The Negro in Chicago: A Study of Race Relations and a Race Riot

by Chicago Commission on Race Relations

This condition in the parks continued up to the early summer of 1920. George R. Arthur, secretary of the Negro Y.M.C.A. branch, expressed the fear at that time that a riot might occur in Washington Park any Sunday afternoon. He described the condition in the vicinity of the boathouse in that park as "fierce." There were fights there every Sunday. Five white men had beaten a Negro there one night the previous week. That sort of thing had been going on for years, he said. The Y.M.C.A. had long been dealing with the situation but he had noticed this trouble especially in the last two years. He attributed it to the gang spirit and to racial antipathy, which ordinarily would not amount to much, but which because of the tense situation in Chicago might lead to serious riots.

The director of the Negro branch of Community Service of Chicago ascribed the trouble to the same source. He said that most of the white boys came to Washington Park from the "Ragen's Colts" Club, that some of them went to poolrooms where the mischief was hatched. There was but one policeman in charge of about fifteen baseball games in the park, he said.

The racial difficulties at the baseball fields in Washington Park had doubtless never been brought to the attention of the representative of the South Park Commission, because he cited these games as an example of good feeling between the two races. He believed that there was never any difficulty at the baseball fields, and that the white people who enjoyed the Negro games would be the first to object if the Negroes were not permitted to play in the park. This opinion coincides with the situation at the ball fields observed by the investigator for the Commission, but apparently there are occasional clashes here as in other parts of the park.

The representative of the South Park Commission did not think Negroes hesitated to use any of the facilities of the park because of fear of mistreatment in the park, though they might have some fear of being mistreated outside the park. He did not know that any difficulties have ever occurred at the boathouse, though a Negro doctor testified that he had treated many Negro boys who had been assaulted there. The South Park representative said:

I have never known of any actual abuse of a colored patron in any park to which I was personally assigned. I have known people coming and going who were abused, mistreated, and actually assaulted, outside the park reservations, but I don't believe our records would show very many cases—probably no more than occur where the Poles and the Irish get together, or the Bohemians and the Germans.

Fights of a racial character were reported at one or two playgrounds. At Franklin Playground, where fights among boys between ten and fourteen are frequent, the director said he was always especially careful to stop a fight between a white and Negro boy because "a race riot would be easy to start."

At Sherwood Playground Negro children do not use the playground after school hours or during the summer. The attendant declared that "things used to be mighty rough but are better now." The change may have been due to a younger group of children replacing the former pupils, among whom were many children fourteen to seventeen years of age. There was much fighting between Negroes and whites in the neighborhood of Sherwood Playground, according to the attendant. Street fights were frequent, often ending in the use of knives or stones, and numerous arrests had been made. The fight usually started between two boys over some trivial dispute, a mixed crowd gathered, and the fight became general. Fights were also frequent within the playground, the attendant said; sometimes as many as three were going on at once. But a policeman had been stationed near-by, and conditions were improving. The playground had no director at the time it was visited.

An example of objection to the first Negroes appearing in a park was given by an official of the Municipal Bureau:

I remember a particular instance at the Beutner Playground in about 1903. Prior to that time we had very few colored people in that vicinity. One evening a young colored boy, probably seventeen or eighteen years of age, came in there. I happened to be on the athletic field at that time. He came in the rear gate, and the first thing I noticed there was quite a crowd of white fellows chasing this fellow all over the field. He ran down to where the Armory now stands, doubled, and came back and got out of the gates.

This official said that after that incident there was little trouble between the races at the playground until about 1910, when the balance of the patronage became almost equal. He continued: