-shades,

gas-mantles, paper-boxes, and cheese makers reported satisfactory

experience with Negro women. Of twenty laundries employing Negro workers,

satisfactory or unsatisfactory, four did not keep separate records.

Twelve with 409 Negro women reported their work satisfactory, and four

with 134 Negro women reported it unsatisfactory. The chief complaint was

unwillingness to work overtime or on Sundays. In both instances, however,

employees interviewed complained that the hours were long (nine hours

a day) and their treatment by the management harsh and inconsiderate.

Of 865 Negro employees interviewed, less than 1 per cent complained

of disagreeable treatment by white workers and less than 50 per cent

complained of conditions of work. Others expressed themselves as glad

of the opportunity to earn good wages. Complaints against conditions of

work were found in the iron and steel mills, Stock Yards, and dining-car

and sleeping-car service.

6. INDUSTRIES EXCLUDING THE NEGRO

Several important industries have not opened their doors to Negroes

except as janitors and porters. Among these are the traction companies,

elevated and surface, the State Street department stores, and the taxicab

companies. Employers in these establishments express the belief that

the public would object to Negroes.

Attention has been called to the waste involved in the limitations of

Negroes in industry. Men with college training are forced to work as

waiters and porters, and young-women college graduates are frequently

forced to work as ushers in theaters and as ladies' maids. This condition

helps to account for the ease with which 1,500 Negro girls with more

than average schooling were recruited in less than two months for the

mail-order houses.

7. RELATIONS BETWEEN WHITE AND NEGRO WORKERS

Through working together friendliness between white and Negro workers

has been increased, according to prevalent views. Information concerning

relations was secured from all the 137 plants studied. Two reported that

race friction was a disturbing factor in the plants. Minor instances

of friction have occurred, but it appeared that as a rule the workers

reflected the attitude of the management. The setting up of partitions

separating the races developed an antagonistic sentiment, and in some

instances this antagonism was removed when the partitions were taken

down. Of 101 establishments visited eighteen, or 11 per cent, with 2,623

Negroes, maintained separate accommodations. This constituted a continuous

source of dissatisfaction for Negro workers, who felt themselves "Jim

Crowed." In the remaining 89 per cent, employing 19,714 Negroes among

more than 100,000 whites, all accommodations were used in common by both

races.

8. THE PERIOD OF INDUSTRIAL DEPRESSION

Following the war's inflation of industry a slump came in the winter of

1920-21. Common labor was reduced in all the large plants from 20 to

50 per cent. Negroes, mostly common laborers, suffered most from this

reduction. At one period there were as many as 15,000 Negroes unemployed

in Chicago. They were cared for during their enforced idleness by the

Urban League and Negro churches and by popular contributions from working

Negroes. The reduction of labor was usually carried out by employers

with some system, and few instances of gross race discrimination were

reported.

9. ORGANIZED LABOR AND NEGRO WORKERS

Clashing interests have manifested themselves conspicuously in the

relations between union labor organizations and Negro workers, and

this antagonism has been carried over into the relations of whites and

Negroes generally. The efforts of union labor to promote its cause have

built up a body of sentiment not easy to oppose by workers unsympathetic

toward the labor movement. Circumstances have frequently made Negroes

strike breakers, and thus centered upon them as a racial group all the

bitterness of the unionist toward strike breakers as a class.

On the other hand, Negroes have often expressed themselves as having

little faith in the union labor movement because the unions have

manifested prejudices against permitting them to share equal benefits

of membership; and again they have gained their first opportunity in a

new industry frequently through the desire of a strike-bound employer

to keep his plant running when his white employees have walked out.

From its beginning the American Federation of Labor has declared a uniform

policy of non-racial discrimination, but this policy has not been carried

out in practice by all its constituent or affiliated bodies. At several

of its conventions resolutions have been passed embodying the official

sentiment of the federation, but no means has yet been discovered to

effect a uniform policy of fair dealing throughout all its affiliated

bodies. Aside from those unions in which the membership privilege for

Negroes is modified, eight of the 110 national or international unions

affiliated with the American Federation of Labor explicitly bar the

Negro by provisions in their constitutions or rituals. These unions

are: Brotherhood of Railway Clerks, Brotherhood of Railway Carmen of

America, International Association of Machinists, American Association of

Masters, Mates, and Pilots, Railway Mail Association, Order of Railroad

Telegraphers, the Commercial Telegraphers' Union of America, and American

Wire Weavers' Protective Association.

The general exclusion policy of the railway brotherhoods and several

unions of the Railway Department of the American Federation of Labor

has created a feeling of bitterness among Negroes, many of whom are

employed in branches of the railway service. As a protest against this

policy there has been formed the Railway Men's International Benevolent

Industrial Association with seventeen locals in Chicago and a local

membership of 1,200. Mr. Mays, president of this organization, stated

that its purpose was merely to safeguard the ranks of Negro workers, and

said that it was ready to merge itself into the general unions as soon

as they were ready to accept them without discrimination and accord the

same privileges as white railway workers.

The Commission obtained information from local unions in Chicago with

a membership of 294,437, of whom 12,106 were Negroes. On the basis of

policy toward the Negro, unions in Chicago may be divided into four

classes or types:

A. Unions admitting Negroes to white locals

B. Unions admitting Negroes to separate or co-ordinate locals

C. Unions admitting Negroes to subordinate or auxiliary locals

D. Unions excluding Negroes from membership

Wherever and whenever Negroes are admitted on an equal basis and given

a square deal, the feeling inside the union is nearly always harmonious.

Examples of type A are the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen

of the World, Hodcarriers, Flat Janitors, and Ladies' Garment Workers.

In some of these organizations Negroes hold office.

Unions of type B give as reasons for organizing Negroes into separate

locals, first, preference of Negro workers for locals of their own,

and, second, unwillingness of white workers to admit Negroes to white

locals. The Negro Musicians' Union belongs to this type and has the same

wage scale as the white union. There appears to be little difficulty

here because there is no conflict in contracts for work in the city.

The painters, however, have had difficulties which have "hung fire" for

more than a year; after being given a temporary charter they still were

unable to work.

Unions of type C, admitting Negroes to subordinate locals, are few

in number, apparently because Negroes strongly resent this form of

affiliation. There is, however, one example of this type which permits

Negro helpers in a certain trade to be organized as an auxiliary under

the jurisdiction of the white local unions having jurisdiction over their

district. By constitution it is provided that their minutes be submitted

to the white locals and their grievances placed before the white locals.

The constitution also provides that there shall be no transfer of colored

helpers to any except Negro auxiliaries, and that Negro helpers shall

not be promoted to skilled trades or to helper apprentice, and shall

not be admitted to shops where white helpers are employed. These Negro

locals are represented by delegates selected by the white locals in

their districts.

