Chapter I.

The Negro population of the Pittsburgh District in Allegheny County, was 27,753 in the year 1900 and had increased to 34,217 by the year 1910, according to the latest United States Census figures available.[1] The increase during this period was 23.3%. Assuming the continuation of this rate of increase, the total Negro population in 1915 would be about 38,000.

From a canvas of twenty typical industries in the Pittsburgh district, it was found that there were 2,550 Negroes employed in 1915, and 8,325 in 1917, an increase of 5,775 or 227%. It was impossible to obtain labor data from more than approximately sixty percent of the Negro employing concerns, but it is fair to assume that the same ratio of increase holds true of the remaining forty percent. On this basis the number of Negroes now employed in the district may be placed at 14,000. This means that there are about 9,750 more Negroes working in the district today than there were in 1915, an addition due to the migration from the South.

A schedule study of over five hundred Negro migrants indicates that thirty percent of the new comers have their families with them, and that the average family consists of three persons, excluding the father.[2] Adding to the total number of new workers, (9,750), the product obtained by multiplying thirty percent by three, (average family), we find a probable total new Negro population of 18,550 in 1917.

This sudden and abnormal increase in the Negro population within so short a time, of necessity involves a tremendous change, and creates a new situation, which merits the attention of the whole community. Before this great influx of Negroes from the South, the Negro population which constituted only 3.4% of the total city population, lived in a half dozen sections of the city. Although not absolutely segregated, these districts were distinct.

Because of the high cost of materials and labor, incident to the war; because the taxation system still does not encourage improvements,[3] and because of investment attractions other than in realty, few houses have been built and practically no improvements have been made. This is most strikingly apparent in the poorer sections of the city. In the Negro sections, for instance, there have been almost no houses added and few vacated by whites within the last two years. The addition, therefore, of thousands of Negroes, just arrived from Southern states, meant not only the creation of new Negro quarters and the dispersion of Negroes throughout the city, but also the utmost utilization of every place in the Negro sections capable of being transformed into a habitation. Attics and cellars, store-rooms and basements, churches, sheds and warehouses had to be employed for the accommodation of these newcomers. Whenever a Negro had space which he could possibly spare, it was converted into a sleeping place; as many beds as possible were crowded into it, and the maximum number of men per bed were lodged. Either because their own rents were high, or because they were unable to withstand the temptation of the sudden, and, for all they knew, temporary harvest, or, perhaps because of the altruistic desire to assist their race fellows, a majority of the Negroes in Pittsburgh converted their homes into lodging houses.

Because rooms were hard to come by, the lodgers were not disposed to complain about the living conditions or the prices charged. They were only too glad to secure a place where they could share a half or at least a part of an unclaimed bed. It was no easy task to find room for a family, as most boarding houses would accept only single men, and refused to admit women and children. Many a man, who with his family occupied only one or two rooms, made place for a friend or former townsman and his family. In many instances this was done from unselfish motives and in a humane spirit.

A realization of the need for accurate information concerning the Negro migration, and the belief that in an intelligent treatment of the problem lay the welfare of the entire community as well as that of the local Negro group, prompted the attempt at a scientific study of the situation. The primary purpose of the study was to learn the facts, but there was also a hope that the data obtained might lead to the amelioration of certain existing evils and the prevention of threatening ones.

In order to ascertain as many of the facts as possible concerning housing conditions, rooming and boarding houses, three or four family tenement houses, single family residences, camps, churches and other lodging places were investigated. A comparative study of health and crime among Negroes of Allegheny County before and after the period of the Northern migration was also attempted.

Storerooms in the Hill District Converted into Family Residences and Rooming Houses.

A questionnaire concerning kinds of labor in which Negro migrants engaged, and wages paid them both in Pittsburgh and in their native South was prepared; and answers to it from over five hundred individuals were obtained during the months of July and August, 1917. Information relating to housing, rents, health and social conditions was elicited in a similar manner. An effort was made to visit and study every Negro quarter in Pittsburgh. Data was secured from the Negro sections in the Hill District and upper Wylie and Bedford Avenues; the Lawrenceville district, about Penn Avenue, between Thirty-fourth and Twenty-eighth Streets; the Northside Negro quarter around Beaver Avenue and Fulton Street; the East Liberty section in the vicinity of Mignonette and Shakespeare Streets, and the new downtown Negro section on Second Avenue, Ross and Water Streets.

The information thus secured is discussed in the following pages.

TABLE NUMBER I

Time of Residence in Pittsburgh of 505 Negro Migrants Questioned

[Table No. I] indicates that the migration has been going on for little longer than one year. Ninety-three percent of those who gave the time of residence in Pittsburgh had been here less than one year. More than eighty percent of the single men interviewed had been here less than six months. In the number who have been here for the longest periods, married men predominate, showing the tendency of this class to become permanent residents. This fact is evidently well known to some industrial concerns which have been bringing men from the South. Many of them have learned from bitter experience that the mere delivery of a train load of men from a Southern city, does not guarantee a sufficient supply of labor. This is evidenced by the fact that the labor agents of some of these firms, made an effort to secure married men only, and even to investigate them prior to their coming here. Differences in recruiting methods may also explain why some employers and labor agents hold a very optimistic view of the Negro as a worker, while others despair of him. The reason why Pittsburgh has been unable to secure a stable labor force is doubtless realized by the local manufacturers. The married Negro comes to the North to stay. He desires to have his family with him, and if he is not accompanied North by his wife and children he plans to have them follow him at the earliest possible date. Although such a man is glad to receive the better treatment, enlarged privileges and higher wages, which are accorded him here, he cannot adjust himself permanently to the Pittsburgh housing situation. He meets his first insuperable difficulty when he attempts to get a house in which to live. Back South, he may have been oppressed, but his home was often in a more comfortable place, where he had light and space. At least he did not have to live in one room in a congested slum and pay excessive rents.

While it is true that the foreign immigrant of a few years ago was probably not accorded any better accommodations in Pittsburgh than is the Negro at present, it should be remembered that the foreigner did not know the language. Everything seemed strange and unfamiliar to him. He was loath to move to an even stranger part of the city and preferred to stay in his first new world home and to live among his own people, even under adverse conditions. It is altogether different with the Negro. He knows the language and the country; he does not fear to migrate and when he does not feel content in one place, he proceeds to look for a better one. We might cite dozens of incidents of men who have either had their families here or intended to bring them, but have gone to other cities where they hoped to find better accommodations. This is certain to continue if cities like Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia keep in advance of Pittsburgh in building or providing houses for these migrants. The Pittsburgh manufacturer will never keep an efficient labor supply of Negroes until he learns to compete with the employers of the other cities in a housing programme as well as in wages.

The actual situation of the Pittsburgh housing problem for the Negro is shown by the figures obtained in our survey. Almost ninety-eight percent of the people investigated live either in rooming houses or in tenements containing more than three families. Thirty-five percent live in tenement houses, fifty percent in rooming houses, about twelve percent in camps and churches, and only two and a half percent live in what may be termed single private family residences.

TABLE NUMBER II

Kinds of Residences of 465 Negro Migrants Questioned

SINGLE FAMILIES TOTAL PERCENT
Tenement 30 133 163 35
Rooming and Boarding 223 9 232 50
One Family House 6 5 11 2.5
Camp 36 0 36 7.5
Mission 23 0 23 5
318 147 465 100

Of the men without families here, only twenty-two out of more than three hundred had individual bed rooms. Twenty-five percent lived four in a room, and twenty-five percent lived in rooms used by more than four people. Again only thirty-seven percent slept in separate beds, fifty percent slept two in a bed, and thirteen percent sleep three or more in a bed.

