The Negro Migrant in Pittsburgh

by Abraham Epstein

CHAPTER III

A Delinquency Study of the Negro in Pittsburgh

An understanding of the conduct and morality of the newcomer and stranger is essential both for the migrant himself and for the community upon which he is thrust. The migrant is unknown to us. We look upon the stranger with suspicion and upon all his habits and customs as queer and out of the ordinary. It is therefore natural for us to question his morality and character and to consider him the cause of the crimes and vices of the community. In the past, we blamed the Italians, the Slavs, the Jews and the other foreign groups as being mainly responsible for many of the anti-social acts in our urban society; but when we come to know them our attitude changes.

The Negro, although with us for centuries, is still unintelligible to the average northern community. This has been borne out by our present survey in the Pittsburgh district. Although in many instances the Negroes live near the whites, even among them, there is very little understanding or communication between the two races, and mutual prejudice and suspicion prevail.

With the cessation of the white immigration incident to the war and the influx of thousands of Negroes from the South the black has become the stranger in town. We see him crowding in certain districts, congregating on street corners, apparently amazed at his sudden transference from country to city life; from his home, a familiar though oppressive environment, into the glare and lure of the great industrial city with its apparent freedom for all. The Negro looks with wonder upon all this, and his reaction to it seems suspicious to the whites. When they see the police patrol wagon frequently in the colored district or when some crime is committed in that neighborhood it is not unnatural for them to think that these strangers are responsible for all crime and vice. This, unfortunately, is not only the attitude of the average person unfamiliar with conditions, but is also the theory upon which the police officials seem to proceed in their work. On one occasion when a murder was committed in the “Hill” district the police made wholesale arrests of the Negroes, only to free them in a few days, having no evidence against them.

This assumption of the Negro’s responsibility for a “wave of crime, rape and murder” this year was held not only by persons who got their information from a played-up case in the newspapers, but also by many social workers and Negroes themselves, as was evidenced by their expressed personal opinions. A colored probation officer, for instance, asserted that the juvenile delinquency among her people had at least doubled during the last year, and she was greatly surprised when an examination of the records disclosed a very considerable decrease in these cases, ([Table No. XIX]). This illustrates how erroneous our impressions about strange groups in our communities may be, and how essential are the facts to a clear understanding of the situation.

Wednesday 3:30 P. M. Lower Wylie Avenue.

In order to ascertain the facts concerning the extent of Negro crime in the Pittsburgh district, an analysis was made of the police court records of seven months in the year 1914-1915 in comparison with the same period of 1916-1917. The periods selected were December 1, 1914 to June 30, 1915 and December 1, 1916 to June 30, 1917. The first period embraces the time of the initial war prosperity before the migration had begun. In the second period the Negro migration was at its highest point. The police dockets of Station Number 1, the Central Station, and Station Number 2—which is in the most densely populated Negro section of the city—were carefully canvassed and compared as to number of arrests, kind of charges, disposition of cases and age, sex, etc., of the accused. Tables follow:

TABLE NUMBER XV

Showing Total Number of Charges of Arrested Negroes Brought to Stations No. 1 and No. 2 from December 1, 1914 to June 30, 1915 and December 1, 1916 to June 30, 1917, and also the percentage of Increase during the last Period.

CHARGES	1914-1915 Male Female Total			1916-1917 Male Female Total			% of Inc. 1917
PETTY OFFENCES
Suspicious Persons	390	77	467	668	111	779	67
Disorderly Conduct	353	74	427	493	106	599	41
Drunkenness	240	42	282	869	40	909	222
Keeping Disorderly Houses	16	22	38	36	55	91	140
Visiting Disorderly Houses	92	29	121	217	76	293	142
Common Prostitute	0	58	58	0	54	54	—7
Violating City Ordinances	85	0	85	143	0	143	68
Keeping Gambling Houses	5	5	0	0	0	0
Visiting Gambling Houses	31	0	31	0	0	0
Vagrancy	75	9	84	93	0	93	11
Other non-Court Charges	83	0	83	37	0	37
TOTAL	1370	311	1681	2556	442	2998
MAJOR OFFENCES
Larceny	20	1	21	20	3	23
Assault & Battery	12	0	12	13	0	13
Highway Robbery	3	0	3	4	0	4
Entering Buildings	20	0	20	7	0	7
Felonious Cutting & Felonious Shooting	7	1	8	17	2	19
Murder turned over to Coroner	12	0	12	5	1	6
Assault and Battery with attempt to Commit Rape	5	0	5	3	0	3
Concealed Weapons & Point. Firearms	2	1	3	12	0	12
Other Court Charges	9	0	9	6	1	7
TOTAL	90	3	93	87	7	94
GRAND TOTAL	1460	314	1774	2643	449	3092

The foregoing tables and figures reveal many features which are extremely interesting. The first thing that strikes us is the disproportionate increase in petty arrests over the increase in court charges or graver crimes. From the figures obtained it appears that although the number of arrests on charges of suspicion, drunkenness, disorderly conduct and similar petty charges have increased from approximately forty percent to over two hundred percent; the graver crimes, as a whole, have remained stable in spite of the increase in population, while in some of the crimes which are usually accredited to Negroes, we find a marked decline. The percentage of grave charges compared to the total number of arrests, has decreased from 5% in 1914-15 to 3% in 1916-17. Thus, we find only two more larcenies in 1916-17 than in 1914-15; a considerable decline in charges for entering buildings and two charges less of rape.