Unions of type D, excluding the Negro from membership, do so either in

conformity with the laws of their national unions or in the exercise

of local option. In addition to the eight internationals which exclude

the Negro by constitutional provision, there are other locals which are

known to reject Negro applicants. The Machinists' Union, for example,

although complying in its constitution with the American Federation of

Labor policy of no racial discrimination, still effectually bars the

Negro by a provision in its secret ritual. With the Machinists' Union

must be grouped such unions as the Amalgamated Sheet Metal Workers'

International Alliance, the Electrical Workers, and the Plumbers and

Steam Fitters.

Some Negro leaders, in view of these practices, have been strong in

their advocacy of non-affiliation with union organizations, holding that

the employers, after all, offer for Negroes the fairer terms, and that

they have, in fact, given Negroes their first opportunity in industry.

However, certain other Negroes have taken advantage of the rift between

employers and labor unions to exploit Negro laborers. They have played

upon racial sentiment to establish separate unions for Negroes, both

in lines of work where they are admitted to the general unions and in

lines of work where they are excluded. This type of leadership has been

irresponsible and dangerous; it has made ridiculously generous promises,

and has addressed its appeal to the less intelligent classes of Negro

workers. Its literature has in turn provoked extreme bitterness among

labor union members and officials, who have mistakenly accepted it as

representative of the sentiment of all Negro workers.

Interviews with Negro workers outside of the unions reveal an attitude

of indifference or suspicion which is attributed by both white and Negro

labor leaders and union men to the following reasons: (1) the usual

treatment of Negroes by white men, (2) traditional treatment of Negroes

by white men, (3) influence of racial leaders who oppose unionism, (4)

influence of employers' propaganda against unionism. Many of them, it

was learned, have a distorted view of the purposes and principles of

unionism, and many others, while sympathetic with the movement, object

to the practices of the locals. An experience frequently referred to was

the waiters' strike in 1911, when Negro union men walked out with white

union men and were replaced by white girls, while the white union men

returned to their jobs; since that time Negro waiters have been out of

the more desirable hotel jobs.

The explanations by labor leaders of the practices of local unions are

to the effect that while the general public race prejudice might be

expected in organizations of white workingmen, the unions, as a group,

are fairer to the Negro than other groups; that unions are blamed for

conditions which are really due to general public opinion. They cite

as an example the fact that Negroes are not employed in Chicago as

motormen or conductors on the surface or elevated lines because of

public objection, and that they cannot be organized until they are in

positions. Views were also expressed in condemnation of the exclusion

policy of one local. These union officials believe that the unions will

eventually be the most powerful agencies in the removal of race prejudice.

VI. PUBLIC OPINION IN RACE RELATIONS

A. OPINIONS OF WHITES AND NEGROES

The "Negro problem" is deeper and wider than the difficulties which center

about the more specialized problems of Negro housing, Negro crime, and

industrial relations involving Negroes. All such special studies conducted

by the Commission left a baffling residuum of causes of racial discord,

deep rooted in the psychology of the white and Negro groups in contact.

The beliefs and attitudes, firmly fixed and accepted prejudices of the

one race as to the other, grouped under the term "public opinion," thus

became the subject of a novel but most interesting inquiry.

Public opinion with respect to the Negro forms a body of sentiment so

definite and compact as to make it an excellent laboratory case for

analysis and study; but the Commission's aim in investigating it was

merely to make apparent and objective its place and importance in race

relations; to indicate some of the ways in which it has developed; how

it expresses itself; how it affects both the white and Negro groups;

how, in its present state, it is strengthened, weakened, polluted, or

purified by deliberate agencies or even by its own action; and finally

how it may be used to reduce, if not prevent, racial unfriendliness and

misunderstanding.

Public opinion is regarded here as a phase of the social mind, but

nevertheless as a definite reality. For purposes of examination,

therefore, its study gives attention to that body of sentiments, beliefs,

attitudes, and prejudices which, taken together, give to public opinion

its content and meaning.

To present this subject intelligently, the following plan has been

employed:

1. Beliefs and sophistications regarding Negroes, which exercise so great

an influence in determining the conduct of white persons in relation to

them, are described as they apply in the local environment, and in origin

and background are traced suggestively to their responsible sources in

literature and circumstance.

2. Types of sentiment which, in Chicago and similar northern communities,

are variants of these basic beliefs are presented with a view to making

them intelligible and classifying them according to resolvable factors

of misunderstanding.

3. Since personal attitudes and beliefs are molded by traditions

and heritages apart from the exclusive influence of literature, more

significant material collected through intimate inquiry is presented

objectively to describe the processes by which they appear to be created

and grow. Replies to a searching questionnaire on attitudes and opinions

are, in the instances quoted, the result of painstaking self-analysis.

4. The opinions and sentiments of Negroes on these same issues are

described and illustrated with a view to making them understandable,

and their interpretations of current white sentiment are explained as

far as possible.

5. The report then turns to the agencies by which these opinions are

made and perpetuated and the individual attitudes created. The chief of

these are: (_a_) the press, (_b_) rumors, (_c_) myths, (_d_) propaganda.

The conscious and unconscious abuse of these instruments of "opinion

making" is pointed out and explained.

6. Finally, the study is intended to suggest means by which public

opinion, where it is faulty, may correct itself and employ its own

instruments in the creation of wholesome sentiments among Negroes with

respect to whites, and among whites with respect to Negroes.

1. BELIEFS OF WHITES CONCERNING NEGROES

The conduct of individuals is largely determined by their attitudes toward

a subject and their general beliefs concerning it. Definite beliefs

concerning Negroes may be found in the North as well as in the South,

varying with the individuals who hold them, according to degrees of

contact with the Negro group and the individuals' traditional background.

These may be divided according to their character and effect into two

general classes: (_a_) primary beliefs or those fundamental and firmly

established convictions which have, all around, the deepest effect on

the conduct of whites toward Negroes and are pretentiously supported

by statistics, authorities, and scientific research; (_b_) secondary

beliefs, or modifications and variants of important assumptions as to

cardinal attributes.

_a_) _Primary beliefs._--Among these primary beliefs are the following:

1. Mentality: That the mind of the Negro is distinctly and distinctively

inferior to that of the white race. Some believe that this is due to

backwardness in ascending the scale of civilization; some that the Negro

belongs to a different species of the human family.

2. Morality: That Negroes are not yet capable of exercising social

restraints common to white persons; that they are unmoral as well as

immoral.

3. Criminality: That Negroes possess a constitutional character weakness,

and a consequent predisposition to sexual crimes, petty stealing, and

crimes of violence.

4. Physical unattractiveness: That physical laws prompt whites to avoid

contact with Negroes.

5. Emotionality: That Negroes are highly emotional and for that reason

are given to quick, uncalculated crimes of violence as easily as to

noisy and emotional religious expressions.

_b_) _Secondary beliefs._--As continued repetition of any plausible

statement without correction of its error eventually gives it credence,

these secondary beliefs have rooted themselves deep in the public

mind. Among other things it is believed that Negroes are: (1) lazy, (2)

"happy-go-lucky," (3) boisterous, (4) bumptious, (5) over-assertive, (6)

lacking in civic consciousness, (7) addicted to carrying razors, (8)

fond of shooting craps, (9) flashy in dress and like gaudy, brilliant

colors, especially red.

2. BACKGROUND OF PREVAILING BELIEFS CONCERNING NEGROES

Soon after the first emergence of Negroes from slavery their illiteracy

and general behavior in response to the novel experience of freedom

created situations which appeared to justify judgments concerning their

group traits. Scholars rationalized and tried to explain these apparent

traits: If they were illiterate as a group they must be incapable of

learning, and if they committed crimes, they must be fundamentally

lacking in social restraints.

Dr. Jeffries Wyman, of Harvard, Professor A. H. Keene, author of _Man

Past and Present_, Dr. J. C. Nott, author of _Types of Mankind_, and

almost all the other anthropologists of that period, gave the stamp of

scientific authority to the view that Negroes were of a different species

and could never reach the level of the Caucasian. Even more recently

mental tests were carried out on the same assumption and were made to

prove it in some instances where the facts were unexpectedly contrary.

Students of the race problem in the South continued to generalize about

Negro character from selected specimens, other more popular writers and

speakers, with their anecdotes, stories, and jokes, all of which went

uncorrected, tended to strengthen this body of beliefs to a point where

any difference of views was intolerable. Although the status of the Negro

has changed, the beliefs remain the same, and have led to bitterness and

resentment among Negroes, with consequent misunderstandings and friction.

In Chicago sentiments collected from a wide variety of sources and

involving the views of several thousands of white persons indicate the

persistence of these archaic beliefs and fears, so deep set and of such

long standing that they are assumed by many persons to be instinctive.

To secure definite information upon the traditional background of beliefs

concerning Negroes, fifteen white persons with no special interest in

Negroes were selected at random from professions, business, and other

vocations and submitted to a careful and searching inquiry. They were

asked eighteen carefully prepared questions to draw out the raw material

of their unqualified reactions on the question of the Negro and, as far

as possible, the background in their early experience. They were asked

for their opinions concerning Negroes, whether or not they believed

that they possessed distinguishing traits of mentality and character;

their attitudes were solicited by questions and propositions designed

to provoke an expression of attitude. Questions were put regarding

instances and experiences involving Negroes in their early experience;

their first consciousness of racial differences; their first contacts;

and information was sought on the definite sources of their knowledge

or opinions concerning Negroes.

All the persons questioned had clear-cut opinions and thought that Negroes

possessed distinguishing traits ranging from "affectionate loyalty" to

"mental and moral handicaps imposed by evolution." An abolitionist's

son, for example, thought that "Negroes should desire segregation";

a man who had observed Negroes at Tuskegee and Lewis institutes would

increase their education and meet the demands produced by education.

One whose only contact had been with his "black mammy" thought that

the Negroes were "affectionate and loyal, but lacking in racial pride,

though evolutionarily handicapped, possessing the qualities of children."

Another who had had an unfortunate experience with his Negro chauffeur

thought that Negroes were characterized by "distinctly inferior

mentality, deficient moral sense, shiftlessness, good-natured, and a happy

disposition." They knew little about the activities of Negroes, their

leaders, their papers, or their problems, and the sources on which they

relied for their information, except in two instances, were undependable.

3. NEGRO OPINION

Negroes, although exposed to various forms of social contact, have been

intellectually isolated from the white group. They have not participated

fully and freely in community and cultural activities. The pressure

of the white group in practically every ordinary experience has kept

their attention and interest centered upon themselves, and they have

become race conscious. Their thinking, therefore, on general questions,

whether they involve race relations or not, is conditioned and largely

controlled by the relation of these questions with group interests. The

opinions of Negroes, therefore, on race relations are largely negative.

White persons know very little about what Negroes are thinking, because

they are not familiar with their experiences; they frequently do not

accredit them with the sensibilities that they do possess; and are not

acquainted with the processes of thought by which the opinions of Negroes

are formed. Thus it is that many of the statements and expressions of

feeling of Negroes are unintelligible to persons outside of their group.

Similarly, many statements and expressions of feeling by white persons

are unintelligible to Negroes. But in the understanding of white persons

Negroes have the advantage, because they do read their papers, see them

in the privacy of their homes, and are forced constantly to interpret

their actions.

Among Negroes there may be found a group control as strong and binding

as among white persons. One striking instance of the operation of this

group control was the complete ostracism of a prominent Negro lawyer who

was reported to have made a public statement contrary to the views and

aspirations held by his group. When this Negro was reported in the press

to have said, "This is a white man's country, and Negroes had better

behave or they will get what rights they have taken away," he was first

snubbed, then his life was threatened, and for several weeks he was

forced to go about under police protection. He was seriously criticized

and finally ostracized. In less than a year he died. His friends declare

that he was slanderously misquoted.

The sentiments of Negroes fall into somewhat the same classification as

those of whites, but with one or two notable exceptions: there is (1) more

discussion of race problems, more criticism of the conduct of leaders,

more discussion of the practicability of programs of action; and (2) a

great deal of literature and other expressions concerning the development

of a defensive philosophy. In this latter are included various defensive

policies, the stimulation of race pride, the explanation of behavior, and

the struggle for status. There might also be included frequent evidences

of the development of race consciousness. The emotional background,

class consciousness, and the influences of group control are as evident

in the sentiments of Negroes as of white persons.

A wide selection of views was obtained from Negroes and presented

under the classifications in which they appeared naturally to fall.

To get a more precise statement of views, a questionnaire was sent to

Negroes representing a class intellectually able to subject themselves

to self-analysis and to discuss various confusing angles of the race

question. They were asked concerning interracial problems; whether or

not race relations appear to be growing better or worse; whether the

acquisition of wealth, or 100 per cent literacy, or unrestricted suffrage

could affect race relations; they were asked questions concerning their

adjustment to the present social system, their most pronounced mental

complexes experienced in adjusting personal desires to the present social

system; whether they were prejudiced against white persons; whether or

not they were conscious of a feeling of race inferiority, or of a desire

to compensate for a supposed inferiority. Concerning Negro problems

they were asked whether or not there should be recognized leaders of

Negroes; their criticisms of the policies of Negro leaders. Their racial

philosophy was solicited. They were asked the distinction that they made

between segregation and racial solidarity, and information was sought

on the agencies responsible for their opinions. A most interesting array

of views was secured, ranging from suspicion and abuse of the questions

themselves to dispassionate analysis.

The war has produced a new type of sentiment. It not only brought

disappointment and disillusionment for Negroes led into a new hope by the

promises that accompanied the manifest efforts to stimulate patriotism,

but actually gave to Negroes new experiences. Following the return of

Negro soldiers from France, measures of restraint were increased, and

from the usual lawlessness of the period of reconstruction they probably

suffered more severely than others because they are to a much larger

extent dependent upon law enforcement for security and comfort. Race

riots, which are an expression of both loose machinery of community

control and the development of a more determined resistance on the part of

Negroes, grew more frequent in number and more serious in consequences.

