5. TRADITIONAL SOUTHERN BACKGROUND
A window dresser said:
I am from the South, and I am used to seeing the Negro kept in his place. I would colonize them, every one of them, and make them stay where they are put. I would colonize them in Africa if I had to do it. There's where they came from and there's where they belong. Of course, some few northern folks say that they were taken away against their own wills, but I say they ought to go back against their own wills.
The woman manager of a tailor shop, Fifty-fifth Street, said: "I am a southerner, and I feel the way they all do about it. I guess you know what I mean. I think the nigger should stay in his place."
6. GROUP SENTIMENTS
Fear of social censure.—A property owner at Langley Avenue and Fifty-fifth Street said:
"I am not proud to be living on the same street with Negroes, so I never tell my friends—they would say: 'You must move out.'"
George L. Giles Post of the American Legion is a Negro post with headquarters at the South Side Branch of the Community Service. Invitations to a musicale and dramatic entertainment for the benefit of ex-service men were sent to all the local posts by the Community Service. It was responded to by the adjutant of George L. Giles Post, who received a reply from the executive secretary saying:
I am quite sure you will understand that our sending one to the George L. Giles Post was a slip. Will you kindly let me know if there are other Posts of colored men in the city?
Similar recognition of the force of public opinion may be found in industry. The manager of a large industrial plant, speaking of Negro workmen, said: "I have a feeling that white workers would object to Negroes in any position but that of common laborers, although I have no basis for this opinion." Another said: "I have heard whites remark that they wouldn't want to work here if many colored were employed but none left on that account."