TABLE NUMBER XVI

Showing the disposition of the Negroes Arrested and Brought to Police Stations Number 1 and Number 2 from December 1, 1914 to June 30, 1915 and December 1, 1916 to June 30, 1917; the percentage of the total arrests and the percentage of increase or decrease during the latter period.

DISPOSITION	1914-15 Total No.	1916-17 Total No.	Percentage of 1914-15	Total Arrests 1916-17	% of inc.	% of dec.
Discharged	849	1716	48	55	102
Held for Court	93	94	5	3	0
Fines	308	532	17	17	73
Jail	230	369	13	12	60
Workhouse	179	334	10	11	87
Otherwise disposed	114	47	7	2
	1773	3092	100	100

Of the three thousand ninety-two arrests during 1916-1917, one thousand seven hundred and sixteen were discharged without fines, again demonstrating the petty character or the lack of evidence on these charges.

It is not difficult to find an explanation for the tremendous increase in arrests on charges of suspicion, disorderly conduct and the like. The colored migrant, timid, friendless and unknown as he is when he comes from the South, easily becomes an object of surveillance. The railroads were bringing a train load of black workers practically every day. Many come to Pittsburgh with the desire to remain here, but the labor agents want them to go further east. Workers of this class either try to get away from the labor agent, or, being separated from him in the general confusion prevailing at the stations, are stranded and left without resources. As strangers they know nothing about the city or its ways. They are but lately come out from communities where they have known only oppression, and in many cases their exodus has been a secret one. It is not remarkable that men in their state of mind should be looked upon by the police as questionable characters and arrested on the charges of being suspicious persons, or should fall into the hands of the law for various other reasons.

The marked increase in drunkenness is not surprising either. From an analysis of the housing and lodging situation in Pittsburgh the reader will realize that these migrants have no place in which to spend their leisure time except the street corners and in the saloon. In practically all rooming houses beds are run on a double shift basis. A man may stay in his room only when he sleeps. On awakening he must surrender his bed to another lodger and go elsewhere. There are no recreational facilities provided him by the city. Only one place, the saloon, welcomes him with open doors, and even this dangerous hospitality is denied him except in the Negro quarters. That the stranger should not embrace the only means of relaxation offered him in his new environment would be incredible.

TABLE NUMBER XVII

Showing the age and sex of the persons Arrested in the two Stations from December 1, 1914 to June 30, 1915 and from December 1, 1916 to June 30, 1917.

	Total No. 1914-15 Male Female		Total 1916-17 Male Female		Total 1914-15 1916-17
Under 16	40	8	21	7	48	28
16 to 20	69	31	112	18	100	130
20 to 30	556	195	1133	237	751	1370
30 to 40	398	109	797	96	507	893
40 to 50	232	18	432	35	250	467
50 and over	107	11	192	12	118	204
	1402	372	2687	405	1774	3092

TABLE NUMBER XVIII

Showing the Number of Married and Single People Arrested; Also Showing the Sex.

	Total No. 1914-15 Male Female		Total No. 1916-17 Male Female		TOTAL 1914-15 1916-17
Single	1024	194	2269	256	1218	2525
Married	395	161	428	139	556	567
	1419	355	2697	395	1774	3092

That there should be a big increase in the visitation of disorderly houses is to be expected. As we have seen, the migration is as yet largely that of single men and of men who have left their families behind them. As with the other foreign groups who have migrated to America, there is an entire break up of the normal family standard. It is therefore inevitable that with higher wages and with the prevailing housing and rooming congestion vice should flourish. The fact that in spite of the tremendous increase in disorderly houses there is some decline in arrests on charges of prostitution can be interpreted only in terms of the laxity and tolerance of the police department. This also accounts for the fact that while during the seven months of 1914-1915 five gambling houses were raided and thirty-one persons were arrested for gambling, there were no raids or arrests during the same period this year.

The big increase in arrests on charges of felonious cutting, pointing firearms, and carrying concealed weapons, may be explained in a variety of ways. Since the post bellum days, the carrying and handling of arms in the South was sanctioned socially. The whites have carried, and in some places are still carrying these weapons with them. The Negro, whether because of his habit of imitating the whites or because he has learned the lesson of protecting and defending himself, has also acquired the habit of carrying weapons. Being too poor or too timid in the South to purchase a revolver or similar dangerous weapon, he had to content himself with a knife or a razor.

Immediately upon the Negro’s arrival in Pittsburgh, and as soon as he gets off the train, his attention is called to these means of defense which are profusely displayed in the show windows of second hand stores near the stations. These arms are tempting to his primitive instinct of display, and being unfamiliar with conditions in this city—still thinking in terms of the Southern environment—he considers these things a necessity. As they can be obtained easily, he manages to purchase one of these weapons at the first opportunity. That the lynchings, riots and mistreatments should not teach him a lesson of self-defense and the need for such weapons would be incredible. It may also be added that the Southern Negro does not consider cutting another Negro an offense against the law. Such cutting was frequently practiced in the South and arrest did not follow. It may therefore not be strange to learn that on several occasions, when arraigned on charges of felonious cutting, these migrants expressed great surprise when they learned that their offense involved a jail or workhouse sentence.

TABLE NUMBER XIX

Total Number of Negro Charges in the Juvenile Court from January 1st, 1915 to June 30, 1915 and January 1st, 1917 to June 30, 1917.

CHARGES	Total No. 1915	Total No. 1917
Incorrigibility	11	10
Delinquency	34	13
Dependent and Neglected	18	23
Entering a Building	4	1
Larceny	5	8
Violating Parole	1	0
Malicious Mischief	2	1
Assault and Battery	5	1
All other Charges	3	3
	83	60

TABLE NUMBER XX

Dispositions of Same.

	Total No. 1915	Total No. 1917
Returned to Parents	3	4
Detention Home	1	0
Private Home	30	15
Home on Probation	22	16
Thorn Hill Industrial School	15	12
State Reformatory	4	2
Polk School for Feeble Minded	1	5
Other Places	7	6
	83	60

[Table number XVII] indicates that the majority of those arrested are between the ages of 20 and 40. The large number of women arrested is rather surprising, although the proportional increase of women arrested is far below that of men. This may be due to the fact that the migration is largely of men without families. The overwhelming number of single people as compared with married ones, is also to be expected, although the police record based only upon uninvestigated statements of prisoners, may not be very authentic.

A House in the Hill District Credited with Sheltering Over 200 Negroes.

The examination of police court dockets reveals one or two other significant features. It shows the continuance of the migration by the fact that a great number are listed as having “no homes.” The number giving such “address” this year is far greater than during the previous period; even when the total of those who refuse to give correct addresses is subtracted, the increase is still clearly shown. In the records of those who give their addresses as of this city, it is important to note the close relation of congestion and bad housing conditions to the police court records. Throughout the docket, a few houses notorious for their overcrowding stand out very prominently. Thus, a well known tenement house on Bedford Avenue, which is credited with having over one hundred families inside its four walls, has given eighty-four arrests during the seven months of 1914-1915, and over one hundred during the seven months of 1917. The same thing is true of several other houses.

[Table number XIX] showing the Juvenile Court records is surprising. That there should still be an absolute decline in juvenile delinquency, in spite of the increase in population, is something the most optimistic of us would have hardly anticipated.

After the preceding analysis, the reader has doubtless already realized how unfounded was the popular belief in a Negro “wave of crime, rape and murder” in Pittsburgh within the last year. The facts are self-evident. From our analysis, we must conclude that the Negro migrant is not a vicious character; is not criminally and mischievously inclined per se, but on the other hand is a peaceful and law abiding individual. He comes to Pittsburgh to seek better economic and social opportunities. He is in most instances anxious to let others alone in order that he himself may be let alone.

That the rise in wages is a considerable factor in the decrease of juvenile delinquency and graver crimes as a whole is probable. That the Negro becomes a victim of the saloon and the vice elements is evidently more the fault of the community than of himself. He is often anxious to rid himself of these associations, but it can be done only by his white brother’s realization of the social responsibility which he owes to the community.

HEALTH STUDY

That the conservation of health is no longer the concern of the individual affected alone, but is the problem of the whole community is now generally recognized. The relation of cause and effect in our complex urban life is nowhere more clearly shown than in the health phase of our group relations. In this aspect of community life at least, it is realized that each of us constitutes one of the cogs in the civic machinery, and that the welfare of the whole depends upon the welfare of the individual. No one in the city, even if he be living under the best conditions can be certain of immunity from the menace of epidemic or of venereal diseases and tuberculosis. Infantile paralysis, and the other contagious or infectious diseases have no regard for differences of social status or residential respectability.

The Negroes of Pittsburgh constitute a very considerable fraction of the city population. We have only partially segregated districts, and the Negroes live near us or in our midst. They are with us on the streets, in street cars, stores and amusement places. They work side by side with us in the mills, factories and offices. Their children and ours attend the same schools, drink from the same fountains and play in the same yards. Since the beginning of the European War, our foreign supply of domestic servants has been practically cut off, and the colored women are the only ones available for this type of work. These women live in our homes, wash our clothes, cook our dinners, make our beds and nurse our children. A close inter-relation between the two races exists, and we cannot long hope to be free from the diseases to which our servants are subject. Once it is realized that our own welfare is greatly affected by the welfare of the Negro, it is obvious that we must see to it that his health is conserved. Our old ostrich-like policy of comfortable neglect will not serve to protect us.

INTERIOR COURT SCENE

Note Hydrant on Left and Privy on Right which are used by Twelve Families, White and Negro.

We cannot remain indifferent to the startling adult and infant mortality rates among Negroes. Ignorance of and indifference to disease in any one group will ultimately work harm to the entire population, and neglected disease in the black race means the increase of disease among the whites. It is essential, therefore, for our own well-being that we look into the conditions under which our Negro brethren live; and ascertain all the facts which may throw some light upon the actual conditions existing. Hence, we have proceeded to analyze the records which could be obtained in our city health department, the records of a few of the larger hospitals in the city, and the records of the coroner’s office. The tables and discussion of the same follow.

It is unfortunate that the statistical bureau of our Health Department—whether through insufficient appropriations or otherwise—does not maintain the standards set by similar departments in other cities. Our department does not afford the information necessary for a complete study of the health situation. However, from the figures obtained, it is obvious that our Negro mortality rate and especially the infant mortality rate is much higher than that of New York City, for instance, and that we are facing a grave situation.

TABLE NUMBER XXI

Causes of the Negro Mortality Comparing Periods of Seven Months, January to July, 1915 and January to July, 1917.

CAUSES	1915	1917
Pneumonia (all forms)	64	183
Tuberculosis (all forms)	51	51
Bright’s Disease and Nephritis	21	23
Apoplexy	9	20
Meningitis	1	17
Syphilis	12	6
Heart Disease	23	45
Diabetes	4	5
Cancer (all forms)	9	8
Bronchitis (all forms)	4	9
Scarlet Fever	2	1
Whooping Cough	1	1
Diphtheria	1	2
Typhoid Fever	2	5
Measles	3	0
Poliomyelitis	0	2
Peritonitis	0	5
Rickets	5	1
Puerperal Septicaemia	1	4
Uremia	0	4
Asphyxia	0	6
Cirrhosis of Liver	2	0
Accidents	12	16
Homicide	8	3
All other causes	60	110
	295	527

From a glance at the Negro mortality figures in Pittsburgh during the first seven months of 1917, ([Table No. XXI]), we observe the startling total of five hundred and twenty-seven deaths (excluding still births) as compared with two hundred and ninety-five deaths in 1915 during the ante-migration period, an increase of seventy-eight percent. While it is true that the Negro population has increased according to our estimate about forty-five percent during the past two years, this expansion in nowise explains the disquieting increase in mortality. An examination of the table also reveals the character of this increase. Pneumonia cases have increased nearly two hundred percent; we also had a marked increase in acute bronchitis and meningitis, and almost twice as many deaths from heart disease.

It is often claimed that the Negro is affected by climatic changes. Transferred suddenly into a northern climate, and compelled to live in all sorts of dwellings, often with no ventilation and light and in congested quarters, he may easily succumb to disease. Unaccustomed as he is to the heavy labor and pace-setting of the Pittsburgh industries, it can readily be seen how rapidly his health is undermined through excessive and hard labor. The fact that there has been no increase in tuberculosis is in accord with the expressed opinion of many colored physicians interviewed, who claimed that this disease is mainly a city product, and that the newcomers, especially those coming from isolated southern districts, are apt to be relatively free from this disease for a considerable period after their arrival in Pittsburgh.

TABLE NUMBER XXII

Record of Negro Morbidity for a Period of Six Months Before the Migration, as Compared with an Equal Period during the Migration in the West Penn Mercy and St. Francis Hospitals.

Causes	1915	1917
Digestive System	24	29
Respiratory and Throat	54	76
Heart and Kidney	16	10
Brain and Nervous System	9	5
Urogenital Diseases	35	44
	138	164

[Table number XXII] was ascertained from a study of the records of three of the largest hospitals in Pittsburgh, as to the treatment of Negro patients in these Institutions for a period of six months before the migration and an equal period during the migration. Although this table proved interesting, as showing the amount, kind and extent of the hospital morbidity among the colored people, it is not at all conclusive. That the hospital records give no clue to the sickness among the Negroes is apparent from the following: Eighty to ninety percent of the hospital cases examined were ward patients. Very few Negroes can afford private rooms, and almost every colored physician complained of the difficulty he had in securing places for his patients. It is only fair to state however, that one of the largest hospitals in the city, had no such charge lodged against it.

Aside from possible difficulty in securing beds in the hospitals, there is another cause for the scanty number of Negro hospital cases. The Negro not only because of his ignorance, but perhaps even more because of his inclinations to voodooism and superstition, feels an aversion to the hospital, where he thinks the knife and the “black bottle” are frequently used. He is still child-like in many ways, and will prefer all sorts of patent medicines and quack doctors rather than expose himself to the surgeon’s knife in a hospital; and chooses to stay at home among his own people where he may “die in peace.”

TABLE NUMBER XXIII

Comparative Record of the Births and Deaths of Negroes and the Entire City Population, during the Year of 1915 and the First Seven Months of 1917.

There is no more striking phase of the local Negro problem, than that shown in [table number XXIII]. These figures disclose the astonishing fact that the death rate among Negroes in this city during the first seven months of 1917, was forty-eight percent greater than the birth rate. In other words, while in the city population as a whole, the number of deaths was thirty percent less than the number of births, the number of deaths among colored people was forty-eight percent more than the number of births; thus, for every one hundred persons born in Pittsburgh in 1917, there were seventy deaths, while among the colored population, for every one hundred children born, one hundred and forty-eight persons died.

These figures seem of sinister significance to the Negro race. Even when taking into consideration the facts that the migration is largely that of single males, rather than that of families, and that because most of the women here are doing some work outside the home there is a definite policy of limiting their birth rate, there still remains the fact that even during the entire year of 1915, while the birth rate of the entire city population was practically twice the death rate, the excess number of births over deaths among colored people was only twenty-nine in a total of over five hundred.

TABLE NUMBER XXIV

Ages of Persons who Died Within the First Seven Months of 1917.

Under 1 year		87
Under 5 years		43
From 5 to 12		16
From 12 to 20		24
From 20 to 30		69
From 30 to 40		101
From 40 to 60		138
Over 60		49
TOTAL		527

TABLE NUMBER XXV

Causes of Deaths of Children Under 5 Years of Age.

Burns	1
Malnutrition	4
Syphilis	4
Tuberculosis Meningitis	3
Pneumonia	51
Tuberculosis	5
Enteritis	21
Premature	9
Meningitis	2
Bronchitis	4
Influenza	2
Asphyxia	4
Hemorrhage	1
Convulsions	6
Diphtheria	2
Rickets	1
Heart Disease	8
Mumps	1
Poliomyelitis	1
TOTAL	130

That the infant mortality rate among colored people is much higher than among the white groups, is generally believed and it is not surprising to find that the mortality among Negro infants in Pittsburgh is much greater than the infant mortality rate for the entire city. Figures for the year 1916-17 were unobtainable. The records of the Department of Health show that during the year 1915 one hundred and four children per thousand born in Pittsburgh, died in their first year.

There were three hundred and fifty-six Negro births in the first seven months of 1917. During the same period eighty-seven Negro children died under one year. Of this number fifty-nine had been born between January and July 1917, which means that one hundred and sixty-six children per thousand die in their first seven months. This clearly indicates that the death rate of Negro infants is far above the death rate of white infants. [Table No. XXV] also shows the cause of deaths of children under five years of age who died within the last seven months. At least half of these deaths were due to preventable disorders, as is apparent from the figures in the same table.

TABLE NUMBER XXVI

Colored Bodies Received and Disposed of in Morgue, First Six Months During 1915 as Compared with First Six Months During 1917.

	1915	1917
Identified and Claimed	13	32
Identified and Cremated	5	13
Unknown and Cremated	1	2
	19	47

The figures obtained from the Coroner’s Office also indicate an abnormal increase in the number of colored bodies received and disposed of by the County Morgue. There were more than twice as many morgue cases within the first six months of 1917 as during the same period of 1915. That the majority of these bodies were claimed and not disposed of at public expense, is doubtless due to the high wages paid this year. High wages at least provide for burials, which are considered of paramount importance by the Negroes, because of their primitive superstition, and abhorrence of having their bodies turned over for the purpose of dissection.

The preceding analysis indicates that the conservation of the health of the Negro in Pittsburgh is a very complex problem, and is inter-related with his social, moral, industrial, housing and racial situation. The Negro is affected by all the elements which render difficult the preservation of health among whites but in a greater degree. Many of the factors which work continuously to undermine his health are to a large extent eliminated among whites; and on the other hand, much of the effective work done by whites to counteract these bad influences is entirely lacking among Negroes.

“The Triad of ‘baby-killers’—poverty, ignorance and neglect”—says Dr. Sobel, of the New York Health Department, “works havoc among Negro children to a greater extent even than among the whites.”

“The well known relationship between family income and infant mortality exists among Negroes as among the whites. The crude death rate is exceedingly high in all Negro districts. There are, however, well-defined differences in their respective rates, resulting, we think, from economic conditions. In the districts where the family income is highest, the death rate is lowest, confirming the opinion that if we can improve the social and economic condition of the Negro, an appreciable reduction in their death rate will have been secured.” (August, 1917 Bulletin of the Department of Health, New York City, pages 87 and 88.)

While we may admit the claim often advanced that even under the same conditions disease and infant mortality among Negroes would ordinarily be higher than that of the whites, because, due to the climatic and environmental maladjustments, his racial power of resistance is not as great as that of the white; the Negro is still confronted with many forces which handicap and work against him, but which are almost non-existent among the whites.

From our discussion of employment, housing and opportunities for advancement in Pittsburgh, the reader will realize the difficulties and hardships which the Negro is compelled to face in this city. Only a very few of the Negro migrants earn more than $3.60 a day for twelve hours work. Half of the families here live in one room dwellings. Practically all of the mothers are doing some work outside the home. The Negroes have as yet no organization for mutual co-operation. They live separate and apart from each other. In many cases for instance, it was found in our survey, that women living next door to each other for months would hardly know one another, although often they would both come from the same state and even from the same city. The Negroes are more exposed and liable to disease because their social, industrial, educational and moral development is more handicapped than that of the white man. The Negro is apparently as yet not free even in the North; he is still held captive in economic bondage, and is deterred from rising above the lowest servant class. He is, judging from the present situation, limited to common labor at thirty cents an hour during prosperous times.

The conservation of health, is as we have seen, no longer the problem of the individual. It is therefore time that we awaken to the realization that sickness and a high mortality rate among Negroes is no longer the problem of the Negro alone. Eventually all of us will have to pay the price for our indifference, both in money and in lives. The taxpayer ultimately pays for hospitals and morgues, as well as for jails and prisons. Our children are not at all immune from the sources of disease which are ravaging the colored children. This problem is our problem; we must face it squarely, and see whether any improvement in this situation is possible.

The significance of such a study and its importance as the basis for a practical program is clearly demonstrated by the remarkable results brought about in New York City through a similar study. After a survey of conditions in the Columbus Hill District, the Negro section of the Borough of Manhattan the startling evidence of conditions prevailing there stimulated the New York Bureau of Child Hygiene to take action. This Bureau has succeeded in reducing the infant mortality rate among colored people from 202 deaths per thousand children born in 1915 to 193.3 in 1916, and to 180 per thousand children born during the first six months of 1917.