A new note was sounded in radical Negro literature, which appeared to

carry a very popular appeal.

B. FACTORS IN THE MAKING OF PUBLIC OPINION

1. THE WHITE PRESS OF CHICAGO

Aside from the agencies ordinarily responsible for providing the

individual with his views, there are others equally as powerful in

developing and influencing opinions. Most important of these is the

press. For that portion of the public which depends upon the press for

its contact with the Negro group and its information concerning it, this

agency holds a controlling hand. Throughout the country it is pointed

out, by both whites and Negroes, that the policies of many newspapers on

racial matters have made relations more difficult, at times fostering

new antagonisms and even precipitating riots by inflaming the white

public against Negroes. A study was made of the three principal white

daily newspapers of Chicago, covering a two-year period. Included in this

study were 1,347 news items, 108 letters to the press, and ninety-six

editorials on the Negro.

As an example of the type of publicity given to racial news concerning

Negroes and the types of articles considered to have good news value,

of the 1,338 articles published, 606, or nearly 50 per cent, dealt with

riots, crime, and vice. Each of these articles specifically identified

the persons involved as Negroes.

Constant identification of Negroes with certain definite crimes could have

no other effect than to stamp the entire Negro group in the public mind

as generally criminal. This in turn contributes to the already existing

belief that Negroes as a group are more likely to be criminal than others,

and thus they are arrested more readily than others. Publication of

their names with race identification and with the crimes alleged against

them keeps up a vicious circle. The unfortunate emphasis on sex offenses

involving race, the subtle fanning of latent animosities by innuendo and

suggestion, attaching the crime not only to the individual but to the

race, direct a current of fear, intolerance, and ill will against the

whole Negro group. An apt illustration, frequently cited by Negroes, is

that if each time a crime was committed by a red-headed man, he was so

described in telling of his crime, a popular fear and prejudice would

soon develop against all red-headed men.

Crimes involving Negroes alone receive little attention. As with the

Italians, as long as crimes are committed within the group, and this group

is regarded as an isolated appendix of the community, they hold very

little news value. When, however, a member of the isolated group comes

into conflict with the community group, whether in industry, housing,

or any relation, its representative significance is thus established,

and the information becomes news. Publicity on housing, for example,

stresses the conflict with other neighborhoods, the "invasion" of white

districts, and plans for segregation. News items on politics involving

Negroes get more space and prominence when they describe graft and

corruption. In the list of articles studied are included sixty-three

articles particularly ridiculing the Negro group.

Incidents occurring during the activities of the Commission were

checked up with reports of them appearing in the papers, and serious

misrepresentations of the Negro group were revealed. One example was

an article in the _Herald-Examiner_ on January 4, 1920, with two-inch

headlines across the entire first page: "Reds Plot Negro Revolt," "I.W.W.

Bomb Plant Found on South Side." The article mentioned the alleged secret

activities of Negroes and their plans to revolt against the government.

The bomb plant and many of their secret plans were reported to have

been discovered by the state's attorney. The article further said: "In

Chicago it was learned that the headquarters for Negro revolutionary

propaganda are centered in these four organizations: the Free Thought

Society, Universal Negro Improvement Association, Negro Protective

League, and the Soldiers and Sailors Club." The article and the reported

"discoveries" of the state's attorney's office are evidence of the

absurd ignorance frequently manifested by members of the white group

concerning the activities of Negroes. Each of the organizations named was

known to the Commission and visited by its representatives on numbers of

occasions. All of their meetings are open to the public, though attended

almost entirely by Negroes. The Universal Negro Improvement Association

publishes all of its plans in its newspaper, the _Negro World_. Its

slogan is "Back to Africa" and not "Down with the United States." The

Free Thought Society mentioned is an organization designed to provide a

medium of expression for persons who seek the "attainment of truth." Its

discussions concern religion and philosophy, and it numbers among its

members prominent Negro and white professional men. The Negro Protective

League is an employment office and day nursery. The full name of the

organization is the "Negro Equal Rights and Protective Association." The

Soldiers and Sailors Club is a community house located on the South Side

and a branch of the local War Camp Community Service. Eugene T. Lies,

formerly of the United Charities, was its director. The occasion of the

publicity in question was a convention of a national Negro Greek-letter

fraternity, which held its meetings in the auditorium of the Soldiers

and Sailors Club. This fraternity, like all others of its kind, excluded

non-members and by so doing aroused the suspicion of the newspaper's

informants. No correction appeared in the paper, and to date no further

"discoveries" have been made.

Articles of this type illustrate the possible effect on the public mind

of such misrepresentations of the Negro. One newspaper has abandoned its

policy of identifying Negroes with reports of incidents, in recognition

of the gross unfairness of the practice.

2. THE NEGRO PRESS

The development of the Negro press was stimulated by several necessities

important among which were:

_a_) The indifference of the white press to the Negro group; its emphasis

on the unfortunately spectacular, and the consequent loss of items of

interest about Negroes throughout the country.

_b_) The importance of developing the morale of the Negro group, creating

a solidarity of interest and purpose for measures of defense, correcting

the impressions created by general opinion, and centering the attention

of Negroes upon themselves and their advancement.

Three of the most important local Negro weekly papers were studied.

Their news items showed bias in reporting just the reverse of that which

characterizes the reports of many white papers. They emphasize the Negro's

view and may be said to provide a compensatory interpretation of the

news. When, for example, the _Chicago Tribune_ reports the approval in

the Illinois Constitutional Convention of a civil-rights bill with the

headline: "Miscegenation Is O.K.'d in New Constitution; Negroes Given All

the Rights of Whites," the _Chicago Whip_, a Negro newspaper, headlines

the same incident: "Morris Gets Civil Rights into Constitution; Victory

for Race Won at Springfield."

The most important function exercised by the Negro press is its control

of the Negro group and of their education in conduct. All of these papers

give considerable space to such popular education.

3. RUMOR

Rumor, if unchecked, can do incalculable damage to race relations.

Included under the term "rumor" are those unfounded tales, incorrectly

deduced conclusions, partial statements of fact with significant content

added by the narrator, all of which are given wide circulation and easy

credence by the public. Other forms of rumor are tales of unheard-of

brutality and of plots and plans which are either fabrications or partial

statements of fact and serve only to stimulate resentment, fear, and a

desire for retaliation. Of the rumors predicting riots, one example will

illustrate: During the riot a white man was caught in the act of crawling

beneath a house in which Negroes lived. In his pocket was found a bottle

of kerosene. He confessed that his mission was arson and justified his

act by repeating to the police the current rumor that it was known that

Negroes had set fire to the houses of whites "back of the Yards."

A persistent tale circulated during and for a long time after the riot

was to the effect that the bodies of hundreds of Negroes were taken

from Bubbly Creek where they had been thrown after being killed by white

rioters. The story was so frequently repeated that it was accepted and

even repeated in Congress. It caused an intense feeling among Negroes.

Investigation by the coroner, Police Department, and other agencies showed

that no bodies had ever been thrown into Bubbly Creek or recovered from

it.

A rumor given official sanction and carried into the files of the

Department of Justice illustrates other possible dangers of this kind.

This rumor concerned two prominent and highly accredited organizations for

Negroes. Rumors connected them with "I.W.W. plots and plans to overthrow

the government." These reports were founded upon scarcely anything more

than suspicion due to lack of information and acquaintance with the

Negro group. The National Urban League, for example, an organization of

responsible Negroes and whites with branches in thirty-one cities, was

reported to have asked William D. Haywood, head of the I.W.W., to speak

at its convention in Detroit. This report grew out of the misreading of

the name of William Hayward, a United States district attorney in New

York, who is a member of the executive board and whose name appears on

the stationery of the organization. The National Association for the

Advancement of Colored People, also a reputable organization of whites

and Negroes, was reported to be "planning to flood the colored districts

with I.W.W. literature." This was entirely false, but the reports went

to the Department of Justice headquarters secretly and could not be

corrected by the persons most affected.

4. MYTHS

Group myths, like those about the American Indian, the Oriental, and the

Jew, are very common. Usually they are the expression either of a wish

or of fear, which sociologists call a negative wish. Mythical stories

and anecdotes about Negroes, accepted by whites, are usually popular.

Many of them may have had a reasonable origin, but as a matter of fact

have long outgrown it. So long as they are uncorrected they hold and

exercise a marked degree of control over personal conduct.

In the category of myths fall the popular beliefs of whites concerning

the mentality of Negroes, and the more definite myth that the mind of

the Negro child ceases to develop when he reaches the age of puberty.

The sex myth is always in evidence. It involves the fear obsession

of Negro men held by many white women, fear of miscegenation, the

condonation of lynchings, repressive social restrictions, as well as

attempts at legislative restraints. Negroes are by these myths shown to

have a predilection for sex crimes. This sex myth has been stressed in

almost every riot. It precipitated the Washington riot; it provoked the

most brutal murder of the Chicago riot, and it was responsible for the

brutality of the Omaha and Tulsa riots. Always resident in the background

of popular consciousness, it shows the same head and features in almost

every clash of races.

5. PROPAGANDA

Conscious control of public opinion by propaganda has been used with

tremendous effect by social, political, and religious organizations

seeking popularity and support for their movements and reforms. Both

Negroes and whites employed propaganda, sometimes openly, sometimes

insidiously. Racial propaganda has probably a more powerful appeal than

any other type because it is based upon the instinct of race and race

differences, rivalry and jealousy. The most common forms of propaganda

may be classified into the following types: (_a_) educational, (_b_)

radical and revolutionary, (_c_) defensive, (_d_) malicious.

The activities and programs of the National Association for the

Advancement of Colored People fall under the classification of educational

propaganda; this propaganda is directed to the white public principally

and is intended to change public opinion by providing a foundation of

actual facts for the public's judgment.

The more striking examples of the radical and revolutionary propaganda are

the appeals sent out by the Industrial Workers of the World to Negroes,

carrying their doctrines and extending open arms to Negro workers and

offering them what most other organizations refuse--the privilege of

association and membership on the basis of brotherhood.

Defensive propaganda is more apparent within the Negro group and is

usually designed for the purpose of combating aggression and injury

to their purposes and aspirations from without. The appeals of this

propaganda are directed first to Negroes as a means of cementing the group

from within, and indirectly to the white group by way of impressing them

with the strength of solidified opposition to insults. The Protective

Circle of Chicago, organized to "oppose segregation, bombing, and defiance

of the Constitution," admitted employing propaganda to accomplish its

purpose.

Malicious propaganda is by far the most dangerous because it is founded

upon race antagonism. In the appeal to the emotions facts are soon lost.

Anti-Negro propaganda is not wholly new in the North, but when employed

it has usually been done insidiously because "Negro-baiting is considered

in bad taste." Recently, however, there have been conspicuous instances

of open and organized efforts to influence the minds of whites against

Negroes. Ignorance and suspicion, fear and prejudice, have been played

upon deliberately. The stated purpose of the propaganda was to unite white

property owners in opposition to the "invasion" of other residential

areas by Negroes, but in the actual carrying out of the propaganda it

was extended to all Negroes, and many methods were employed which could

have no other effect than to arouse bitterness and antagonism leading to

clashes. The _Property Owners' Journal_, the organ of an association of

real estate men, became so violent in its preachments that the protest

of whites forced its discontinuance. Appeals were made not only to the

instinct of race but to the sex instincts and the protective instincts of

white men. A pamphlet sent to the wives of prominent residents in that

neighborhood, entitled _An Appeal of White Women to American Humanity_,

recounted the "horrible conduct of French Colonials on the Rhine and

the abuse of German white women," although there was little apparent

connection between the conduct of Chicago Negroes and that of the black

soldiers in the French Army of Occupation on the Rhine. This pamphlet,

however, served to increase the fears of Negro men by white women and

to arouse the resentment and hatred of white men.

THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE COMMISSION

Many of our citizens who were appalled by the rioting and murders of

1919, feeling the need of a solution of the problem dealt with in this

investigation, have hoped that this Commission might suggest some ready

remedy, some quick means of assuring harmony between the races.

Careful consideration of the facts set forth in this report shows that

no such suggestion is possible. No one, white or Negro, is wholly free

from an inheritance of prejudice in feeling and in thinking as to these

questions. Mutual understanding and sympathy between the races will be

followed by harmony and co-operation. But these can come completely only

after the disappearance of prejudice. Thus the remedy is necessarily

slow; and it is all the more important that the civic conscience of

the community should be aroused, and that progress should begin in a

direction steadily away from the disgrace of 1919.

Each member of this Commission feels that he has more understanding and

less prejudice than before its work began. Therefore we recommend the

thoughtful examination of the body of this report, so that all who read

our recommendations may weigh for themselves the evidence upon which

they are based.

Having in mind the basic facts in the problem of race relations and the

conclusions from a careful study of the various phases of these relations

in Chicago, the Commission presents for the consideration and action of

state and local authorities, and of the social agencies and citizens of

Chicago, the following recommendations and suggestions.

To the Police, Militia, State's Attorney, and Courts:

HANDLING OF RIOTS

1. We recommend that the police and militia work out, at the earliest

possible date, a detailed plan for joint action in the control of race

riots.

2. In accordance with such a plan, and in the event of race rioting,

we specifically recommend: (_a_) that the militia, white and Negro, be

promptly mobilized at the beginning of the outbreak; (_b_) that police

and deputy sheriffs and militia, white and Negro, be so distributed as

adequately to protect both races in white and Negro neighborhoods and to

avoid the gross inequalities of protection which, in the riot of 1919,

permitted widespread depredations, including murder, against Negroes in

white neighborhoods, and attacks in Negro neighborhoods by invading white

hoodlums; (_c_) that the police and militia be stationed with special

reference to main street-car lines and transfer points used by Negroes

in getting to and from work; (_d_) that substantial assurance be given

of adequate and equal protection by all agencies of law enforcement,

thus removing the incentive to arm in self-defense; (_e_) that in the

appointment of special peace officers there shall be no discrimination

against Negroes; (_f_) that all rioters, white and Negro, be arrested

without race discrimination; (_g_) that all reports and complaints

of neglect of duty or participation in rioting by police, deputy

sheriffs, or militia be promptly investigated and the offenders promptly

punished; (_h_) that all persons arrested in connection with rioting be

systematically booked on distinct charges showing such connection, in

order to avoid the confusion and evasions of justice following the riot

of 1919.

3. We recommend that, without regard to color, all persons arrested

in connection with rioting be promptly tried and the guilty speedily

punished.

BOMBINGS

4. We recommend prompt and vigorous action by the police, state's

attorney, and courts to suppress the bombings of Negro and white houses,

these acts being criminal and likely to provoke race rioting.

5. The testimony of court officials before the Commission and its

investigations indicate that Negroes are more commonly arrested, subjected

to police identification, and convicted than white offenders, that on

similar evidence they are generally held and convicted on more serious

charges, and that they are given longer sentences. We point out that

these practices and tendencies are not only unfair to Negroes, but weaken

the machinery of justice and, when taken with the greater inability

of Negroes to pay fines in addition to or in lieu of terms in jail,

produce misleading statistics of Negro crime. We recognize that these

practices and tendencies are in a large degree the unconscious results of

traditional race prejudice. We recommend to the police, state's attorney,

judges, and juries that they consider these conditions in the effort to

deal fairly (and without discrimination) with all persons charged with

crime.

6. We recommend that, in order to encourage respect for law by both

Negroes and whites, the courts discountenance the facetiousness which

is too common in dealing with cases in which Negroes are involved.

VICIOUS ENVIRONMENT

7. We recommend that the police, state's attorney, and other authorities

promptly rid the Negro residence areas of vice resorts, whose present

exceptional prevalence in such areas is due to official laxity.

POLICING OF PARKS AND BEACHES

8. We recommend better co-operation between the city and park police in

and near parks, bathing-beaches, and other public recreation places,

especially where there has been or is likely to be race friction; and

in the speedy punishment of persons guilty of stoning houses, molesting

individuals, or committing other depredations calculated to arouse race

antagonism.

"ATHLETIC CLUBS"

9. We recommend that the police pay particular and continuous attention

to the so-called "athletic clubs" on the South Side, which we have found

to be a fruitful source of race conflict, and that when race conflict

arises or is imminent the members and meeting places of such clubs be

searched for arms and that, if deemed necessary, such clubs be closed.

THE BARRETT MURDER

10. We commend the police for the prompt and effective action in the

Barrett murder case, September 20, 1920, which allayed public alarm and

averted a serious clash.

To the City Council and Administrative Boards, the Park Boards and the

Municipal Bureau of Parks, Playgrounds, and Bathing-Beaches:

CONTROL OF FIREARMS

11. We recommend that the most stringent means possible be applied to

control the importation, sale, and possession of firearms and other

deadly weapons.

SUPERVISION OF "ATHLETIC CLUBS"

12. In order to facilitate police supervision of so-called "athletic

clubs," we recommend that all such clubs be required to file with the

city clerk statements of their purposes and, at stated intervals, lists

of their members and officers, with their addresses.

SANITATION

13. We recommend that the authorities exercise their powers to condemn and

raze all houses unfit for human habitation, many of which the Commission

has found to exist in the Negro residence areas on the South and West

sides.

14. We recommend better enforcement of health and sanitary laws and

regulations in the care, repair, and upkeep of streets and alleys and

the collection and disposal of rubbish and garbage in areas of Negro

residence, where the Commission has found these matters to be shamefully

neglected.

RECREATION CENTERS

15. We recommend that the park and other proper authorities (_a_)

put an end to the present gross discrimination by white persons which

practically bars Negroes out of certain recreation centers near their

own congested residence area; and (_b_) that a recreation center of

adequate size and facilities be established for the use of both whites

and Negroes in the principal Negro residence area of the South Side; and

(_c_) that steps be taken to secure more adequately trained, competent,

and intelligent playground and recreation-center directors, white and

Negro, who shall be held responsible for racial clashes arising in places

under their direction and shall be required to interest themselves in

reducing and avoiding racial friction in their neighborhoods; and (_d_)

that proper equipment and supervision be provided at the Twenty-sixth

Street Bathing-Beach, where they are now almost wholly lacking; and (_e_)

that, in co-operation with the city police, the park police adequately

protect all citizens, without regard to color, in going to and from

parks, recreation centers, and playgrounds.

To the Board of Education:

MORE SCHOOLS IN NEGRO AREAS

16. We recommend that in the areas where the main part of the Negro

population lives, and where elementary-school accommodations are notably

deficient, buildings, equipment, and teaching forces be provided which

shall be at least equal to the average standard for the city, in order

that the present conditions of overcrowding, arrangement of pupils

in shifts, and the assignment of too large classes to teachers may be

remedied.

NIGHT SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITY CENTERS

17. We recommend the establishment of night schools and community centers

in sections of the city not now adequately provided with such facilities.

COMPULSORY EDUCATION

18. Having found that many Negro children who quit school at an early

age, as in the case of similar white children, appear later as criminals

and delinquents, we urge strict enforcement of regulations as to working

permits for such children, and we especially recommend that truant

officers give attention to school attendance by the children of Negro

families migrating here from the South.

ATTITUDE OF PRINCIPALS AND TEACHERS

19. Since the attitude of principals and teachers vitally influences

the relations of white and Negro children in the public schools, we

recommend that special care be exercised in appointing principals and

teachers who have a sympathetic and intelligent interest in promoting

good race relations in the schools.

STUDENT ACTIVITIES

20. We recommend that public-school principals and teachers encourage

participation by children of both races in student activities as a means

of promoting mutual understanding and good race relations in such schools

and in the community.

To Social and Civic Organizations, Labor Unions, and Churches:

PROMOTION OF RACE HARMONY

21. Being convinced by our inquiry that much of the antagonism evinced in

the areas of marked hostility toward Negroes is founded upon tradition

which is itself without foundation in fact or justice, we recommend to

schools, social centers and agencies, churches, labor unions, and other

organizations in these areas, and to public-spirited citizens, white

and Negro, that they endeavor to dispel the false notions of each race

about the other and promote mutual tolerance and friendliness between

them.

22. We recommend that both white and Negro churches seek and use

means to improve race relations, and that these means include the

finding of frequent occasion for having their congregations addressed

by representatives of both races on the subject of race sympathy and

tolerance.

SOCIAL AGENCIES IN NEGRO COMMUNITIES

23. We commend the course of such agencies as the United Charities,

Illinois Children's Home and Aid Society, and American Red Cross in

extending their work to the Negro community, and recommend that other

agencies whose work is similarly useful extend their work in like manner.

24. Recognizing and commending the practical efforts of the Interracial

Committee of the Woman's City Club, the Public Affairs Committee of the

Union League Club, and the Chicago Urban League, in promoting better

race relations, especially in the summer of 1920, when racial friction

was deemed imminent, we recommend that other organizations of the same

kind undertake like activities.

25. We recommend that the appropriate social agencies give needed

attention to dealing extra-judicially with cases of Negroes coming before

the morals and juvenile courts; also to cases of Negro children dropping

out of school too early in age.

OPPORTUNITY FOR RECREATION TRAINING

26. We recommend that Negroes, as well as whites, be given opportunity

for training for service in the city's public recreation facilities.

To the Public:

INTERRACIAL TOLERANCE

27. We are convinced by our inquiry: (_a_) that measures involving or

approaching deportation or segregation are illegal, impracticable and

would not solve, but would accentuate, the race problem and postpone

its just and orderly solution by the process of adjustment; (_b_) that

the moral responsibility for race rioting does not rest upon hoodlums

alone, but also upon all citizens, white or black, who sanction force

or violence in interracial relations or who do not condemn and combat

the spirit of racial hatred thus expressed; (_c_) that race friction

and antagonism are largely due to the fact that each race too readily

misunderstands and misinterprets the other's conduct and aspirations.

We therefore urge upon all citizens, white and Negro, active opposition

to the employment of force or violence in interracial relations and to the

spirit of antagonism and hatred. We recommend dispassionate, intelligent,

and sympathetic consideration by each race of the other's needs and

aims; we also recommend the dissemination of proved or trustworthy

information about all phases of race relations as a useful means for

effecting peaceful racial adjustment.

28. Since rumor, usually groundless, is a prolific source of racial

bitterness and strife, we warn both whites and Negroes against the

acceptance or circulation by either of reports about the other whose

truth has not been fully established. We urge all citizens, white and

Negro, vigorously to oppose all propaganda of malicious or selfish origin

which would tend to excite race prejudice.

29. We commend race contacts in cultural and co-operative efforts as

tending strongly to mutual understanding and the promotion of good race

relations.

30. We condemn the provocation or fostering of race antagonism by

associations or organizations ostensibly founded or conducted for purposes

of patriotism or local improvements or the like.

PERMANENT RACE-RELATIONS BODY

31. We recommend as of special importance that a permanent local body

representing both races be charged with investigating situations likely

to produce clashes, with collecting and disseminating information tending

to preserve the peace and allay unfounded fears, with bringing sound

public sentiment to bear upon the settlement of racial disputes, and

with promoting the spirit of interracial tolerance and co-operation.

To the White Members of the Public:

RACE ADJUSTMENT IN MIXED NEIGHBORHOODS

32. We call to public attention the fact that intensity of racial feeling

is not necessarily due to the presence of Negroes in a neighborhood,

either in the majority or minority, and that such feeling is not the rule

but the exception; and we cite as a conspicuous example the peaceful

conditions that have long obtained in the area between Roosevelt Road

and Thirty-ninth Street from Wentworth Avenue to Lake Michigan, in which

the Negro population in 1920 numbered 54,906 and the white population

42,797.

BETTER NEGRO HOUSING WITHOUT SEGREGATION

33. Our inquiry has shown that insufficiency in amount and quality of

housing is an all-important factor in Chicago's race problem; there

must be more and better housing to accommodate the great increase

in Negro population which was at the rate of 148 per cent from 1910

to 1920. This situation will be made worse by methods tending toward

forcible segregation or exclusion of Negroes, such as the circulation

of threatening statements and propaganda by organizations or persons

to prevent Negroes from living in certain areas, and the lawless and

perilous bombing of houses occupied by Negroes or by whites suspected

of encouraging Negro residence in the district.

We therefore recommend that all white citizens energetically discourage

these futile, pernicious, and lawless practices, and either co-operate

in or start movements to solve the housing problem by constructive and

not destructive methods.

DEPRECIATION AND PROPERTY RISKS

34. Testimony before the Commission and investigations made by it show two

important facts: (_a_) that depreciation of residence property generally

charged exclusively to the presence of Negroes in a neighborhood is

often largely due to other factors; (_b_) that many Negroes of this city

meet their obligations in such a manner as to make their home-building

and home-owning investments seem a more desirable risk than has been

generally supposed. We therefore recommend that these facts be taken

into consideration in connection with loans on Negro property.

ADVANCED RENTS FOR NEGROES CONDEMNED

35. We condemn and urge the discontinuance of the practice of property

owners who arbitrarily advance rents merely because Negroes become

tenants.

INFORMATION ABOUT NEGROES

36. We recommend that white persons seek information from responsible

and representative Negroes as the basis of their judgments about Negro

traits, characteristics, and tendencies, and thereby counteract the

common disposition, arising from erroneous tradition and literature, to

regard all Negroes as belonging to one homogeneous group and as being

inferior in mentality and morality, given to emotionalism, and having

an innate tendency toward crime, especially sex crime.

To the Negro Members of the Public:

RACIAL DOCTRINES

37. We recommend to Negroes the promulgation of sound racial doctrines

among the uneducated members of their group, and the discouragement of

propaganda and agitators seeking to inflame racial animosity and incite

Negroes to violence.

SUPPORT OF SOCIAL AGENCIES

38. We urge Negroes to contribute more freely of their money and personal

effort to the social agencies developed by public-spirited members of

their group; also to contribute to the general social agencies of the

community.

SPECIAL PROBLEMS

39. We recommend that the Negro community, through the extension or

establishment of the necessary social agencies, undertake to supply

means and encouragement for leisure activities, and undertake work among

Negro boys and girls along the lines of prevention of vice and crime;

also that it provide institutional care of dependent Negro children.

40. We particularly urge that Negroes vigorously and continuously protest

against the presence in their residence areas of any vicious resort,

and that they join in and support all efforts to suppress such places.

ADJUSTMENT OF MIGRANTS

41. We commend the important work done by the Chicago Urban League, the

Negro churches, and other organizations in facilitating the adjustment

of migrant Negroes from the South to the conditions of living in Chicago

and urge its extension. We also commend the work already done by Negroes

through community associations in bettering the appearance and sanitary

condition of housing and recommend its further extension.

RACE PRIDE

42. While we recognize the propriety and social values of race pride

among Negroes, we warn them that thinking and talking too much in terms

of race alone are calculated to promote separation of race interests

and thereby to interfere with racial adjustment.

