ENVIRONMENT OF THE SOUTH SIDE NEGRO
NO. 1
HOUSES OF PROSTITUTION
1916
DEALT WITH BY THE MORALS COURT AND THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN. THE AREA OUTLINED IN BLACK SHOWS THE BOUNDARIES OF THE RECOGNIZED SEGREGATED VICE DISTRICT WHICH WAS IN EXISTENCE UP TO NOVEMBER, 1912.
ENVIRONMENT OF THE SOUTH SIDE NEGRO
NO. 2
HOUSES OF PROSTITUTION
1918
DEALT WITH BY THE MORALS COURT AND THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN. THE AREA OUTLINED IN BLACK SHOWS THE BOUNDARIES OF THE RECOGNIZED SEGREGATED VICE DISTRICT WHICH WAS IN EXISTENCE UP TO NOVEMBER, 1912.
Concerning the proximity of Negro residence areas to vice areas, the Chicago Vice Commission report in 1911 said:
The history of the social evil in Chicago is intimately connected with the colored population. Invariably the large vice districts have been created within or near the settlements of colored people. In the past history of the city every time a new vice district was created downtown or on the South Side, the colored families were in the district, moving in just ahead of the prostitutes. The situation along State Street from Sixteenth Street south is an illustration.
So whenever prostitutes, cadets and thugs were located among white people and had to be moved for commercial or other reasons, they were driven to undesirable parts of the city; the so-called colored residential sections.
The chief of police in 1912 warned prostitutes that so long as they confined their residence to districts west of Wabash Avenue and east of Wentworth Avenue, they would not be disturbed. This area contained at that time the largest group of Negroes in the city, with most of their churches, Sunday schools, and societies.
The Vice Commission report further said:
In addition to this proximity to immoral conditions young colored girls are often forced into idleness because of prejudice against them and they are eventually forced to accept positions as maids in houses of prostitution.