The Negro in Chicago - A Study of Race Relations and a Race Riot. Chicago Commission on Race Relations
sometimes as much as 50 per cent. A more detailed study of living conditions among the early migrants in Chicago was made by the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy. The inquiry included seventy-five families of less than a year's residence. In the group were sixty married couples, 128 children, eight women, nine married men with families in the South. Of these migrants forty-five families came from rural and thirty-two from urban localities. The greatest number, twenty-nine, came from Alabama; twenty-five were from Mississippi, eleven from Louisiana, five from Georgia, four from Arkansas, two from Tennessee, and one from Florida. Forty-one of these seventy-five families were each living in one room. These rooms were rented by the week, thus making possible an easy change of home at the first opportunity.
It was at this period that the greatest excitement over the "incoming hordes of Negroes" prevailed.
A significant feature was the large number of young children found. The age distribution of 128 children in these seventy-five families was forty-seven under seven years, forty-one between seven and fourteen years, and forty over fourteen years.
Most of these children were of school age and had come from districts in the South which provided few school facilities. The parents were unaccustomed to the requirements of northern schools in matters of discipline, attendance, and scholarship. Considerable difficulty was experienced by teachers, parents, and children in these first stages of adjustment.
V. ADJUSTMENTS TO CHICAGO LIFE
Meeting actual conditions of life in Chicago brought its exaltations and disillusionments to the migrants. These were reflected in the schools, public amusement places, industry, and the street cars. The Chicago Urban League, Negro churches, and Negro newspapers assumed the task of making the migrants into "city folk." The increase in church membership indicates prompt efforts to re-engage in community life and establish agreeable and helpful associations. It also reflects the persistence of religious life among the migrants. This increase is shown in Table V.
| TABLE V | ||
| Name of Church | Increase in Membership during migration period | |
|---|---|---|
| Number | Percentage | |
| Salem | 700 | 51 |
| Olivet | 5,543 | 80 |
| South Park | 2,425 | 1,872 |
| St. Mark's | 1,800 | 100 |
| Hyde Park | 95 | 131 |
| Bethel | 650 | 800 |
| Walters | 351 | 338 |
Adjustment to new conditions was taken up by the Urban League as its principal work. Co-operating with the Travelers Aid Society, United Charities, and other agencies of the city, it met the migrants at stations and, as far as its facilities permitted, secured living quarters and jobs for them. The churches took them into membership and attempted to make them feel at home. Negro newspapers published instructions on dress and conduct and had great influence in smoothing down improprieties of manner which were likely to provoke criticism and intolerance in the city.
Individual experiences of the migrants in this period of adjustment were often interesting. The Commission made a special effort to note these experiences for the light they throw upon the general process. Much of the adjustment was a double process, including the adjustment of rural southern Negroes to northern urban conditions. It is to be remembered that over 70 per cent of the Negro population of the South is rural. This means familiarity with rural methods, simple machinery, and plain habits of living. Farmers and plantation workers coming to Chicago had to learn new tasks. Skilled craftsmen had to relearn their trades when they were thrown amid the highly specialized processes of northern industries. Domestic servants went into industry. Professional men who followed their clientèle had to re-establish themselves in a new community. The small business men could not compete with the Jewish merchants, who practically monopolized the trade of Negroes near their residential areas, or with the "Loop" stores.
Many Negroes sold their homes and brought their furniture with them. Reinvesting in property frequently meant a loss; the furniture brought was often found to be unsuited to the tiny apartments or large, abandoned dwelling-houses they were able to rent or buy.
The change of home carried with it in many cases a change of status. The leader in a small southern community, when he came to Chicago, was immediately absorbed into the struggling mass of unnoticed workers. School teachers, male and female, whose positions in the South carried considerable prestige, had to go to work in factories and plants because the disparity in educational standards would not permit continuance of their profession in Chicago.
These illustrations in Table VI, taken from family histories, show how adjustment led to inferior occupation.
| TABLE VI | ||
| Occupation in South | Occupation on First Arrival in Chicago | Occupation One or More Years Later |
|---|---|---|
| Display man on furniture | Laborer | Laborer in factory |
| Stone mason | Laborer in coal yard | Laborer in Stock Yards |
| Proprietor of café | Laborer | Elevator man |
| Farmer | Laborer in Stock Yards | Laborer in Stock Yards |
| Coal miner | Porter in tailoring shop | Janitor |
| Proprietor of boarding-house | Laborer | Laborer in Stock Yards |
| Farmer | Factory worker | Factory worker |
| Barber | Painter | Janitor |
| Hotel waiter | Waiter | Porter in factory |
| Plasterer | Laborer in Stock Yards | Laborer in steel mill |
| Farmer | Hostler | Laborer in livery stable |
| Clergyman | Stationary fireman | Laborer in Stock Yards |
| Tinsmith | Waiter | Laborer |
| Farmer | Laborer in cement factory |
Laborer in Stock |