Crime: Police statistics of arrests and convictions of Negroes and selected nationalities compared and analyzed for six years[3]; also juvenile court cases; 698 cases (one month) in three police courts studied, including detailed social data on Negro cases; also 249 sex cases (two years) in criminal court; record of eleven penal institutions; environmental survey of Negro areas.
Public Opinion: Files of white and Negro newspapers studied to analyze handling of matters relating to race relations; study of rumor and its effects, and of racial propaganda of white and Negro organizations.
We believe that the large volume of information collected will prove, when properly set forth, of great value not only in Chicago but in other communities where public-spirited citizens are endeavoring to establish right relations between the two races. This end can be attained only through a more intelligent appreciation by both races of the gravity of the problem, and by their earnest efforts toward a better mutual understanding and a more sympathetic co-operation.
Hoping that our appreciation of the trust you have reposed in us may appear in some measure in the aid our report may give toward working out better race relations, we are,
Very respectfully yours,
(Signed by members of the Commission and its Executive Secretaries)
State of Illinois
Office of the Governor
Springfield
January 3, 1921
My dear Mr. Bancroft:
I have received and read with great interest your letter of January 1st transmitting to me a detailed statement of the work of the Chicago Commission on Race Relations appointed by me after the race riot in Chicago in 1919, which is signed by yourself as chairman and by the other members of the Commission.