A YOUNG LAWYER
Numbers of young Negro lawyers are establishing themselves in Chicago, and their influence already is being felt in the community. A good example of this group is Mr. J——, who, although only twenty-eight years old, has been actively practicing law six years. He was born in Kentucky and has lived in Indiana, Kansas, Ohio, New York, and Oklahoma.
Education.—He completed high school in Kansas, graduated from Oberlin College, and then went to Columbia University, New York, and received the degrees of Master of Arts and Bachelor of Laws. His wife completed the junior year in college in New York, studied art in New York City, and is skilled in china painting.
Home life.—Mr. and Mrs. J—— have one child of four years. They live in one of the 1,400 buildings owned by a real estate man of that district who "notoriously neglects his property." The struggle to establish himself during the first few years in Chicago was difficult. Now Mr. J—— has the confidence of a large number of people, and a clientèle which provides a comfortable income.
Community participation.—Mr. J—— is a trustee of the institutional A.M.E. Church, chairman of the United Political League, member of the Y.M.C.A., Knights of Pythias, a Greek-letter fraternity and the Urban League, and is a member of the Executive Committee of the Friends of Negro Freedom.
Civic consciousness.—He thinks that if working Negroes and working white men can be led to regard one another as workingmen interested in the same cause the color question will be forgotten. He believes that prejudice is based on the economic system. With respect to housing he thinks a Negro should, as an American citizen, be free to purchase real estate wherever he is able to make a purchase; that as long as artificial barriers are set up there can be no successful solution of the color question; that a man's respect for the rights of others increases in proportion to his intelligence, and that the press can be a great source of evil or good in educating the people. He believes that there should be clubs and educational meetings to instruct some of the less refined classes of Negroes in conduct.
A MIGRANT PROFESSIONAL MAN
Mr. and Mrs. F—— lived in Jackson, Mississippi, until 1917, the year of the migration, when they moved to Chicago. He followed his clientèle and established an office on State Street near Thirty-first Street. Mr. F—— received his commercial and legal training at Jackson College and Walden University. Mrs. F—— is a graduate of Rust College and the University of Chicago.
Home life.—The F—— home evidences their economic independence. It contains ten rooms and bath and is kept in excellent condition. They own six houses in the South, from which they receive an income. Mr. F—— is the president of an insurance company incorporated in Illinois in 1918, which has a membership of 12,000. He has also organized a mercantile company, grocery and market on State Street, incorporated for $10,000, of which $7,000 has been paid.
They have two sons, nineteen and twelve years of age, and three adult nephews living with them. One nephew is a painter at the Stock Yards, another is a laborer, and the third a shipping-clerk.