TABLE NUMBER III

NUMBER OF PEOPLE IN BED ROOM

The conditions in these rooming houses often beggar description. Sleeping quarters are provided not only in bedrooms, but also in attics, basements, dining rooms and kitchens. In many instances, houses in which these rooms are located are dilapidated dwellings with the paper torn off, the plaster sagging from the naked lath, the windows broken, the ceiling low and damp, and the whole room dark, stuffy and unsanitary. In one or two instances, these rooms, with more than six people sleeping in them at one time, have practically no openings for either light or air.

A Typical Boarding House on Lower Wylie Avenue.

In the more crowded sections, beds are rented on a double shift basis. Men who work at night sleep during the day in the beds vacated by day workers. There is no space in these rooms, except for beds and as many of them are crowded in as can be possibly accommodated.

There is rarely a place in these rooms for even suitcases or trunks. Under such circumstances the rooms can be kept clean with difficulty, and there is apparently no disposition to wrestle with the dirt and litter. Very few of these sleeping rooms have more than two windows each, and many have only one window. Only a few are provided with bath rooms, while a great number have the water and toilets in the yards or other places outside the house. Many of these roomers complain that often they are not given any soap, and are never given more than one towel a week.

TABLE NUMBER IV

Rents Paid in Rooming Houses by 305 Roomers

Percentage
168 paid $1.50 per week 55
103 paid $1.75 per week 34
13 paid $2.00 per week 4.25
14 paid $3.00 per week 4.25
7 paid Over $3.00 2.5
100

The rents paid by these roomers are shown in [table number IV]. They varied from $1.50 to $3.00 per week, and in a few instances were as high as $4.00 per week. In a number of cases, the men also board in the same place in which they room, paying from five to seven or eight dollars per week for food and shelter.

TABLE NUMBER V.

ONE WEEK’S COST OF BOARD PER MAN

The situation in the camps is not better than that in rooming houses. In one railroad camp visited, the men were lodged in box cars, each of which was equipped with four or eight beds, or they were quartered in a row of wooden houses two stories high, each room of which contained from six to eight beds. It is true that the rents charged in this camp were only the nominal sum of five cents per night, or $1.50 per month, but the men had to buy their food from the camp commissary, using company checks, and also had to prepare it themselves. Practically every man interviewed complained of the high prices charged, and that this complaint was not altogether groundless was evident from the scanty purchases being made by these men at the time of the investigator’s visit. In another railroad camp, located near Pittsburgh, which was visited in the early spring, about one hundred men were lodged in one big “bunk-house”, containing about fifty double-tier beds. Although there were adequate toilet and shower bath facilities, the beds were unclean. This company also boarded these men, making a flat weekly charge.

Box Cars in a Railroad Camp in Pittsburgh used as Living and Sleeping Quarters.

The rooming houses with one exception are conducted by colored people, who act either as janitors or as hosts. In only one case, as far as our investigation extended, did we find a white woman running a rooming house for colored people. Many of these houses are in reality run by Whites, who keep a colored janitor or manager in the House. Several of the big rooming houses on lower Wylie Avenue, for instance, are conducted for a local white merchant, who keeps a colored janitor in each of them, and only visits them to check the books and collect the rents. In many instances however, houses are operated by colored people, who either run or lease them. Most of these lessees or owners are Pittsburghers, but a few are newcomers, who, having brought a bit of capital with them have opened rooming houses as investments. Some of these people have become the prey of cunning landlords. In one case in the down town section, a colored migrant rented an old and dilapidated shack, paying fifty dollars a month, and was unaware that the contract signed by him specified that he pay for his own repairs. The Negro claims that as the house is very old and in such bad condition, it would cost him an additional fifty dollars each month to keep it habitable.

TABLE NUMBER VI

Number of Rooms Per Family of 157 Negro Families

The deplorable housing of migrant families is shown in [table number VI]. Of the 157 families investigated, seventy-seven or 49% live in one room each. Thirty-three or 21% live in two-room apartments, and only forty-seven families or 30% live in apartments of three or more rooms each.

Of these forty-seven families, thirty-eight kept roomers or boarders, totalling one hundred and thirty-one, or an average of 3.5 roomers per family. Eighty-one of the total of one hundred and thirty-nine houses inspected, had water inside the house, while fifty-eight houses secured water from yard or street hydrants or from neighbors. Only thirty-four of the total were equipped with interior toilet facilities; the rest had outside toilets. Of the latter, forty-two had no sewerage connections, and used filthy, unsanitary vaults.

The rents paid for the “residences” described above appear in the following table:

TABLE NUMBER VII

Rents Paid by 142 Families Investigated

The sections formerly designated as Negro quarters, have been long since congested beyond capacity by the influx of newcomers, and a score of new colonies have sprung up in hollows and ravines, on hill slopes and along river banks, by railroad tracks and in mill-yards. In many instances the dwellings are those which have been abandoned by foreign white people since the beginning of the present war. In some cases they are structures once condemned by the City Bureau of Sanitation, but opened again only to accommodate the influx from the South. Very few of these houses are equipped with gas. Coal and wood are used both for cooking and heating. During the hot days of July, the visitor found in several instances a red hot stove in a room which was being used as kitchen, dining room, parlor and bedroom. This, however, did not seem to bother the newcomers, as many of the women, being unaccustomed to the use of gas, and fearful of it, preferred the more accustomed method of cooking.

A Row of Houses Unused for Several Years Until the Present Influx from the South.

A few of these families were found living in so-called “basements”, more than three-fourths under ground, a direct violation of a municipal ordinance.[4] Some rooms had no other opening than a door. The rents paid for such quarters are often beyond belief. In one of these rooms in the Hill District, where only the upper halves of the windows were level with the sidewalk, lived a man, his wife and their five children, the eldest of whom was sixteen years old. The rental was six dollars per week. Another family paid twenty-five dollars per month for three small rooms on the ground floor. The kitchen was so damp and close that the investigator found it impossible to remain for long, because it was difficult to breathe. The ceilings in many of the houses visited were very low, hardly higher than six or seven feet and the rooms were often piled high with furniture. That the owners of these houses cared little about improving their houses was indicated in several cases by the fact that water faucets and toilets had been out of commission for months, and no effort at repair had been made.

“Basement” Occupied by a Migrant Family. The Only Opening in this Dwelling Appears in the Picture.

Because of these bad conditions many peculiar maladjustments exist. A certain man lived in a rooming house, while his young wife and baby lived in another place. In addition to his own rent and board, he paid ten dollars a week for the keep of his wife and baby. In another case, a family was forced to pay six dollars a month storage on the furniture which they had brought from the South, because their new quarters were too cramped to accommodate it.

A goodly number of the migrants have evidently been accustomed to much better living conditions than are offered them here, and in spite of almost insurmountable obstacles, still preserve something of their cleanly habits. Few of these people intend to remain here unless they can get a better place to stay. All complained, some with tears in their eyes, of the bad housing accorded them. As one intelligent and hard working woman who lived in one room expressed it while packing her trunks to go back to Sylvester, Georgia, “I never lived in such houses in my life. We had four rooms in my home.” This woman was earning ten dollars per week and her husband was profitably employed, yet they choose to relinquish the comparatively large rewards of the North, rather than do without the decencies of life which they had known in the South.

