Different degrees of prejudice, it is true, are apparent in the two sections. In the South the social and political prejudice the natural result of the memories of slavery and reconstruction, of the greater mass of Negro population and of the backward economic development, is stronger. In the North, on the other hand, comparatively little social and political prejudice is apparent; but the Negro has a hard fight to get anything but the most subservient place in the economic machine.
Over and over again, while I was in the South, I heard remarks like this:
“Down here we make the Negro keep his place socially, but in the North you won’t let him work.”
This leads me to one of the most important phases of race-relationship in the North—that is, the economic struggle of the Negro, suddenly thrown, as he has been, into the swift-moving, competitive conditions of Northern cities. Does he, or can he, survive? Do the masses of Negroes now coming North realise their ambitions? Is it true that the North will not let the Negro work?
These questions must, perforce, be discussed in another chapter.
CHAPTER VII
THE NEGROES’ STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL IN NORTHERN CITIES
One of the questions I asked of Negroes whom I met both North and South was this: