I would say that of the colored men and women brought into court in the summer of 1918, the greater percentage were colored people who had recently come to Chicago. In most instances the colored man brought in had money; he was receiving more wages than in the South; the city was "wet"; he had come from districts in the South where he could not get whiskey; in a great many instances he had not brought his wife and family with him, so he was easy prey for those engaged in commercial sexual vice. In consequence he would be arrested in these raids, made usually by the police on the night when the underworld was supposed to be the busiest, usually Saturday and Sunday nights. I do not think there are any more vicious colored men than there are vicious white men, but the colored man who was brought in largely was a newcomer. There had been no particular increase in vice that I observed among the native-born colored people or the man who had come to Chicago a reasonable number of years back. As to the women, they were almost entirely typical southern prostitutes, who had come here from New Orleans, Memphis, Nashville, Atlanta, Galveston, and other large cities in the South, attracted to Chicago by reason of the fact there were a lot of colored men up here who were making good money. I would say that so far as the colored women of Chicago were concerned, there was no noticeable increase in immorality among them.
Mr. O. J. Milliken:
In 1919, we ran up to 15 per cent colored. This year, 1920, it is less than 7 per cent. The reason is found in the boys from the South. They have stopped coming now and we are getting back to normal. The boys from the South have been very illiterate. We have received a number who could not write their own names and would almost be counted subnormal on first examination but are often found to be very bright. A great many asked to come back or asked to remain in the institution until they could get some education. I never noticed any difference as to color in the handling of the boys in any department.
8. LIABILITY OF THE NEGRO TO ARREST
Judge Daniel P. Trude:
I think that at the time of the riot there was more disposition on the part of the officers to make arrests of colored offenders, frequently for protection. I think it was due to what Dr. Shepardson used to call, out at the University, "the mind of the mob"—a disturbed view of things which makes one likely to go too far one way or the other. These people were that way. They had to arrest a certain number and try to check the riot, and they went too far in many cases.
Judge Charles M. Thomson:
I have seen cases where Negroes were arrested on suspicion; I would not say there was any large proportion. I remember one case was a young colored fellow arrested purely on suspicion. The jury disagreed the first time. The next time he was tried before me, and the jury found him guilty. Because it was a second trial, and because of the disagreement, I watched it very carefully as the evidence went in, and I became convinced that it was a pure case of the officers having had some trouble with this fellow before. A crime occurred in their district, and they pounced on this chap. I felt pretty sure he was not guilty. The state's attorney called the trial off. He became convinced himself.
Mr. O. J. Milliken:
After a boy has been committed by the juvenile court, he is known to the police, and I have four or five colored boys today who are carrying letters from me asking that the police will please allow these boys to go to work. Prejudice on the part of the police in picking up alleged offenders is more apt to occur against Negroes than whites.