TABLE NUMBER VIII

Ages of the 506 Migrants Interviewed

SINGLE MARRIED TOTAL PERCENTAGE
Under 18 years 13 1 14 3
From 18 to 25 115 39 154 30
From 25 to 30 31 63 94 19
From 30 to 40 34 101 135 27
From 40 to 50 7 66 73 14
From 50 to 60 4 28 32 6
60 and over 2 2 4 1
206 300 506 100

AGES OF MIGRANTS

[Table number VIII] is significant because it enables us to shed light upon one important phase of the migration. It appears that more than seventy-five percent of the Southern migrants are between the ages of eighteen and forty. Only ten percent of the 506 people questioned were under eighteen or past fifty years of age. This fact is significant, both to the industrial concerns which are in need of a labor supply and to the community as a whole. For the industrial concerns, it means that these migrants are the most desirable laborers, men at the height of their wealth producing capacity. They satisfy the pressing need which has confronted the local manufacturers since the foreign supply of labor was cut off by the war. From the standpoint of the community, it is important to know that the influx lays few immediate burdens upon the city. There are few minors to be educated and few aged or dependent ones likely to become a public charge.

The percentage of single people between the ages of eighteen and thirty is far greater than that of the married ones, which is a natural expectation. Of the five hundred and thirty persons interviewed, two hundred and nineteen or forty-one and one-half percent were single; one hundred sixty-two or thirty and one-half percent were married, and had already brought their families here, while one hundred and thirty-nine or twenty-eight percent were married, but were here without their families. Ninety-eight of the families had children; thirty-nine of the families had no children here, and seventeen families either had some or all of the children in the South, while the remaining six placed their children under the care of relatives or institutions. The number of children per family of those who had their wives here, varied from one to ten. Forty families had one child each; twenty-three, two children each, fifteen had three children each, and twenty had four or more children each. Nineteen families had one or more children under twenty helping to support them, but only four had more than one child assisting in the support of the family. Among the one hundred and forty-nine persons whose families remained in the South, ninety-six had children and seventeen had none. Of the remainder a number stated that they had one or two of their children with them, while others gave no definite information. Sixty-three of those who had children at home had no more than two children each, while thirty-three had three or more children at home. These figures seem to indicate that the migration is largely that of small families.

The Negro migration from the South into Pittsburgh, while it has been accentuated and accelerated by the present war, which created a greater need for labor, is not in reality an altogether new thing for Pittsburgh. There has been a steady influx of Negroes, though in small numbers, since the pre Civil War days. Pittsburgh and Allegheny were important stations of the Underground Railway, and many a Negro came to Pittsburgh from the near-by slave states, as to a city of refuge. The Negro population in Allegheny County grew steadily from 3431 in 1850 to 34,217 in 1910. The percentage of Negroes in the total population of the County has continually increased within the last four decades. (Two and two-tenths percent in 1880 and three and four-tenths in 1910). Negroes have always been attracted by the opportunities which this city with its abundance of work and good wages could offer them in improving their economic status.

The recent unprecedented influx of Negroes had made the Negro population in Pittsburgh increase more than twice as fast within the last two years as during the entire ten years preceding. The percentage of Negroes in our total population has leaped very suddenly. This fact is sufficient to warrant our serious study and active efforts toward the social orientation and adjustment of the new element in our midst.

Wooden Shacks Used as Living and Sleeping Quarters in a Railroad Camp.

From the standpoint of Pittsburgh’s industrial and business interests, however, the migration into this district, has not been at all satisfactory. Pittsburgh as the steel center of the country, is naturally playing a more important part than ever in the present crisis, and has felt a proportionate increase in the need for a labor supply. The Negro migration in Pittsburgh, it can be safely stated, has not usurped the place of the white worker. Every man is needed, as there are more jobs than men to fill them. Pittsburgh’s industrial life is for the time being dependent upon the Negro labor supply.

In spite of its necessity, Pittsburgh has not received a sufficient supply of Negroes, and certainly not in the same full proportion as did many smaller industrial towns. Pittsburgh manufacturers are still in need of labor, and this in spite of the fact that the railroads and a few of the industrial concerns of the locality have had labor agents in the South. These agents, laboring under great difficulties because of the obstructive tactics adopted in certain southern communities to prevent the Negro exodus, have nevertheless succeeded in bringing several thousand colored workers into this district. That they have had little success in keeping these people here, is acknowledged by all of them. One company for instance, which imported about a thousand men within the past year, had only about three hundred of these working at the time of the investigator’s visit in July, 1917. One railroad, which is said to have brought about fourteen thousand people to the North within the last twelve months, has been able to keep an average of only eighteen hundred at work.

It must be admitted that the labor agents, because of their eagerness to secure as many men as possible, are not particular as to the character of those they are bringing here, and there is therefore a goodly number of idle and shiftless Negroes who are floating and undependable. On the other hand we must not fail to recognize that most migrants come through their own volition, pay their own fares, leave their native states, and break up family connections, because they are in search of better opportunities, social and economic. As a class they appear to be industrious, ambitious, pious and temperate, and are eager to get established with their families.

In the foregoing pages, we have discussed the housing and rooming situation which confronts the Negro. An examination of the kind and hours of work and wages received, discloses another reason why many of these people do not remain here.

TABLE NUMBER IX

Occupations of Migrants in Pittsburgh as Compared with Statements
of Occupations in South[5]

OCCUPATIONS IN PITTSBURGH PERCENTAGE IN SOUTH PERCENTAGE
Common Laborer 468 95 286 54
Skilled or semi-skilled 20 4 59 11
Farmer 81 15
Miner 36 7
Saw Mill Workers 9 2
Ran own farm or father’s farm 33 6
Ran farm on crop sharing basis 22 5
Other Occupations 5 1 0 0
493 100 529 100

From the foregoing table, it is apparent that ninety-five percent of the migrants who stated their occupations, were doing unskilled labor, in the steel mills, the building trades, on the railroads, or acting as servants, porters, janitors, cooks and cleaners. Only twenty or four percent out of four hundred and ninety-three migrants whose occupations were ascertained, were doing what may be called semi-skilled or skilled work, as puddlers, mold-setters, painters and carpenters. On the other hand, in the South fifty-nine of five hundred and twenty-nine claimed to have been engaged in skilled labor, while a large number were rural workers.

TABLE NUMBER X

Comparison Between Hours of Work Per Day in Pittsburgh
and in South

A comparison between work hours of migrants in the South and in Pittsburgh, reveals another interesting feature. As against the twenty-seven percent who were working less than ten hours a day at home, only sixteen percent are working for a like period here. A greater number work a ten-hour day here than in the South, (fifty-one percent as against thirty-eight percent), and there seems to be a greater number working over twelve hours per day before coming North, than afterward. This is probably due to the fact that a considerable body of these men were farm laborers.

TABLE NUMBER XI

Comparison of Wages Received Per Day in Pittsburgh and in South

As to the comparative wages paid here and in the South, it appears from [table number X], that the great mass of workers get higher wages here than in the places from which they come, fifty-six percent received less than two dollars a day in the South, while only five percent received such wages in Pittsburgh. However the number of those who said they received high wages in the South is greater than the number of those receiving them here. Fifteen percent said they received more than three dollars and sixty cents a day at home, while only five percent received more than that rate for twelve hours work here. Sixty-seven percent of the four hundred and fifty-three persons stating their earnings here, earn less than three dollars per day. Twenty-eight percent earn from three dollars to three sixty per day, while only five percent earn more than three dollars and sixty cents per day. The average working day for both Pittsburgh and the South is ten and four-tenths hours. The average wage is $2.85 here; in the South it amounted to $2.15. It may be interesting to point out that the number of married men who work longer hours and receive more money is proportionately greater than that of the single men, who have not “given hostages to fortune.”

It has been stated frequently that the Negro exodus from the South is in a large measure due to the fact that the Southern states have adopted prohibition. While it is true that most of the newcomers are from prohibition states, our figures, however, do not warrant the conclusion that the Negroes came North to use the saloon. We are inclined to believe that the answers to this question were sincere. The classification of “drinkers” includes all persons who imbibe however infrequently and those who drink beer only. Out of the four hundred and seventy-seven persons who answered these questions, two hundred and ten or forty-four percent said that they drank, while two hundred and sixty-seven or fifty-six percent were total abstainers. It is interesting to note that among those who have families in Pittsburgh, the percentage of those who drink is smaller than among those who are single or have families elsewhere. Thirty percent of the former class drink, while seventy percent do not drink at all. The percentage of drinkers of those with their families at home, is even greater than those of the single people, which may be explained by the fact that many of the younger people have as yet not acquired the drink habit.

The church going proclivity of the Negro is well known and is borne out by our study. Of the four hundred and eighty-nine who replied to this question, three hundred and seventy or almost seventy-six percent are either church members or attendants, and only one hundred and nineteen or twenty-four percent do not attend any church.

Proof that these newcomers are not all lazy, shiftless, and immoral is to be found in the statements of savings, and of remittances to relatives in the South. Fifteen percent of the families here had savings. Eighty percent[6] of the married ones with families elsewhere were sending money home, and nearly one hundred of the two hundred and nineteen single people interviewed, were contributing sums to parents, sisters or other relatives. Most of these contributions, (sixty-five percent) amounted to about five dollars per week. Fifty-two persons were contributing from five to ten dollars per week, and seven were sending over ten dollars per week.

From [table number XII], it seems that only a few of the Southern states have borne the brunt of the exodus. Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia taken together, have contributed sixty percent of the migrants, Alabama and Georgia giving forty-seven percent of the total number. Alabama was the native state of more than forty-nine percent of the married men who have families here. This altogether disproportionate influx from Alabama, as compared with other states, is probably due to the fact that our state and the former have similar industries. Birmingham, Alabama, as is well known, is called the “Pittsburgh of the South”; and it is therefore natural that the labor agents from this district should make a special effort to secure the labor which is more or less familiar with the iron and steel business. Again, it may be presumed that a great many who were working in the steel industries or in the mines of Alabama have come to Pittsburgh in order to secure familiar employment. A considerable number, however, may have come because of the crop failure and the ravages of the boll-weevil which have made the cultivation of cotton unprofitable during recent years.

TABLE NUMBER XII

Home States of 567 Migrants

Undoubtedly many Negroes have come to the North in response to the seductive arts of labor agents, who worked on a per capita commission basis. These emissaries, both in the North and in the South, made glowing promises of high wages, social equality, and better living conditions above the Mason-Dixon Line. But these inducements were probably not the underlying factor of the migration. They merely gave opportunity for the expression of a growing discontent engendered by many years of oppression. Segregation, lynchings, economic exploitation, and the denial of educational freedom, justice and constitutional right, had filled the Negro’s cup of bitterness to overflowing. The South was to his mind still a place of bondage for him and in the North he saw that long dreamed Land of Promise where he might live more freely.

Typical Dwellings of Negro Migrants.

Three hundred and ninety-five of the four hundred and seventy-four when questioned as to who paid their transportation North replied that they paid their own fare, while only seventy-nine admitted they were brought here at the expense of railroads and other industrial concerns. Numerous stories of persecutions by the White South on trumped up charges of all sorts are told by these migrants. Many of them say they had to leave their homes in secrecy and at night, and to walk to some station where they were not known, before they could board a train for the North. Many reported that they were unable to secure tickets at home, and had to secure them from the North. If tickets were discovered in the possession of a Negro, they were confiscated and destroyed by the police. At times when three or more Negroes were found together, they were suspected of “conspiring to go North”; some mythical charge was brought against them, and they were arrested. Threats and intimidation of all kinds were used against these migrants, both at home and on the train. One very intelligent Negro of about forty who owned property in Alabama related some of the persecutions which he had borne while at home. He told of taking the train at night several miles away from his own town, and of being accosted on board by a white Southerner who pointed to the next car which contained several coffins and said, “Yo Niggahs goin’ to Pittsburgh, eh? We all are jes shippin’ five of yo back from thah. They froze to death in Pittsburgh.” It may be interesting to remark that this occurred in June, 1917, when Pittsburgh was sweltering in the heat of early summer.

Of the more than four hundred men who stated their reasons for coming North, three hundred and twenty-five said that the higher wages and economic opportunities here had attracted them. Two hundred and eighty-eight of these also included better treatment as one of the factors in their migration. As one of them expressed it, “If I were half as well treated home as here, I would rather stay there, as I had my family there and had a better home and better health.” Eighty-five had no special reason for their coming, and were “jes travelin’ to see the country”, or the like. Twenty-five were either tired of their work or wanted to change it. This was the case particularly with the miners from West Virginia and Alabama. Twenty-seven had either lost their jobs, were out of work, or had various other reasons for coming. These figures seem to indicate that the prime causes of the migration are rather fundamental, and not merely temporary.

The Negro migration is similar to the previous European immigration because, while dominantly economic, it is also due to social and political maladjustments; but it is more largely a family migration. For the number of Negroes who brought women and children with them is greater in proportion to the total than was the case with the foreigners. The European usually came alone and sent for his family after a considerable lapse of time. The Negro either brings his family with him or sends for it within the first three or four months following his arrival. The complication of our housing problem is obvious under these circumstances, for Pittsburgh until the present time has attempted to meet the housing requirements of only single men workers of the new labor group.

The short-sightedness of our failure to provide decent homes in the city, in order to retain the labor which is so essential for the expansion of Pittsburgh and the growth of its industries, is again exposed by the figures in our study. Of the three hundred and thirty single men, or men without families here, answering the question as to whether they will remain here, return South or move elsewhere, only ninety-two or twenty-eight percent said they would remain here. A hundred and thirty-seven or forty-two percent were going back or somewhere else, while one hundred and one or thirty percent were still undecided.

As for the reasons why these men would not remain in the city, seventy-nine or fifty-seven percent were leaving because they could not get a better room because the rents paid by them were too excessive for the wages received; thirty-seven or twenty-seven percent, gave family connections as their reason, and the remaining sixteen percent either had no reasons or were leaving because of ill health, bad climate or other unfavorable conditions. The difficulty of securing an adequate labor supply for Pittsburgh is thus, in part, explained by the very nature of the economic problems involved.

[1] 13th U. S. Census, Penna. Bulletin, Table I, page 12; 1910.

[2] This average was obtained by dividing the total number of women and children of the families investigated, by the number of families.

[3] The Pittsburgh Graded Tax Law has, apparently, not been in operation long enough to produce the results desired by its sponsors.

[4] Pittsburgh Sanitary Code of 1913, Sections 132, 133 and 134, pages 75, 76 and 77.

[5] The differences in the totals in this table as well as in a few others, are due to the fact that many have given answers to one question and not to the other.

[6] The cause for many of these migrants not contributing to the support of their families may be explained by the fact that they have not been here long enough to get established.

CHAPTER II.
The Negro’s Own Problem

The Negro migration is neither an isolated nor a temporary phenomenon, but the logical result of a long series of linked causes beginning with the landing of the first slave ship and extending to the present day. The slavery which was ended by the Emancipation Proclamation and the Fourteenth Amendment of the National Constitution has been succeeded by less sinister, but still significant social and economic problems, which are full of subtle menace for the welfare of America.

The intelligent Negro has long believed that his only escape from the measure of suppression which still exists is to go to the North, and he has seized the opportunity whenever it was presented to him. The present unprecedented influx of black workers from the South is merely the result of a sudden expansion of opportunity due to a war-depleted labor market in the North. The causes for his migration are basically inherent in the social and economic system which has kept him down for these long years in the South. The Negro is beginning to appreciate his own value and duties, and is proceeding to the North where he knows he can at least enjoy a measure of justice. This naturally means a tremendous problem for the North. The race question is no longer confined to the states below the Mason and Dixon Line, but becomes the concern of the whole nation. It may be presumed that the European immigration after this war will not be as great as it was before it. The Negro is taking the place of the foreign worker, and he is certain to become an increasingly important factor in our national political and industrial life. He is already an important political factor in some municipalities; he is soon to be a basic factor in our industries. The Negro who has lived in the North has taken advantage of the industrial opportunities which were open to him, and is continuing to do so more and more.

Our policy of laissez-faire adopted towards the European immigrant can no longer be continued. This war has taught us some great lessons, and probably the greatest of all is the lesson of the necessity for a redefinition of social terms, and a reconsideration of human values. It has made us realize that if we want the nation to stand united in times of stress our policy must be consistent at all times. Democracy we have learned in this struggle, no longer means “each for himself, and the devil take the hind-most.” If it means anything at all, it is that we are “members one of another”, and that an injury to one is an injury to and the concern of all. Our old policy has shown us that the devil has taken too many, and we have come to say, “Halt!” This must no longer continue. We must see that all the elements which go to make up our body-politic are adjusted and placed in their proper relation. Our traditional attitude, this struggle has taught us, is too costly and we cannot afford longer to continue it. We know now that it is not sufficient that a few may have democracy and freedom while the rest are denied economic opportunity. We are also coming to realize that “we cannot hold a part of our fellow-men down in the gutter without remaining there ourselves.”

No exact estimate of the number of Negroes who have come North within the last year is possible. Estimates vary from three hundred thousand to seven hundred thousand. There are probably about two million Negroes now living in the North, and it is of paramount importance that we look into the conditions of these people who although in our midst, are yet so little known to us, and see that they are fitted into their new environment. Our little study of the social opportunities available, and the conditions existing among our Negro brethren may therefore be of great interest, and we are glad to present here some of the facts which were disclosed in our survey of these people who have recently settled amongst us, in order to avail themselves of our hospitality, and industrial opportunities. We have discussed in the preceding pages the immediate opportunities for Negroes in this city as to housing and wages. It may therefore not be amiss to discuss the possibilities of his attaining an advanced political, social and economic status.

Politically, the Negro in Pittsburgh is as free as the whites of the same group. Coming from places where the vote is denied him, he is naturally very glad to receive the privilege in Pittsburgh. It is a well known fact that the Negro vote is often a deciding factor in the results of municipal elections. Although there are a few shrewd Negro politicians, and the Negro vote is frequently “en bloc” there is never an issue made on some particular Negro problem. All candidates seem to assume that there is no special issue that concerns the Negro more than any other group in the city, and unscrupulous Negro politicians are not in the least perturbed. They always see to it, however, that no Negro vote will be lost, that their occupation tax is paid, and that they are registered. This was clearly brought out in this year’s municipal election. Although the Negro vote was a great factor in deciding this campaign, not one of the candidates made an issue of the housing and other problems which are confronting the Negroes at present. It can therefore be stated that in politics, while the Negro has been utilized by all sorts of politicians, he has at least nominally been as free as his white brother in the same position.

However, more and more we are coming to realize that political freedom without industrial opportunities means but little. Democracy must also mean industrial opportunity, and social democracy, as well as political democracy. But the industrial opportunity which the Negro demands is not even the same as is demanded by his more fortunate white-skinned brother. While his fellow-human beings demand a larger voice in industry and business, and a greater share of the product, the Negro is still meekly begging for his inalienable right to participate in industry, to help extend and build it up. It is the denial of this right that confronts the Negro in the North, and makes his problem of paramount significance.

The great majority of the Negro migrants come North because of the better economic and social opportunities here. But even here they are not permitted to enter industry freely. They are kept in the ranks of unskilled labor and in the field of personal service. Until the present demand for unskilled labor arose, the Negroes in the North were for the most part, servants. There were very few Negroes occupied otherwise than as porters, chauffeurs, janitors and the like. The Negro at present has entered the productive industries, but he is kept still on the lowest rung of the economic ladder.

TABLE NUMBER XIII[7]

List of Industrial Concerns Visited in the Pittsburgh District

NAME OF CONCERNNo. of Negroes employed at present.No. employed prior to 1916.% doing unskilled labor.Wages per hour of unskilled labor.No. of hours per day.
Carnegie Steel Co. (all plants)4,0001,50095%30c8 to 12
Jones & Laughlin1,500400100%30c10
Westinghouse Elec. & Mfg. Co.9002590%28-30c10
Harbison & Walker2505080%27½c10
National Tube Co. (all plants)250100100%30c10
Pressed Steel Car Co.252550%23c11
Pgh. Forge & Iron750100%30c10
Moorhead Brothers20020075%30c10
Am. Steel & Wire2525100%28-30c10
Clinton Iron & Steel252575%
Oliver Iron & Steel500100%25-28c10
Carbon Steel Co.2005075%30c10-12
Crucible Steel Co.40015090%28-33c10
A. M. Byers Co.200060%10
Lockhart Steel Co.160095%27½c10
Mesta Machine Co.500100%30c10
Marshall Foundry Co.150
U. S. Glass Co.No Negroes employed
Thompson-Sterret Co.No Negroes employed
Spang-Chalfant Co.No Negroes employed
8,3252,550

From a study of colored employees in twenty of the largest industrial plants, in the Pittsburgh district, arbitrarily selected ([Table No. XIII]), we find that most of the concerns have employed colored labor only since May or June of 1916. Very few of the Pittsburgh industries have used colored labor in capacities other than as janitors and window cleaners. A few of the plants visited had not begun to employ colored people until in the spring of 1917, while a few others had not yet come to employ Negroes, either because they believed the Negro workers to be inferior and inefficient, or because they feared that their white labor force would refuse to work with the blacks. The Superintendent of one big steel plant which has not employed colored labor during the past few years admitted that he faced a decided shortage of labor, and that he was in need of men; but he said he would employ Negroes only as a last resort, and that the situation was as yet not sufficiently acute to warrant their employment. In a big glass plant, the company attempted to use Negro labor last winter, but the white workers “ran them out” by swearing at them, calling them “Nigger” and making conditions so unpleasant for them that they were forced to quit. This company has therefore given up any further attempts at employing colored labor. It may be interesting to note, however, that one young Negro boy who pays no attention to such persecution persistently stays there.

About ninety-five percent of the colored workers in the steel mills visited in our survey were doing unskilled labor. In the bigger plants, where many hundreds of Negroes are employed, almost one hundred percent are doing common labor, while in the smaller plants, a few might be found doing labor which required some skill. The reasons alleged by the manufacturers are; first, that the migrants are inefficient and unstable, and second, that the opposition to them on the part of white labor prohibits their use on skilled jobs. The latter objection is illustrated by the case of the white bargemen of a big steel company who wanted to walk out because black workers were introduced among them, and who were only appeased by the provision of separate quarters for the Negroes. While there is an undeniable hostility to Negroes on the part of a few white workers, the objection is frequently exaggerated by prejudiced gang bosses.

That this idea is often due to the prejudice of the heads of departments and other labor employers, was the opinion of a sympathetic superintendent of one of the largest steel plants, who said that in many instances it was the superintendents and managers themselves, who are not alive to their own advantage and so oppose the Negro’s doing the better classes of work. The same superintendent said that he had employed Negroes for many years; that a number of them have been connected with his company for several years; that they are just as efficient as the white people. More than half of the twenty-five Negroes in his plant were doing semi-skilled and even skilled work. He had one or two colored foremen over colored gangs, and cited an instance of a colored man drawing a hundred and fourteen dollars in his last two weeks pay. This claim was supported by a very intelligent Negro who was stopped a few blocks away from the plant and questioned as to the conditions in the plant. While admitting everything that the Superintendent said, and stating that there is now absolute free opportunity for colored people in that plant, the man claimed that these conditions have come into being only within the last year. The same superintendent told of an episode illustrating the amicable relations existing in his shop between the white and black workers. He related that a gang of workers had come to him with certain complaints and the threat of a walk-out. When their grievances had been satisfactorily adjusted, they pointed to the lonely black man in their group and said that they were not ready to go back unless their Negro fellow worker was satisfied.

The Migration in Process.

From our survey of the situation it must be evident that the southern migrants are not as well established in the Pittsburgh industries as is the white laborer. They are as yet unadapted to the heavy and pace-set labor in our steel mills. Accustomed to the comparatively easy-going plantation and farm work of the South, it will take some time until these migrants have found themselves. The roar and clangor of our mills make these newcomers a little dazed and confused at first. They do not stay long in one place, being birds of passage; they are continually searching for better wages and accommodations. They cannot even be persuaded to wait until pay day, and they like to get money in advance, following the habit they have acquired from the southern economic system. It is often secured on very flimsy pretexts and spent immediately in the saloons and similar places. It is admitted, however, by all employers of labor, that the Negro who was born in the North or has been in the North for some time, although not as subservient to bad treatment, is as efficient as the white; that because of his knowledge of the language and the ways of this country, he is often much better than the foreign laborer who understands neither.

Paradoxical as it may seem, the labor movement in America—which it is claimed was begun and organized primarily to improve the conditions of all workers, and protect their interests from the designs of heartless and cruel industrial captains—has not only made no effort to relieve and help the oppressed black workers who have suffered even more than the whites from exploitation and serfdom, but in many instances have remained indifferent to the economic interests and even served as an obstacle to the free development of the colored people.

Since the East St. Louis race riots in July of this year, and later on the Chester and other race clashes, the press has been full of controversy concerning the colored labor problem in the North. Employers as well as many prominent persons openly laid the blame for the spilling of the blood of women and little children at the door of the labor unions. On the other hand, the labor men almost as a unit have charged the responsibility for these riots to the Northern industrial leaders who are bringing these laborers to be used as a tool to break up the labor movement in the North.

The motives of the employers who are bringing the colored migrants are obviously not altruistic. They are not concerned primarily with freeing the Negro from the economic and political restrictions to which he is still subjected in the South. It is not to be assumed that their interests extend further than the employment of these ignorant people as unskilled laborers. Indeed the sheer economic interest of the Northern industrial concerns which are bringing the Negro migrants, may be illustrated by the following contract, which is typical of many agreements signed by migrants when accepting transportation North.

“It is hereby understood that I am to work for the above named Company as ...................................., the rate of pay to be .................................. The ............ Railroad agrees to furnish transportation and food to destination. I agree to work on any part of the .............. Railroad where I may be assigned. I further agree to reimburse the ............ Railroad for the cost of my railroad transportation, in addition to which I agree to pay ................................ to cover the cost of meals and other expenses incidental to my employment.

I authorize the Company to deduct from my wages money to pay for the above expenses.

In consideration of the ............ Railroad paying my carfare, board, and other expenses, I agree to remain in the service of the aforesaid Company until such time as I reimburse them for the expenses of my transportation, food, etc.

It is agreed upon the part of the Railroad Company that if I shall remain in the service for one year, the ............ Railroad Company agrees to return to me the amount of carfare from point of shipment to ........................... By continuous service for one year is meant that I shall not absent myself from duty any time during the period without the consent of my superior officer.

It is understood by me that the ............ Railroad will not grant me free transportation to the point where I was employed.

I am not less than twenty-one or more than forty-five years of age, and have no venereal disease. If my statement in this respect is found to be incorrect this contract becomes void.”

....................
Laborer’s Name.

It is apparent that since the war has put a stop to the importation of foreign immigrants, the Negroes are so far the only cheap and unorganized labor supply obtainable. Indeed Mexicans were brought to work here in the same way, although the experience with them was not as satisfactory as with the blacks.

While it may be true that the motive for bringing these ignorant workers is primarily to fill up the unskilled labor gap, and not to break up the labor movement, it is self-evident that the employers would scarcely admit the latter motive even though it was paramount. It may be, that ultimately the employers may use these workers against the union organizations or against the securing of the eight-hour-day, which the local unions are aiming to attain. Indeed, the employment agent of one of our great industrial plants, which underwent a big strike a few years ago, pointed out that one of the great values of the Negro migration lies in the fact that it gives him a chance to “mix up his labor forces and to establish a balance of power”, as the Negro, he claimed, “is more individualistic, does not like to group and does not follow a leader, as readily as some foreigners do.” However, in only one instance in our survey of the Pittsburgh Trade Unions, was a complaint lodged against colored people taking the places of striking white workers. This was in a waiters’ strike and was won just the same, because the patrons of the restaurants protested against the substitution of Negro waiters. In all the others, there were no such occurrences. Indeed, the number of Negroes taking the places of striking whites and of skilled white workers is so small that it is hardly appreciable. They are, as we have seen, largely taking the places which were left vacant by the unskilled foreign laborers since the beginning of the war, and the new places created by the present industrial boom. No effective effort has been made to organize these unskilled laborers by the recognized American labor movement. These people, therefore, whose places are now being taken by the Negroes, worked under no American standard of labor, and the fear of these unskilled laborers breaking down labor standards which have never existed, is obviously unfounded.

The generalization cannot also be made that the colored people are difficult to organize, for from our survey we have found only one Union, the Waiter’s Local, that has made any attempt to organize the colored people, and was unsuccessful. The official of this Union explains it because the colored waiters “are more timid, listen to their bosses, and also have a kind of distrust of the white Unions.” The same official also admitted that while he himself would have no objection to working with colored people, the rank and file of his Union would not work on the same floor with a colored waiter. None of the other Unions made any effort to organize the colored workers in their respective trades, and they cannot therefore complain of the difficulty of organizing the Negroes.

In the two trade organizations which admit Negroes to membership, the colored man has proved to be as good a unionist as his white fellows. A single local of the Hod Carriers Union, a strong labor organization, has over four hundred Negroes among its six hundred members, and has proved how easy it is to organize even the new migrants by enlisting over one hundred and fifty southern hod carriers within the past year.

The other Union which admits Negroes—The Hoisting Engineers’ Union, has a number of colored people in its ranks. Several of these are charter-members, and a number have been connected with the organization for a considerable time. Judging from the strength of these Unions—the only ones in the city which have a considerable number of blacks amongst them—the Negroes have proved as good Union men as the whites. If the Pittsburgh trade organizations are typical of the present national trade union movement it would appear that there is little hope for the Negroes. If the present policy of the American labor movement continues, the Negroes can depend but little upon this great liberating force for their advancement. A few facts disclosed in our canvas of the trade unions in Pittsburgh will bear out our statements.

A Row of Dilapidated Old Dwellings in the Downtown Section Used as Rooming Houses for Migrants.

An official of a very powerful Union which has a membership of nearly five thousand said that it had about five colored members. He admitted that there are several hundred Negroes working in the same trade in this city, but his organization does not encourage them to organize and will admit one of them only when he can prove his ability in his work—a technical excuse for exclusion. This official was a man who was born in the South; he believed in the inferiority of the Negro, deplored the absence of a Jim Crow system, and was greatly prejudiced.

Another official of an even more powerful trade union was greatly astonished when he learned that there are white people who take an interest in the Negro question. He absolutely refused to give any information and did not think it was worth while to answer such questions, although he admitted that his union had no colored people and would never accept them. There are, however, several hundred Negroes working at this trade in the city. White members related numerous incidents of white unionists leaving a job when a colored man appeared. Several other unions visited had no Negroes in the union although there were some local colored people in their respective trades.

The typical attitude of the complacent trade unionist is illustrated by a letter which was written by a very prominent local labor leader, a member of the “Alliance for Labor and Democracy” in answer to certain questions asked him. This official refused to state anything orally, and asked that the questions be put to him in writing. His answers, we may presume, have been carefully worded after considerable contemplation of the problem.

The letter begins: “While I do not wish to appear evasive, I do not think some of the questions should have been asked me at this time.” Questions and answers follow:

Q. Number of white members in the Union?

A. Our Union has had a growth of one hundred percent in the past six months in the Pittsburgh district.

Q. Number of colored people in the Union?

A. None.

Q. Has there been an increase in the colored labor in your trade within the last year? If so, state approximately the proportion.

A. Yes, estimates can be made only by the employer, as we do not control all shops.

Q. Has there been an increase in the colored union membership within the last year or two?

A. Yes, statistics can be gotten from Mr. Frank Morrison, Secretary, American Federation of Labor, Washington, D. C.

Q. What efforts does your Union make to organize the colored people in your trade?

A. Same effort as all others, as the A. F. of L. does not bar any worker on account of race or creed.

Q. Has any colored person applied for membership in your Union within the last year?

A. Yes.

Q. Have the colored people in your trade asked for a separate charter?

A. Not that I know of.

Q. Do you personally know of any complaint by a person of color against your Union as regards race discrimination?

A. Yes.

The official admits that there are colored workers in his trade, that some have applied for membership, and that there have been complaints of race discrimination. His statement concerning efforts to organize Negro laborers would seem to have little meaning in view of his assertion that the growth of white membership during the past year was one hundred percent, while that of Negro membership was zero.

It may, however, be interesting to note that a man who joined this Union about the time this letter was written, said the President of the Union gave him the following pledge:

“I pledge that I will not introduce for membership into this Union anyone but a sober, industrious, WHITE person.”

Very often union officials are apt to point to their constitutions which guarantee that no color line be established, and say that the colored people make little effort to organize, and that they are really not trying to get into the Union. “Why don’t the Negroes organize locals of their own?” they ask. The assertion that colored people are making little effort to become organized is undoubtedly true, for it may be presumed that if they had continuously, insistently and in sufficient numbers knocked at the doors of the trade unions the barriers would have been unable to withstand the strain and would have opened to them. But unfortunately the attitude of the trade unions developed among the Negroes a feeling of hopelessness which is detrimental to both the Negroes and the labor movement. “What’s the use?” is the reply usually given by skilled colored workers when asked why they do not join the unions. They know well enough that they will not be admitted, and that even if they were accepted they could never hope to secure a job from the Union. This spirit goes even further, and is fraught with the most imminent danger. A very intelligent colored labor official said, that there is developing among many Negroes the feeling that the most laudable action is to do anything which will harm or break the labor movement.

A Row of Model Houses Originally Built by a Steel Company for its Colored Workers, but used by Foreign Laborers at Present Because of the Protest of the People in the Neighborhood.

That this fatalistic and dangerous attitude of the colored people is not groundless is again evidenced from our study of the situation. The attempt of union officials to becloud or to ignore the issue by saying that the colored people make no effort to become Union members, and do not try to organize their own locals is disclosed by the following case:

On January 1st, 1917, a group of about thirty unorganized Negro plasterers sent the following letter to the Operative Plasterer’s and Cement Finishers’ International Association of the United States with offices at Middletown, Ohio.

Pittsburgh, Pa., January 1st, 1917.

“We, the undersigned Colored Plasterers of the City of Pittsburgh, met in a session on the above named date, and after forming an Organization for our mutual benefit voted to petition to you our grievances on the grounds of being discriminated against because of our color. We therefore would like to have a Local Body of our own for our people. We also voted to ask you for the advice and consideration of such a movement, and hereby petition you that you grant us a license for a local of our own, to be operated under your jurisdiction, praying this will meet with your approval, and hoping to get an early reply.

This will show that to date we have the support of the men here listed besides a few more. Officers elected so far are as follows:”

The signatures of the officers and twenty-five members follow.

The International then sent the following reply:

“Replying to your letter, we are writing our Pittsburgh Local today in reference to your application for charter. According to the rules and regulations of our organization, no organization can be chartered in any city where we have a Local without consulting the older Organization.”

This was signed by the Secretary of the International Association.

The Pittsburgh Local then invited the Secretary of the colored organization to appear at their regular meeting. When the Secretary came, they told him he could have five minutes time in which to present his claims. Nothing resulted from this meeting and no written statement whatsoever was made by the Pittsburgh Local in spite of attempts to secure such.

On a further appeal to the International, the Secretary of the Colored Plasterer’s Organization received the following letter from the International Secretary.

“Replying to your letter, I enclose a copy of our constitution and refer you to section No. 34, page No. 8, which means that no charter can be issued to your organization unless approved by No. 31 of Pittsburgh, Pa.”

An official of Local number 31 admitted that the rank and file would never consent to have colored people among them, and attend the social functions given by the Union, although he claimed they could not possibly reject a man because of his color, as it is a gross violation of their constitution. He explained the reasons for his local refusing a separate charter to the Negroes as follows: First, that if a charter would be granted to them, they would all become members for the nominal charter fee while their initiation fee for individuals amounts to thirty dollars, and this he said would be a discrimination in favor of the Negroes. But the greatest objection was that the colored plasterers asked for a smaller scale of wages, ($4.50 a day as compared with $6 for whites). When questioned as to his reason why the colored people would not prefer a higher wage, he explained that they could not get work as no one would employ a person of color at the same wages as a white person.[8]

The Secretary of the short-lived colored organization gave as his reason for not joining the Union as an individual the fact that he was aware that the Union, even were he a member, would not supply him with a job, and that white Union men would walk out were he by any chance to be employed.

Another illustration of the difficulty confronting the colored person when he desires to join a Union, is the following: Two colored migrants, J. D. and C. S., painters from Georgia, had applied to the Union for membership in November and December 1916, respectively. Both of these persons have their families here, and claim fourteen and sixteen years’ experience in the trade, stating also that they can do as good a job as any other union man. Each one of these claims to have made from $25 to $30 a week in the South by contracting. The official in the office of the Union whom they approached to ask for membership unceremoniously told them that it would take no colored men into membership. The result was that one of these men was fortunate enough to find work in his own line in a non-union shop, receiving twenty dollars per week for eight and one-half hours, as compared with $5.50 for an eight hour day, the union scale. The second man, however, was not so fortunate, and unable to find work in his own line, he is now working as a common laborer in a steel plant making $2.70 for ten hours per day. That many of the colored skilled people do not attempt to join the union because they know the existing situation is obvious. The brother-in-law of one of the above men, also a skilled worker, when asked why he did not try to join the Union, characteristically shrugged his shoulders and uttered the fatalistic “What’s the use?”

The following case which throws light on the general situation, and illustrates the resultant effects of this injustice was related by the head clerk of the State Employment Bureau of this city.

“In the month of June, 1917, a man giving the name of P. Bobonis, a Porto Rican, came to our office and asked for work as a carpenter. Mr. Bobonis was a union carpenter, a member of the Colorado State Union. The first place he was sent they told him they were filled up, and when a call was made to determine if the company had sufficient carpenters, the foreman said that it was impossible for them to employ a colored carpenter as all of the white men would walk out, but that they were still badly in need of carpenters. It was then decided to call upon the different companies recognizing the union, to see if they all felt the same way. Much to our amazement we found it to be the general rule—the colored man could pay his initiation fee and dues in the Union, but after that was done he was left little hopes for employment. Four large companies were called for this man and he could not be placed. As a last attempt, a call on the Dravo Contracting Company was made and as they have some union and others non-union men, they employed the man.

Mr. Bobonis was not a floater, but a good man. He is a graduate of Oberlin College and is now working to raise enough money to enable him to study medicine.”

Although the attitude of the recognized American Labor movement on the colored question is generally known, the great mass of people are easily misled and appealed to on race lines. It is unfortunate that often a race issue is made of a purely labor question. An episode of the past winter is a case in point. The drivers in one of our department stores had organized themselves into a union and were locked out. The department store immediately substituted colored non-union drivers. Appeals to union people based on race issues were then carried to the patrons of that store until the department store was forced to discharge all of its colored drivers and re-instate the white ones. This was done in spite of the fact that the Union was not recognized, and was broken up, and although the manager of the store is said to have admitted that almost half of the colored drivers had proved one hundred percent efficient.

The difficulties and slow progress made in organizing the laboring classes generally is apparent to anyone who reflects that in spite of the long years of continued effort, and in spite of the fact that in many instances there was no resistance from the employers, hardly ten percent of the working population of the United States is organized in trade and industrial unions today. The problem is difficult for the white men, and it is exceedingly more difficult for the blacks. The white laboring classes have to contend only with the manufacturers. The Negroes, however, have to contend with the white trade unions as well as with the employers.

Until recently, very few colored people in the North were working in trades where the whites were organized. The great mass of Negroes were doing work of the personal service character, and acted as porters, janitors, elevator men, etc. This class of workers is extremely difficult to organize even among the whites. Within the past two years, however, Negroes have in increasing numbers entered the trades which have been organized by the whites. Being refused admission to most of the white unions the only thing the colored man can do is to form his own organization. The first step toward organizing the Negro working man and woman was taken in New York City in July 1917, when the Associated Colored Employees of America was organized. The bulletin used by this organization states that its purpose is to give “facts concerning conditions in the North compiled for the benefit of those who some day expect or desire to be actually free.” This organization aims to function as an employment bureau advising members where particular work may be found, and to give general information to those workers who are eager to come from the South.

Rear View of Tenement Near Soho Dump. Note Refuse on Left and Street Level on Right.

The difficulty in organizing the colored people into a separate organization along Trade Union Lines was thus explained by a very prominent Negro leader. The Negro, he said, is escaping from the tyranny of the South to the freedom of the North. In the North he is opposed and at times even mobbed by white laboring men. Strange as it may seem, the industrial captain in the North is the Negro’s only friend. He at least is interested in him; he goes after him to bring him North, provides food and shelter for him, pays him better wages than he received in the South, and in many instances gives him medical attention, and helps him bring his family here. Can you expect him under the circumstances to alienate and betray his only friend in the North, for the trade unions whom he fears and distrusts?

It is obvious that the trade unions will have to make a more attractive appeal to convince the Negro that they are really his best friends. Their duty and policy are clear. Theirs is a struggle for the protection of the working people, in order to secure for all the oppressed some of the enjoyments of life. Theirs is a continuous battle for organization, the organization of all workers, irrespective of race, color and creed.

The Negro’s own problem and his tragedy in slavery and in freedom is probably best summarized in the following lines taken from the Emporia Gazette and written by William Allen White:

“If the black man loafs in the South he starves. If he works in the South he is poorly paid, more or less in kind—chips and whetstones—and his wife becomes a ‘pan-toter.’ If he leaves his own estate in the South and goes to work in Northern industry, he is mobbed and killed.”

“He was brought to these shores from Africa a captive. He is held by his captors in economic bondage today—forbidden to rise above the lowest serving class. He is herded by himself in a ghetto, and if, while he is there, he reverts to the jungle type, he is burned alive. If he tries to break out of his ghetto, and, by assimilating the white man’s civilization, rise, he is driven out by his white brothers.”

“If he goes to school, he becomes discontented and is unhappy and dissatisfied with his social status. If he does not go to school and remains ignorant, he is then only a ‘coon,’ whom everybody exploits, and who has to cheat and swindle in return, or go down in poverty to begging and shame. There aren’t ships enough in the world to take him back to the land of his freedom; there isn’t enough for him here except on the crowded bottom rung of the ladder, and there, always, the grinding heel of those climbing over him topward is mangling his black hands.”

“Race riots, lynchings, political ostracism, social boycott, economic serfdom. No wonder he sings:

“Hard Trials—

“Great tribulations,

“Hard trials—

“I’m gwine for to live with the Lord!”

No wonder as he looks dismally back at the forest whence he came, and dismally forward to the hopeless set to which he is slowly being pushed, he lifts his plaintive voice in its heartbroken minor and wails:

“Swing low, sweet chariot, comin’ for to carry me home!”

““Home” is about the only place he can go, where they don’t oppress him.”

[7] The figures in this table were secured during the months of July and August 1917, and have probably been changed since.

[8] The fear that admitting local Negroes to the trade unions would flood the city with skilled Southern Negroes, was given as a reason by one Negro for the exclusion of his race-men from the unions, but was not mentioned by any of the white union officials.