Dr. Jacob Sobel, Chief of the Division of Baby Welfare, writes as follows in one of the recent monthly bulletins of the New York Department of Health.[9]

“The stimulus to our program was given by a study of conditions in the Columbus Hill District, and it was here that our efforts were first concentrated. It was our knowledge of the conditions in this district which led to an effort on the part of the Bureau of Child Hygiene to institute a campaign against the excessive death rate among colored infants, by studying primarily the needs of the situation, and by securing the co-operation of all agencies and individuals interested in the welfare of colored people. With this end in view, there was first instituted a preliminary census of the babies residing in the above district, by house to house canvas, and an effort was made to have these babies enrolled at the Baby Health Station within said district. Mothers’ meetings were held at schools, settlement houses, churches, etc., at which the physicians of the Health Department gave short talks to the parents of the neighborhood. The co-operation of prominent colored citizens, ministers, physicians, newspaper men, etc., of the district, was secured. Educational slides, containing pointed references to the high mortality among colored babies, and special reference to the high mortality in particular sections inhabited by colored people, were prepared and displayed on the screens of the various moving picture houses in this and other districts.

“A series of articles on baby care was published in one of the newspapers read largely by the colored race, namely, ‘The Amsterdam News’, under the title of ‘The Baby’, and presented short heart-to-heart talks on baby care. The Department of Health also published a local bulletin for this district, known as ‘The Columbus Hill Chronicle’, in which special attention was directed to conditions among the colored population, with specific recommendations for the improvement of their health and surroundings.

“In view of the large number of working mothers among the colored people, a temporary shelter or day nursery for colored babies was established in this district through the co-operation of the Babies’ Welfare Association, and funds have subsequently been provided, through private means, for the permanent equipment and maintenance, in the heart of this district, of a day nursery for colored children.

“The ‘Little Mothers’ of this district was organized, and in this way a large amount of education was brought into the homes.

“Immediately upon the receipt of notification of births in this and other colored districts, the Bureau of Records notified the Baby Health Station, in order that the home might be visited, and the infant enrolled for care and treatment.

“Special attention was directed to the supervision of colored babies boarded out in the homes, and wherever a colored baby was found, not a relative of the occupant of the premises, information was elicited whether this individual had a permit to board and care for a baby, as required by the provisions of the Sanitary Code.

“Provision was made for the distribution of free milk and free ice, to needy families of the districts, through the organized relief agencies and ice companies.

“Special attention was directed towards securing employment for the fathers, so as to keep the mothers at home as much as possible.

“To supplement the work of baby care, two nurses were assigned by the Department of Health to the Columbus Hill and Upper Harlem Districts, for instruction and supervision of expectant mothers. The Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor also assigned a nurse to the Columbus Hill District for similar instruction, so that a beginning was made to bring the colored expectant mother under the guiding influence of trained nurses.

“The co-operation of the Tenement House Department was affected to the extent that special attention was given to the sanitary condition of the tenements occupied by colored people.

“In a further effort to control the mortality among the colored babies, the policy of the Bureau to assign nurses during the summer months to those districts of the city showing a high infant mortality rate and a high birth rate, was applied with special reference to the colored sections, and a large force was assigned there, each nurse having under her direct charge from 100 to 150 babies during these months, keeping up this complement whenever, through death or removal, the number fell below the required amount.”

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It is inevitable with any group, suddenly transferred into a new situation, that striking maladjustments should arise. While single instances of suffering very often are misleading and do not give a just view of the case, numerous and typical incidents which are by no means exceptional or exaggerated may help to visualize the problem.

A Georgia farmer who is making $3.60 a day for twelve hours of work here brought over his wife and eight children, the oldest of whom was thirteen years of age, to a house which he was fortunate to secure on Second Avenue. Only a few weeks after his arrival all of the eight children were taken sick, and two of them, one eleven and the other six years old, died of pneumonia. Because of the contagion of some of his children the man was unable to leave his house for eight weeks. His physician said that the death of the children was due to the over-crowded condition of the house. This man received no charity and the money he had saved up was spent to the last cent on doctor bills.

Mrs. E. H. lives on Crawford Street with her three children the oldest of whom is five years of age. She occupies a small and damp room. Since there is no gas in the house, a red hot stove can always be found burning in the room which is at the same time kitchen, dining room, bedroom and washroom; for Mrs. H’s husband is in jail somewhere in Georgia, and she does washing all day in order to support her children. The water supply of the house is in the street, and the stairway leading to the upper floors is in her room. All of her children were sick; one had pneumonia. She came here a few months ago as everybody else was coming. Relatives and charity are helping to support her.

Mr. F. J. P. was born in Jamaica of well-to-do parents, tobacco planters, and was educated in England as a botanist. He works now as a common laborer in Pittsburgh for he cannot secure work in his own field; he is planning to go back to England.

Mr. J. D. has had his wife here for several months, but still has his only child back in Florida as there is no room for him in his present place.

Messrs.. E. and R. Smith, one living on Penn Avenue, and the other on Ross Street, worked for a steel plant and construction company respectively. E. had an eye accident and was in the hospital for four weeks, while R. had two fingers cut off while at work. The companies paid the hospital bills for both but neither one of them ever heard or knew anything about compensation, and never claimed any.

J. G. hails from West Virginia. He has been in town for two days and has no room as yet. The lodging places he went to asked seventy-five cents a night for a dirty bed. He stayed up both nights, and expects to leave the city as soon as he can.

The Case family have eight children. The oldest is a girl of seventeen years of age who works in a hotel. The mother works every day in the week; she leaves home at seven in the morning and returns at five o’clock in the afternoon. A girl of fifteen takes care of the children in the meantime.

Mr. P. Roberts was a prosperous Negro in Florida. He was an experienced concrete maker, earning according to his statement more than five and six dollars a day at home, and owning property in the South. When the industrial boom began he thought that the wages in his line were much higher here than in his own home town, and that it would pay him to come North. He came to Pittsburgh together with his wife, five children and an old invalid mother who was confined to bed. When first visited, Mr. Roberts occupied two small rooms, each having one window, in a rooming house where there were about twenty-five male roomers. This man could get no work here in his own trade, and was trying to save up enough money from his $3.00 to $3.60 a day to go back to Florida. When Roberts was visited again about six weeks after the first visit, his old mother had already passed away, his wife had died of pneumonia, while his oldest girl of sixteen who had been taking care of the four little tots was sick in bed, and the children were playing on the streets. Roberts was still trying to save from his $3.60 a day sufficient money to carry him back to Florida, which he still considers his home, as he owns property there.

These amazing instances of individual maladjustments are bound to arise in any group which goes through such a sudden and abnormal transformation. But they are even more frequent in the race which is still primitive and child-like in many ways, with no one to direct, guide and protect them.

But the significance and danger of these wrongs are even of greater importance for the community as a whole, than for the few individuals affected. The fact cannot be over-emphasized that the community ultimately pays the price for its stupidity. Indifference to this problem at present when it still can be coped with and adjusted will result in an uncontrollable situation later. We have seen above some of the costly results of our housing and wage conditions. We have also learned in this war that we can no longer afford to breed and foment discontent and antagonism among our own people. We must not only see that the strangers among us are adjusted, but that they also do not become a menace to the well-being of the community.

It is not sufficient that we bring these people here, give them a “bunk-house” or a basement to sleep in, and a job in our mills for twelve hours a day. Once these people are in our midst they become a part of ourselves, and if we desire them to work in harmony with our own interests and not become anti-social malcontents we must go further than that. We must see that they become part and parcel of our community, that they are educated and made familiar with the problems that we are facing locally. The man who is here for several days and stays up all night because he can find no place to sleep cannot be expected to remain for long a social being. Pittsburgh’s progress will be greatly handicapped if a certain element of our community has to take advantage of the saloon and vice resorts for relaxation. Neither can we afford to let a considerable part of our voting population remain, because of lack of intelligence, the prey and spoil of politicians who may jeopardize the whole life of the city for their own selfish interest. We cannot permit sickness and high mortality rates among the dark-skinned people. One of our big steel mills had to have its whole office and plant forces vaccinated, and was even in danger of being quarantined, when a number of Negroes working in the plant scattered all over the city after a case of smallpox was discovered in the rooming house where these men stopped. The Department of Health had a big task hunting these men, and the danger to which the whole city population was exposed was obvious. No more can we afford to let the Negroes become the victims of all sorts of anti-social elements and feel complacent after we send them for a period of time to the jail or workhouse. They are a heavy burden upon the taxpayer while they are in these Institutions and often become even a greater menace when they are released. Our utmost attention is therefore essential to meet the maladjustments before they have become acute; and we do not base this claim upon sentimental grounds but upon the benefits of economic and social far-sightedness.

Many Negroes in the North seem to understand the situation, and are striving to do their best to help adjust conditions. Some of the Negro churches in this city for instance tried to ameliorate the housing conditions by converting their churches into lodging places for the newcomers until rooms could be found for them. Besides the Provident Rescue Mission on Fullerton Street, which accommodated thirty to forty men at a time during the entire winter, at least one other church converted the entire building into quarters for migrant families. The latter church accommodated a number of families until the committee in charge could secure homes for the newcomers. But the responsibility of the white people is just as great, and it is indeed in very opportune time that a prophetic warning is sounded by a colored writer in a Cleveland paper as follows:

“Let them alone—permit them to grope blindly through the mazes of startling new environments, and in a few years a social problem will be created that will require a half century and millions of dollars to solve.”

“Let them alone now, permit and enforce them to live in unsanitary districts and homes, relieved of Christian and moral influence, and what is perhaps a 20,000 responsibility today, will become a 50,000 heavy, crime-breeding burden tomorrow.”

“Let them alone today, permit them to become the flotsam and jetsam of neglect, or pernicious discrimination—such as they were in the South—and tomorrow, having inhaled a bit of Northern freedom, they may become a dark, sinister shadow falling athwart the white man’s door.”

“Let them alone today, permit them to be retired to over-crowded shacks and shanties where sanitation is an unuttered word, and tomorrow, contagions, arising from these congested, unsanitary shanties and shacks, will fly, like the black bat of night, over our fair city, and in its wake will stalk the gaunt form of Death, claiming thousands of our best white and Colored citizens as a debt paid for inaction.”

[9] August, 1917 Bulletin of the Department of Health, New York City.

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CHAPTER IV.
Some Constructive Suggestions Looking Toward the Solution of a Race
Problem Through Race Co-Operation.

It would indeed be presumptuous on our part to attempt in this little study to solve the race problem. Our purpose was to present the facts as they actually exist and let the reader draw his own conclusions. However, a few suggestions looking to a constructive policy of meeting the need caused by the Negro migration in Pittsburgh may not be amiss.

The main problem of the Negro migrant in Pittsburgh, as the reader has already realized, is his social and industrial maladjustment, his lack of organization, and absence of intelligent guidance. The National League on Urban Conditions among Negroes is attempting to meet this need by acting as adjusting agency, guide, educator and organizer. This League is composed of white and colored men, whose aim is to secure co-operation among the races and to act as a social medium between the two peoples. Within the last year this League has established eighteen different branches in various cities. Each of these branches is headed by a trained Negro Social worker, who tries to get in touch with the migrants as soon as they arrive in the town, and through the co-operation of local social agencies and business officials, endeavors to put each man into the right place. The League acts as a socializing factor among the colored people with the aim of securing closer co-operation between the two races. The success of these branches is evidenced by the fact that in some cities the League’s staff had to be increased three and four times the original number within the last year, and in some instances these branches were established at the invitation of Chambers of Commerce.

A representative of the League who has spent some time in studying the situation in Pittsburgh thinks that it is comparatively easy for the League’s Secretary here to get in touch with the newcomers as soon as they arrive, and to endeavor to eliminate a great deal of the industrial maladjustment which is due to the ignorance of the newcomer. This can be done, he claims, through the co-operation of the more than forty colored newspapers in the South, through the various branches of the League, and through definite arrangements at the Railroad stations. By keeping in touch with the employers and industrial concerns, the local Secretary could also succeed in reducing the number of men who are misplaced and misfits in their present jobs.

Some suggestions as to the work the League could do in Pittsburgh, are thus outlined by the representative of the League.

“Besides the advertising in the newspapers, and the co-operation of the League’s branches some Traveler’s Aid work may be done as a result of the heavy Negro migration to Pittsburgh. Definite service might be arranged at the railroad stations for directing newcomers to reliable lodging houses, so as to protect them from unfavorable surroundings. Likewise aid from the police department can be sought to eliminate a large number of crooks and gamblers who thrive off the earnings of newly arrived migrants in the congested sections.

“The industrial work is an essential part of our program, including general employment, opening new opportunities and vocational guidance. An important part of this work will be with the industrial plants employing large numbers of Negro migrants. The Secretary will make an especial effort to reduce the large Negro labor turnover in the various industrial plants by noon-day and Sunday talks, by distributing literature among the men and by assisting corporations in getting the most reliable type of Negro labor and then seeing to it that this labor is properly treated and given opportunities for advancement. Vagrancy must not be tolerated in Pittsburgh especially when work is so plentiful.

“The Housing work will be broad and cover both an effort to obtain more sanitary houses for Negroes to live in, as well as less congested, unhealthy and hence less immoral living conditions in certain parts of the city. The difficulties might be partially overcome by encouraging the organization of a Building and Loan Association and by interesting real estate dealers, builders and owners who handle or own property in desirable districts to improve the same for Negro tenants; by urging individual home ownership, and, with more chance of success in the Pittsburgh district, by convincing industries of the basic necessity for building family homes.

“Health and sanitation are of vital interest to Negroes and to Pittsburghers. One of the first efforts will be a campaign to reduce the high illness and death rates among the Negroes. In co-operation with the Bureau of Sanitation, physicians and Negro Institutions and Organizations, an educational campaign can be waged giving wide publicity to the facts obtained and suggesting remedies concerning,

a. The danger and use of patent medicines; b. Carelessness in dress; c. Improper ventilation; d. Care of infants, etc. Following this campaign a general effort may be made to clean up Negro neighborhoods, to obtain better and cleaner streets and sidewalks, better sanitary inspection, police service and if possible, a free bath house for the lower Hill district.”

“The question of amusement and recreation is likewise important, as they have a direct bearing on good citizenship. Definite co-operation can be established with such existing organizations as the Y. M. C. A., Washington Park Playground, Settlements, and the churches which have the facilities for such work. Boy and girl clubs can be organized under capable leaders. A supervised community dance can do much toward helping the newcomer to better adjust themselves socially.”

“Delinquency, especially juvenile crime, should be handled in connection with the courts, probation officers and schools; the League furnishing through its office Big Brothers and Sisters with the idea of organizing this work on a larger scale later on. The penal and reformatory institution serving the Community should be reached to help discharged and paroled prisoners to obtain a new start and be reclaimed for their own good and that of society.”

“A very close relationship must exist between our charity and the organized charities, because our association does not provide for relief. An effort will be made to develop co-operation among welfare organizations already existing in the community, to prevent expensive duplication of work and to assure good feeling and harmony among workers.”

“The details of this work may be reviewed from time to time by an executive committee, which should consist of from ten to fifteen persons chosen from the membership of the association.”

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