III. The Negro Population of Chicago
1. DISTRIBUTION AND DENSITY
The Negro population of Chicago, as reported by the Federal Bureau of the Census, was 44,103 in 1910, and 109,594 in 1920. The increase during the decade was, therefore, 65,491, or 148.5 per cent. Negroes constituted 2 per cent of the city's total population in 1910 and 4.1 per cent in 1920. The increase in the white population during the decade was 450,047, or 21 per cent, bringing the number up to 2,589,104 in 1920. Counting 3,007 Chinese, Japanese, and Indians of whom there were 2,123 in 1910, Chicago's total population in 1920 was 2,701,705.
This growth of the Negro population did not bring into existence any new large colonies of Negroes, but merely expanded and increased the density of areas in which they already lived. The areas of Negro residence are listed under designations arbitrarily given for convenient reference.[105]
| 1920 |
| SOUTH SIDE |
| Roosevelt Road—Fifty-fifth St.; Wentworth Ave.—Cottage Grove Ave. |
| Population: total, 376,171; Negro, 92,901. |
| Woodlawn |
| Sixty-first St.—Sixty-seventh St.; Eberhart Ave.—Grand Blvd. |
| Population: total, 8,861; Negro, 1,235. |
| Lake Park Avenue Area |
| Fifty-third St.—Fifty-seventh St.; Harper Ave.—Lake Park Ave. |
| Population: Negro, 238. |
| Ogden Park Area |
| Fifty-ninth St.—Sixty-third St.; Halsted St.—Loomis Blvd. |
| Population: total, 38,893; Negro, 1,859. |
| NORTH SIDE |
| North Ave.—Chicago Ave.; State St.—Larrabee St. |
| Population: Negro, 1,050. |
| Ravenswood |
| Lawrence Ave.—Montrose Ave.; Sheridan Road—Ashland Ave. |
| Population: Negro, 175. |
| WEST SIDE |
| Austin Ave.—Washington Ave.; Morgan St.—California Ave. |
| Population: Negro, 8,363. |
| MORGAN PARK AREA |
| 107th St.—115th St.; Loomis St.—Vincennes Ave. |
| Population: Negro, 695. |
2. NEIGHBORHOODS OF NEGRO RESIDENCE
The South Side.—While the main colony of Chicago's Negro population is located in a central part of the South Side, Negroes are to be found in several parts of the city, ranging from less than 1 per cent to more than 95 per cent in proportion to the total population. In some of these neighborhoods whites and Negroes have become adjusted to one another; in others they have not. One of these adjusted areas is the so-called "Black Belt." Because 90 per cent of the Negroes of Chicago live there, it is usually assumed that the area is 90 per cent Negro. The fact is very different. The most densely populated section of the South Side area, between Roosevelt Road and Thirty-ninth Street, Wentworth Avenue and Lake Michigan, has a population of 54,906 Negroes and 42,797 whites. There has been no noticeable friction in this area; and even during the riot few whites living or engaged in business there were molested by Negroes. Most of the whites killed or injured there came from other sections of the city. The many large apartment houses and family hotels occupied by whites are apparently little affected by the presence about them of many Negroes. Relations in Woodlawn, where the Negro increase has been relatively large, are for the most part friendly. No clashes have been reported except in the one instance of a group of white boys who threw stones at a building in which they saw Negroes. When they were arrested it developed that they had come from another neighborhood. 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 very great success. There have been no bombings in this district, and no concerted opposition to the presence of Negroes as neighbors. Long, amicable residence together and the good character of the Negroes as well as the whites are probably important reasons for the absence of friction. And it also should be said that in the Woodlawn district the proportion of Negroes is so small that there has been no occasion for much controversy over an alleged depreciation of property values on account of Negro occupancy.
The West Side.—On the West Side there has been a settlement of Negroes for many years. Houses are cheaper there than on the South Side; and although the general level of ordinary workingmen's homes compares favorably with that on the South Side, there are few abandoned residences formerly occupied by wealthy persons now available for Negroes. There has been little friction within this area, in which 9,221 whites and 6,520 Negroes live. West Side Negroes, laborers for the most part, are generally home-loving, hard-working people, desirous of improving conditions for their children. Older settlers among them have been able to make their adjustments without great difficulty, meeting with no serious antagonism from white neighbors.
The North Side.—On the North Side, Negroes live among foreign whites and near a residential area of wealthy Chicagoans. The appearance of the first Negro residents there occasioned little notice or objection. They were for the most part house servants living near their work.
This neighborhood has experienced several complete changes in population. It was first occupied by Irish, then by Swedes, then by Italians, who are the present neighbors of Negroes. Friendly relations exist between the Sicilians, who predominate, and their Negro neighbors. Some Negroes live harmoniously in the same tenements with Sicilians. Their children play together, and some of the 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.
Non-adjusted neighborhoods.—In other sections the failure of Negro and white neighbors to adjust themselves mutually has produced the most serious phases of the Negro housing problem. A general housing shortage may be relieved by the opening of new neighborhoods or the availability of houses in various parts of the city, but for Negroes there is less opportunity for thus relieving the housing shortage because of the hostility of many white neighborhoods to the presence of Negroes.
White residents immediately south of the old West Side Negro residence area objected to the moving in of Negroes, sending numerous threatening letters to the newcomers and otherwise annoying them. In certain sections of the North Side, Negro residents have been molested. On one occasion shots were fired at their homes, and at other times warning signs with pictures of skulls, crossbones, and coffins were posted. In the Lake Park Avenue area on the South Side, Negroes are limited to a few blocks, are not permitted to buy, and are discriminated against in practically all restaurants and amusement places.
West of Wentworth Avenue, adjoining the South Side Negro residence area, few Negroes live. The residents here are largely Irish working people and distinctly hostile to Negroes, even to those merely passing through the neighborhood. This area has many organized gangs and "athletic clubs," and its racial antagonisms appear to be traditional.
In Park Manor and Wakeford, between Sixty-ninth and Seventy-ninth streets, Cottage Grove and Indiana avenues, excitement was created in a new white settlement by an advertisement in a local paper addressed to Negroes offering them houses there. The name of a white real estate dealer living there was given. A demonstration followed, meetings were held, and the real estate man was asked to explain. He asserted, and it seems to have been the case, that the advertisement was the "spite work" of an enemy.
Kenwood and Hyde Park: The neighborhood between Thirty-ninth and Fifty-ninth streets, State Street and Cottage Grove Avenue, just south of the Negro residence area, has been termed a "contested neighborhood," because of the recent influx of Negroes. The "Black Belt" was already overcrowded, and its occupants were seeking relief from deteriorated and insufficient housing. The coming of thousands of Negroes from the South made it overflow. With Lake Michigan flanking the east, encroaching industry the north, and overcrowded, hostile neighborhoods the west, the overflow inevitably went south into the west portion of Hyde Park and Kenwood. Scattered through the South Side were numerous houses and apartments that had been vacant for many years; and sales were gladly made to the Negroes, many of the recent southern migrants having considerable funds. In 1919, of the 3,300 owners of property in the region embracing parts of Kenwood and Hyde Park and adjacent territory, 1,000 were Negroes. Already a popular agitation against the Negroes had been begun by real estate men who formed the Kenwood and Hyde Park Property Owners' Association. They increased and organized the prejudice against the Negroes in a campaign "to make Hyde Park white." They held meetings, published a weekly newspaper, and called upon property owners and other real estate dealers to pledge themselves against renting or selling to Negroes. In carrying out their program, they resorted to vilification, ridicule, and disparagement of Negroes, accusing them of destroying property values and robbing white people of their homes.
Outlying neighborhoods.—Few outlying places welcome Negroes as residents. Morgan Park, however, has offered homes for Negroes, and the Negro population there has increased from 126 in 1910 to 695 in 1920. They live for the most part on one side of the town near their own churches; they own their homes and keep them attractive. School accommodations are poor, many children leaving school early for that reason.
Robbins, another suburb, is entirely Negro, having a Negro mayor. The town is difficult to reach, unattractive, and uninviting. About 400 hard-working Negroes occupying seventy houses are trying to develop a town against the handicaps of lack of capital, swampy lands, and inaccessibility.
Depreciation of property.—One of the strongest influences in creating and fostering race antagonism in Chicago is the general belief among whites that the presence of Negroes in a neighborhood inevitably and alone depreciates the market value of real estate, and this belief is commonly accepted as a valid reason for unfriendliness toward Negroes as individuals and as a race. Therefore the Commission felt that it was important to learn what basis there is for this belief.
The principal influence of Negroes upon property values in a neighborhood is psychological, due to the deep-seated and general prejudice of whites against Negroes, which begets and sustains the belief that Negroes destroy property values wherever they go. The facts as ascertained by the Commission show that Negro occupancy in a neighborhood is more often due to a prior depreciation of the property there than the depreciation is due to Negro occupancy; and that it is unfair to place the entire responsibility for loss of property values in a neighborhood upon Negro occupancy. In other sections of the city, where there are no Negroes, depreciation of property values has been produced by contacts between populations differing in race, religion, or social standards. Race prejudice produces the present conditions of social injustice toward the Negro, and uses the depreciation of property which it causes, as a new ground for such racial prejudice.
In virtually every neighborhood in Chicago where Negroes now live they were preceded by two or more distinct groups of occupants, and an earlier and often long-continued depreciation of property values is one of the explanations of their presence. This depreciation of values has come from several causes, such as natural physical deterioration, vacation of old and large houses through the death of their original occupants or their removal to new neighborhoods, or the encroachments of vice, or business, or factories, and the like. In this way Negroes have found an opportunity to rent or buy at figures that were comparatively low and within their limited means.
The extension of Negro occupancy into the district between State Street and Lake Michigan and Thirty-first and Thirty-ninth streets followed such an earlier depreciation; and later, similar conditions had similar consequences in the district between State Street and Cottage Grove Avenue and Thirty-ninth and Sixty-third streets, where there has been the most active opposition to the Negro influx.
In the first named of these two districts there are now about 20 per cent more Negroes than whites. During the eighties and nineties this area embraced the most fashionable residence district in Chicago, and almost the entire Negro population lived in the adjoining area on the west—from State Street to Wentworth Avenue and north of Thirty-fifth Street. When the fashionable people of this district began to move to the North Side, the deserted section began to depreciate, and costly houses recently occupied by wealthy owners were thrown upon the market and began to pass through the hands of real estate dealers and into the possession of people belonging to a different social class. Physical deterioration also played its part. Between 1900 and 1910, when the first Negroes moved into Wabash Avenue—one street nearer to the old fashionable district—the houses were at least twenty years old and many of them much older. Real estate men estimate the natural depreciation of such buildings at from 2 to 2½ per cent per year; so that in many cases property once exclusive and of a high class had depreciated at least 50 per cent before there was any prospect of Negro occupancy.
In 1912 the old vice area west of State Street and northwest of this exclusive area was broken up. The inmates, numbering at that time more than 2,000, moved into the nearest large houses available where they could ply their trade clandestinely. They could afford high rents, and owners and agents profited accordingly. Cabarets, cafés, and saloons sought the side streets, and buffet flats were opened. Raids and prosecutions called attention to the changed character of the neighborhood, and property values sank still lower. Many buildings affected by this decline were bought up by real estate speculators and sold to Negroes who were eager for housing. One speculator bought more than 1,400 such houses.
Then came the automobile industries with their showrooms, gas stations, manufacturing plants, and accessory shops, even invading the boulevards, and the desirability of adjacent residence property still further declined.
After the coming of the Negroes the depreciation continued. It was clear that the character of the neighborhood had definitely changed. Negroes were frequently unable to make the needed extensive repairs while they were paying for their property. There are other instances in this area where property not owned by Negroes declined in value chiefly because of its neglect by landlords.
In the district west of Cottage Grove Avenue, adjacent to Hyde Park proper, depreciation had proceeded in much the same manner. This neighborhood was temporarily congested in the period of the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, and hotels and apartment houses were built far in excess of normal needs. Real estate men of that district have made much of this point, stating that many of the houses there had been vacant as long as fifteen years. The first "undesirables" were not Negroes, but other national or racial groups of whites who were objectionable to the original residents. Several factors have combined to make this section less and less desirable for residence purposes. It is close to the Stock Yards, with their offensive odors; and railroads flank it on both sides, with their smoke and noise. The coming of the automobile industries, the opening of boarding-houses, the southward movement of the vice element, all had their adverse effect on property values before Negroes moved east of State Street.
The widespread and deep-seated racial prejudice among whites against Negroes, heretofore mentioned as a psychological basis for the belief that the presence of Negroes is disastrous to property values, is directly reflected in the unwillingness of whites to buy property close to that occupied by Negroes and in their desire to sell, even at a sacrifice, when Negroes move into the immediate neighborhood. While frequently the demand for property among Negroes financially able to buy has not been large enough to absorb realty offered for sale because of the reasons given here, there are, on the other hand, some neighborhoods where the Negro demand has provided a market for property that had long been unmarketable, and in these neighborhoods there has been some increase in the value of such property. It should be noted that the understandable bitterness of feeling on this question of Negro entrance into white residence districts has been intensified in some cases through exploitation, by both white and Negro real estate operators, of anti-Negro prejudice and fear of loss on account of Negro occupancy.
In brief, Negro occupancy depreciates the value of residence property in Chicago because of the social prejudice of white people against Negroes, and because white people will not, and Negroes are financially unable to buy at fair market prices property thrown upon the market when a neighborhood begins to change from white to Negro occupancy; nevertheless, a large part of the depreciation of residence property often charged to Negro occupancy comes from entirely different causes.
Financial aspects of Negro housing.—One difficulty of Negroes in handling their own housing problem is the attitude of real estate mortgage and loan concerns with respect to property tenanted or likely to be tenanted by Negroes. Such property is assumed to be a bad risk, and, as a consequence, Negroes are charged more than whites and find it difficult to secure mortgages to assist in purchasing and are greatly handicapped in their efforts to improve property. This situation has its basis in various beliefs concerning Negroes that are often unwarranted. It developed from the inquiries of the Commission that mortgage brokers were influenced to a large degree by opinions of prospective buyers of Negro mortgages, and these prospective buyers in turn were influenced by beliefs for which there was little basis. It was assumed, for example, that Negroes were unreliable in business dealings. Conferences were held by the Commission with the real estate men who handled the greatest portion of Negro property, and many other real estate men were interviewed by the Commission's investigators. Their testimony indicated a buying capacity far beyond what was expected and showed that Negroes had a good record for meeting their obligations. One real estate man who has made a large number of sales to Negroes, stated that in the whole of his experience there had been but two forfeitures, and neither of these was due to negligence or carelessness. An increasing tendency to buy was noted. This was easily explained by other facts gathered by the Commission which indicated that it was easier for Negroes to buy than to rent property, that during the period of the migration hundreds of dwellings were offered for sale to Negroes on long-term payment plans, and that many migrants who had sold their homes, farms, and belongings in the South came to the city prepared to make substantial payments on property. Many Negroes now own houses valued at from $10,000 to $20,000, and in one instance $30,000.
Regarding Negro habits of saving, inquiries were made at all the principal banks of the city's business section and of the neighborhood where Negroes live. Those who were able to check up on Negro depositors reported large sums deposited and invested. One trust and savings bank had Negro deposits of $1,500,000 and another of $1,000,000; one state bank had $650,000 and another $150,000. A large banking institution in the "Loop" district had 4,000 Negro depositors.
Opportunities for using their own capital to relieve their housing problems were limited by lack of opportunities for obtaining business experience. All the concerns questioned regarding the practicability of employing Negroes in such institutions were of the opinion that it would not meet with the favor of the other employees and patrons.
