The North Side.—On the North Side, Negroes live among foreign whites and near a residential area of wealthy Chicagoans. The appearance of the first Negro residents there occasioned little notice or objection. They were for the most part house servants living near their work.
This neighborhood has experienced several complete changes in population. It was first occupied by Irish, then by Swedes, then by Italians, who are the present neighbors of Negroes. Friendly relations exist between the Sicilians, who predominate, and their Negro neighbors. Some Negroes live harmoniously in the same tenements with Sicilians. Their children play together, and some of the Negro children have learned Sicilian phrases so that they are able to deal with the Sicilian shopkeepers. Elsewhere on the North Side the feeling between Italians and Negroes is not so cordial.
Non-adjusted neighborhoods.—In other sections the failure of Negro and white neighbors to adjust themselves mutually has produced the most serious phases of the Negro housing problem. A general housing shortage may be relieved by the opening of new neighborhoods or the availability of houses in various parts of the city, but for Negroes there is less opportunity for thus relieving the housing shortage because of the hostility of many white neighborhoods to the presence of Negroes.
White residents immediately south of the old West Side Negro residence area objected to the moving in of Negroes, sending numerous threatening letters to the newcomers and otherwise annoying them. In certain sections of the North Side, Negro residents have been molested. On one occasion shots were fired at their homes, and at other times warning signs with pictures of skulls, crossbones, and coffins were posted. In the Lake Park Avenue area on the South Side, Negroes are limited to a few blocks, are not permitted to buy, and are discriminated against in practically all restaurants and amusement places.
West of Wentworth Avenue, adjoining the South Side Negro residence area, few Negroes live. The residents here are largely Irish working people and distinctly hostile to Negroes, even to those merely passing through the neighborhood. This area has many organized gangs and "athletic clubs," and its racial antagonisms appear to be traditional.
In Park Manor and Wakeford, between Sixty-ninth and Seventy-ninth streets, Cottage Grove and Indiana avenues, excitement was created in a new white settlement by an advertisement in a local paper addressed to Negroes offering them houses there. The name of a white real estate dealer living there was given. A demonstration followed, meetings were held, and the real estate man was asked to explain. He asserted, and it seems to have been the case, that the advertisement was the "spite work" of an enemy.
Kenwood and Hyde Park: The neighborhood between Thirty-ninth and Fifty-ninth streets, State Street and Cottage Grove Avenue, just south of the Negro residence area, has been termed a "contested neighborhood," because of the recent influx of Negroes. The "Black Belt" was already overcrowded, and its occupants were seeking relief from deteriorated and insufficient housing. The coming of thousands of Negroes from the South made it overflow. With Lake Michigan flanking the east, encroaching industry the north, and overcrowded, hostile neighborhoods the west, the overflow inevitably went south into the west portion of Hyde Park and Kenwood. Scattered through the South Side were numerous houses and apartments that had been vacant for many years; and sales were gladly made to the Negroes, many of the recent southern migrants having considerable funds. In 1919, of the 3,300 owners of property in the region embracing parts of Kenwood and Hyde Park and adjacent territory, 1,000 were Negroes. Already a popular agitation against the Negroes had been begun by real estate men who formed the Kenwood and Hyde Park Property Owners' Association. They increased and organized the prejudice against the Negroes in a campaign "to make Hyde Park white." They held meetings, published a weekly newspaper, and called upon property owners and other real estate dealers to pledge themselves against renting or selling to Negroes. In carrying out their program, they resorted to vilification, ridicule, and disparagement of Negroes, accusing them of destroying property values and robbing white people of their homes.
Outlying neighborhoods.—Few outlying places welcome Negroes as residents. Morgan Park, however, has offered homes for Negroes, and the Negro population there has increased from 126 in 1910 to 695 in 1920. They live for the most part on one side of the town near their own churches; they own their homes and keep them attractive. School accommodations are poor, many children leaving school early for that reason.
Robbins, another suburb, is entirely Negro, having a Negro mayor. The town is difficult to reach, unattractive, and uninviting. About 400 hard-working Negroes occupying seventy houses are trying to develop a town against the handicaps of lack of capital, swampy lands, and inaccessibility.
Depreciation of property.—One of the strongest influences in creating and fostering race antagonism in Chicago is the general belief among whites that the presence of Negroes in a neighborhood inevitably and alone depreciates the market value of real estate, and this belief is commonly accepted as a valid reason for unfriendliness toward Negroes as individuals and as a race. Therefore the Commission felt that it was important to learn what basis there is for this belief.