The Negro in Chicago: A Study of Race Relations and a Race Riot

by Chicago Commission on Race Relations

14. We recommend better enforcement of health and sanitary laws and regulations in the care, repair, and upkeep of streets and alleys and the collection and disposal of rubbish and garbage in areas of Negro residence, where the Commission has found these matters to be shamefully neglected.

RECREATION CENTERS

15. We recommend that the park and other proper authorities (a) put an end to the present gross discrimination by white persons which practically bars Negroes out of certain recreation centers near their own congested residence area; and (b) that a recreation center of adequate size and facilities be established for the use of both whites and Negroes in the principal Negro residence area of the South Side; and (c) that steps be taken to secure more adequately trained, competent, and intelligent playground and recreation-center directors, white and Negro, who shall be held responsible for racial clashes arising in places under their direction and shall be required to interest themselves in reducing and avoiding racial friction in their neighborhoods; and (d) that proper equipment and supervision be provided at the Twenty-sixth Street Bathing-Beach, where they are now almost wholly lacking; and (e) that, in co-operation with the city police, the park police adequately protect all citizens, without regard to color, in going to and from parks, recreation centers, and playgrounds.

To the Board of Education:

MORE SCHOOLS IN NEGRO AREAS

16. We recommend that in the areas where the main part of the Negro population lives, and where elementary-school accommodations are notably deficient, buildings, equipment, and teaching forces be provided which shall be at least equal to the average standard for the city, in order that the present conditions of overcrowding, arrangement of pupils in shifts, and the assignment of too large classes to teachers may be remedied.

NIGHT SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITY CENTERS

17. We recommend the establishment of night schools and community centers in sections of the city not now adequately provided with such facilities.

COMPULSORY EDUCATION

18. Having found that many Negro children who quit school at an early age, as in the case of similar white children, appear later as criminals and delinquents, we urge strict enforcement of regulations as to working permits for such children, and we especially recommend that truant officers give attention to school attendance by the children of Negro families migrating here from the South.