The Negro in Chicago: A Study of Race Relations and a Race Riot

by Chicago Commission on Race Relations

B. NEIGHBORHOODS OF NEGRO RESIDENCE

While the principal colony of Chicago's Negro population is situated in a central part of the South Side, Negroes are to be found in several other parts of the city in proportions to total population ranging from less than 1 per cent to more than 95 per cent. In some of these neighborhoods whites and Negroes have become adjusted to one another; in others they have not. There are numerous degrees of variation between the two extremes. In this study the term "adjusted neighborhood" indicates one in which whites and Negroes have become accommodated to each other, and friction is either non-existent or negligible; "non-adjusted neighborhood" is one where misunderstandings, dislikes, and antagonisms resulting from contacts of any degree between whites and Negroes express themselves in racial hostility, sometimes involving open clashes.

I. ADJUSTED NEIGHBORHOODS

1. THE SOUTH SIDE

The most striking example of "adjusted neighborhoods" is the district known as the "Black Belt." Because 90 per cent of the Negroes of Chicago live within this area, it is usually assumed that the district is 90 per cent Negro. This, however, is not the case. The area between Twelfth and Thirty-ninth streets, Wentworth Avenue and Lake Michigan, includes the oldest and densest Negro population of any section of its size in Chicago. However, the actual numbers of whites and Negroes living there are 42,797 and 54,906 respectively. In this area the Negro population has increased gradually and without disturbance for many years. Although for a long period Negroes were confined to the area bounded by State Street, Wentworth Avenue, Twelfth, and Thirty-ninth streets, their movement into the neighborhood east of State Street was ultimately looked upon as a natural and expected expansion. Within the whole of this territory a relationship exists, which, although perhaps not uniformly friendly, yet is without friction or disorder. During the riot few white persons living or engaged in business there were attacked by Negroes, who were in the majority in many parts of the area. Many whites remaining in the area, which was formerly all white, are small property owners who for sentimental reasons prefer to live there. Numbers of family hotels and large apartment houses there continue to be occupied by whites, who are apparently little affected by the presence of 10 per cent more Negroes than whites around them. Michigan Avenue and Grand Boulevard are the streets into which Negroes have moved most recently. The only recorded bombing within this area occurred on Grand Boulevard. The Grand Boulevard district is affiliated with the Kenwood and Hyde Park Property Owners' Association. Although the bombing was an expression of resentment against Negroes because they moved into this block, there are circumstances which indicate that the resentment did not come from the neighbors. For example, the wife of a Negro physician owning and living in a house in the same block was asked by her white neighbors to serve as chairman of a committee to keep up the property in the neighborhood.

RACIAL CONTACTS AMONG CHILDREN IN AN ADJUSTED NEIGHBORHOOD

The first Negro family to move into the Vernon Avenue block immediately south of Thirty-first Street bought its residence in 1911. It was five years before another Negro family came. White neighbors, who were and are very friendly, said this family's good care of its lawn was an example for the whole block.

When an apartment house in which a Negro family lived on South Park Avenue near Thirty-first Street was burned, white neighbors took them into their home and kept them until another house was secured. At a meeting of the City Club of Chicago a white man who had lived in this area for forty years thus characterized the relations between whites and Negroes living there:

Having lived on the South Side in what is now known as the "Black Belt" for forty years, I can testify that I have never had more honest, quiet, and law-abiding neighbors than those who are of the African race, either full or mixed blood. In the precinct where I live we have several families blessed with many orderly and well-behaved children, of Caucasian and African blood. They seem to get along nicely, and why should they not?... There is no race question, it is a question of intelligence and morality, pure and simple.

Occasional minor misunderstandings have resulted from contacts in this area, but they have not been conspicuously marked by racial bitterness. Objections, sometimes expressed when the tradition of an "all white" neighborhood was first broken, disappeared as the neighbors came to know each other. Long residence is apparently one condition of the adjustment process.

Expansion and adjustment.—The first noticeable expansion of the Negro population following the migration in 1917 and 1918 was in the area extending south from Thirty-ninth Street to Forty-seventh Street on Langley, St. Lawrence, and Evans avenues. Negroes began moving into this area early in 1917, first a few and finally in large numbers. There is yet no compact group, for these Negro families, while numerous, are well distributed. The experiences of some of the first families there are interesting.

A Negro woman bought a piece of property on Langley Avenue, near Forty-third Street, when every other family in the block was white. The courtesy shown her by them was all that could be desired, she declares. There are still six or eight white families in the block, and they continue on the most friendly terms with her. A Negro woman in another block has white neighbors all around her, but there has been no racial objection or friction. Another, who owns her property on Evans Avenue, has had no trouble with white families that remain in the block. So with a Negro who rents from the Negro owner of a flat on East Thirty-sixth Street. A Negro who has bought a home on St. Lawrence Avenue near Forty-seventh Street declares that the white families living thereabouts "treat my family right." In one block on St. Lawrence Avenue a Negro family is surrounded by white neighbors, but no trouble has been experienced. In a block on Langley Avenue another family of Negroes has had no clashes with the white neighbors who compose most of the neighborhood.

A woman who built her home in the 4800 block on Champlain Avenue, when hers was the only Negro family there and has lived there ever since, had no trouble with neighbors until other Negroes moved in. Then a white woman circulated a petition for the purpose of compelling the Negroes to move out. This effort failed. In another block on East Forty-sixth Street a Negro family lives in a neighborhood which has a majority of whites, but the relations have been amicable. An apartment house on Champlain Avenue near Forty-sixth Street is occupied entirely by Negroes, though there are white families all through the neighborhood. One Negro who has lived there for three years says they have never been molested. A pioneer Negro family in a white block on Vernon Avenue near Thirty-ninth Street reports no trouble with the white neighbors.

DISTRIBUTION OF NEGRO POPULATION 1920
DATA OBTAINED FROM FEDERAL CENSUS

Two women who were among the last of the whites to leave the Langley Avenue vicinity say they always found the Negroes to be kindly neighbors. A Negro family on Forty-first Street has been there a year without friction with white neighbors. In another block on East Forty-second Street a Negro woman reported that, though there are white people all through the neighborhood, the two races get along peaceably. In the 400 block of East Forty-sixth Street a similar report is given. In still another block on Champlain Avenue lives a woman who has been in the midst of white families for a number of years without experiencing animosity. On East Forty-second Street a Negro family has lived for three years in similar freedom from racial friction.

In another instance a pioneer Negro family in a block otherwise wholly white was well regarded by all except one of the neighbors. This white man who voiced loudly his objections to the "invasion" was one who, because of his drunken habits and troublesome nature, had long been considered an undesirable neighbor by other whites in the block.

Woodlawn.—Relations in Woodlawn, where the Negro population increase has been relatively large, are for the most part friendly. There is an association of Negro property owners interested in keeping up the physical appearance of their homes in the neighborhood. No clashes have been reported except one instance of a group of white boys from another neighborhood throwing stones at a building where they saw Negroes. Following the stirring up and organization of anti-Negro sentiment in Hyde Park, an attempt was made to organize white Woodlawn property owners against the invasion of the district by Negroes. This organization was not a great success. There have been no bombings in this district, and no concerted opposition to the presence of Negroes as neighbors. Long residence together and the good character and conduct of both Negroes and whites are probably important reasons for lack of friction.

2. THE WEST SIDE

A situation like that in the adjusted neighborhoods of the South Side exists in the district bounded by Washington and Kinzie, Ashland and California avenues, where there has been a settlement of Negroes for many years. Houses are cheaper than on the South Side, and although the general standard of workingmen's homes compares favorably with that on the South Side, few of the abandoned good residences formerly occupied by wealthy persons are available for Negroes. The densest and oldest settlement of Negroes is within the boundaries named, although the Negro residence area actually extends many blocks beyond them on all sides. There has been little friction, though the area has 9,221 whites and 6,520 Negroes. South of Washington Boulevard occasional difficulties have been met by the incoming Negro population, similar to those found in areas where the most congested Negro population on the South Side is spreading. On the West Side no bombings have occurred, although there have been frequent protests against the expansion. Some streets have come to be recognized as Negro streets.

In recent years many Negroes have bought homes on the West Side when they could not easily find living quarters in or near the older Negro residence areas on the South Side. Almost uniformly they keep their homes in good condition, which cannot be said of all the Negroes who settled early in this district. West Side Negroes, laborers for the most part, are generally home-loving, hard-working, and desirous of improving conditions for their children. Older settlers among them have been able to make their adjustments without great difficulty and with no marked antagonism from white neighbors.

Though occasionally trivial conflicts arise between Negro and white neighbors, the attitude of whites in nearby areas is customarily friendly if not cordial. For example, a Negro doctor has a considerable practice among nearby Italians in the vicinity of the Chicago Commons Social Settlement. At Chicago Commons itself no distinction is made with respect to the few Negro families which at times make use of the facilities. Children of these families have entered classes and clubs, and one of them became a leader of a group.

The Poles who mainly occupy the neighborhood around the Northwestern University Social Settlement are entirely friendly to Negroes. Three years ago an educated Negro was at the head of the boys' department of the settlement, and, with one exception, no one in that position has made more friends among the boys and their families.

On the West Side, as on the South and North sides, Negroes have established their own restaurants and barber shops and some groceries and delicatessen stores. There are several theaters whose patronage is largely Negro.

3. THE NORTH SIDE

On the North Side, Negroes live among foreign whites and near a residence area of wealthy Chicagoans. Their first appearance occasioned little notice or objection, since they were generally house servants living near their work. The largest numbers are to be found between Chicago Avenue and Division Street on North Wells, Franklin, and cross streets connecting them.

This neighborhood has experienced several complete changes in population. It was first occupied by Irish, then by Swedes, then by Italians. The present neighbors of Negroes are Italians. As indicated by the population changes, the neighborhood is old and run down, and the reasons given by Negroes for living there are low rents and proximity to the manufacturing plants where they work.

The Negroes there are renters, because the property, although undesirable for residence purposes, is valuable for business and too expensive for them to buy. The families are chiefly respectable, hard-working people. They have their own barber and tailor shops and similar business places. In social affairs they confine themselves largely to meetings, dances, and similar gatherings held exclusively for their own race. Formerly the second floor of a building on Division Street was frequently rented by the Negroes for church and other meetings, and dances. Recently they have found other meeting places, particularly for religious devotions. Some of their social gatherings and meetings take place at Seward Park.

A SAVINGS BANK IN THE NEGRO RESIDENCE AREA ON SATURDAY EVENING

CHILDREN AT WORK IN A COMMUNITY GARDEN

They are welcomed not only in Seward Park, one of the city's recreation centers, but in the settlements. At Eli Bates House, 621 West Elm Street, for example, there has been a club of Negro young men, and applications have been received for admission of Negro children to some classes. The head resident of the settlement reports, however, that it has not had much contact with the Negro group. A few Negro children come to the kindergarten; a group of Negro boys makes use of the gymnasium, and some neighboring Negro families have asked settlement residents for advice.

In this neighborhood friendly relations exist between the Sicilians, who predominate, and their Negro neighbors. Some Negroes live harmoniously in the same tenements with the Sicilians. Their children play together, and some Negro children have learned Sicilian phrases, so that they are able to deal with the Sicilian shopkeepers.

Elsewhere on the North Side the feeling between Italians and Negroes is not so cordial. During the riot of 1919, serious trouble was averted on the North Side through prompt and effective efforts by the police and members of the community. It was reported throughout the district that automobiles loaded with armed Negroes were on their way from the South Side to "shoot up the North Side." The Italians immediately armed themselves and began to shoot recklessly. They were eventually quieted by the police and others, and there was no retaliation of the Negroes.

Many Negroes who have purchased homes and lived on the North Side for years report little opposition. One family on North Wells Street has lived there since 1888 and now owns several valuable pieces of property. The man had no trouble in buying property, and the whites have always been friendly to them and to all Negroes in that section. Another Negro family on North Wells Street, where Negroes first lived, had no difficulty in getting their flat sixteen years ago. This block is occupied by whites and Negroes without friction.

Minor expressions of antagonism attended the moving in of some Negro families, but after several months the white neighbors accepted them and now are on good terms with them.

II. NON-ADJUSTED NEIGHBORHOODS

Failure of adjustment between whites and Negroes has greatly accentuated the difficulties of the housing problem for Negroes. When a general shortage of housing is relieved there may still be a serious shortage for Negroes because of the hostility of white neighborhoods. The sentiment for "all-white" neighborhoods has grown with the increase in Negro population and the threatened occupancy in small or large degree by Negroes. These non-adjusted neighborhoods fall into distinct classes:

1. Neighborhoods of unorganized opposition. These are neighborhoods where few Negroes live. Though contiguous they are sharply separated from areas of Negro residence and are definitely hostile to Negroes, even those passing through the neighborhood going to and from work, but the hostility in them is unorganized.

2. Neighborhoods of organized opposition. (a) Neighborhoods in which no Negroes live but which are in the line of Negro expansion. Opposition to threatened invasion has been strong. As yet they are exclusively white, and every effort is being made to keep them so. They are illustratively treated here as "exclusive neighborhoods." (b) Neighborhoods in which the presence of Negro residents is hotly contested, by organized and unorganized efforts to oust them. These for convenience are termed "contested neighborhoods."

1. NEIGHBORHOODS OF UNORGANIZED OPPOSITION

In Certain West Side neighborhoods white property owners objected to the expansion of the principal Negro residence area of that section.

The pastor of the Negro Presbyterian Church on Washington Boulevard, who came to Chicago in 1919, bought the houses at 2006 and 2008 Washington Boulevard, in which white people had formerly lived. He moved into one of them in May, 1919, and both he and his tenants in the other house received warning letters advising them to move or take the consequences. The last of these was received during the riot in July, 1919. No attention was paid to them.

During the riots little trouble was experienced by the Negroes in the West Side district, who generally remained in their own houses and neighborhoods. Some became involved in clashes on their way to or from work, but there was no serious clash.

The district west of Cottage Grove Avenue and south to Sixty-third Street in Woodlawn is rather sparsely built up, most of the buildings being one- and two-family houses. Numbers of white people in the neighborhood believe that the district has been blighted because of the occasional presence of Negroes.

On the North Side some hostility to Negroes was shown during the 1919 riot. One Negro, who had lived on North Franklin Street for five years and in Chicago for thirty years, told of having been spit at by rowdy Italians, and on another occasion threatened with shooting by young roughs in a passing automobile. White neighbors, however, intervened. Under pressure of the riot excitement, some Italian children pushed through windows and doors pictures of skulls and coffins inked in red. At the time of the riot Eli Bates House issued a circular deploring race hatred and appealing for order and fairness.

Although the few Negroes living in the Lake Park Avenue area[19] have experienced little opposition in their present homes, there has been no Negro expansion there. The colony, has in fact, dwindled in size since 1910. It is made up largely of Negroes who were house servants for white families near-by or worked in the hotels of the district.

Negroes of this colony are barred from all white restaurants in the district except one place conducted by a Greek. In three of the motion-picture houses they are not allowed to sit in the best seats. In one of these theaters a sign reads, "We reserve the right to seat our patrons to suit ourselves." Negroes are permitted in the balcony or in the rear seats of the main floor.

On Langley, St. Lawrence, and adjoining streets south of Fifty-fifth Street there is considerable friction resulting from the presence of Negroes.

There are residence districts of Chicago adjacent to those occupied by Negroes in which hostility to Negroes is so marked that the latter not only find it impossible to live there, but expose themselves to danger even by passing through. There are no hostile organizations in these neighborhoods, and active antagonism is usually confined to gang lawlessness. Such a neighborhood is that west of Wentworth Avenue, extending roughly from Twenty-second to Sixty-third streets. The number of Negroes living there is small, and most of them live on Ada, Aberdeen, and Loomis streets, south of Fifty-seventh Street. In the section immediately west of Wentworth Avenue and thus adjoining the densest Negro residence area in the city, practically no Negroes live. In addition to intense hostility, there is a lack of desirable houses. Wentworth Avenue has long been regarded as a strict boundary line separating white and Negro residence areas. The district has many "athletic clubs."[20] The contact of Negroes and whites comes when Negroes must pass to and from their work at the Stock Yards and at other industries located in the district. It was in this district that the largest number of riot clashes occurred.[21] Several Negroes have been murdered here, and numbers have been beaten by gangs of young men and boys. A white man was killed by one of two Negroes returning from work in that district, who declared that they had been intimidated by the slain man. Speaking of this district, the principal of the Raymond School, a branch of which is located west of Wentworth Avenue, said that antagonism of the district against Negroes appeared to have been handed down through tradition. He said:

We get a good deal of the gang spirit in the new school on the other side of Wentworth Avenue. There seems to be an inherited antagonism. Wentworth Avenue is the gang line. They seem to feel that to trespass on either side of that line is ground for trouble. While colored pupils who come to the school for manual training are not troubled in the school, they have to be escorted over the line, not because of trouble from members of the school, but groups of boys outside the school. To give another illustration, we took a little kindergarten group over to the park. One little six-year-old girl was struck in the face by a man. A policeman chased but failed to catch him. The condition is a tradition. It is handed down.

2. NEIGHBORHOODS OF ORGANIZED OPPOSITION

"Exclusive neighborhoods."—In neighborhoods which are exclusive on the basis of social class, whose restrictions apply to Negroes and the majority of whites alike, the high price of property is a sufficient barrier against Negroes; it is in the neighborhoods where property values are within the means of Negroes that fears of invasion are entertained. In many new real estate subdivisions houses are sold on easy payments. Almost without exception these sections are exclusively for whites, and usually it is so stated in the prospectus. Other sections longer established come to notice when some incident provokes the expression of opposition already organized and awaiting it.

Such a section is the neighborhood known as Park Manor and Wakeford. This neighborhood lies between Sixty-ninth and Seventy-ninth streets, and Cottage Grove and Indiana avenues. It is newly built, chiefly with small dwellings, most of them not more than five years old. Many of the residents had lived in a neighborhood to the north, nearer Woodlawn, whose growth of Negro population had caused some of them to move. Park Manor and Wakeford were startled by the following advertisement in the Chicago Daily News in July, 1920:

For sale—Colored Attention: homes on Vernon, South Park and Indiana Aves. Sold on easy terms; come out and look this locality over; Protestant neighborhood, Park Manor and Wakeford; good transportation. Blair, 7455 Cottage Grove Avenue.

Blair, a real estate agent, denied all knowledge of the advertisement and attributed it either to an enemy or to a practical joker. He sent notices to be read the following day in the nine churches of the district, so stating, deploring the occurrence and pledging himself to aid the other residents in excluding Negroes and in hunting down the author of the advertisement.

Meanwhile the entire district had been aroused, and a meeting called for the evening of July 12, in front of a church at Seventy-sixth Street and St. Lawrence Avenue. About 1,000 people gathered for this meeting, which was conducted by the presidents of the South Park Manor and Wakeford Improvement Associations. The former announced that he had visited the Daily News and learned that the advertisement had been handed to a clerk in typewritten form and with a typewritten signature, and paid for in advance, whereas Blair's regular advertising was done on a charge account. This and other information tended to show that the agent was not responsible for the advertisement. In its issue of Monday, July 12, the Daily News printed an explanatory statement.

Other speakers at the meeting were a real estate dealer and an alderman. Considerable indignation was expressed over the false light in which the community had been placed. Even the suggestion that Negroes might by chance become a part of this community seemed to be abhorrent. As far as Negroes were concerned there was no excitement, but they resented being used to frighten white residents.

PROPORTION OF NEGROES TO TOTAL POPULATION
1910
DATA OBTAINED FROM FEDERAL CENSUS

"Contested neighborhoods."—The contested neighborhoods are by far the most important among the types of non-adjusted neighborhoods, both because of the actual presence in them of varying numbers of Negroes and their bearing on the future relations of the races. The efforts in such neighborhoods to keep out Negroes involve stimulation of anti-Negro sentiment and organization of property owners, and the campaign against the presence of Negroes as neighbors develops into a campaign against Negroes. Negroes in turn resent both the propaganda statements and the organized efforts. A continuous struggle, marked by bombings, foreclosures of mortgages, and court disputes, is the result.

The most conspicuous type of a "contested neighborhood" is that known as Kenwood and Hyde Park. In this general neighborhood, from Thirty-ninth to Fifty-ninth streets and from State Street to Lake Michigan, hostility toward Negroes has been plainly and even forcibly expressed through organized efforts to oust them and prevent their further encroachment. The situation is peculiar. This is the part of the old South Side in which most of the Negro population of Chicago has settled. The so-called "Black Belt" has been overcrowded for years. Old and deteriorated housing and its insufficiency have been steadily driving Negroes out of it in search of other homes.

It was inevitable that the great influx of migrants should overflow into surrounding territory. Many migrants brought funds, having sold out their homes and other possessions. Negroes who had lived for some time in the "Black Belt" were eager to escape from it, and here was their opportunity. They did not wish to go too far from their churches and other established institutions, and Hyde Park was immediately adjoining.

Conditions in Hyde Park during 1916 and 1917 favored the overflow. Numbers of new, and in some instances high-grade, apartment houses had been built during the previous ten or fifteen years. Many whites were leaving their individual houses to live in these apartments or to move to the North and South Shore regions. The houses had become less desirable, and many of them were vacant. The district, except for certain definite neighborhoods, had lost much of its former aristocratic air, with the coming of rooming-and boarding-houses. During 1914, 1915, and 1916 many houses and apartments in Hyde Park were vacant or were rented at low prices. Inducements were offered to prospective tenants in the form of extensive decorations and repairs, or some rental allowance.

Negroes bought houses and apartment buildings and rented anything rentable. This expansion of the Negro boundaries was promoted by both white and Negro real estate agents and property owners with little opposition. These men soon learned that Negroes, with their increased wages due to war conditions, were able to make first payments, at least, on houses and to rent better houses or flats than they had previously been obliged to occupy.

Then the entrance of the United States into the war in 1917 and the suspension of building operations occasioned a house shortage which became acute in 1918. The white demand for dwellings began to exceed the supply. Real estate men of the neighborhood began to discuss plans for re-establishing it as an exclusively white neighborhood. A survey by the Kenwood and Hyde Park Property Owners' Association showed that of the 3,300 property owners in the district, about 1,000 were Negroes. Neighbors had objected little, the entrance of the Negroes having been so gradual that it was almost unnoticeable.

Both Kenwood and Hyde Park, using these terms in the more restricted sense of the original residential localities that bore the names, had enjoyed the activities of local improvement organizations whose function it was to keep the streets sprinkled and clean, to procure better lighting, and otherwise improve civic conditions. The Kenwood and Hyde Park Property Owners' Association became prominent in 1918 on account of its agitation to "make Hyde Park white." In October, 1918, a form letter was sent out calling a meeting of the Grand Boulevard district of this Association for October 20. The letter said in part: "We are a red blood organization who say openly, we won't be driven out. We make no secret of our methods, they are effective and legal." A dodger announcing the same meeting read:

Every white person Property Owner in Hyde Park come to this meeting. Protect your Property.

Shall we sacrifice our property for a third of its value and run like rats from a burning ship, or shall we put up a united front and keep Hyde Park desirable for ourselves? It's not too late.

The Grand Boulevard district, described as extending from Thirty-ninth to Sixty-third streets, and from Michigan to Cottage Grove avenues was included in the consolidated organization of the Hyde Park and Kenwood districts. This Association, as was asserted by its president, also had the co-operation of three other similar organizations, one in the Washington Park district, the Lake Front Community Property Owners' Association, operating in the district north of Thirty-ninth Street and south of Thirty-third Street, east of Cottage Grove Avenue; and one in the Englewood district, which is southwest of Hyde Park.

Organization of sentiment: It does not appear that the residents of this neighborhood rose spontaneously to oppose the coming in of Negroes. If this had been the case, the first Negroes moving into the district in 1917 would have felt the opposition. The sudden interest in race occupancy was based upon the alleged depreciation of property by Negroes. With this emphasized, it was not difficult to rally opposition to Negroes as a definite menace. The real estate men gave the alarm, alleging a shrinkage in property values. The effort through the Hyde Park and Kenwood Association was intended to stop the influx and thereby the depreciation. Meetings were held, a newspaper was published, and literature was distributed. Racial antagonism was strong in the speeches at these meetings and in the newspapers. The meeting which probably marked the first focusing of attention on the Kenwood and Hyde Park districts was held May 5, 1919, when the sentiment was expressed that Negro invasion of the district was the worst calamity that had struck the city since the Great Fire. A prominent white real estate man said: "Property owners should be notified to stand together block by block and prevent such invasion."

Distinctly hostile sentiments were expressed before audiences that came expecting to hear how their property might be saved from "almost certain destruction." A speaker at one of the meetings said in part:

We are taught that the principle of virtue and right shall be the rule of our conduct in all of our transactions with our fellow-men, and therefore it is our duty to help the Negro, to uplift him in his environment, mark you, not ours. But it is not our duty, now mark this, it is not our duty as I see it, nor is it according to the laws of nature for us to live with him as neighbors or on a social basis. There is an immutable, unchanging law that governs the distribution, association and conduct of all living creatures. Man is no exception to the universal rule. In every land and clime man obeys the second law of his nature and seeks his own kind, avoiding every other, and ever, ever is he warring with his unlike neighbor, families, classes, societies, tribes, and nations.

There are men who proclaim to the world and ourselves that the destiny of the black man and the white man is one. I do not believe it; I cannot believe it. Now, listen! As far back as September 18, 1858, in his famous joint debate with Stephen A. Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, that wonderful, Godlike man, the liberator of the slaves, said this (Now listen, 1858, over sixty years ago): "I am not nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and the black race. I am not nor ever have been in favor of qualifying them to intermarry with white people, and I will say in addition to this, that there is a physical difference between the white and black races living together on terms of social and political equality."

Other remarks of speakers at these meetings were:

The depreciation of our property in this district has been two hundred and fifty millions since the invasion. If someone told you that there was to be an invasion that would injure your homes to that extent, wouldn't you rise up as one man and one woman, and say as General Foch said: "They shall not pass"?

There isn't an insurance company in America that will turn around and try to buck our organization when we as one man give them to understand that it is dangerous to insure some people.

Why I remember fifteen or twenty years ago that the district down here at Wabash Avenue and Calumet was one of the most beautiful and highest-class neighborhoods of this great city. Go down there today and see the ramshackle broken-down and tumble-down district. That is the result of the new menace that is threatening this great Hyde Park district. And then tell me whether there are or not enough red-blooded, patriotic, loyal, courageous citizens of Hyde Park to save this glorious district from the menace which has brought so much pain and so much disaster to the district to the south of us.

You cannot mix oil and water. You cannot assimilate races of a different color as neighbors along social lines. Remember this: That order is heaven's first law.

Throughout the meetings, profession was made of friendliness toward the Negroes, together with a desire to serve their needs and accord them fair treatment. The Property Owners' Journal, published by the Association, was less guarded. While some of its columns made similar professions, its remarks in other columns were characterized by extreme racial bitterness and antagonism.

An apparently conciliatory attitude was also taken by speakers at meetings of the Hyde Park Association and its Grand Boulevard branch. In a meeting of the latter on January 19, 1920, the chairman declared that he wished to say for publication: "We have no quarrel with the colored people. We have no desire to intimidate them by violence." The mission of the organization, he said, was peaceable, and it was the purpose to proceed according to law and order. The Association, he averred, had been charged "by the colored press" with being parties to bombing outrages. He wanted it known that "we have denounced officially the action of anyone or any set of people who would indulge in a practice of that character." The story of the bombing campaign is given in another section of this report.

