When we first opened the doors of Union Park we thought, owing to the large colored population in the district, that the colored people would come there most willingly and avail themselves of the facilities just as freely as any person would. But we found that it was not so, that the greater number of persons who came there were the whites, and they as usual availed themselves of the facilities freely. The colored were timid, came in gradually, and as soon as they found they were welcome, that there was no line of discrimination drawn, the attendance of the colored increased.
At Sherwood Playground, Armour Square, and Fuller Square, all west of Wentworth Avenue, which is considered the dividing line between the white and Negro areas, fear is probably a large factor in the small Negro attendance, as the feeling in the neighborhood is bitter and fights have been frequent. At Sherwood Negro children use the playground during school hours when they feel that they have the protection of the school, but not after school when they feel that protection is lacking. Webster School at Wentworth Avenue and Thirty-third Street, which is 30 per cent Negro, has its graduation exercises in Armour Square, but the Negro children do not go to Armour Square at any other time, and they did not go over at night for an entertainment which the principal of Webster School arranged at Armour Square. Negro children use the Armour Square library freely, according to the director, but there has never been an application for the use of a clubroom, and no Negroes come to the outdoor moving pictures which are given one night a week. "There's absolutely nothing to prevent them coming," said the director. "Why don't they come? There is nothing within the park they need to be afraid of. There has been absolutely no distinction made in the handling of colored children or colored men or colored women coming to Armour Square, but they do not come." The director was positive that the failure to come to the park was due to the attitude toward Negroes outside the park. She explained that although she could guarantee safety and police protection inside the park, she could do nothing to protect Negroes outside the park gates. The park policemen are employees of the park boards and not of the city and have no jurisdiction outside the parks. This is true of the police at all parks and beaches maintained by the park boards, but the police at the playgrounds and beaches maintained by the Municipal Bureau of Parks, Playgrounds, and Bathing Beaches are members of the regular city police force.
Continuing, the Armour Square director said:
Personally I know of no disturbances that have started within Armour Square, and yet we have had outside of Armour Square every year at least two riots, not counting the general race riot—riots that started largely in school clashes. There have been some very serious riots between the children of the Webster School and the Keith School just east of it, and there have also been some very serious clashes between the black and white children going to and from the parochial school—actual fights in which they have had to call large detachments of the police. Armour Square is not used by the colored people in proportion to their numbers in the neighborhood, but it has absolutely nothing to do with our management. It is because they are afraid to come to the park. They know absolutely that within the four walls of the park nothing is going to happen to them.
The testimony of the Negro director of the Beutner Playground seemed to indicate that Negroes were kept out of Armour Square in ways that its director did not know about.
IV. CONTACTS
Behavior.—The behavior of Negroes at the parks apparently has not been the major cause of the difficulties that have arisen in the past. Such complaints as were made by park officials in regard to the behavior of Negroes at the parks concerned groups of rough or domineering children at the playgrounds rather than adults.
BEUTNER PLAYGROUND
The largest in the Negro residence area.