The Negro in Chicago: A Study of Race Relations and a Race Riot. Chicago Commission on Race Relations
statement to the police immediately after the bombing of his home at 4331 Vincennes Avenue on the night of April 25, 1920:
"The day on which I had planned to move, a man who said he was Mr. Day, of the Hyde Park and Kenwood Association, telephoned me. He said: 'I hear you have acquired property and you are dissatisfied with it; we can take it off your hands—relieve you of it.' I replied that I didn't think I needed any help. He asked, 'What do you expect to do?' I said, 'I expect to move into it or sell it if I can get my price.' I moved on Tuesday and Wednesday he called in person. He said, 'I called to find out if you want us to sell or handle your property for you.' I told him I thought I could handle it, and that I was not anxious to sell but would consider selling if I could get an offer of say $11,000. He replied that his buyers were not able to go that far. He continued, 'The point is, I represent the Hyde Park-Kenwood Association. We have spent a lot of money and we want to keep this district white.' I asked him why they had not thought of buying the property before and told him that the house had been for sale for eight months. He replied that it was a lamentable fact that they had overlooked it. I told him that I heard the Hyde Park Association had a $100,000 slush fund out of which $100 was paid for each bombing. He said he would have some of his buyers come in and look over the property. Shortly afterward, Mr. Stephen D. Seman and another man came and represented themselves as buyers. They looked over the inside of the house. I only carried them through the halls. Mr. Seman said, 'You only paid $8,500 for this property.' I told him that he had been misinformed, I had paid $9,000. He said, 'I will give you $9,500 for it.' I refused. As they were leaving he added, 'You had better consider our offer.' Soon after that a man named Casson, real estate man, called. I would not let him in. When he asked me my price I told him $11,500.
"A week later a delegation from the Hyde Park Association called. The spokesman began: 'I am Mr. Austin. You understand the nature of our business with you, I suppose.' … I told the chief clerk of the office of the Northwestern Railroad to inform you that we were coming to see you. We are the Hyde Park-Kenwood Association and you will understand that you are not welcome in this district. We want to know what can be done.' I replied that I didn't know what could be done unless they wanted to buy; otherwise I expected to live there, and my price was $11,500. They continued, 'Do you suppose if I moved into a black district where I wasn't wanted, that I would want to live there?' I said, 'If you had bought property there and liked the property, I don't see why you should move.' They said, 'Why do you persist in wanting to live here when you know you are not wanted?' I said, 'I have bought property here and I am expecting to live here.' Then they filed out of the door, and one of the members stated, 'You had better consider this proposition.'
"In the office of the Northwestern Railroad, Mr. Shirley called me in and read a letter to me which he had received from Mr. Austin. 'Murphy, his name is,' he said, 'I know him fairly well, and I simply want to make an answer to the letter. Don't think I am trying to influence you one way or the other. This is the letter: it goes about like this: "Crede Hubbard has purchased a three-flat building at 4332 Vincennes Avenue. Property values are always shot to hell when Negroes move in. Use whatever influence you have to induce him to sell and find out for us his lowest figures."' He added, 'Don't think I am trying to brow-beat you into selling this property.'"
"On the following Sunday night on my way back to Milwaukee, I read in the paper that my house had been bombed. My family was at home, my two boys sleeping about ten feet from the place that was most seriously damaged. The bomb was placed inside the vestibule. The girl there heard a taxicab drive up about twenty-five minutes to twelve and stop for a few minutes and start off again. About six minutes after the taxicab stopped, the explosion came, and in about five minutes there were not less than 300 people on the street in front of the place asking questions. There were a number of plain-clothes men in the crowd. I told my story to the chief of police and to a sergeant of the police and they said it was evidence enough to warrant the arrest of the officials of the Association named, but they also thought that it would do no good. … 'The thing we will have to do is to catch somebody in the act, sweat him and make him tell who his backers are.'
"The police believe that the actual bombing is being done by a gang of young rough-necks who will stop at nothing, and they expect a pretty serious encounter if they are interfered with. A big automobile is being shadowed now by the police. It is used by this bunch of young fellows under suspicion, and it is thought that they keep the car well loaded with ammunition, and whoever attacks them must expect trouble. There are four plain-clothes men on guard in this district now. The police told me to get anything I want from a Mauser to a machine gun and sit back in the dark, and when anybody comes up to my hallway acting suspiciously to crack down on him and ask him what he was there for afterwards."
Bombing of the Harrison home.—Mrs. Gertrude Harrison, Negro, living alone with her children, contracted to buy a house at 4708 Grand Boulevard. In March, 1919, she moved in. She immediately received word that she had committed a grave error. She and her children were constantly subjected to the insulting remarks both of her immediate neighbors and passers-by.
On May 16, 1919, a Negro janitor informed her that neighbors were planning to bomb her house. She called up the Forty-eighth Street police station and told of the threatened danger. The officer answering the telephone characterized her report as "idle talk" and promised to send a man to investigate. The regular patrolman came in and promised to "keep an eye on the property," but there were ten blocks in his beat. A special guard was secured and paid by Mrs. Harrison when it was learned that one would not be furnished by the police.
The following night, May 17, her house was bombed while the patrolman was "punching his box" two blocks away and the special watchman was at the rear. A detail of police was then provided both at the front and rear. The following night a bomb was thrown on the roof of the house from the window of a vacant flat in the adjoining apartment house. The flat from which the bomb was thrown had been unlocked to admit the bombers and locked again. The police failed to question either the persons living in the apartment or those leaving it immediately after the explosion.
The first explosion blew out the front door and shattered the glass in the front of the house. The bomb was filled with gravel and bits of lead. The second was of similar character, but did not do as much damage. No arrests were made.
DAMAGE DONE BY A BOMB
This bomb was thrown into a building at 3365 Indiana Avenue, occupied by Negroes. A six-year-old Negro child was killed.
In all these fifty-eight bombings the police have been able to accomplish nothing definite. Practically every incident involved an automobile, descriptions of which were furnished by witnesses. The precautions taken to prevent bombings, even if they were well planned and systematically carried out, failed lamentably.
2. REACTION OF WHITES IN HYDE PARK
Increasing frequency of bombings, failure of the police to make arrests, and the apparent association of these acts of open violence with the white residents of Hyde Park drew out explanations.
Pastors of churches in the district who, it had been charged, helped to give circulation to printed sentiments of the organized opposition to the "invasion" were strong in their repudiation. The menace to law and order was definitely recognized and the public given to understand that neither the pastor nor his congregation had encouraged acts of lawlessness in any manner. In a statement to a Commission investigator, one of these pastors said, "I am not in sympathy with the methods and am very doubtful about the aims of the Property Owners' Association and have, therefore, been unable to join them or indorse their efforts."
A local paper, the Real Estate News, published a long article in February, 1920, on "Solving Chicago's Race Problem." It was directed at South Side property owners and carried a stern warning "against perils of boycott and terrorism being promoted by local protective associations." Referring to the bombing outrages, this paper, under the heading "Danger in Boycotts and Bombs," said:
In Kenwood and Hyde Park, particularly, a number of "protective