No difficulties between Negroes and whites were reported at Palmer Park, Bessemer Park, or Thorpe, Otis, and Orleans playgrounds, which are patronized by a few Negroes, though they are too far away from the Negro areas to be generally used.
The supervisor of girls' work in the Municipal Bureau made the following statement in regard to the relations between the Negro and white children visiting the municipal playgrounds:
From my observation and supervision of the girls' work in the municipal playgrounds I can only say that in all our activities colored and white children mingle without restriction. In indoor gymnasium and dancing-classes as well as in games, athletics, and general informal use of the playground, they take part together. Ability and sportsmanship are the only qualifications considered in candidates for any playground team. In the field of adult recreation, since we have no community centers conducting indoor activities in connection with any of our playgrounds within the colored area, my observations refer only to outdoor gatherings. On such occasions adults of both races mingle without friction. It is my experience that the most harmonious relations are established in connection with band concerts, field days, festivals, pageants, etc., including all forms of community art, which tend to unify rather than to split those taking part. In the Illinois Centennial Pageant, presented by groups from thirty-eight neighborhoods in 1918, girls from Doolittle Playground represented "Dances of the New Freedom," bringing "Liberty and New Strength to Illinois." In preparation of this episode several rehearsals were held at Doolittle Playground, white dancers from other playgrounds taking part; and the interest and co-operation shown by the neighbors made each evening memorable.
Voluntary racial grouping.—Voluntary racial grouping appears to be a characteristic of the large parks and beaches, which adults frequent, rather than of the playgrounds which are used mainly by children. One instance of voluntary grouping among children was found at Copernicus Playground. The percentage of Negroes using this playground is much larger in summer than in winter. The playing space is in the shape of an "L," one end intended for boys and the other for girls, but by common consent the children divide along race lines rather than sex. The investigator saw small white children playing at one end of the playground, while Negro boys were playing ball in the larger end. Later, after the Negro boys left, some of the white children used the larger space while some Negro children collected around the apparatus in the smaller end. No instance of mixed play was observed, but there seemed to be no antagonism between the groups, and no disorders were reported.
The director of Union Park in speaking of boys who play games in the recreation rooms, said that there seemed to be a tacit understanding between the blacks and whites that they had certain nights. On certain nights all the attendance would be black and on other nights it would all be white. Asked whether Negro and white boys who were school friends played separately at the park, the director said that blacks and whites often came in together, but that for every case where they came in together and played a sociable game, there were probably three instances where groups were either of one race or the other. However, the director said that this grouping was casual, and that there was no prevailing community sentiment that the Negroes should use the park on separate nights. He believed that additional recreation facilities would help greatly in doing away with this tendency to voluntary segregation. He also said that the Negroes had a tendency to separate from the whites, not because they wished to avoid them, but because they preferred to associate with their own race.
In the general use of Lincoln and Washington parks the Negroes and whites stay in separate groups. There has never been any difficulty, according to the Lincoln Park representative, arising from the fact that Negroes have taken possession of a spot desired by whites for a picnic or other amusement. No part of either park is especially set aside for the use of one race, and groups of both Negroes and whites are seen everywhere in the parks, but they do not mingle. While there was no outward evidence of antagonism toward Negroes at the time of the investigator's visit to Washington Park, white visitors who were questioned showed an antipathy to the Negro which seemed to have its basis in the influx of Negroes into the residence districts. One man, originally from the South, was bitter against Negroes. He said he had left the Socialist party because it accepted Negroes as equals. At an open-air "free-speech" meeting speakers representing various radical doctrines were addressing a crowd composed almost entirely of whites. The chairman of the meeting, however, was a Negro, whose humorous remarks made him popular with the white crowd.
The only place in Washington Park where there seemed to be a general mingling of Negroes and whites was on the ball field. There were games in which the two teams were composed entirely of Negroes, and games in which the teams were composed entirely of whites; there were also games in which both Negroes and whites were engaged. The investigator watched one game in which vacancies on two teams from American Legion posts had been filled by Negroes. There was the best of spirit between the players and among the spectators. The white spectators were lined up along the first base line and the Negro spectators along the third base line, but rooters and players joked with each other with no sign of racial antagonism.
The South Park representative testified to the good feeling between Negroes and whites at a baseball game, and said the whites often preferred to watch the Negro games. At other points in the park, however, particularly the tennis courts and the boathouse, difficulties between the races were reported. These will be discussed in the next section on "Clashes."
Separate racial grouping is the general rule at the beaches, though it is not always voluntary. At the Thirty-eighth Street Beach, for example, Negroes are prevented by white boys and the park policeman from going into the water, according to a Negro playground director. "Boys who live around there from Thirty-ninth to Thirty-first Street have to swim at the street end between Thirty-third and Thirty-second. They rock you if you go in." This director was invited by white boys of the Vincennes Club to swim at Thirty-eighth Street, but when he suggested bringing some Negro boys along the white boys said, "Oh no, they can't come."