The Negro in Chicago - A Study of Race Relations and a Race Riot. Chicago Commission on Race Relations
Table of Contents
The Negro population of Chicago, as reported by the Federal Bureau of the Census, was 44,103 in 1910 and 109,594 in 1920. The increase during the decade was therefore 65,491, or 148.5 per cent. Negroes constituted 2 per cent of the city's total population in 1910 and 4.1 per cent in 1920. The increase in the white population during the decade was 450,047, or 21 per cent, bringing the white population up to 2,589,104 in 1920. The remainder of the population consisted of 3,007 Chinese, Japanese, and Indians, of whom there were 2,123 in 1910. Chicago's total population in 1920 was 2,701,705.
In order to indicate where the Negro population of the city lived in 1910 and in 1920, the Commission sought the co-operation of the Census Bureau. On the basis of a rough preliminary survey, certain areas in which it was evident that the main groups of Negroes lived were delimited, and liberal margins allowed to include scattered residents living near the main areas. For these areas the Census Bureau supplied figures showing the total and Negro population by census-enumeration districts. Since each enumeration district embraced from one or two to six city blocks in the more crowded portions of the city, the data thus made available enabled the Commission to prepare maps showing with a fair degree of accuracy where Negroes in Chicago lived in 1910 and in 1920, and also their proportion to the total population in these units of area.
The 510 enumeration districts covered for 1910 included 40,739, or 92.3 per cent of the 44,103 Negroes reported by the Census Bureau for that year; and the 730 enumeration districts covered for 1920 included 106,089, or 96.8 per cent of the 109,594 Negroes reported for that year. The small remaining number of Negroes scattered throughout the parts of the city not embraced in these areas in 1910 and 1920 included many janitors living in the buildings where they worked, and others employed in private homes and living on the premises, thus making their presence inconspicuous among white residents. The areas in which 40,739 Negroes were living in 1910 contained a total population of 657,044, the Negroes thus constituting 6.2 per cent of the total. The areas in which 106,089 Negroes lived in 1920 contained a total population of 779,279, the Negroes thus constituting about 13 per cent of the total.
The outstanding fact concerning these data for 1910 and 1920 is that the large increase in Negro population did not bring into existence any new large colonies but resulted in the expansion and increased density of areas in which groups of Negroes already lived in 1910.
DISTRIBUTION OF NEGRO POPULATION 1910
DATA OBTAINED FROM FEDERAL CENSUS
By far the largest number of Negroes in 1910 and 1920 lived in what may be termed the old "South Side," which includes the original "Black Belt" embracing the area from Twelfth to Thirty-first streets and from Wentworth to Wabash avenues. This and other areas of Negro residence in various parts of the city, with their approximate boundaries in 1910 and 1920 and their Negro population for both years, are listed here under designations which are arbitrarily given for convenient reference; they do not embrace the whole of each area commonly included under such designations.
SOUTH SIDE
1910 boundaries: On the north, Twelfth Street; on the west, Wentworth Avenue; on the south, Fifty-fifth Street; and on the east, Indiana Avenue. Negro population, 34,335, or 11 per cent of the total population of 311,049.
1920 boundaries: The same as in 1910. Negro population, 92,501, or 24.6 per cent of the total population of 376,171.
WOODLAWN
1910 boundaries: On the north, Sixty-third Street; on the west, Eberhart Avenue; on the south, Sixty-seventh Street; and on the east, Grand Avenue. Negro population, 319; total population, 4,783.
1920 boundaries: On the north, Sixty-first Street; on the west, South Park Avenue; on the south, Sixty-seventh Street; and on the east, Cottage Grove Avenue. Negro population, 1,235; total population, 8,861.
LAKE PARK AVENUE AREA
1910 boundaries: On the north, Fifty-third Street; on the west, Harper Avenue; on the south, Fifty-seventh Street; and on the east, Lake Park Avenue. Negro population, 438.
1920 boundaries the same as in 1910. Negro population, 238.
OGDEN PARK AREA
(Vicinity of Ogden Park in Englewood)
1910 boundaries: On the north, Fifty-ninth Street; on the west, Loomis Street; on the south, Sixty-third Street; and on the east, Halsted Street. Negro population, 1,403; total population, 25,880.
1920 boundaries the same as in 1910. Negro population, 1,859; total population, 38,893.
MORGAN PARK AREA
1910 boundaries: On the north, 107th Street: on the west, Vincennes Avenue; on the south, 111th Street; and on the east, Loomis Street. Negro population, 126.
1920 boundaries, the same as in 1910, except on the south, 115th Street. Negro population, 695.
THREE MINOR COLONIES IN THE SOUTHERN DIVISION OF THE CITY
South Chicago in the vicinity of the steel plants bordering on Lake Michigan at Ninety-first Street: 36 Negroes in 1910 and 117 in 1920.
Burnside, in the vicinity of South State and Ninety-first streets: 2 Negroes in 1910 and 205 in 1920.
Oakwoods, in the vicinity immediately east of Oakwoods Cemetery, between Sixty-seventh and Seventy-first streets: 52 Negroes in 1919 and 58 in 1920.
WEST SIDE
1910 boundaries: On the north, Austin Avenue; on the west, Western Avenue; on the south, Lake Street to Racine to Washington to Halsted; on the east, Halsted Street. Negro population, 3,379. This includes a scattering of Negroes living immediately southwest of this area.
1920 boundaries: On the north, Austin Street; on the west, California Avenue; on the south, Washington Boulevard; and on the east, Morgan Street. Negro population, 8,363, including scattered residents as far south as Twelfth Street.
NORTH SIDE
1910 boundaries: On the north, North Avenue; on the west, Larrabee Street; on the south, Chicago Avenue; and on the east, State Street. Negro population, 744.
1920 boundaries: The same as in 1910. Negro population, 1,050.
RAVENSWOOD
1910 boundaries: On the north, Lawrence Avenue; on the west, Ashland Avenue; on the south, Montrose Avenue; and on the east, Sheridan Road. Negro population, 105.
1920 boundaries: The same as in 1910. Negro population, 175.
The total Negro population in the north division of the city, including the part designated "North Side," the Ravenswood colony, and scattered residents in other parts, was 1,427 in 1910 and 1,820 in 1920.
B. NEIGHBORHOODS OF NEGRO RESIDENCE
While the principal colony of Chicago's Negro population is situated in a central part of the South Side, Negroes are to be found in several other parts of the city in proportions to total population ranging from less than 1 per cent to more than 95 per cent. In some of these neighborhoods whites and Negroes have become adjusted to one another; in others they have not. There are numerous degrees of variation between the two extremes. In this study the term "adjusted neighborhood" indicates one in which whites and Negroes have become accommodated to each other, and friction is either non-existent or negligible; "non-adjusted neighborhood" is one where misunderstandings, dislikes, and antagonisms resulting from contacts of any degree between whites and Negroes express themselves in racial hostility, sometimes involving open clashes.
I. ADJUSTED NEIGHBORHOODS
1.