The report does not present any solution by which all racial troubles may be avoided. It well fulfills its mission, however, in finding facts which, if properly studied, will serve to guide others in promoting amicable relations between racial groups. It at once convinces the general public that causes of racial friction may be insignificant in themselves but are nevertheless capable of leading to serious results, although a little effort can easily effect their removal in time to avoid such fatal consequences. It shows, moreover, that grievances too often portrayed as justifiable reasons for self-help are generally exaggerated primarily for the purpose of inflaming the public mind and should such findings be given adequate publicity the effects of such unwise action may be counteracted in time. It is claimed for this commission, moreover, that its work has promoted an understanding between the two racial groups in the city of Chicago and removed misunderstandings which have been such prolific sources of trouble.
The report covers in some detail an informing account of the race riot itself and of other outbreaks in the State of Illinois. Going to the very causes of things, the commission studied the migration of the Negroes from the South, the Negro population in Chicago, directing attention to the housing of Negroes, racial contacts, vicious environments, and lines of industry. One of the most informing parts of the work is a treatment of public opinion in race relations, bringing out beliefs concerning Negroes and the background of such and public opinion as expressed by Negroes themselves. Adequate space is given to the instruments of opinion-making, such as Chicago newspapers and the Negro press as well as to rumors, myths, and propaganda. The recommendations of the Commission require careful attention. While the public will not generally accept these recommendations as final, they are at least suggestive and require careful consideration.
One defect of the work, however, if it has a defect, is that it fails to take into account one important cause, namely, the migration of many poor whites to the North during the period of scarcity of labor incident to the World War when these southerners brought north their own opinions about how to keep the Negro down and helped to aggravate the situation in Chicago.
NOTES
Mr. George W. Brown, a graduate of Howard University who, as a result of a year of graduate work in History and Political Science at Western Reserve University, has received the degree of Master of Arts, has been appointed Instructor in History at the West Virginia Collegiate Institute. Mr. Brown is the author of a dissertation entitled Haiti and the United States.
Mr. Miles Mark Fisher who contributed to the last issue of The Journal of Negro History the valuable dissertation and documents bearing on the career of Lott Cary and who has written two other valuable works, The History of the Olivet Baptist Church and The Master's Slave, has been appointed an instructor at the Virginia Union University, Richmond, Virginia.
Mr. Luther P. Jackson, a graduate of Fisk University, who specialized at Columbia in History and Education leading to the degree of Master of Arts, and who contributes to the current number of The Journal of Negro History the dissertation entitled The Educational Efforts of the Freedmen's Bureau and Freedmen's Aid Societies in South Carolina, 1862-1872, has been appointed an instructor in the Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute, Petersburg, Virginia.