At another meeting it was asserted that the Kenwood and Hyde Park Association had a membership of 1,000 persons, and it was estimated that in the district to which it applied the investment in real estate was $1,000,000,000. The purpose of the organization was declared to be "to guard that $1,000,000,000 against depreciation from anything." One speaker said he did not believe there was a piece of property west of Cottage Grove Avenue in Hyde Park that was worth 33 cents on the dollar "as it stands now with this invasion." He said his home cost about $25,000, but he felt safe in saying that he could not then get $8,000 for it. A city alderman was one of the speakers at this meeting.

Most of the real estate dealers in the area were claimed as members of the Kenwood and Hyde Park Association or its Grand Boulevard branch. Special reference was made at various times and in scathing terms to dealers who declined to affiliate. At the meeting of the Grand Boulevard district on January 19, 1920, it was reported that the Executive Committee of the parent association had succeeded during the previous two or three months in educating real estate men. "The colored man," a speaker said, "would have never been in this district had not our real estate men in their ambition to acquire wealth and commissions, which is perfectly legitimate, put them here, although this action on their part has been very shortsighted, as some of them now admit." This speaker said also that the Association's "greatest successes" had been in getting all but five or six of the real estate men to sign a pledge not to show or rent or sell any property "within our locality that we claim jurisdiction of in the future to colored people."

PROPORTION OF NEGROES TO TOTAL POPULATION
1920
DATA OBTAINED FROM FEDERAL CENSUS

The Property Owners' Journal exerted no little influence in the creation of this sentiment. Claiming a wide circulation, its utterances were so extreme in bitterness against Negroes that many of the residents of the district, although opposed to the coming in of Negroes, held aloof from the organization because they could not indorse appeals to race hatred and advocacy of measures which they felt were illegal and dangerously near to violence. These extracts are from its issue of December 13, 1919:

To damage a man's property and destroy its value is to rob him. The person who commits that act is a robber. Every owner has the right to defend his property to the utmost of his ability with every means at his disposal.

Any property owner who sells property anywhere in our district to undesirables is an enemy to the white owner and should be discovered and punished.

Protect your property!

Property conservatively valued at $50,000,000 owned by some 10,000 individuals is menaced by a possible Negro invasion of Hyde Park. The thing is simply impossible and must not occur.

These are from its issue of January 1, 1920:

As stated before, every colored man who moves into Hyde Park knows that he is damaging his white neighbors' property. Therefore, he is making war on the white man. Consequently, he is not entitled to any consideration and forfeits his right to be employed by the white man. If employers should adopt a rule of refusing to employ Negroes who persist in residing in Hyde Park to the damage of the white man's property, it would soon show good results.

The Negro is using the Constitution and its legal rights to abuse the moral rights of the white.

This is from its issue of February 15, 1920:

There is nothing in the make-up of a Negro, physically or mentally, which should induce anyone to welcome him as a neighbor. The best of them are insanitary, insurance companies class them as poor risks, ruin alone follows in their path. They are as proud as peacocks, but have nothing of the peacock's beauty. Certain classes of the Negroes, such as the Pullman porters, political heelers and hairdressers are clamoring for equality. They are not content with remaining with the creditable members of their race, they seem to want to mingle with the whites. Their inordinate vanity, their desire to shine as social lights caused them to stray out of their paths and lose themselves. We who would direct them back where they belong, towards their people, are censured and called "unjust." Far more unjust are their actions to the members of their race who have no desire to interfere with the homes of the white citizens of this district. The great majority of the Negroes are not stirred by any false ambition that results only in discord. Wherever friction arises between the races, the suffering is usually endured by the innocent. If these misleaders are sincere in their protestations of injustice, if they are not hypocritical in their pretence of solving the race question, let them move. Their actions savour of spite against the whites, whose good will can never be attained by such tactics. The place for a Negro aristocrat is in a Negro neighborhood.

In the same issue, under the heading Caveat Vendor (Let the Seller Beware) appeared the following:

People who sell their property to Negroes and take first and second mortgages and promises to pay monthly sums do not know what risks they are taking in trying to collect the money. Mrs. Nora Foster of 4207 Prairie sold her house to some niggers and when she went to collect she was assaulted and thrown down a flight of stairs. This is not a case of saying it served her right because more than seven of her neighbors sold before Mrs. Foster did, but it does serve as a splendid example of the fact that niggers are undesirable neighbors and entirely irresponsible and vicious.

The Negroes' innate desire to "flash," to live in the present, not reckoning the future, their inordinate love for display has resulted in their being misled by the example of such individuals as Jesse Binga and Oscar De Priest. In their loud mouthing about equality with the whites they have wormed their course into white neighborhoods, where they are not wanted and where they have not the means to support property.

Keep the Negro in his place, amongst his people and he is healthy and loyal. Remove him, or allow his newly discovered importance to remove him from his proper environment and the Negro becomes a nuisance. He develops into an overbearing, inflated, irascible individual, overburdening his brain to such an extent about social equality, that he becomes dangerous to all with whom he comes in contact, he constitutes a nuisance, of which the neighborhood is anxious to rid itself.

Another building which has been polluted by Negro tenancy is to be renovated on May 1st.... Either the Negro must vanish or decay sets in. Who is next?

Misleaders of the Negro, those flamboyant, noisy, witless individuals, who, by power of superior gall and gumption, have blustered their way into positions of prominence amongst their people, wonder why this district resents their intrusion. To allow themselves an opportunity to parade their dusky persons before an audience of their followers, these misleaders held a meeting of the Protective Circle (composed, no doubt, of Negro roundheads), at which a varied assortment of Negro preachers, politicians and other what nots exposed our methods and organization work. With much comical oratory, they dangled our association before the spellbound eyes of their sable dupes and after extreme fuming and sweating appointed about fifteen committees to annihilate all Hyde Parkers.

III. BOMBINGS

A form of organized resistance to the coming of Negroes into new neighborhoods was the bombings of their homes and the homes of real estate men, white and Negro, who were known or supposed to have sold, leased, or rented local property to them.

From July 1, 1917, to March 1, 1921, the Negro housing problem was marked by fifty-eight bomb explosions. Two persons, both Negroes, were killed, a number of white and colored persons were injured, and the damage to property amounted to more than $100,000. Of these fifty-eight bombs, thirty-two were exploded within the square bounded by Forty-first and Sixtieth streets, Cottage Grove Avenue and State Street. With an average of one race bombing every twenty days for three years and eight months, the police and the state's attorney's office succeeded in apprehending but two persons suspected of participation in these acts of lawlessness. One of these, James Macheval, arrested on the complaint of C. S. Absteson, a janitor, was released on a $500 bond. At the writing of this report, one year after the arrest, there has been no trial. Another man was apprehended, questioned, held under surveillance for two days by the police, and finally released.

News of threatened bombings in many cases was circulated well in advance of the actual occurrence. Negroes were warned of the exact date on which explosions would occur. They asked for police protection, and, in some instances where police were sent beforehand, their homes were bombed, and no arrests were made.

The persons directing these bombings did not limit their intimidations to Negro residents in white neighborhoods; residences of Negroes and white real estate men were bombed because they had sold or rented property in these exclusive areas to Negroes, and Negro bankers' houses were bombed because they made loans on Negro property and supported their mortgages.

These bombings increased rapidly in frequency and damaging effect. The six months' period ended October 1, 1920, witnessed as many bombings as the entire thirty-five months preceding. Prior to 1919 there were twelve bombings. Four of these were directed at properties merely held by Negro real estate men as agents, two of them in Berkeley Avenue just north of Forty-third Street, and near the lake. Five were in the 4500 block on Vincennes Avenue, two at 4200 Wabash Avenue, and one at 4732 Indiana Avenue.

Bombing of real estate men's properties appears to have been part of a general scheme to close the channels through which the invasion proceeded rather than a protest of neighbors. The four explosions in the 4500 block on Vincennes Avenue appear to have been deliberately aimed at the tenants. This block is at the center of the neighborhood most actively opposed to the coming in of Negroes. In January, 1919, a white and a Negro real estate agent were bombed; in March, Jesse Binga's real estate office at 4724 State Street and an apartment at 4041 Calumet Avenue were bombed. In April there were two more bombings, one of a realty office. Following a public meeting on May 5 to arouse white property owners of the Hyde Park district against Negro invasion, there were four bombings. Between January 1, 1920, and March 1, 1920, there were eight bombings in eight weeks. Responsibility for the creation of the sentiment thus expressed was in some instances assumed by organizations. For example the Property Owners' Journal, in its issue for February 1, 1920, said:

Our neighborhood must continue white. This sentiment is the outgrowth of the mass meeting of property owners and residents which was held Monday, January 19. Mr. George J. Williams furnished the climax of the meeting when he informed the audience in terse, pithy language that "Hyde Park enjoys a reputation too splendid as a neighborhood of white culture to allow Negroes to use it as their door mat."

In the issue of December 13, 1919, white and Negro real estate men and owners selling property to Negroes in the district were "branded as unclean outcasts of society to be boycotted and ostracized in every possible manner," and W. B. Austin, white, was accused of violating a gentleman's obligation to his community in selling a home to a Negro. It was asserted falsely that the house which he had sold had been used during the race riots as a "rendezvous for Negroes who fired volleys of revolver shots from doors and windows at white boys in the street who, according to the testimony of neighbors, had not attacked the premises."

On December 26 the home of J. H. Coleman, a white real estate man who had sold a house to a Negro, was bombed. The transaction was not public, and occupancy was not to take place for five months. On December 27 the home of Jesse Binga, a Negro real estate man, was bombed. One week later, on January 6, came the bombing of W. B. Austin, on the North Side.

During 1919 and 1920 committees and delegations of whites and Negroes appealed to the chief of police, the mayor, State's Attorney Hoyne, and the press, but nothing was done. The mayor referred these matters to his chief of police. The police were unable to discover the bombers or anyone directing them. The state's attorney, in response to appeals, emphatically defined his duty as a prosecuting rather than an apprehending agent. All the while, however, the bombings continued steadily; no arrests except the two mentioned were made; and the Negro population grew to trust less and less in the interest of the community and the public agencies of protection.

1. TYPICAL BOMBINGS

The circumstances of the bombings were investigated by the Commission, and details of what happened in several typical cases are here presented.

Bombing of the Motley home.—In 1913 S. P. Motley, Negro, and his wife purchased a building at 5230 Maryland Avenue through a white agent, and on March 15, 1913, the family moved in. For four years they lived there without molestation save the silent resentment of neighbors and open objection to the presence of Negro children in the streets. On July 1, 1917, without warning or threat, a bomb was exploded in the vestibule of the house, and the front of the building was blown away. The damage amounted to $1,000. Police arrived from the station at Fifty-second Street and Lake Park Avenue ten minutes after the explosion. No clews were found and no arrests were made. The original owner of the building was bitterly opposed to Negroes and was a member of an organization which was seeking to keep Negroes out of the district.

Some time after this incident it was rumored that Motley was planning to purchase the building adjacent. At 4:00 a.m. June 4, 1919, a dynamite bomb was exploded under the front of the house adjacent and tore up its stone front. The neighbors were in the street immediately after the explosion. No clews were found and no arrests were made. The Motley family on this occasion was accused of inviting another Negro family into the block. The new family in question negotiated for its own property, and before an actual settlement had been made, received numerous telephone messages and threats. It moved in, but was not bombed.

HOMES BOMBED IN RACE CONFLICTS OVER HOUSING JULY 1, 1917-MARCH 1, 1921

Bombing of Moses Fox's home.—Moses Fox, white, connected with a "Loop" real estate firm, lived at 442 East Forty-fifth Street. The house was too large, and he decided to move to smaller quarters. The building was sold through a real estate firm to persons whom he did not know. On March 10, 1920, a few days after the sale, he received a telephone call informing him that he must suffer the consequences of selling his home to Negroes. At 7:30 that evening an automobile was seen to drive slowly past his home three times, stopping each time just east of the building. On the last trip a man alighted, and deposited a long-fuse bomb in the vestibule. The fuse smoked for four minutes. Attracted by the smoke, Fox ran toward the front of the house. The bomb exploded before he reached the door. It was loaded with dynamite and contained slugs which penetrated the windows of buildings across the street. The evening selected for the bombing was the one on which Patrolman Edward Owens, Negro, was off duty and a white policeman was patrolling his beat. The bombing was witnessed by Dan Jones, a Negro janitor, and Mrs. Florence De Lavalade, a Negro tenant. The front of the building was wrecked and all the windows shattered. Damage amounting to $1,000 was done. No arrests were made.

Bombing of Jesse Binga's properties.—Jesse Binga is a Negro banker and real estate man. His bank is at 3633 State Street, his real estate office at 4724 State Street, and his home at 5922 South Park Avenue. He controls more than $500,000 worth of property and through his bank has made loans on Negro property and taken over the mortgages of Negroes refused by other banks and loan agencies.

On November 12, 1919, an automobile rolled by his realty office and a bomb was tossed from it. It left the office in ruins. The police were soon on the scene, but the car was well beyond reach by the time of their arrival. No clews to the bombers were found, and no arrests were made. It was the opinion of the police that white residents of the Hyde Park district resented Binga's handling of Negro property in that district.

Twenty-one days later an automobile drew up in front of Binga's home at 5922 South Park Avenue, and its occupants put a bomb under the front steps. It failed to explode. When the firemen arrived they found it sizzling in the slush beneath the porch. The police declared that this was an expression of racial feeling.

Twenty-five days later the bombers reappeared and left a third bomb. It tore up the porch of Binga's home. Again the police found that the explosion had been caused by "racial feeling," white men having said that "Binga rented too many flats to Negroes in high-class residence districts." The house was repaired and police provided to guard the house. At twelve o'clock each night the guard changed watch. On the night of February 28 the policeman on duty until twelve o'clock left a few minutes early, and the policeman relieving him was just a few minutes late. In this unguarded interval an automobile swung around the corner, and as it passed the Binga home a man leaned out and tossed a bomb into the yard. The bomb lit in a puddle of water and the fuse went out. It was found that the bomb had been made of black powder, manila paper, and cotton. The explanation of the attempt was that "his $30,000 home is in a white neighborhood."

A police guard was still watching the house on the night of June 18, 1920 when the bombing car appeared again. On this occasion neither policeman was in sight when the car drew up. A man alighted this time and carefully placed the bomb. The explosion that followed almost demolished the front of the house and smashed windows throughout the block. This last explosion damaged the home to the extent of $4,000. Binga offered a reward of $1,000 for the apprehension of those guilty of these repeated acts of lawlessness.

On November 23 Binga was bombed again. This time the bomb damaged his neighbors more seriously than it did Binga's property. No clews were found and no one was arrested.

Bombing of R. W. Woodfolk's home.—R. W. Woodfolk, Negro banker and real estate dealer, purchased a flat at 4722 Calumet Avenue. It was an investment of the Merchants and Peoples' Bank, 3201 South State Street, which he controlled. The building was occupied by one white and four Negro families. On the evening of February 1, 1920, a person with keys to the building locked the tenants in their apartments, sprung the locks of the doors leading to the street, and planted a bomb in the hallway. The explosion ripped up the hall and stairway, tore away the brick work around the entrance, and shattered the windows of adjacent buildings. The damage was estimated at $1,000. No arrests were made.

Bombing of the Clarke home.—Mrs. Mary Byron Clarke, Negro, purchased through W. B. Austin, a white banker and real estate man, properties at 4404 and 4406 Grand Boulevard, vacant for a year at the time of purchase, and previously used by prostitutes. A real estate dealer herself, she had frequently been assisted by Austin in financing her transactions, one of which was the sale to Negroes of Isaiah Temple, a Jewish synagogue at Forty-fifth Street and Vincennes Avenue.

The dwellings were renovated and she moved into one of them; the other she rented. During the riot of July, 1919, her home was attacked by a mob. When the police arrived in response to a call by the Clarkes, they battered in the doors at the demand of the mob and arrested Mr. and Mrs. Clarke. They were acquitted. On January 5, 1920, the house was bombed. The explosion caused $3,360 worth of damage. The building was again bombed February 12, 1920, this time with a dynamite bomb thrown through the plate-glass door in the hallway from a passing automobile. The stairway was knocked down and large holes blown in the wall. The police came, found no clews, and made no arrests. At the request of Mrs. Clarke a special policeman was detailed to guard the property.

Numerous threatening letters and telephone calls followed, all of which were reported to the police. There were threats of another bombing if she did not sell, and there were visits from representatives of real estate interests in Hyde Park making offers.

Tuesday evening, April 13, 1920, a third bomb was exploded in spite of the presence of the two special policemen. The bomb was thrown from the premises of Frederick R. Barnheisel, an immediate neighbor, a telephone wire deflected it, and it landed near the Clarke garage.

Mrs. Clarke made a statement concerning this bombing before the Commission in which she said:

"Wednesday [the day following the third bombing] we got a letter saying 'move out or sell, there is nothing else for you to do. We missed you last night but we will get you the next time. We are determined.' A letter prior to that stated if we did not get out they would 'get our hides.'

"There has been some sinister influence brought to bear on the insurance company since the riot and since the first bombing. We have had our house insured against bombing since the first bombing. The first damage of about $500 they paid and canceled the insurance on 4404 Grand Boulevard. The second bomb did damage to the extent of $3,360. They wrote saying they would cancel it, subject however to pending loss. There was a clause calling for settlement within sixty days. After sixty days we would have to enter suit to get it. The sixty days have passed, and there has been no attempt to settle. Some of the glass has been replaced. They have accepted it, and there has been no disposition on their part to settle.

"Berry, Johnston, & Peters, the men with whom we have had the most business dealings, have insisted that we sell the place. Mr. Peters said last week he could get a buyer from the Hyde Park-Kenwood Association people, also said if any indebtedness remained on the contract or deeds, that the money must first be paid to them, then to us. We have been careful not to let any indebtedness, even for ten days, come against 4406."

Bombing of Crede Hubbard's home.—Following is part of Hubbard's statement to the police immediately after the bombing of his home at 4331 Vincennes Avenue on the night of April 25, 1920:

"The day on which I had planned to move, a man who said he was Mr. Day, of the Hyde Park and Kenwood Association, telephoned me. He said: 'I hear you have acquired property and you are dissatisfied with it; we can take it off your hands—relieve you of it.' I replied that I didn't think I needed any help. He asked, 'What do you expect to do?' I said, 'I expect to move into it or sell it if I can get my price.' I moved on Tuesday and Wednesday he called in person. He said, 'I called to find out if you want us to sell or handle your property for you.' I told him I thought I could handle it, and that I was not anxious to sell but would consider selling if I could get an offer of say $11,000. He replied that his buyers were not able to go that far. He continued, 'The point is, I represent the Hyde Park-Kenwood Association. We have spent a lot of money and we want to keep this district white.' I asked him why they had not thought of buying the property before and told him that the house had been for sale for eight months. He replied that it was a lamentable fact that they had overlooked it. I told him that I heard the Hyde Park Association had a $100,000 slush fund out of which $100 was paid for each bombing. He said he would have some of his buyers come in and look over the property. Shortly afterward, Mr. Stephen D. Seman and another man came and represented themselves as buyers. They looked over the inside of the house. I only carried them through the halls. Mr. Seman said, 'You only paid $8,500 for this property.' I told him that he had been misinformed, I had paid $9,000. He said, 'I will give you $9,500 for it.' I refused. As they were leaving he added, 'You had better consider our offer.' Soon after that a man named Casson, real estate man, called. I would not let him in. When he asked me my price I told him $11,500.

"A week later a delegation from the Hyde Park Association called. The spokesman began: 'I am Mr. Austin. You understand the nature of our business with you, I suppose.' ... I told the chief clerk of the office of the Northwestern Railroad to inform you that we were coming to see you. We are the Hyde Park-Kenwood Association and you will understand that you are not welcome in this district. We want to know what can be done.' I replied that I didn't know what could be done unless they wanted to buy; otherwise I expected to live there, and my price was $11,500. They continued, 'Do you suppose if I moved into a black district where I wasn't wanted, that I would want to live there?' I said, 'If you had bought property there and liked the property, I don't see why you should move.' They said, 'Why do you persist in wanting to live here when you know you are not wanted?' I said, 'I have bought property here and I am expecting to live here.' Then they filed out of the door, and one of the members stated, 'You had better consider this proposition.'

"In the office of the Northwestern Railroad, Mr. Shirley called me in and read a letter to me which he had received from Mr. Austin. 'Murphy, his name is,' he said, 'I know him fairly well, and I simply want to make an answer to the letter. Don't think I am trying to influence you one way or the other. This is the letter: it goes about like this: "Crede Hubbard has purchased a three-flat building at 4332 Vincennes Avenue. Property values are always shot to hell when Negroes move in. Use whatever influence you have to induce him to sell and find out for us his lowest figures."' He added, 'Don't think I am trying to brow-beat you into selling this property.'"

"On the following Sunday night on my way back to Milwaukee, I read in the paper that my house had been bombed. My family was at home, my two boys sleeping about ten feet from the place that was most seriously damaged. The bomb was placed inside the vestibule. The girl there heard a taxicab drive up about twenty-five minutes to twelve and stop for a few minutes and start off again. About six minutes after the taxicab stopped, the explosion came, and in about five minutes there were not less than 300 people on the street in front of the place asking questions. There were a number of plain-clothes men in the crowd. I told my story to the chief of police and to a sergeant of the police and they said it was evidence enough to warrant the arrest of the officials of the Association named, but they also thought that it would do no good.... 'The thing we will have to do is to catch somebody in the act, sweat him and make him tell who his backers are.'

"The police believe that the actual bombing is being done by a gang of young rough-necks who will stop at nothing, and they expect a pretty serious encounter if they are interfered with. A big automobile is being shadowed now by the police. It is used by this bunch of young fellows under suspicion, and it is thought that they keep the car well loaded with ammunition, and whoever attacks them must expect trouble. There are four plain-clothes men on guard in this district now. The police told me to get anything I want from a Mauser to a machine gun and sit back in the dark, and when anybody comes up to my hallway acting suspiciously to crack down on him and ask him what he was there for afterwards."

Bombing of the Harrison home.—Mrs. Gertrude Harrison, Negro, living alone with her children, contracted to buy a house at 4708 Grand Boulevard. In March, 1919, she moved in. She immediately received word that she had committed a grave error. She and her children were constantly subjected to the insulting remarks both of her immediate neighbors and passers-by.

On May 16, 1919, a Negro janitor informed her that neighbors were planning to bomb her house. She called up the Forty-eighth Street police station and told of the threatened danger. The officer answering the telephone characterized her report as "idle talk" and promised to send a man to investigate. The regular patrolman came in and promised to "keep an eye on the property," but there were ten blocks in his beat. A special guard was secured and paid by Mrs. Harrison when it was learned that one would not be furnished by the police.

The following night, May 17, her house was bombed while the patrolman was "punching his box" two blocks away and the special watchman was at the rear. A detail of police was then provided both at the front and rear. The following night a bomb was thrown on the roof of the house from the window of a vacant flat in the adjoining apartment house. The flat from which the bomb was thrown had been unlocked to admit the bombers and locked again. The police failed to question either the persons living in the apartment or those leaving it immediately after the explosion.

The first explosion blew out the front door and shattered the glass in the front of the house. The bomb was filled with gravel and bits of lead. The second was of similar character, but did not do as much damage. No arrests were made.

DAMAGE DONE BY A BOMB
This bomb was thrown into a building at 3365 Indiana Avenue, occupied by Negroes. A six-year-old Negro child was killed.

In all these fifty-eight bombings the police have been able to accomplish nothing definite. Practically every incident involved an automobile, descriptions of which were furnished by witnesses. The precautions taken to prevent bombings, even if they were well planned and systematically carried out, failed lamentably.

2. REACTION OF WHITES IN HYDE PARK

Increasing frequency of bombings, failure of the police to make arrests, and the apparent association of these acts of open violence with the white residents of Hyde Park drew out explanations.

Pastors of churches in the district who, it had been charged, helped to give circulation to printed sentiments of the organized opposition to the "invasion" were strong in their repudiation. The menace to law and order was definitely recognized and the public given to understand that neither the pastor nor his congregation had encouraged acts of lawlessness in any manner. In a statement to a Commission investigator, one of these pastors said, "I am not in sympathy with the methods and am very doubtful about the aims of the Property Owners' Association and have, therefore, been unable to join them or indorse their efforts."

A local paper, the Real Estate News, published a long article in February, 1920, on "Solving Chicago's Race Problem." It was directed at South Side property owners and carried a stern warning "against perils of boycott and terrorism being promoted by local protective associations." Referring to the bombing outrages, this paper, under the heading "Danger in Boycotts and Bombs," said:

In Kenwood and Hyde Park, particularly, a number of "protective associations" have been formed. Property owners have been urged to join these bodies, which, without attempt at concealment, advocate a boycott against all persons of a certain race. At meetings of these groups there has been open advocacy of violence. There has been incendiary talk. Bombs and bullets have been discussed, and speakers talking thus have been applauded. There have been repeated acts of violence. Night bombing of Negro homes and apartments has taken place. Bombing and shooting is increasing in frequency.

The time has come, we believe, for a word of solemn warning to all South Side property owners. It is: Keep out of those associations. If you are now in, get out! For you are in great danger of the penitentiary! You are in grave peril of losing your property by damage suits!

Another excerpt, under the heading "Perils of 'Protective' Organizations," said:

No one can justly criticize men for forming organizations to protect or advance their own interests lawfully. Property owners ought to unite wherever practicable for proper and lawful purposes beneficial to themselves. For such unions operate to the welfare of all.

Recently, however, a number of men have joined in forming and promoting organizations on the South Side which are perilous to themselves and to every property owner who joins them. Owners of real estate should be the last men in the world to get mixed up in movements involving violence, threats, intimidations, or boycotts. Because they are responsible. Their wealth cannot be concealed. Judgments against them are collectible.

Under the heading "Drastic Laws Forbid Conspiracies":

The law of conspiracy is drastic. Conspiracy is an association together of persons for the purpose of doing an unlawful thing in an unlawful way, or a lawful thing in an unlawful way, or an unlawful thing in a lawful way. Under the law, all persons in a conspiracy are equally guilty. One need not throw a bomb, or even know of the intent of throwing a bomb, to be found guilty. The act of one, no matter how irresponsible, is the act of all.

Any association formed in Chicago for the purpose of, or having among its aims, refusal to sell, lease or rent property to any citizen of a certain race, is an unlawful association. Every act of such an association for advancement of such an aim is an act of conspiracy, punishable criminally and civilly in the District Court of the United States. And every member of such an association is equally guilty with every other member. If one member hires a bomber, or a thug who commits murder in pursuance of the aims of the association, all the organization may be found guilty of conspiracy to destroy property or to commit murder, as the case may be.

This entire article was widely circulated in the disturbed neighborhoods by the Protective Circle, an organization of Negroes, 25,000 copies being mailed to residents of Hyde Park.

Residents of the district, stirred by the succession of bombings, began to protest. The paper of the Kenwood and Hyde Park Property Owners' Association reflected this feeling in a statement declaring that the Association had no connection with the bombings, and that its president was considering the advisability of assisting the authorities in apprehending these lawless individuals. On another occasion, this paper took pains to explain that the bombing of George A. Hyers' property on March 5 was an outgrowth of labor troubles and not of a property owners' organization recently formed in this community. At a meeting of the General Committee of the Property Owners' Association the following resolution was unanimously adopted:

Whereas, Our attention has been called to various explosions of bombs in our neighborhood at the houses of colored people living in this vicinity, and

Whereas, While we are anxious to persuade these people to move from this locality, we are opposed to violence of every description, therefore, be it

Resolved, That we condemn the action of anyone resorting to throwing of bombs or other methods not in accordance with reason, law or justice.

The attention of the city was directed to these unlawful happenings and protests from both white and Negro individuals made themselves heard. The bombings, however, did not abate in frequency. Neither were the police any more successful in locating their sources.

3. REACTION OF NEGROES

From the beginning Negroes were outspoken in their indignation over the bombings, but their protests had no apparent effect in checking the outrages.

The attacks, however, have made the Negroes firm in their stand. Mrs. Clarke was bombed four times; she still lives in the property and declares that she will not be driven out. Jesse Binga has been bombed six times but states he will not move. Only two of the forty Negro families bombed have moved; the others have made repairs, secured private watchmen or themselves kept vigil for night bombers, and still occupy the properties.

Following the bombing of Jesse Binga on June 18, 1920, the Chicago Daily News quoted him as saying to a policeman, "This is the limit; I'm going." When his attention was called to the statement he promptly replied:

Statements relative to my moving are all false. My idea of this bombing of my house is that it is an effort to retard the Binga State Bank which will take over the mortgages of colored people now buying property against which effort is being made to foreclose. I will not run. The race is at stake and not myself. If they can make me move they will have accomplished much of their aim because they can say, "We made Jesse Binga move; certainly you'll have to move," to all of the rest. If they can make the leaders move, what show will the smaller buyers have? Such headlines are efforts to intimidate Negroes not to purchase property and to scare some of them back South.

In February a group of Negroes formed themselves into a body known as the Protective Circle of Chicago, the purpose of which, as stated in its constitution, was "to combat, through legal means, the lawlessness of the Kenwood and Hyde Park Property Owners' Association and by organized effort to bring pressure to bear on city authorities to force them to apprehend those persons who have bombed the homes of twenty-one Negroes."

A mass meeting was held February 29, 1920, with 3,000 Negroes present. A popular appeal for funds for the purposes of this organization raised $1,000. Attacks were directed against the Kenwood and Hyde Park Property Owners' Association. A representative of the Protective Circle said in part:

The Hyde Park Property Owners' Association is not a new thing. It is more than eighteen years old. Eighteen years ago they proposed fourteen points as a platform for their Association. The thirteenth point was that they would keep out undesirables. All Negroes were classed as undesirables. Ten years ago Dr. Jenifer, a Negro minister, appeared before the Association and severely criticized the organization for its un-American policies. It is just recently that this organization has shown its hand openly, and the things that they have said and done are dangerously near to illegality. I have in my files this statement taken from a stenographic report of one of their meetings, made by the president of the Association: "If Negroes do not get out of Hyde Park, we will get Bolsheviks to bomb them out." The bombers of the homes of Negroes have been allowed to get away unpunished. Judge Gary hanged numbers of anarchists in the Haymarket riot for very much less complicity in bomb outrages than these men are guilty of. Hatred can never be counteracted by hatred. We cannot put any stop to the bombings of Negro homes by going out and bombing homes of white persons.

The Negro press severely condemned the bombings, and the Negro population in general felt that the apathy of city authorities and even the influential public was responsible for continuance of the outrages. Protests were sent to the governor of the state. The mayor, chief of police, and state's attorney were persistently importuned to stop the destruction of Negroes' property and remove the menace to their lives. Negroes pointed out, for example, that the authorities had shown ability to apprehend criminals, even those suspected of bomb-throwing. They cited the bombing of the home of a professional white "gunman," when eleven suspected bombers were caught in the dragnet of the state's attorney within thirty hours. Yet in fifty-eight bombings of Negro homes only two suspects were ever arrested.

In March, 1920, a Commission from the Chicago Church Federation Council sent a delegation to Mayor Thompson, Chief of Police Garrity, and State's Attorney Hoyne, to demand action on the bombing of Negroes' homes. Prominent white and colored men comprised this delegation. A prominent Negro, testifying before the Commission, said that he, with other Negroes, both from the local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and from other organizations, had carried their grievances to city officials. He said:

We have been to the mayor's office, we have been to the state's attorney's office, we have sent representatives to both these offices, and nothing has been done—possibly something is being done, but nothing of great moment. I think that the colored people feel that they are so insecure in their physical rights that rather than take any chance they're going out and paying whatever the charge is for insurance against bombing.

Another delegation of Negroes in June, 1919, twice attempted to register a complaint with the mayor against bomb outrages. The mayor's secretary, however, refused them an audience with the mayor.

The editors of local daily papers have also been visited by mixed white and Negro delegations in an endeavor to arouse public opinion.

The effect of these delegations and protests has been small. One joint conference with the mayor, chief of police, and state's attorney brought out the information that it was beyond the state's attorney's province to make arrests. The mayor, after some discussion, instructed Chief of Police Garrity to do what he could toward putting a stop to the bombing of Negroes' homes. The chief of police, after explaining the shortage of patrolmen, said he would do so.

The bombing question began to figure in local politics. Charges were made before the primary election of September, 1920, that the city administration had not given Negroes the protection it had promised. The matter of apprehending the "nefarious bomb plotters" was included in the platforms of Negroes running for office, and in those of white candidates seeking Negro votes.

The Commission had neither authority nor facilities for accomplishing what all public agencies had signally failed to do. It could, however, and did, go over the trail of the bombers and collect information which shows that the sentiment aroused in the contested neighborhoods was a factor in encouraging actual violence. Whatever antagonisms there were before the agitation were held in restraint, even though Negroes were already neighbors. Other districts, like Woodlawn and sections of the North Side, undergoing almost identical experiences as those of Hyde Park, have had no violence; the absence of stimulated sentiment is as conspicuous as the absence of violence. In the Hyde Park district, between Thirty-ninth and Forty-seventh streets and State Street and Cottage Grove Avenue, four-fifths of the bombings occurred. All but three of those happening outside the district were against real estate men accused of activities affecting the Hyde Park District. It seemed, especially in the first bombings, that the bombers had information about business transactions which the general public could not ordinarily get. Houses were bombed in numbers of cases long before their occupancy by Negroes. Each of the bombings was apparently planned, and the opportune moment came after long vigil and, as it would seem, after deliberately setting the stage. The first bombing of Binga does not appear to have been the result of resentment of neighbors in the vicinity of his home, for it was his office on State Street that was bombed. His office is in a neighborhood around which there is no contest.

4. OTHER MEANS EMPLOYED TO KEEP OUT NEGROES

The Grand Boulevard Property Owners' Association officially decided that its object should be "the acquisition, management, improvement and disposition, including leasing, sub-leasing and sale of residential property to both white and colored people within the said district heretofore described." This district was to include the area from Thirty-fifth to Sixty-third streets, and from the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad tracks to Lake Michigan.

In August, 1920, the manager of the Association cited an instance in which it had functioned. On Vernon Avenue a white man had sold property direct to Negroes. The next-door neighbor had arranged a similar sale to potential Negro buyers. The neighbor next to him, a widow, loath to lose her home, appealed to the Association. After a conference with the possible Negro buyers, their money was returned to them, the Association purchased the house in question, and the whole matter was thus amicably arranged.

During April, 1920, inquiries were made by the Commission into the unrest caused by rumors that 800 Negro families intended to move into Hyde Park. It developed that May 1, the customary "moving day," was feared both by whites in Hyde Park and by Negroes in and out of Hyde Park. Negroes living there feared that an attempt would be made to oust them by canceling or refusing to renew their leases, and whites thought Negroes might get possession of some of the properties vacated on that date. The Commission found, however, only eighteen instances where leases were canceled on houses occupied by Negroes who were having difficulty in finding other places to live.

In the summer of 1920 the Kenwood and Hyde Park Property Owners' Association stated that sixty-eight Negro families had been moved through cancellation of leases and mortgage foreclosures.

Incidental to the general plan of opposition to the entrance of Negroes in Hyde Park was the sending of threatening letters. For example, in August, 1919, a leading Negro real estate agent and banker received this pen-printed notice by mail:

Headquarters of the White Hands
Territory, Michigan Ave. to Lake Front

You are the one who helped cause this riot by encouraging Negroes to move into good white neighborhoods and you know the results of your work. This trouble has only begun and we advise you to use your influence to get Negroes to move out of these neighborhoods to Black Belt where they belong and in conclusion we advise you to get off South Park Ave. yourself. Just take this as a warning. You know what comes next.

Respect.
Warning Com.

This man's home and office have been bombed a number of times. Efforts were made to buy out individual Negroes who had settled in the district, as well as to cause renters to move out. There are numerous incidents of this nature, with indications of many others. A Negro woman who was living in the district, told one of the Commission's investigators that she and her husband had formerly lived in the 3800 block of Lake Park Avenue. White neighbors caused them so much trouble that they had moved and bought the apartment house in which they are now living, renting out the second and third flats. Almost immediately white people began to call and inquire whether she was the janitress, or whether she was renting or buying the place. When she gave evasive answers, letters began to arrive by mail. One letter was slipped under the door at night. These letters informed her that she was preventing the sale of the adjoining house because she would not sell and no white person would live next door to her. She was advised that it would be best for her to answer and declare her intentions. Two white women called and offered her $1,500 more than she had paid for the property. She refused and a few days later she received a letter demanding an immediate answer, to the Kenwood and Hyde Park Property Owners' Association.

Later three white men in overseas uniforms inquired as to the ownership of the property, asking if she was the janitress and if she knew who the owner was. She answered in the negative. One of the men tore down a "For Sale" sign on the adjoining property, and another informed her that it was the intention to turn the neighborhood back to white people and that all Negroes must go.

This woman is the president of a neighborhood protective league, including the Negroes in several of the blocks thereabouts. She received a letter from the Kenwood and Hyde Park Property Owners' Association asking the purposes and intentions of this league.

This woman also reported that a man had been going about the neighborhood under the pretext of making calling cards, advising Negroes to sell out and leave the neighborhood, as it was better not to stay where they were not wanted. Another white man who had been about the neighborhood selling wearing apparel, told her that two Negro families in the neighborhood would be bombed. She inquired how he knew this and was told to wait and see. Within two weeks these bombings had taken place.

IV. TREND OF THE NEGRO POPULATION

In considering the expansion of Negro residential areas, the most important is the main South Side section where more of the Negro population lives. This group is hemmed in on the north by the business district and on the west by overcrowded areas west of Wentworth Avenue, called in this report "hostile." During the ten years 1910-20 business houses and light manufacturing plants were moving south from the downtown district, pushing ahead of them the Negro population between Twelfth and Thirty-first streets. At the same time the Negro population was expanding into the streets east of Wabash Avenue. This extension was stopped by Lake Michigan, about eight blocks east. Negro families then began filtering into Hyde Park, immediately to the south.

In 1917 the Chicago Urban League found that Negroes were then living on Wabash Avenue as far south as Fifty-fifth street east of State Street, where they had moved from the district west of State Street. From Thirty-first to Thirty-ninth streets, on Wabash Avenue, Negroes had been living from nine to eleven years, and the approximate percentage of Negroes by blocks ranged from 95 to 100; from Thirty-ninth Street to Forty-seventh Street they had been living from one to five years and averaged 50 per cent. The movement had been almost entirely from the west and north.

On Indiana Avenue, from Thirty-first to Forty-second streets, a similar trend was revealed. In the 3100 block, Negroes had been living for eight years, in the 3200 block for fourteen years; in the more southerly blocks their occupancy had been much briefer, ranging down to five months. In the most northerly of these blocks Negroes numbered 90 per cent and in the most southerly only 2 per cent.

On Prairie Avenue, farther east, two Negro families bought homes in the 3100 block in 1911, but the majority of the Negroes had come in since 1916. The percentage of Negroes in that block was 50. From Thirty-second to Thirty-ninth Street the blocks were found to have more than 90 per cent Negroes. One family had been there five years and the average residence was one and one-half years. No Negroes were found from Fortieth to Forty-fourth Street on Prairie Avenue. There were two families in the 4500 block, and none south of that.

On Forest Avenue, from Thirty-first to Thirty-ninth Street, 75 per cent of the families were Negroes and had lived there less than six years.

On Calumet Avenue, the next street east of Prairie, Negroes had begun to live within four years. The population was 75 per cent Negro from Thirty-first to Thirty-ninth Street. None live south of Thirty-ninth Street, except at the corner, where they had been living for five months.

A similar situation was found on Rhodes Avenue, still farther east, from Thirty-first to Thirty-ninth Street. Negroes had lived in Vincennes Avenue, the next street east, less than two years, and in Cottage Grove Avenue, still farther east less than one year.

South Park Avenue and its continuation, Grand Boulevard (south of Thirty-fifth Street) was the most recent street into which Negroes had moved in large numbers. This had occurred within the years 1915-17. The first Negro families had moved into the 3400 block less than four years previously. The percentage of Negroes between Thirty-first and Thirty-fifth streets was less than 50. Within five months two Negro families had moved into the hitherto exclusively white 3500 block.

Few Negroes had moved from east of State Street to west of that street.

A NEGRO CHORAL SOCIETY

V. OUTLYING NEIGHBORHOODS

The Commission's investigation being confined to the city of Chicago, the growing Negro colonies in such suburbs as Evanston and Glencoe were not studied, but attention was given to two southwestern outlying neighborhoods in the east part of Morgan Park, just inside the city limits, and the village of Robbins, wholly Negro, just outside.

1. MORGAN PARK

In 1910, 126 Negroes lived in Morgan Park, with a total population of 5,269. In 1920 the area had been incorporated in the city of Chicago, and there were 695 Negroes in a total population of 7,780 occupying approximately the same area.

In its early days Morgan Park was the site of a theological seminary, which in 1892 became part of the University of Chicago. The first Negroes there were servants, mostly from the South, working in the households of the professors. The colony remained, and its more recent increase was due in considerable measure to the influx of well-to-do Negroes from farther north in Chicago, many of whom bought houses. In some cases Negroes in congested Negro residential areas sold out to Negroes arriving in the migration and re-established themselves in much better dwellings and surroundings in Morgan Park.

Less prosperous Negroes also came, despite the feeling of some home owners that too great an influx of that type would injure property values and render the neighborhood less desirable. Many of these work in the South Chicago steel mills and the shops at Pullman. Some work in the Stock Yards.

A number of Negroes of Morgan Park are employed at the Chicago City Hall. Some are porters on Pullman cars. Only a small number are laborers. Many of the women sew or work as car cleaners and seem reluctant to do housework even at day wages.

Physically Morgan Park is attractive with comfortable homes and large grounds. Several churches, a number of schools, and an attractive park all add to the desirability of the place as a "home town." The lots are deep, affording plenty of space for gardens, and many vacant lots are cultivated. The opportunity for garden patches is an attraction for many Negroes. There are two Negro churches, Methodist and Baptist, and a Colored Men's Improvement Association which has provided a social hall for the Negro population.

School facilities are inadequate, and the buildings are old and overcrowded. Because of this congestion, it becomes necessary for children in the sixth and higher grades to go three miles to a school on Western Avenue. About twenty Negroes attend the high school. In the Esmond Street school approximately 25 per cent of the children are Negroes. The Negroes have repeatedly requested enlarged school facilities. They want a new building conveniently situated for their children.

The white people of Morgan Park are not unfriendly toward their Negro neighbors, though there seems to be a common understanding that Negroes must not live west of Vincennes Road, which bisects the town from northeast to southwest. A Negro once bought a house across the line but found he was so unwelcome that he promptly sold again. More recently the owner of a three-story brick flat building rented to Negroes the twenty flats above his stores. A protest was made by both white and Negro house owners, so that he was forced to eject the Negro tenants.

The demand for homes is shown in the numbers of Negroes who go to Morgan Park on Sundays by automobile, street car, and train. In the spring of 1920 a number of houses were being erected for Negro occupancy in what is known in Morgan Park as "No Man's Land," east of Vincennes Road from 109th to 112th streets. This swampy tract of land was being reclaimed. Streets had been surveyed and laid out, though with little paving. Water, light, and gas were available, and some efforts at drainage had been made, leaving some stagnant pools. Other plans involved the building of eighty five-room bungalows by a Chicago contractor. Six of these were under construction at the time of the investigator's visit, and five had been sold, corner-lot houses at $4,550, houses on inside lots at $4,330.

Morgan Park Negroes appear to be progressing financially. An officer of a local trust and savings bank said that they met their obligations promptly, only occasionally defaulting or suffering foreclosure and then only because of illness, death, or loss of employment. The same officer said savings accounts of Negroes were increasing in number, though small in amount.

Whites and Negroes maintain a friendly attitude. During the 1919 riots a number of conferences took place between Negroes and white people of Morgan Park. The Negroes kept rather close to their own neighborhood, and the only difficulty the police had was in controlling rowdy white boys.

Younger children of the two races play together in the school yards. A teacher in the Esmond Street school declared that no distinction was made between Negroes and whites in that school. It was noted, however, that when games were played, this teacher directed the little Negroes to take little Negro girls as partners. Some prejudice is discernible among whites in the community, but there is an evident desire to be fair and to give the Negroes every reasonable opportunity to exemplify good citizenship so long as they do not move from their own into the white neighborhoods.

Those familiar with the Morgan Park settlement believe that it offers unusual inducements as a home community for Negroes. The contractor who is already building for Negroes there has confidence in the venture. He has dealt before with Negroes and found them satisfactory clients.

2. ROBBINS

This village is the only exclusively Negro community near Chicago with Negroes in all village offices.

Robbins is not attractive physically. It is not on a car line and there is no pretense of paved streets, or even sidewalks. The houses are homemade, in most cases by labor mornings, nights, and holidays, after or before the day's wage-earning. Tar paper, roofing paper, homemade tiles, hardly seem sufficient to shut out the weather; older houses, complete with windows, doors, porches, fences, and gardens, indicate that some day these shelters will become real houses. In 1920 the village took out its incorporation papers, and while there are some who regret this independence and talk of asking Blue Island to annex it, in the main the citizens are proud of their village and certain of its future. There are 380 people all told, men, women, and children, living in something more than seventy houses. It is a long mile down the road to the street car, but daily men and women trudge away to their work, taking with them the feeling of home ownership, of a place for the children to play unmolested, of friends and neighbors.

These men and women find many kinds of work in the neighboring towns—at the mills, on the railroads, in the factories. Many of the women work in the factory of Libby, McNeil & Libby. Their wages go into payments for their homes. Men and women together are living as pioneer families lived—working and sacrificing to feel the independence of owning a bit of ground and their own house.