Bombings.—The antagonistic sentiment attributable to the Negro housing situation both incited and condoned the fifty-eight bombings of homes committed between July 1, 1917, and March 1, 1921. In these bombings two persons, a Negro girl and an infant, were killed, many whites and Negroes were injured, and damage done to property amounted to more than $100,000. Negroes who purchased or rented property and whites who sold or leased it were bombed. Thirty-two bombs were exploded within the area bounded by Forty-first and Sixtieth streets, Cottage Grove Avenue and State Street. Although Negroes in some cases were warned of the exact dates on which they were to be bombed, and policemen were sometimes on duty at the places where bombs were exploded, only two arrests were made. One of those arrested was immediately released and the other was never brought to trial. Protests to the authorities from Negroes have been without effect, and a strong feeling of insecurity and resentment has developed among them. It appears from evidence presented to the Commission that bombings have been systematically planned. Many white residents, objecting to the violence suggested and used to keep out Negroes, withdrew from the neighborhood protective organizations, fearing that they might be held responsible for the resulting lawlessness.
These protective associations have denied responsibility and declared that they used only legitimate methods, such as foreclosure of mortgages and refusal to deal with Negroes. During the summer of 1920, they stated, sixty-eight foreclosures were effected.
3. THE NEGRO COMMUNITY
The Negro community in Chicago is virtually a city within a city. It affords opportunity to observe how it is accomplishing its own adjustment to the larger community, and how it attempts to function in its own behalf and for the betterment of the community at large.
Negroes have lived in Chicago since its founding. In fact, the first settler, in 1778, was a Negro, Jean Baptiste Point de Saible. There were Negro property owners at the time of the city's incorporation in 1837. Before the Chicago fire in 1871 they lived near what is now the "Loop" business district, north of Harrison Street on Clark and Dearborn streets and on Lake Street on the West Side. Their homes were burned in 1873, and after that they settled in the territory adjoining what later became the "red light" district near Roosevelt Road.
Organization of the Negro community.—Partly from necessity and partly from choice, Negroes have established their own churches, business enterprises, amusement places, social agencies, and newspapers. The number of their business places increased from about 1,200 in 1919 to about 1,500 in 1920. There are 651 places of business operated by Negroes on South State Street, and 549 on the principal cross streets. The majority of these places are those rendering personal service—barber shops, restaurants, hair-dressing parlors, and undertaking establishments. There are also two banks.
Organizations for social intercourse are numerous, consisting principally of churches, fraternal societies, and social clubs. There are 170 congregations holding services in church edifices and in "store-front" churches. Olivet Baptist Church has more than 10,000 members, the largest Negro church membership in the world. It employs sixteen paid workers, and during the last five years has raised more than $200,000. These churches are the principal center for "face-to-face" relations and aid greatly in the process of adjusting Negroes to civic responsibilities. Forty-nine of these congregations own property valued at fully a million and a half dollars.
The social and civic agencies are expressions of the group effort to adjust itself to the community. There are in the Negro community distinct organizations of this kind designed especially for Negroes, and branches of general agencies located conveniently for use by Negroes. Of the former type the Chicago Urban League is the most notable example. This organization is a clearing-house for social work among Negroes, and its activities include social investigations, an industrial bureau, and child welfare. It has an executive board and officers composed of both whites and Negroes, and a highly efficient staff of Negro workers. During 1920 more than 25,000 Negroes were assisted through this organization. Provident Hospital is another example of this type.
Of the latter type the Wabash Avenue Y.M.C.A. is an example. It is a branch of the city Y.M.C.A., and has adjusted itself to the peculiar social problems of its membership and community. Other agencies are the Community Service, Wendell Phillips Settlement on the West Side, Butler Community Center on the North Side, Phyllis Wheatley Home for Girls, Home for the Aged and Infirm, Indiana Avenue Y.W.C.A., Elaine Home Club, Julia Johnson Home for Girls, Hartzell Center, and Illinois Technical School for Colored Girls (a Roman Catholic institution).
Of the general social agencies with branches convenient for Negroes are the American Red Cross, United Charities, Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium, Abraham Lincoln Center. Although some of these branches are poorly supported and undermanned, they represent efforts of the community to care for itself. During 1920 six social agencies and twenty-seven churches raised among Negroes $445,000 for social-welfare work.