To Employers and Labor Organizations:

ATTITUDE TOWARD NEGRO WORKERS

43. We have found that in struggles between capital and labor Negro

workers are in a position dangerous to themselves and to peaceful

relations between the races, whether the issues involve their use by

employers to undermine wage standards or break strikes, or efforts by

organized labor to keep them out of certain trades while refusing to admit

them to membership in the unions in such trades. We feel that unnecessary

racial bitterness is provoked by such treatment of Negro workers, that

racial prejudice is played upon by both parties, and that through such

practices injury comes, not alone to Negroes, but to employers and labor

organizations as well.

We therefore recommend to employers that they deal with Negroes as workmen

on the same plane as white workers; and to labor unions that they admit

Negroes to full membership whenever they apply for it and possess the

qualifications required of white workers.

NEGRO AND WHITE WORKERS

44. We commend to the attention of employers who fear clashes or loss of

white workers by taking on Negro workers the fact that in 89 per cent

of the industries investigated by this Commission, Negroes were found

working in close association with white employees, and that friction

between these elements had rarely been manifested.

INDUSTRIAL AND BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES FOR NEGROES

45. In view of the limited field of employment within which Negroes are

restricted we recommend that employers in all lines enlarge that field

and permit Negroes an equal chance with whites to enter all positions

for which they are qualified by efficiency and merit. In this connection

especial attention is called to the fact that opportunity is generally

denied to Negroes for gaining experience in business methods through

service in responsible positions in business houses. Such opportunities,

if made available for them, would not only be of benefit to Negroes in the

development of sounder business methods among them and the building up of

their resources, but would also be a gain to the business establishments

and the community at large.

46. We have found that Negroes are denied equal opportunity with whites

for advancement and promotion where they are employed. As a measure of

justice we urge that Negroes be employed, advanced, and promoted according

to their capacities and proved merit. We call to the attention of those

concerned the high qualifications of many Negro workers in sleeping-car

and dining-car service, and recommend that when they deserve it and the

opportunity offers, they be made eligible for promotion to positions as

conductors and stewards.

TEMPORARY EMPLOYMENT OF NEGROES AS STRIKE BREAKERS

47. We point out as an injustice and a cause of racial antagonism the

practice of some employers who having hired Negroes as strike breakers

discharge them when the strike is settled to make places for former

white employees.

NEGRO WOMEN WORKERS

48. We find that employment of Negro girls at a smaller wage than white

girls and the denial to them of apprenticeship opportunities are a cause

of racial antagonism. We therefore recommend that the employment of

Negro girls be based on merit, with equality of wages, piece rates, and

apprenticeship opportunities with white girls; we also recommend that

Negroes in domestic employment rendering the same quality of service as

whites be paid at the same rate as white domestics.

RACIAL PEACE IN INDUSTRY

49. Realizing that the common welfare is involved in the employment or

non-employment of Negro workers, and seeking means to preserve racial

peace in industry, we recommend: (_a_) that where Negro employees are

dismissed for unsatisfactory service other Negroes, recommended by

reliable Negro organizations, be given an opportunity to replace them;

(_b_) that in times of industrial depression, employers reduce their

forces in such a manner that the hardships of unemployment may not be

disproportionately severe on Negro workers; (_c_) that where Negroes

are employed with whites at the same tasks they be given equal pay for

equal work and equal opportunity for piecework and overtime work; (_d_)

that Negro workers be given opportunity for advancement and promotion

according to merit and efficiency and without race discrimination; (_e_)

that Negro workers be afforded the opportunity to learn and engage in

the skilled processes of their employment; (_f_) that superintendents

closely supervise the relations of foremen with Negro workers and see

that there is no racial injustice or discrimination; (_g_) that employers

generally deal with Negroes, whether engaged in, or seeking opportunity

to engage in, manual labor or clerical work, without discrimination as

to race, and apply to them the same tests and conditions as to white

employees.

SEPARATE LABOR UNIONS

50. We strongly condemn the efforts of self-seeking agitators, Negro

or white, who use race sentiment to establish separate unions in trades

where existing unions admit Negroes to equal membership with whites.

To Negro Workers:

RELATIONS WITH UNIONS

51. We recommend that qualified Negro workers desiring membership in

labor organizations join unions which admit both races equally, instead

of organizing separate Negro labor unions.

RELATIONS WITH EMPLOYERS

52. We recommend that Negroes completely abandon the practice of seeking

petty advance payments on wages and the practice of laying off work

without good cause.

LEARNING TRADES

53. We recommend that Negroes avail themselves wherever possible of

opportunities in apprentice schools and classes.

54. We recommend to all Negroes dependent on manual labor the learning

of some skilled trade even though there is no present opportunity to

engage in it.

To the Street-Car Companies:

PROTECTION OF PASSENGERS

55. In view of the large number of racial assaults on persons riding

in street cars, we recommend that conductors and motormen be specially

instructed concerning protection of passengers, white and Negro, and be

rigidly held to the discharge of this duty.

OVERCROWDING

56. We recommend that at all loading-points where whites and Negroes

board cars in large numbers, starters be employed and overcrowding be

prevented as far as possible.

To Restaurants, Theaters, Stores, and Other Places of Public Accommodation:

EQUAL RIGHTS IN PUBLIC PLACES

57. We point out that Negroes are entitled by law to the same treatment

as other persons in restaurants, theaters, stores, and other places of

public accommodation, and we urge that owners and managers of such places

govern their policies and actions and their employees accordingly.

To the Press:

HANDLING OF NEWS INVOLVING NEGROES

58. In view of the recognized responsibility of the press in its general

influence upon public opinion concerning Negroes--especially important

as related to the suppression of race rioting--we recommend: (_a_) that

the newspapers generally, including the foreign-language press, apply

the same standards of accuracy, fairness, and sense of proportion, with

avoidance of exaggeration, in publishing news about Negroes as about

whites; in this connection special attention is called to the fact that

emphasis, greatly out of proportion to that given their creditable acts,

is frequently placed on the crimes and misdeeds of Negroes, who, unlike

other groups, are identified with each incident and thus constantly

associated with discreditable conduct; (_b_) that the manner of news

treatment be no different in the case of Negroes than in that of whites,

to the end that there shall always be the unwritten assumption that the

same responsibility for equal consideration of the rights of the one by

the other rests on whites and Negroes alike, in respect of the matter

involved in the publication; (_c_) that, in consideration of the great

ease with which the public is influenced against the whole Negro group

by sensational articles and headlines, the press should exercise great

caution in dealing with unverified reports of crimes of Negroes against

white women, and should avoid the designation of trivial fights as race

riots; (_d_) that in recognition of the dangers of racial antagonism

on the part of the ignorant, the unthinking, and the prejudiced of both

races, publication be made, as opportunities offer, of such matters as

shall in their character tend to dispel prejudice and promote mutual

respect and good will.