The fact is, however, that few Negroes have returned to the South, even in response to insistent invitations and offers of free transportation and better home conditions made by southern states that were left badly in need of laborers as a result of the migration.
III. The Negro Population of Chicago
1. DISTRIBUTION AND DENSITY
The Negro population of Chicago, as reported by the Federal Bureau of the Census, was 44,103 in 1910, and 109,594 in 1920. The increase during the decade was, therefore, 65,491, or 148.5 per cent. Negroes constituted 2 per cent of the city's total population in 1910 and 4.1 per cent in 1920. The increase in the white population during the decade was 450,047, or 21 per cent, bringing the number up to 2,589,104 in 1920. Counting 3,007 Chinese, Japanese, and Indians of whom there were 2,123 in 1910, Chicago's total population in 1920 was 2,701,705.
This growth of the Negro population did not bring into existence any new large colonies of Negroes, but merely expanded and increased the density of areas in which they already lived. The areas of Negro residence are listed under designations arbitrarily given for convenient reference.[105]
| 1920 |
| SOUTH SIDE |
| Roosevelt Road—Fifty-fifth St.; Wentworth Ave.—Cottage Grove Ave. |
| Population: total, 376,171; Negro, 92,901. |
| Woodlawn |
| Sixty-first St.—Sixty-seventh St.; Eberhart Ave.—Grand Blvd. |
| Population: total, 8,861; Negro, 1,235. |
| Lake Park Avenue Area |
| Fifty-third St.—Fifty-seventh St.; Harper Ave.—Lake Park Ave. |
| Population: Negro, 238. |
| Ogden Park Area |
| Fifty-ninth St.—Sixty-third St.; Halsted St.—Loomis Blvd. |
| Population: total, 38,893; Negro, 1,859. |
| NORTH SIDE |
| North Ave.—Chicago Ave.; State St.—Larrabee St. |
| Population: Negro, 1,050. |
| Ravenswood |
| Lawrence Ave.—Montrose Ave.; Sheridan Road—Ashland Ave. |
| Population: Negro, 175. |
| WEST SIDE |
| Austin Ave.—Washington Ave.; Morgan St.—California Ave. |
| Population: Negro, 8,363. |
| MORGAN PARK AREA |
| 107th St.—115th St.; Loomis St.—Vincennes Ave. |
| Population: Negro, 695. |
2. NEIGHBORHOODS OF NEGRO RESIDENCE
The South Side.—While the main colony of Chicago's Negro population is located in a central part of the South Side, Negroes are to be found in several parts of the city, ranging from less than 1 per cent to more than 95 per cent in proportion to the total population. In some of these neighborhoods whites and Negroes have become adjusted to one another; in others they have not. One of these adjusted areas is the so-called "Black Belt." Because 90 per cent of the Negroes of Chicago live there, it is usually assumed that the area is 90 per cent Negro. The fact is very different. The most densely populated section of the South Side area, between Roosevelt Road and Thirty-ninth Street, Wentworth Avenue and Lake Michigan, has a population of 54,906 Negroes and 42,797 whites. There has been no noticeable friction in this area; and even during the riot few whites living or engaged in business there were molested by Negroes. Most of the whites killed or injured there came from other sections of the city. The many large apartment houses and family hotels occupied by whites are apparently little affected by the presence about them of many Negroes. Relations in Woodlawn, where the Negro increase has been relatively large, are for the most part friendly. No clashes have been reported except in the one instance of a group of white boys who threw stones at a building in which they saw Negroes. When they were arrested it developed that they had come from another neighborhood. Following the stirring up and organization of anti-Negro sentiment in Hyde Park, an attempt was made to organize white Woodlawn property owners against the "invasion" of the district by Negroes. This organization was not a very great success. There have been no bombings in this district, and no concerted opposition to the presence of Negroes as neighbors. Long, amicable residence together and the good character of the Negroes as well as the whites are probably important reasons for the absence of friction. And it also should be said that in the Woodlawn district the proportion of Negroes is so small that there has been no occasion for much controversy over an alleged depreciation of property values on account of Negro occupancy.
The West Side.—On the West Side there has been a settlement of Negroes for many years. Houses are cheaper there than on the South Side; and although the general level of ordinary workingmen's homes compares favorably with that on the South Side, there are few abandoned residences formerly occupied by wealthy persons now available for Negroes. There has been little friction within this area, in which 9,221 whites and 6,520 Negroes live. West Side Negroes, laborers for the most part, are generally home-loving, hard-working people, desirous of improving conditions for their children. Older settlers among them have been able to make their adjustments without great difficulty, meeting with no serious antagonism from white neighbors.