The stoning occurred one block away from the Sherman House, occupied by Negroes.
Negro housing in Chicago.—The housing situation has frequently occasioned alarm on the part of whites and bitterness of feeling toward Negroes. Many newspaper articles, by their play upon racial fears, have increased the tension between the two groups. An example of this type of article is given:
White Tenants Fear Negroes Will Buy Block. Fire Chief's Residence One of Those in Danger
Twenty-six houses on the old Chicago university campus in East Thirty-fourth Street, between Cottage Grove Avenue and Rhodes Avenue, are about to be sold to colored people, according to the tenants....
"I'm going to offer the houses to the present occupants at prices ranging from $6,000 to $7,000 on easy terms," Mr. O'Brien said. "Of course if they don't accept I'm going to do the best I can. I can't predict how things will turn out until the tenants have given me their reply. They'll be around tomorrow.
"Among the residents of the block are Fire Chief Thomas O'Connor, Dr. William E. Hall, and Dr. M. J. Moth.
"The tenants are all worried. Colored people have learned of this sale and for days have been walking up and down and pointing out houses, discussing, apparently, what they intended doing and where they planned to live. Unless every one of the twenty-six buys his house it will not remain a white neighborhood. And I don't believe we can get everyone to buy" [Chicago Tribune, February, 1920].
Inquiry by the Commission disclosed a situation similar to that underlying many discussions of "exclusive areas." The article was written by a member of the Tribune staff. It was learned at Mr. O'Brien's office that he had come to that office inquiring about the matter. A member of the O'Brien firm stated to him that he did not think the matter had any racial significance because the firm intended to sell the houses to present tenants, all of whom happened to be white.
Labeling fights as "riots."—Attention might be called to the suggestion in articles which treat trivial disputes and street fights as race riots. On August 4, 1920, the Evening Post published an article headed: "Negroes Held to Grand Jury after Riot in Street Car."
The article related a dispute over a car seat ending in a fight in which one man was stabbed. The entire article is given: