J9566 ...&.COD.Z HE COLORED PEOPLEl OF CHICAGO AN INVESTIGATION M A D E F ) N The Juvenile Protective Association n v A. P, DRUCKJ I- SOPHIA BOAZ A. L. HARP IS MIRIAM SCHAFPtfKP «NTMlC.RCOUriONANDBOOK$TACK$ The person borrowing this ma t» • , responsible for its rfnew^lT f 1S before the Latest D«t» . ° r return may be cLZ-t ■■ stam P ed below. You may be charged a mimmum fee of $75 00 "^"on-returned or lost item. property of the Stat* nf ill- • . L| Drary are the ,.. TO RENEW, CALL (217) 333-8400 OT2003 MOV V SSstt^ Wite — *"*J PHE-COLORED PEOPLE OF CHICAGO AN INVESTIGATION MADE FOR he Juvenile Protective Association BY A. P. DRUCKER SOPHIA BOAZ A. L. HARRIS MIRIAM SCHAFFNER TEXT BY LOUISE DE KOVEN BOWEN 1913 The Colored People of licago Chi Colored People In the course of an investigation recently in County Jail made by the Juvenile Protective Associa- tion of Chicago upon the conditions of boys in the County Jail, the Association was much startled by the disproportionate number of colored boys and young men; for although the colored people of Chicago .approximate 1/40 of the entire population, ]/% of the boys and young men and nearly 1/3 of the girls and young women who had been confined in the jail during the year were negroes. Maids in The Association had previously been im- Houses of Pros- p reS sed with the fact that most of the maids employed in houses of prostitution were colored girls and that many em- ployment agencies quite openly sent them there, although they would not take the risk of sending a white girl to a place where, if she was forced into a life of prostitu- tion, the agency would be liable to a charge of pandering. In an attempt to ascertain the causes which would account for a great amount of delinquency among the colored boys and the public opinion which would so care- lessly place the virtue of a colored girl in jeopardy, the Juvenile Protective Association found itself involved in a study of the industrial and social status of the colored people of Chicago. Morality and While the morality of every young per- Environment son j s closely bound up with that of his family and his immediate environment, this is especially true of the sons and daughters of colored fanilies who, because they continually find the door of opportunity shut in their faces, are more easily .forced back into their early environment however vicious it may have been. The enterprising young people in immigrant families who have passed through the public schools and are earning good wages, continually succeed in moving f 58443 their entire households into more prosperous neighbor- hoods where they gradually lose all trace of their tene- ment-house experiences. On the contrary, the colored young people, however ambitious, find it extremely diffi- cult to move their families or even themselves into de- sirable parts of the city and to make friends in these surroundings. The First Negro Because the fate of the young people in Chicago was tnus so inextricably a part of the life of the colored people in Chicago, the investigators found themselves studying the entire history of the negro on the shores of Lake Michigan, following it to the very beginning where it is said the first cabin was built in 1779, by a negro from San Domingo. Slavery, of course, prevailed in Illinois just as everywhere else in the Northwest Territory, having been introduced during the French occupation and al- lowed to continue under the English. When, by an act of Congress, in 1787, slavery was forever pro- hibited "northwest of the Ohio River," this act was so strenuously objected to in the territory of Illinois that it was construed to refer only to the introduction of new slaves, not to the emancipation of those already in slavery. When Illinois became a state in 1818, its compromise constitution forbade perpetual slavery, but allowed indenture for twenty-five years of service. Illinois Liberal Although the state of Illinois was in Slave Time bound by this compromise, the early city of Chicago itself was most liberal to the negro, as the following incident illustrates: In 1842 an industrious and well behaved colored man in Chicago was arrested on the ground of being in the state without a "free certificate." He was taken before a judge who promptly committed him to jail, to be so;d at auction if no owner turned up. In the meantime, friends of the colored man printed handbills announc- ing that "A man will be sold at auction next Monday morning in the jail," and distributed them on Suno'ay among the church-goers. When the sheriff brought out his "ware" on Monday to auction him off, he faced an angry and scowling audience and when he began his auctioneering, he found that no bids were forth- coming. "What will you bid for a strong man who can do all kinds of work?" he called again and again, but meeting with no response he threatened to take his man back to jail and lock him up. This threat had the desired effect and he received a solitary bid of twenty-five cents from Mr. M. C. Ogden, a prominent man in the early life of Chicago. The purchaser then addressed the colored man in the presence of the crowd and assured him that he was free to go where he pleased. Chicago Police The passing of the fugitive slave law Did Not Aid m Congress in 1850, created a great in Fugitive excitement in Chicago when the col- Slave Law . , . , ° . ored people of the city met in conven- tion and resolved "not to fly to Canada, but to remain and defend themselves." A few days later the City Council passed a resolution that the city police should not be required to aid in the recovery of slaves. Colored Chil- In 1854 Stephen A. Douglas was hooted drC p ££ mitted °ff a Chicago platform when he tried Schoolsln 1873 to s P ea c k for his pro-slavery resolution m the benate. .From that day Chicago took a leading place in the anti-slavery fight, but it was not until 1872 that all laws discrimin- ating against the colored people were taken off the Illinois statute books. In the next year, 1873, the colored children were by statute allowed to attend the public schools of the city. High School Although no separate schools have ever Education of been established in Chicago, it was found that many colored young peo- ple become discouraged in regard to a "high school education" because of the tendency of the employers who use colored persons at all in their busi- ness to assign them to the most menial labor. Many a case on record in the Juvenile Protective Association tells the tale of an educated young negro who failed to find employment as a stenographer, book- keeper, or clerk. One rather pathetic story is of a boy graduated from a technical high school last spring. He was sent with other graduates of his class to a big electric company where, in the presence of all his classmates he was told that "niggers are not wanted here." The Association has on record another instance where a graduate of a business college was refused a position under similar circumstances. This young man in response to an advertisement went to a large firm to ask for a position as clerk. "We take colored help only as laborers," he was told by the manager of a firm supposed to be friendly to the negroes. Business Col- All the leading business colleges in leges and In- Chicago, except one, frankly discrimi- DUcrfminate na . te a S ainst ne S r0 students. The one Against the friendly school at present among Colored People twelve hundred white students has only two colored students, but its records show as many as thirty colored students in the past. The manager, however, claims that his business has suffered in consequence of his friendliness to the negro. Even the superintendent of the Illinois Industrial School for Boys at St. Charles complains that it is not worth while to teach trades to the colored boys in his institution because it is so very difficult for a skilled colored man to secure employ- ment. Resulting Re- This reaction against education is one action Against f th ind i rect reS ults of the difficulties Education ... . « . which young colored people encounter in their efforts to find work. The in- vestigators considered this difficulty one of the gravest features in the entire situation, affecting alike most disastrously all of the colored people in Chicago. Uncongenial From the interviews with all the boys Employment m t h e jail it was clear that the lack of Often Cause of • i j *.• t Criminality congenial and remunerative employ- ment had been a determining factor in their tendency to criminality, but be- cause the colored boys suffered under an additional handicap and because the opportunities for work are the essentials for all economic progress, the entire investigation had much to do with the basic question of employment. Labor Unions The colored man believes that the La- and the J3 0r Unions discriminate against him, Colored Man .,« * j.i * x ,, either openly or secretly; a few of the organizations have a clause in their constitutions stating that whites alone are eligible to membership, but most of them allow the colored man to pay his initiation fee and become a member; they, however, take no pains to secure him a place, and when he finds it difficult to find work because the contractor and his fellow workmen discriminate against him and only gets a job here and there, he is frequently tempted to work with "scabs," and after several fines for this infringement of rules he drops out of the union. The investigators found that this was not the exception, but the rule. Mechanics who are members of the build- ing trades do not complain because they have been re- fused membership in the unions, but because they are discriminated against when it comes to working in a building, although this discrimination is not extended to the unskilled colored man. Therefore, while many colored mechanics who come to Chicago for work re- turn to the South where there are fewer unions and white men more willingly work with colored men, this return to the South almost never occurs among the unskilled. An Attempt to The investigators found that a move- Compel Admis- men t was being discussed among the sion to Labor 11 1 • r*i^« • Unions colored people in Chicago to organize unions for colored artisans to act as strike-breakers whenever possible, un- til the American Federation of Labor asked them to join the white unions. This, of course, is the very worst thing they could possibly do, as the colored peo- ple in Chicago have not yet recovered from the ani- mosity excited against them during the stock yards strike when colored men from the South were im- ported as strike breakers. The colored people them- selves believe that their difficulty in finding work is often due to the objection of the employers to treating the colored man with the respect which a skilled me- chanic would command. Certainly the colored laborer is continually driven to lower kinds of occupation which are gradually being discarded by the white man. Corporations Certainly the investigators found that Usually Refuse t ^ e g rea t corporations, for one reason mp oyme Qr anot j ier ^ re f use d to employ negroes. Department stores, express companies and the public utility companies employ very few col- ored people. Out of the 3,795 men employed in Chi- cago by the eight leading express companies, only twenty-one were colored men. Fifteen of these were porters. The investigators found no colored men in Chicago employed as boot and shoe makers, glove makers, bindery workers, garment workers' trades in factories, cigar box makers, elevated railroad employes, neckware trades, suspender makers and printers. No colored women are employed in dressmaking, cap mak- ing, lingerie, or corset making. The two reasons given for this non-employment by the employers are first, the refusal of the white employes to work with the colored people; second, that the "colored help" is slower and not so efficient as the white. Some em- ployers solve the second difficulty by paying the col- ored help less. In the laundries, for instance, where colored people do the same work as the white, the latter average a dollar a week more. The Field of The effect of these restrictions upon Undesirable th e ne groes are, first, that they are ccupations crowded into undesirable and under- paid occupations. As an examole, about 12 per cent of the colored men in Chicago work in saloons and pool-rooms. Second, there is a greater competition in a limited field with a consequent ten- dency to lower the already low wages. Third, the colored women are forced to go to work to help earn the family living; this occurs so universally as to affect the entire family and social life of the negro colony. Pullman Com- A large number of negroes are em- pany the Largest ployed on the railroads, largely due to r^r^Wir, the influence of the Pullman Palace Car woiurcu men . . Company. 1 here is a tradition among colored people that Mr. Pullman in- serted a clause in his will urging the company to employ colored men on the trains whenever possible, but while the investigators found 1,849 Pullman por- ters living in Chicago, they counted 7,625 colored men working in saloons and pool rooms. There is also a high percentage of them employed in the theaters, more than one-fourth of all the employes in the lead- ing theaters of Chicago being colored men. Contrast Be- The Federal Government has always tween Employ- b een a ] ar g e employer of colored labor; and* Federal° a ^ P er cent °^ t ^ ie f° rce m a ^ the Federal Government departments are negroes. In Chicago the percentage of colored men is higher. Out of a total of 8,012 men, 755 or 10.61 per cent of the whole are colored, approximately their just proportion to the population. The negroes, however, do not fare so well in local government. A study made of the city departments in Chicago showed the percentage of colored employes to be 1.87 per cent, in Cook County to be 1.88 per cent. Three colored men have also been elected as County Commissioners, and there is said to be no instance on record in Chicago of a negro office holder having betrayed his trust. The Colored The investigators found, in regard to Man in the colored man in business : (1) That the greater number of their enterprises are the outgrowth of domestic and per- sonal service occupations. (2) That they are in branches of business which call for small amounts of capital and very little previous experience. There are at present in the city of Chicago, managed by colored men, twenty-three manufacturing establishments of various kinds, seventy-two barber shops, sixty-three van, moving, and storage .places, fifty restaurants, thirty-four pool rooms, twenty-six real estate dealers, twenty-six tailors, twenty-five coal and wood dealers, twenty-four hair dressers, twenty-three groceries, twenty cigar venders, twelve builders and contractors, eleven undertakers, nine printing plants, and eight hotels, besides a small representation in forty-one other lines of business. Table showing number of colored men employed by the city of Chicago : Department of Police 83 Fire Department 11 Corporation Counsel Office 1 Health Department 22 Board of Education, not including educational employes of the Board 9 Department of Public Works 32 Board of Local Improvement 3 Mayor's Office 1 Municipal Court 1 Municipal Court — Bailiffs' Office 1 Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium 2 Department of Smoke Inspection 1 City Comptroller's Office 2 Public Library 23 Labor Service 100 Total colored 292 Total number employed 15,597 Percentage colored 1.87 In the colored belt on the South Side of Chicago, there are a number of business houses managed by colored people and patronized exclusively by mem- bers of their own race. There is also one bank located in a fine building of which a colored man is president and 80 per cent of the depositors white. Accord- ing to the evidence confirmed by the figures of the United States census, however, there is little possibility for a colored business man to make a living solely from the patronage of his own people. The census report holds that he succeeds -in business only when two- thirds of his customers are white. This affords one explanation of the fact that most of his business is of such a character that a white man is willing to patron- ize it — barber shops, expressing, restaurants, and other business suggesting personal service. The Principal In a mile on State street, from No. 3000 Business Street to 3900, the investigators found 108 "Black Belt" colored men in business, who employed 270 colored men. Of these business undertakings, twelve were saloons — most of them newly opened; twelve barber shops; seven real estate offices — only three of them ten years old ; ten restaurants — five of them having been there for more than five years and two for more than ten years ; six pool rooms — all recently opened ; four hair dressers, and three tailors, in addition to confectioners, bakers, cleaners, decorators, dressmakers, druggists and the other miscellaneous shops usually found in a self-con- tained neighborhood. As ministering to the higher life, there were found in the same block three music stores, one "art" store, one piano store, two printers, and — if they may be included in such a list — a pho- tographer and a florist. All of the latter save one have been in existence for more than five years, in sharp contrast to the more ephemeral life of the pool rooms and saloons, only one of which has survived so long, while eleven others have changed proprietors recently. This may be partly owing to the fact that it requires very little money to run either, since both the brew- eries and the pool room manufacturers readily accom- modate their salesmen with their goods and other fittings, and many young colored men, who have been em- ployed in them, are ambitious themselves to become proprietors. While in a measure the decency of such a place depends upon the proprietor, he usually re- sponds to the pressure of the large concern who is his creditor. The total amount of capital invested in the mile by the 108 colored men was found to be $15,750. In addition to the colored men carrying on business in the mile were twenty-six ^Americans, seventy-nine Jews, eighteen Germans, thirteen Irishmen, ten Greeks, nine Chinamen, and six other white men whose nation- ality was not ascertained. Several colored women manage independent hair dressing establishments in Chicago. On State street there are two successful restaurants conducted by women; also one saloon and one florist shop; two widows of their original own- ers. There are a large proportion of real estate deal- ers among colored men, many of whom do business with white people, the negro dealer often becoming the agent for houses which the white dealers refuse to handle. Colored people are very eager to own their own homes and many of them are buying small houses, divided into two flats, living in one and collecting rent from the other. The contract system prevails in Chi- cago, making it possible for a man with two or three hundred dollars for the first payment to enter into a contract for the purchase of a piece of property, the deed being held by the real estate man until the pur- chaser pays the amount stipulated in the contract. Four Colored As a careful study of the housing con- Settlements in ditions of colored people made by the Chicago students of the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy ascertained, there are four well defined districts in which colored people have resided for a number of years — one at Englewood, one at 55th street and Lake avenue, one on the West Side, and the largest, known as the "Black Belt," which includes the old 22nd street segregated vice district. In this so-called "belt," the number of children is remarkably small, forming only a little more than one-tenth of the population, while the lodgers constitute 37 per cent of the population. The investigation made by the School of Civics showed that only 26 per cent of the houses on the South Side and 36 per cent of the houses on the West Side colored district were in good repair. Colored tenants reported that they found it impossible to persuade their land- lords either to make the necessary repairs or to release them from their contracts, but that it was so hard to find places in which to live that they were forced to endure unsanitary conditions. The investigation by the School of Civics confirmed the general impression that the rent paid by a negro is appreciably higher than that paid by any other nationality. In a flat building formerly occupied by white people, the white families paid a rent of twelve dollars for a six-room apartment for which a negro family are now paying sixteen dol- lars. A white family paid seventeen dollars for an apartment of seven rooms for which the negroes are now paying twenty dollars. Real Estate The negro real estate dealer frequently and the Colored offers to the owner of an apartment enan house which is no longer renting ad- vantageously to white tenants cash payment for a year's lease on the property, thus guar- anteeing the owner against loss, and then he fills the building with colored tenants. It is said, however, that the agent does not put out the white tenants un- less he can get 10 per cent more from the colored peo- ple. By this method the negroes now occupy many large apartment buildings, but the negro real estate agents obtain the reputation of exploiting their own race. Lodgers a High rents among the colored people, Necessity as everywhere else, force the families to take in lodgers. Nearly one-third of the population in the district investigated on the South Side and nearly one-seventh of the population in the dis- trict investigated on the West Side were lodgers. While this practice is always found dangerous to family life, it is particularly so to the boys and girls of colored familes, who are often obliged to live near the vice dis- tricts. To quote from the report, "The history of the social evil in Chicago is intimately connected with the colored population. Invariably the larger vice districts have been created within or near the settlements of colored people. In the past history of the city nearly every time a new vice district was created downtown or on the South Side, the colored families within the district moved in just ahead of the prostitutes." Difficulties of When it becomes possible for the col- Buying ored people of a better class to buy roper y property in a good neighborhood, so that they may take care of their chil- dren and live respectably, there are often protest meet- ings among the white people in the vicinity and some- times even riots. A striking example of the latter oc- curred within the past three years on the West Side of Chicago ; a colored woman bought a lot near a small park, upon which she built a cottage. It was not until she moved into the completed house that the neigh- bors discovered that a colored family had acquired property there. They immediately began a crusade of insults and threats. When this brought no results, a "night raid" company was organized. In the middle of the night a masked band broke into the house; told the family to keep quiet or they would be murdered; then they tore down the newly built house, destroying everything in it. This is, of course, an extreme in- stance, but there have been many similar to it. Quite recently at Wilmette, a suburb of Chicago, animosity against negro residents resulted in the organization of an anti-negro committee which requested the dismissal of all negroes who were employed in the town as gardeners, janitors, etc., because the necessity of hous- ing their families depressed real estate values. Housing of the The Juvenile Protective Association, as Well-to-Do a supplement to the previous housing Colored People j nvest jg at j ons> studied the conditions of fifty of the better homes occupied by the colored people of Chicago. Those in the so-called "black belt" in the city; those in a suburban district, and other houses situated in blocks in which only one or two colored families lived. The size of the houses varied from five to fourteen rooms, averaging eight rooms each; the conditions of the houses inside and out compared favorably with similar houses occupied by white families. Classified according to occupation, the heads of the household in nine cases were railroad porters, the next largest number were janitors, then waiters, and among them were found lawyers, physi- cians and clergymen. In only four instances was the woman of the house working outside the home. Only four of the homes took in lodgers, and children were found in only fifteen of the fifty families studied. The total of thirty-three children found in the fifty homes av- erages but two-thirds of a child for each family and but for one family — a janitor living in a ten-room house and having eight children — the average would have been but half a child for a family; confirming the statement often made that while the poorer colored people in the agricultural districts of the South, like the poor Italians in rural Italy, have very large families, when they move to the city and become more prosperous, the birth rate among colored people falls below that of the average prosperous American family. From the homes situated in white neighborhoods, only two reported "indignation meetings when they moved in" and added "quiet now" ; one other reported "no affiliation with white neighbors"; still another, "white neighbors visit in time of sickness," and the third was able to say "neighbors friendly." Of the ownership of the fifty homes, thirty-five were owned by colored men, twelve by white landlords and the ownership of three was not ascertained. Thirty-four of the houses were occupied by their owners. Few Prosperous In addition to the fifty families living Colored Men in comfortable houses, one hundred Born in Chicago more cases of fairly prosperous colored families were investigated. It was found that only six of the heads of these families had been born in Chicago, that seventy-seven had come from the South. All of the southern states were repre- sented. Twenty-four of the men were from Kentucky and nineteen from Tennessee. Only six of the ninety- two men born outside of the state had been brought to Chicago as children, while seventy-one of the number had come to the city between the ages of sixteen and twenty-six. They, as well as the older men, had come hoping for better conditions, their reasons being vari- ously put as "higher wages.'^ "learning a trade," "to get a home," "to make big mbney," "to get a position," "for more freedom," "for more schooling," etc., although in nineteen cases the reason given was curiosity, an attempt doubtless to formulate the desire for adven- ture. Prosperity Of the men from the South every one Does Not Re- had improved his condition. Those who move Race said their condition had not improved Prejudice had been formerly working in the large cities of the East or North, where liv- ing expenses were less than in Chicago ; only one re- ceived lower wages in Chicago. He had earned sixteen dollars a week before coming to the city and now earns nine dollars ; two said their conditions had not im- proved because they "had been led off by fast com- pany." The incomes varied from $9.00 a month to $153.60 a month; the average wage was $67.32 a month. Sixteen of the men owned real estate and six others had liberal bank accounts. These results prob- ably compare favorably with one hundred white immi- grants, but the colored man insists that the immigrant has the advantage for, when he learn the language of the country and adopts American ways, he gradually lives down any prejudice against him, while the col- ored man can never make himself acceptable to the white man and believes that he is often disliked in proportion to his prosperity. Family Life In contrast to these one hundred cases Among the of negro men who were fairly success- Poorer Negroes ful, one hundred cases of colored fami- lies were taken from the files of the Juvenile Protective Association representing, of course, as do the white families whose names are on the rec- ords of the Association, people who were unable to adequately protect their children. These cases, how- ever, proved to be typical in so far as the occupations of the men were confined to very few lines of activity. Forty-five of them were porters, sixteen janitors, thir- teen laborers, the rest scattered in different kinds of work — teamsters, waiters, cooks, musicians, etc. The striking difference between them and the more prosper- ous families lay in the fact that the women were obliged to work. Of the women in these families, only four- teen stayed at home ; of the others, twenty-six were day workers in households; twelve worked in laundries; seven were prostitutes; the others worked at various occupations ; two were hairdressers ; one a music teacher, etc. Of the one hundred families, thirty were self supporting ; sixteen did not support their families at all, while fifty-four were dependent on outside as- sistance. In regard to their family status, sixty-six lived an unbroken family life ; in twenty-one cases the husband and wife were separated ; seven women were deserted ; there were three cases of illegal relationship. Out of the one hundred cases, there were seven inter- marriages ; in two instances white men had married colored women ; in five instances white women had married colored men. 86 Mothers Out Out of the one hundred poor families of 100 Go Out taken from the Juvenile Protective As- to Work sociation records, it was found that eighty-six of the women went out to work and, while there is no doubt that this number is ' abnormally high, it is always easier for a colored woman to find work than it is for a colored man, partly because white people have the traditions of colored servants and partly because there is a steadier demand and a smaller supply of household workers, wash and scrub women, than there is of the kind of unskilled work done by men. Even here colored peo- ple are discriminated against, and although many^ are employed in highly respectable families, there is a tendency to engage them in low-class hotels and other places where white women do not care to go. Percentage of No figures are available later than Colored Women 1900, but in a governmental report Working made then, the colored women in Chi- cago constituted 42.5 per cent of the bread-winners of their race, slightly lower than the 43.2 per cent given in the census report for the entire United States. This is more than double the propor- tion of white women employed, which the census gives as 20.6 per cent of the entire white population. Only .04 per cent of working white women are married. School Irregu- As 60 per cent of negro working larity Common women over sixteen years of age are Among Colored married, there is no doubt that many Children colored children are neglected. In- vestigators found from consultation with the principals of the schools largely attended by colored children that they are irregular in attendance and often tardy; that they are eager to leave school at an early age, although in one school where there is a great deal of manual work this tendency is less pro- nounced. Colored children, more than any others, are kept at home to care for younger members of the family while the mother is away at work. A very per- sistent violation of the compulsory education law re- cently tried in the Municipal Court disclosed the fact that a colored brother and sister were alternately kept out of school to care for the younger children, who had been refused admittance in a day nursery, that the old woman who cared for the little household for twenty-five cents a day was ill and that the mother had been obliged to keep the older children at home in order to retain her place in a laundry. At the very best the school attendance of her five children had been most unsatisfactory, for she left home every morning at half-past six and the illiterate old womantopk little interest in school. The lack of home discipline per- haps accounts for the indifference to all school interests on the part of many colored children, although this complaint is not made of those in the high schools who come from more prosperous families. The most strik- ing difference in the health of the colored children X compared to that of the white children in the same neighborhood was the larger proportion of the cases of rickets, due, of course, to malnutrition and neglect. The colored people themselves believe the school au- thorities are more interested in a school whose patron- age is predominantly white. No Congenial It was found that young colored girls, Employment for like the boys, often become desperately Refined Girls discouraged in their efforts to find em- ployment. High school girls of refined appearance, after looking for weeks, will find nothing open to them in department stores, office buildings, or manufacturing establishments, save a few positions as maids in the women's waiting rooms. Such girls find it continually assumed by the employment agen- cies to whom they apply for positions that they are willing to serve as domestics in low class hotels and disreputable houses. Of course, the agency does not explain the character of the place to which the girl is sent, but on going to one address after another she finds that they are all of this kind. Quite recently an intelligent colored girl who had kept a careful record of her experiences with three employment agencies came to the office of the Juvenile Protective Associa- tion to see what might be done to protect colored girls less experienced and self-reliant than herself, against similar temptations. Quite recently a young colored girl who at the age of fifteen had been sent to a house of prostitution by an employment agency, was rescued from the house, treated in a hospital and sent to her sister in a western state. She there married a re- spectable man and is now living in a little home "al- most paid for." The case of Eliza M., who has worked as a cook in a disreputable house for ten years is that of a woman forced into vicious surroundings. In addition to her wages of five dollars a week and food, which she is permitted to take home every evening to her famliy, she has been able to save her generous "tips" for the education of her three children, for whom she is very ambitious. Insults to Girls Colored young women who are mani- Comraon curists and hairdressers find it con- tinually assumed that they will be will- ing to go to hotels under compromising conditions, and when a decent girl refuses to go, she is told that that is all that she can expect. There is no doubt that the few colored girls who find positions as stenographers or bookkeepers are much more open to insult than white girls in similar positions. All these experiences tend to discourage the young people from that "education" which their parents so eagerly desire for them and also makes it extremely difficult for them to maintain their standards of self- respect. Life Insurance It was found that colored people in Chi- Popular cago do not patronize these life insur- ance companies so successfully man- aged by colored men in Atlanta and in other cities. The investigators, however, found many colored agents employed as solicitors among their own people; two hundred colored agents, for instance, are writing poli- cies for accident insurance companies. The Metropoli- tan Life Insurance Company alone has approximately 65,000 industrial policies on the lives of colored peo- ple in the city of Chciago, many colored people having more than one policy on every member of the family. Many Profes- Chicago has a large number of fine sional Men of negro professional men ; this is due High Standard largely to the number of schools and universities accessible to the negro's use. There are in Chicago sixty-five colored physi- cians, four of whom are women ; twenty-five lawyers ; eighteen dentists ; twelve pharmacists, with many stu- dents in attendance at the universities and professional schools. One of the physicians is on the staff of St. Luke's hospital and others are responsible for the fine medical work carried on at the Provident Hospital, the leading hospital for colored people in the United States. The colored people are justly proud of this hospital, founded in 1891, where there is no discrimina- tion between white and colored people, on the staff of physicians and nurses, nor among the patients. The hospital is managed by a board of trustees of fourteen members — six white and eight colored, and has a good standing among the hospitals of Chicago. Although colored women have an aptitude for nursing, there are not enough training schools in the country where they can be properly trained as nurses, such as the Provi- dent Hospital in Chicago; the Freedmen's Hospital in Washington, D. C. ; the Lincoln Hospital in New York, and one in Philadelphia. One of the colored dentists of Chicago is a leader in his profession. His practice is exclusively among white people. Two colored dentists are women. Several of the colored lawyers have been in the State's Attorney's office, one of them an assistant there from 1896 to 1911, was most active in bettering conditions for the juvenile offend- ers ; still another colored man was District United States Attorney for some years, and several negro lawyers have been admitted to Supreme Court prac- tice. One of the prominent colored lawyers who was for five years head of the department of the city dam- age suits, has become a specialist in "track elevation suits" with big corporations as his clients. Physicians and The colored people often state that the Lawyers Real colored professional men, lawyers and Factors in So- physicians, rather than the ministers cial Improve- and social workers, have been the real ment factors in the social improvement among the negroes of Chicago. They instance that the Frederick Douglas Center has staunch supporters among the professional men ; that the president of their newly built Y. M. C. A. is a colored physician and that professional men are very active in the Chicago branch of the National Associa- tion for the Advancement of Colored People. Musicians of Among the many colored musicians in Prominence Chicago are at least a score who may be called professionals ; two of them direct orchestras ; one is a pianist of local reputation ; at least four of them singing in vaudeville are also composers of songs; two are young colored women who have extensively traveled as singers in Cuba and South America as well as in the United States. Every year several young people graduate at the various musical colleges, and a gifted young violinist is now studying in Paris. The Art Institute often has colored students, and there are a goodly number of colored people who write creditable poetry, chiefly words to songs which are set to music by their friends. Four newspapers edited in Chicago by colored men, as well as contributions to the "Crisis" and other magazines, give evidence of a remarkable ability for writing. In addition to several clergymen and attorneys of un- doubted forensic ability, may be cited several lecturers, one of them a woman with a gift for public speaking, who years ago roused interest throughout England in the condition of colored people. Church Chief The church among the colored people Factor in has always been the chief factor in Social Life their social life. In Chicago there are twenty-nine regularly organized churches in addition to various missions, with ap- proximately twenty thousand members. This includes nearly half of the colored population of the city, a much larger proportion than the church membership among the white population. The churches own prop- erty to the amount of six hundred thousand dollars, although every church is carrying a debt. The church is a center for the colored people for lectures, literary societies, civic meetings, and so forth. Many churches have young people's societies, meeting every Sunday afternoon, united to the extent of sustaining in Chicago an annual oratorical contest to which they all send representatives. Two of the churches, one on the South Side and one on the West Side, at one time car- ried on institutional work, which has been discontinued because of lack of funds ; one of the Baptist churches supports a religious training school which has eleven teachers and one hundred and fifty students. The clergymen are, as a rule, men who have been educated in some of the best northern and southern theological seminaries, but they are inclined to be sectarian and to confine themselves to the conventional church routine. The colored ministers of one denomination seldom meet with the colored ministers of another denomina- tion and almost never with the white ministers of their own denomination. They complain that they meet with public approval when they work for the religious advancement of their own race, but are re- buffed when they enter into general movements for civic betterment. Young Men's A Young Men's Christian Association Christian building in Chicago represents the Association largest investment ever made by that association to be devoted to the inter- ests of colored men and boys. Its entire cost approxi- mates $195,000. It contains the standard equipment of gymnasium, restaurant, dormitories, etc., and has a membership of 2,000, although the annual fee is ten dollars. Juvenile Officers Among the colored social workers of and Social the city are five Juvenile Protection Workers Officers and one Adult Probation Offi- cer. The county agent employed one colored investigator and the Juvenile Protective Asso- ciation one colored officer; there are three colored nurses employed by the Visiting Nurses' Association, and three others upon the staff of the public school nurses. The standard of all these social workers is as high as the average, and several of them — notably two young women living at the Wendell Phillips Settle- ment, have taken the full course at the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy. The colored people them- selves feel that there is urgent need for more trained social workers. The clubs of colored women which are beginning to study the social needs of their dis- tricts urge their members to more serious study; of these clubs the Civic Club is devoted to rescue work, the Phyllis Wheatley Club to maintaining a permanent home for colored working girls, the Parents' School Club to securing better school conditions, a Neighbor- hood Club to making local improvements. Several other women's clubs, which take care of special cases in need of relief and co-operate with the United Chari- ties, are eager for guidance as to the best method of Charitable administration. There are forty-one clubs of colored women in the city, with a total membership of 1,200, most of them devoted to philanthropy and closely allied to the women's aid societies found in all the colored churches. Two clubs for colored women are of a somewhat different character, federated with the Cook County League of Women's Clubs and co- operate in general social movements. Social There are four settlements in Chicago Settlements in or near the neighborhoods of colored people. The pioneer was the Frederick Douglas Center on the South Side of Chicago, founded to promote a better understanding between white and colored people and to help remove the arbitrary dis- abilities from which the latter suffer in their civil, political and industrial life. The founder and head resi- dent, who had for years been troubled by the increasing race antagonism against the colored people, believes that much can be accomplished by a frank discussion of the situation between the two races if it be carried on with justice and good will ; cases of unusual dis- crimination are often arbitrated and adjusted. The Wendell Phillips settlement was also organ- ized by a board of white and colored people who were concerned over the conditions obtaining in the colored district on the West Side of the city. Two young col- ored women, graduates of Fiske University, are in charge and have developed an excellent system of clubs and classes. Both of these settlements own their own property. The Negro Fellowship League was founded as an outgrowth of the discussion following the Springfield riots, when it was said that the difficulty arose from idle young men out of work, maintains a reading room, a lodging house, and an employment agency on State street in the midst of the "Black Belt." The League performs many offices for the colored men who have newly arrived in Chicago similar to those of the League for the Protection of Immigrants ; in fact, the needs of the two classes of people are similar in many respects, implying lack of adjustment rather than lack of abil- ity. " The Enterprise Institute on State street has classes in various lines, at present numbering 150 pupils. There are in Chicago an entire group of institutions which have arisen as colored people were discriminated against in existing institutions, such as the Home for the Widows of Colored Soldiers and the Home for the Aged, all supported by associations of colored women. Race Prejudice A day nursery for colored children was Found Even in organized a year ago because several Day Nurseries day nurseries refused to receive colored and Dependent children on the ground that "the other Homes people objected to them." There are likewise five homes for colored de- pendent children; two were the outgrowths of appar- ent discrimination against colored children in two state industrial schools receiving public funds, al- though in the case of the Illinois Industrial School for Girls, situated at Park Ridge, Illinois, the Institution is responsible for the branch maintained in Chicago for colored girls and defrays all expenses. The board managers believe that this segregation is equally valu- able to both sets of children. The similar school for boys at Glenwood, Illinois, does not maintain a sepa- rate branch, but in various ways avoids taking colored boys into the school. At the time of the investigation, the Glenwood School contained 500 white boys and fifteen colored boys, a number disproportionate to the cases of colored boys brought into the Juvenile Court. It is becoming a custom, on the part of many places, to refuse colored children, with the cryptic utterance, "We have no room." In order to provide for dependent and delinquent colored children, a colored workman, previously a pro- bation officer, established the Louise Juvenile Home, which cares for twenty dependent boys. The Eldridge Home and the Marcy Home each provides for smaller children. The Amanda Smith Home was founded by an ex-slave with a remarkable gift for public speaking and great religious devotion. She spent twelve years in China, Japan and Africa under the auspices of the English Missionary and Temperance Society. Return- ing home to Chicago in 1900, she invested the savings of her lifetime, ten thousand dollars, in the Home, which is chartered under the provision of the industrial school act. The Home cares for fifty children, but since Mrs. Smith left, on account of ill health, it has been greatly crippled for lack of funds. All of these homes for colored children are supported wholly by colored people. The Illinois Technical School for col- ored girls is maintained in Chicago by the Catholic Church ; there are fifty-one girls in the school, ranging from four to sixteen years of age and receiving most excellent care. In spite of these various efforts, the care for dependent and semi-delinquent colored children is totally inadequate, a situation which is the more re- markable as the public records all give a high percent- age of negro criminals ; the police department give 7.7 per cent; the Juvenile Court 6.5 per cent; the county jail 10 per cent. Those familiar with the police and the courts be- lieve that negroes are often arrested on excuses too flimsy to hold a white man; that any negro who hap- pens to be near the scene of a crime or disorder is promptly arrested and often convicted on evidence upon which a white man would be discharged. The Juvenile Protective Association has on record cases in which negroes have been arrested without sufficient cause and convicted on inadequate evidence, and it is well known that a certain type of policeman, juryman, and prosecuting attorney have apparently no scruples in sending "a nigger up the road" on mere suspicion. Negroes Fre- To take one record from the files of the quently Association, the case of George W., a Convicted on colored boy, nineteen years old, who Suspicion was born in Chicago and had attended the public schools through one year at the high school. He lived with his mother and had worked steadily for three years as a porter in a large grocery store, until August 22, 1912, when he was arrested on the charge of rape. On the late afternoon of that day an old woman of eighty-three was as- saulted by a negro and was saved from the horrible attack only by the timely arrival of her daughter, who so frightened the assailant that he jumped out of a window. Two days later George was arrested, charged with the crime. At the police station he was not al- lowed to sleep ; was beaten, cuffed and kicked, and finally, battered and frightened, he confessed that he had committed the crime. When he appeared in court, his lawyer advised him to plead guilty, although the boy explained that he had not committed the crime and had confessed simply because he was forced to do so. The evidence against him was so flimsy that the judge referred to it in his instructions to the jury. The State's Attorney had failed to establish the ownership of the cap dropped by the fleeing assailant and the time of the attempted act was changed during the testimony. Though the description given by the peo- ple who saw the colored man running away did not agree with George's appearance, nevertheless the jury brought in a verdict of guilty and the judge sentenced the boy to fourteen years in the penitentiary. When one of the men who had seen the guilty man running away from the old woman's house was asked why he did not make his testimony more explicit, he replied, "Oh, well, he's only a nigger anyway." The case was brought to the Juvenile Protective Association by the employer of George W., who, convinced of the boy's good character, felt that he had not had a fair trial. The Association found that the boy could absolutely prove an alibi at the time of the crime and is making an effort to get him out of the penitentiary. A Man's Fate Occasionally it happens that very little Decided in time is given to a case where a negro Sixteen Minutes is concerned. Some time ago a colored man was arrested and charged with murder. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced by the judge to imprisonment for life in the penitentiary. It took just sixteen minutes from the time the negro was brought into the court to the time he left it, to have his case brought up, to plead guilty and to have a sentence of lifelong im- prisonment pronounced. It surely seems as if such a serious crime as the taking of life and the commitment of a man to prison for as long as he lives, should at least require less haste and more mature deliberation. Economic Con- The reasons given by the leading col- dition Largest ored men of Chicago for the large Factor in amount of crime among their people Production are curiously confirmed by the results of Crime of this investigation. They contend that first, the negroes in Chicago are so limited in the choice of employment that they under- bid each other and are forced to work for the smallest wages. This obliges the wife and mother to go out to work and the consequent neglect of the children leads to truancy, incorrigibility and crime. Second, that the colored people of Chicago are obliged to pay such a high rental that a large number of families are forced to take in lodgers, which results in much im- morality and indecency among colored people who would otherwise remain respectable. Third, that the colored people are forced to make their homes in and near the openly immoral districts of the city so that the only white people many colored children ever see are those frequenting the vice district. Fourth, the disproportionate number of negro criminals is due to the fact that their desire for the friendship and sym- pathy of the white people is often exploited by white criminals who wish to secure shelter from the police. Some obscure colored family, happy to render a serv- ice to a white man, takes him in sometimes for weeks or months, and he naturally influences the colored men with whom he associates. Remedies As remedies against the unjust dis- Suggested crimination against the colored man suspected of crime, a leading attorney of the race in Chicago suggests : (a) Generalizing against the negro should cease; the fact that one negro is bad should not fix criminality upon the race. The race should be judged by its best as well as by its worst types, (b) The public press never associates the nationality of a criminal so markedly in its account of crime as in the case of a negro. This exception is most unjust and harmful and should not obtain, (c) The negro should not be made the universal "scape- goat." When a crime is committed, the slightest pre- text starts the rumor of a "negro suspect" and flaming headlines prejudice the public mind long after the white criminal is found. The colored man complains of race prejudice ex- hibited first in the readiness to condemn the untried negro as a criminal ; second, in the refusal to give him employment fitted to his skill and capacity; third, in crowding the colored population into the most un- desirable houses in the city. He does not resent social ostracism, but he does make a vigorous demand for his civil and economic rights. In order to test the many times repeated statement that colored people are discriminated against at pub- lic cafes, a young colored woman, at the request of the investigators, visited sixteen of the leading confection- ers of Chicago in the most crowded portion of the city, asking to be served with a cup of hot chocolate. In every place she was served, always by white men or women, and the white patrons seated at adjoining tables paid no attention to her presence. At one place, however, she was obliged to wait for a long time, but was finally served without remark. At another place, after waiting for twenty minutes, she was asked to take a seat at the counter and told that white people would not sit at the same table with her. At two other places she fancied that she was made fun of by the waiters, but in none of the places did she encounter actual rudeness. Possibly this treatment would not have been accorded to her at the hotels. Quite recently the County Federation of women's clubs arranged a luncheon at one of the leading hotels of the city. When the proprietor objected to the presence of the colored delegates, the officers of the federation gave up the luncheon rather than to countenance such discrimina- tion, although the objection was made so late that a committee w r as obliged to stand at the door of the hotel to tell the members that the luncheon had been given up and the program postponed. Naturally some of the delegates objected, but the large majority approved the action of the officers in spite of the great inconveni- ence involved. Colored People All colored people are especially fond Especially Fond of music, but almost the only outlet the of Music young people find for their musical facility is in vaudeville shows, amuse- ment parks and inferior types of theaters. That which should be a great source of inspiration tends to pull them down, as their love of pleasure, lacking innocent expression, draws them toward the vice district, where alone the color line disappears. Model Dance An effort was recently made by some Hall Opposed colored people on the South Side to by White start a model dance hall. The white People people of the vicinity, assuming that it would be an objectionable place, suc- cessfully opposed it as a public nuisance and this erTort toward better recreation facilities had to be aban- doned. Colored Boys Even the waters of Lake Michigan are Cannot Bathe not available for colored children, in Lake They are not welcomed by the white Michigan children at the bathing beaches and late last summer one little colored boy who attempted to bathe at the Thirty-ninth street beach was mobbed and treated so roughly that the police were obliged to send in a riot call. This investigation would certainly explain the presence of so large a proportion of colored boys in the county jail on the following grounds: First, the colored children are forced to live in the very worst neighborhoods in Chicago and even there the colored families are charged such high rents that the house is tilled with "floaters" of a very undesirable class, so that the children witness all kinds of offenses against de- cency within the house as well as on the streets. Second, the fathers of the families, because they are so circumscribed in their lines of occupation, work for very small wages, with the inevitable outcome that the mothers go out to work and neglect their children. As a result, the colored children are underfed, irregu- lar in school attendance, make slow progress in their studies and drop out of school at the earliest possible moment. Third, there are not enough places in Chicago where negro children may find wholesome amusement. Of the fifteen small parks and playgrounds with field houses, only two are really utilized by colored children. They avoid the others because of friction and diffi- culty which they constantly encountered with the white children. The commercial amusements found in the neighborhoods of colored people are of the low- est type of pool rooms and saloons, which are arti- ficially numerous because so many young colored men find their first employment in these two occupations and with their experience and very little capital are able to open places for themselves. Perhaps the greatest factor of all is the difficulty which all colored people have in finding employment; and after an ambitious boy has been refused employ- ment again and again in the larger mercantile and in- dustrial establishments and comes to the conclusion that there is no use in trying to get a decent job, he is in a very dangerous state of mind. Idle and dis- couraged, his neighborhood environments vicious, such a boy quickly shows the first symptoms of delinquency anc. the remedial agencies which should be prompt in his I case are the very weakest at this point. Added to this is the conviction held by many colored boys inHJ young men that "the police have it in for them ami do not accord them fair treatment." In suggesting remedies for this state of affairs, th< broken family life, the surrounding of a vicious neigh- borhood, the dearth of adequate employment, the lacl of preventive institutional care and proper recreation] for negro youth, the Juvenile Protection Associatioi finds itself confronted with the situation stated at ih< beginning of the investigation, that the life of the col-j ored boy and girl is so circumscribed on every hand! by race limitations that they can be helped only inso-j far as the entire colored reputation in Chicago is ur-j derstood and fairly treated. For many years Chicago, keeping to the traditioi of its early history, had the reputation among colorec people of according them fair treatment. Even now it is free from the outward signs of "segregation/' bu' unless the city realizes more fully than it does at pres- ent the great injustice which discrimination againsl any class of citizens entails, we shall suffer for our in- difference by an ever increasing number of idle anrj criminal youth, which must eventually vitiate both tj" black and white citizenship of Chicago. Lithomount Pamphlet Binder Gaylord Bros. Inc. Makers Syracuse, N Y PAT. JAN 21, 1908 : ■ * . It i ; UNIVER9ITV OF ILUNOI3-URBANA ■ I II III 3 0112 047066888 *