As the migration had its effects upon the South, it likewise influenced conditions in the North and West; but in the latter cases these effects were somewhat different from those produced upon the former section. It is almost obvious that these two sections could hardly escape without being affected, since they were suddenly invaded by a multitude of newcomers who belonged to a race different from that of the dominant elements in their respective populations. In these places, moreover, these migrants were seeking for the most part better opportunities in order to enhance their progress in the struggle for existence, and in so doing created new situations which undoubtedly had decided effects upon these sections.
The first noted effect was a tremendous increase in the Negro population of some of the large cities and industrial centers of these sections. It is estimated that this increase in some cases ranged from one to four-fold. For example, the Negro population of Detroit, Michigan, jumped from 5,751 to 41,532 by 1920. In 1917 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, showed an increase of 47.1 per cent in its Negro population. During the same decade Philadelphia added 49,632 to its black population; and it is reported that 25,000 Negro migrants went to Cincinnati, Ohio,[107] and 52,000 to Chicago, Illinois.[108] The census of 1920 shows that the increase in the Negro population of Cincinnati during the preceding decade was 9,987 and that of Chicago 65,491.
Notwithstanding this, these sections were certainly much gratified at this influx of Negroes, because it was meeting the unprecedented demand for labor. At this time the Negroes were sorely needed for economic purposes, and nothing was done to obstruct their coming in. That this was the case the following statement will show: "To-day the shutting down of immigration, due to the war," said The New Republic, "has created just such a demand for the Negroes. Colored men who formerly loafed on street corners are now regularly employed. Negro girls who found it once difficult to obtain good jobs at domestic service have leaped into popularity. The market for labor has taken up all the slack. There is a demand for all, for skilled workers, unskilled, semi-employables, Negroes. The employment agencies cannot meet the demand. Construction camps which formerly relied on Italian or Polish laborers now seek to secure an alternative supply of Negroes. Formerly the big contractor in the North could pick a few hunkies from a long line of eager applicants for work. He could get Poles, Italians, Greeks, in any number.... To-day he is willing to take black men, and finds it hard to get even them."[109]
This most unusual demand for labor, coupled with the necessity of having to be met wholly by thousands of Negroes from the South, wrought a considerable change in the labor mores of the North. In its employment of these laborers the North was compelled to adopt a policy hitherto unknown. On this point let us proceed by referring to the following testimony. "Until recently," said a contributor to The Living Age, "the Negro in the northern cities was restricted to certain occupations that are unskilled and outside the range of organized labor. To-day he is being welcomed on the farms of New England and the Middle West and in the industrial centers, where hitherto the employer has not wanted him and the white workman has regarded him as a dangerous intruder. In Chicago, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and many other cities large numbers of Negroes are found in factories and workshops where until lately the Negro laborer was never admitted even as a visitor. This is especially true of the iron and steel works and the factories, while many thousands have been absorbed by the railroads and street railway companies."[110]
While the North was very desirous of the Negro migrants in order to utilize their labor, moreover, it was, nevertheless, ill-prepared to provide them proper dwelling places. The rush of the Negro laborers to this section suddenly overtaxed the capacity of the habitations alloted to Negroes, thus causing a demand for houses which far exceeded the supply. The result of this was the bringing on the hands of the North a serious housing problem which required immediate solution. The railroads were the first to attempt to meet the situation by adopting the method of erecting camps to house the large number of single men who had been imported from the South. These roads were the Pennsylvania, Baltimore and Ohio, New York Central, and Erie. The camps constructed by the Pennsylvania were wooden sheds covered with tar paper and equipped with sanitary cots, heat, bath, toilet and wash-room facilities, separate eating room and commissary. This road built thirty-five such camps, each capable of accommodating forty men. The camps of the other railroads consisted of freight cars and passenger coaches converted into sleeping and eating quarters for the men. In some cases old houses were renovated and used for the same purposes. Camps were also used by the large steel companies of Pennsylvania to house their workers. These were largely old barns and old houses which were transformed into living quarters. They were reported to be inferior to the railroads' camps in matters of equipment and sanitation.[111]
The most difficult part of this housing question, however, was that of community housing, the problem of supplying men with families with adequate living quarters. An investigation of the housing conditions among migrants of this type in twenty cities of the North and West showed that everywhere this problem was very acute. In few cities, where the Negro migrants were mixed in with the whites, the former were provided with fairly satisfactory housing conditions, but were compelled to pay comparatively high rents for least desirable quarters. Exceptions, nevertheless, were found in these places where the invasion of white districts by Negro families had resulted in the moving out of the white residents. Here, very desirable houses for Negroes were available, but at rental rates far in advance of those formerly paid by the whites.[112] The small number of available houses and the high rents asked for the same, moreover, caused the Negroes to locate themselves within restricted bounds of habitation which resulted in a great deal of overcrowding among them. There were found numerous cases in which there were too many persons for each room and too many for each bed. Instances in this regard will be cited farther on in this dissertation.
Another effect of the Negro migration was that of increasing the friction between races in certain parts of the North and West. This effect, however, was not as extensive as it was once thought to be; for in many instances Negroes worked and lived peaceably side by side with the whites. Nevertheless, there were found numerous cases in which racial friction operated to bring about strained relations between the two social groups. These manifested themselves in the form of refusals on the part of some employers to hire Negroes, because white laborers objected to working with black men, and in the form of emphatic protests of white residents of certain industrial towns—especially in the steel districts of Pennsylvania—against the bringing in of Negroes to live among them. This neighborhood prejudice existed also in a number of the cities of the North and West, and was, no doubt, the source of much of the trouble between the races.[113] The most bitter form of racial friction occasioned through the migration was that which grew out of economic rivalry and competition for jobs. This competition was brought about by a policy pursued by Northern employers, the practice of deliberately importing Negro laborers from the South to replace white workers who went on strike. This naturally served to fan the flames of hatred of the white workers against the Negroes, and actual expressions of this were seen in the serious race riots which followed.
An example of a race riot which grew out of this economic competition was that which occurred in Philadelphia, during the early part of 1917.[114] There the white workers in a large sugar refinery went on strike, whereupon the owners of the plant attempted to break the strike by the use of Negro laborers. The latter were attacked violently by the displaced white laborers, and the result was a race riot in the course of which one Negro was killed, and several others were wounded. It is said that the whites resented this substitution of Negro labor for theirs, because the former was being used to keep down wages and thus destroy unionism.
Another typical example of such a race riot is that which took place in East St. Louis, Illinois, in July, 1917, during which more than a hundred Negroes were shot or maimed. Many of them were fatally wounded, five thousand of them were driven from their homes, and several hundred thousand dollars worth of property was destroyed. The origin and cause of this little racial war seemed to have been this: In 1916, 4,000 white men employed in the packing plants went on strike and, in retaliation, the employers of these plants brought in Negroes to work in the places of the strikers. When the strike ended, during the following year, Negroes were still retained as employees in these plants, whereas many whites, who struck, were refused their former jobs. The trade unions then realized the power in this vast resource of imported labor, and, therefore, took steps to check it by appealing to the city authorities to restrain employers from transporting Negroes from the South. In their appeal they threatened to take action themselves if the city officials did not do so. It happened that the latter failed to act, and, therefore, the unionists and their sympathizers, true to their threat, took complete control of the situation and resorted to mob law as a means of solving the problem.[115]
Besides these preceding cases, other riots occurred, but these were due to causes other than economic competition. One of these, which took place in Chester, Pennsylvania, in 1917, seemed to have been due to natural friction and conflicts between the worst elements of both groups in the community.[116] During the same year, Homestead, Pennsylvania, barely escaped a race riot due to ill feeling between the two groups which had been brewing for some time.[117] In Newark, New Jersey, there was a race riot in which four men were wounded, probably fatally, while thirty-three others received slight wounds. This outbreak was of such magnitude that 150 police reserves were required to quell it. It has been reported that it was precipitated by a fight which resulted from a dispute over the amount of money wagered in a dice game conducted by men of both races.[118] There were riots during the summer of 1919, in Washington, D. C., Chicago, Illinois, and Omaha, Nebraska; but it is difficult to say to what extent the recent exodus was responsible for these outbreaks. It seems highly probable, however, that the great increase in the white population of Washington and in the Negro population in Chicago, respectively, as a result of movements of our population, contributed much towards intensifying the ill feelings already existing between the two groups.