Chapter III: The Migration of Negroes From the South (2)

Finally Jones located a house on the West Side that was much
too large for his family, and the rent too high. They were
forced to take lodgers to aid in paying the rent. This was
against the desire of Mrs. Jones, who did not like to have
strangers in her house. The house has six rooms and bath and
is in a state of dilapidation. Mr. Jones has been forced to
cover the holes in the floor with tin to keep out the rats. The
plumbing is bad. During the winter there is no running water,
and the agent for the building refuses to clean more than three
rooms or to furnish screens or storm doors or to pay for any
plumbing. In the back yard under the house is an accumulation
of ashes, tin cans, and garbage left by a long series of
previous tenants. There is no alley back of the house, and all
of the garbage from the back yard must be carried out through
the front. Jones made a complaint about insanitary conditions
to the Health Department, and the house was inspected, but
so far nothing has been done. It was difficult to induce the
agent to supply garbage cans.

Jones had reached the eighth grade, and Mrs. Jones had
completed the first year of high school. The nephew had finished
public-school grades provided in his home town and had been
taught the boiler trade. He is now pursuing this trade in hope
of securing sufficient funds to complete his course in Conroe
College, where he has already finished the first year. The boy
of six was placed in a West Side school. He was removed from
this school, however, and sent back south to live with Mrs.
Jones's mother and attend school there. Mrs. Jones thought that
the influence of the school children of Chicago was not good
for him. He had been almost blinded by a blow from a baseball
bat in the hands of one of several older boys who continually
annoyed him. The child had also learned vulgar language from
his school associates.

The Jones family were leading citizens in their southern
home. They were members of a Baptist church, local clubs, and
a missionary society, while Jones was a member and officer
in the Knights of Tabor, Masons, and Odd Fellows. They owned
their home and two other pieces of property in the same town,
one of which brought in $20 a month. As a boiler-maker, he
earned about $50 a week, which is about the same as his present
income. Their motive in coming to Chicago was to escape from
the undesirable practices and customs of the South.

They had been told that no discrimination was practiced against
Negroes in Chicago; that they could go where they pleased
without the embarrassment or hindrance because of their color.
Accordingly, when they first came to Chicago, they went into
drug-stores and restaurants. They were refused service in
numbers of restaurants and at the refreshment counters in
some drug-stores. The family has begun the re-establishment
of its community life, having joined a West Side Baptist
church and taking an active interest in local organizations,
particularly the Wendell Phillips Social Settlement. The
greatest satisfaction of the Joneses comes from the "escape
from Jim Crow conditions and segregation" and the securing of
improved conditions of work, although there is no difference
in the wages.

VI. MIGRANTS IN CHICAGO

Migrants have been visited in their homes, and met in industry, in the schools, and in contacts on street cars and in parks. Efforts have been made to learn why they came to Chicago and with what success they were adjusting themselves to their new surroundings.

Some of the replies to questions asked are given:

_Question_: Why did you come to Chicago?

_Answers_:

1. Looking for better wages.

2. So I could support my family.

3. Tired of being a flunky.

4. I just happened to drift here.

5. Some of my people were here.

6. Persuaded by friends.

7. Wanted to make more money so I could go into business;
couldn't do it in the South.

8. To earn more money.

9. For better wages.

10. Wanted to change and come to the North.

11. Came to get more money for work.

12. To better my conditions.

13. Better conditions.

14. Better conditions.

15. Better living.

16. More work; came on visit and stayed.

17. Wife persuaded me.

18. To establish a church.

19. Tired of the South.

20. To get away from the South, and to earn more money.

_Question_: Do you feel greater freedom and independence in
Chicago? In what ways?

_Answers_:

1. Yes. Working conditions and the places of amusement.

2. Yes. The chance to make a living; conditions on the street
cars and in movies.

3. Going into places of amusement and living in good
neighborhoods.

4. Yes. Educationally, and in the home conditions.

5. Yes. Go anywhere you want to go; voting; don't have to look
up to the white man, get off the street for him, and go to
the buzzard roost at shows.

6. Yes. Just seem to feel a general feeling of good-fellowship.

7. On the street cars and the way you are treated where you
work.

8. Yes. Can go any place I like here. At home I was segregated
and not treated like I had any rights.

9. Yes. Privilege to mingle with people; can go to the parks
and places of amusement, not being segregated.

10. Yes. Feel free to do anything I please. Not dictated to
by white people.

11. Yes. Had to take any treatment white people offered me
there, compelled to say "yes ma'am" or "yes sir" to white
people, whether you desired to or not. If you went to an ice
cream parlor for anything you came outside to eat it. Got off
sidewalk for white people.

12. Yes. Can vote; feel free; haven't any fear; make more money.

13. Yes. Voting; better opportunity for work; more respect
from white people.

14. Yes. Can vote; no lynching; no fear of mobs; can express
my opinion and defend myself.

15. Yes. Voting, more privileges; white people treat me better,
not as much prejudice.

16. Yes. Feel more like a man. Same as slavery, in a way,
at home. I don't have to give up the sidewalk here for white
people as in my former home.

17. Yes. No restrictions as to shows, schools, etc. More
protection of law.

18. Yes. Have more privileges and more money.

19. Yes. More able to express views on all questions. No
segregation or discrimination.

20. Sure. Feel more freedom. Was not counted in the South;
colored people allowed no freedom at all in the South.

21. Find things quite different to what they are at home.
Haven't become accustomed to the place yet.

_Question_: What were your first impressions of Chicago?

_Answers_:

1. I liked the air of doing things here.

2. A place of real opportunity if you would work.

3. Place just full of life. Went to see the sights every night
for a month.

4. I thought it was some great place but found out it wasn't.
Uncle told me he was living on Portland Avenue, that it was
some great avenue; found nothing but a mud hole. I sure wished
I was back home.

5. When I got here and got on the street cars and saw colored
people sitting by white people all over the car I just held my
breath, for I thought any minute they would start something,
then I saw nobody noticed it, and I just thought this was a
real place for colored people. No, indeed, I'll never work in
anybody's kitchen but my own, any more, that's the one thing
that makes me stick to this job.

6. Was completely lost, friend was to meet me but didn't and I
was afraid to ask anyone where to go; finally my friend came;
was afraid to sleep first night--so much noise; thought the
cars would finally stop running so I could rest.

7. Liked the place.

8. Always liked Chicago, even the name before I came.

9. Liked it fine.

10. Good city for colored people.

11. Fine city.

12. Thought it the best place for colored people.

13. Thought it a good place for colored people to live in.

14. Very favorable, thought it the place to be for myself and
family.

15. Didn't like it; lonesome, until I went out. Then liked
the places of amusement which have no restrictions.

16. Liked it fine, like it even better now.

17. Liked Chicago from the first visit made two years ago;
was not satisfied until I was able to get back.

18. Think I will like it later on.

_Question_: In what respects is life harder or easier here
than in the South?

_Answers_:

1. Easier. I don't have to work so hard and get more money.

2. Easier in that here my wife doesn't have to work. I just
couldn't make it by myself in the South.

3. Living is much easier; chance to learn a trade. I make and
save more money.

4. Easier, you can make more money and it means more to you.

5. Easier to make a living here.

6. Easier, I get more money for my work and have some spare
time.

7. Have better home, but have to work harder. I make more
money, but spend it all to live.

8. Have more time to rest here and don't work as hard.

9. Find it easier to live because I have more to live on.

10. Earn more money; the strain is not so great wondering from
day to day how to make a little money do.

11. Work harder here than at home.

12. Easier. Work is hard, but hours are short. I make more
money and can live better.

13. More money for work, though work is harder. Better able
to buy the necessities of life.

14. Easier; more work and more money and shorter hours.

15. Living higher, but would rather be here than in South. I
have shorter hours here.

16. Don't have to work as hard here as at home. Have more time
for rest and to spend with family.

17. Easier to live in St. Louis. More work here and better
wages. Living higher here. Saved more there.

18. Must work very hard here, much harder than at home.

19. Harder because of increased cost of living.

20. The entire family feels that life is much easier here than
at home. Do not find work as hard anywhere.

_Question_: What do you like about the North?

_Answers_:

1. Freedom in voting and conditions of colored people here.
I mean you can live in good houses; men here get a chance to
go with the best-looking girls in the race; some may do it in
Memphis, but it ain't always safe.

2. Freedom and chance to make a living; privileges.

3. Freedom and opportunity to acquire something.

4. Freedom allowed in every way.

5. More money and more pleasure to be gotten from it; personal
freedom Chicago affords, and voting.

6. Freedom and working conditions.

7. Work, can work any place, freedom.

8. The schools for the children, the better wages, and the
privileges for colored people.

9. The chance colored people have to live; privileges allowed
them and better homes.

10. The friendliness of the people, the climate which makes
health better.

11. Like the privileges, the climate; have better health.

12. No discrimination; can express opinion and vote.

13. Freedom of speech, right to live and work as other races.
Higher pay for labor.

14. Freedom; privileges; treatment of whites; ability to live
in peace; not held down.

15. Freedom of speech and action. Can live without fear, no
Jim Crow.

16. More enjoyment; more places of attraction; better treatment;
better schools for children.

17. Liberty, better schools.

18. I like the North for wages earned and better homes colored
people can live in and go more places than at home.

19. Privileges, freedom, industrial and educational facilities.

20. The people, the freedom and liberty colored people enjoy
here that they never before experienced. Even the ways of the
people are better than at home.

21. Haven't found anything yet to like, except wife thinks
she will like the opportunity of earning more money than ever
before.

_Question_: What difficulties do you think a person from the
South meets in coming to Chicago?

_Answers_:

1. Getting used to climate and houses.

2. Getting accustomed to cold weather and flats.

3. Getting used to living conditions and make more money; not
letting the life here run away with you.

4. Adjusting myself to the weather and flat life: rooming and
"closeness" of the houses.

5. Getting used to flat conditions and crowded houses.

6. Getting used to living in flats, and growing accustomed to
being treated like people.

7. Getting used to the ways of the people; not speaking or
being friendly; colder weather, hard on people from the South.

8. Just the treatment some of the white people give you on
the trains. Sometimes treat you like dogs.

9. Know of no difficulties a person from the South meets coming
to Chicago.

10. I didn't meet any difficulties coming from the South. Know
of none persons would likely meet.

11. Can think of no difficulties persons meet coming from the
South to Chicago.

12. Adjustment to working conditions and climate.

13. Climatic changes.

14. Change in climate, crowded living conditions, lack of
space for gardens, etc.

15. Change in climate, crowded housing conditions.

16. Coming without knowing where they are going to stop usually
causes some difficulty. Get in with wrong people who seek to
take advantage of the ignorance of newcomers.

17. Becoming adjusted to climate.

18. If they know where they are going, when they come here.
The danger lies in getting among the wrong class of people.

19. Adjustment to city customs, etc.

20. If persons know where they are going and what they are
going to do, will not have any trouble. Must come with the
intention of working or else expect many difficulties.

21. Know of no difficulties.

_Question_: Do you get more comforts and pleasures from your
higher wages?

_Answers_:

1. Yes. Better homes, places of amusement, and the buying of
your clothes here. You can try on things; you can do that in
some stores in Memphis, but not in all.

2. Yes. Living in better houses, can go into almost any place
if you have the money, and then the schools are so much better
here.

3. Yes. I live better, save more, and feel more like a man.

4. Yes. I can buy more, my wife can have her clothes fitted
here, she can try on a hat, and if she doesn't want it she
doesn't have to keep it; go anywhere I please on the cars after
I pay my fare; I can do any sort of work I know how to do.

5. Yes. Go anywhere I please, buy what I please; ain't afraid
to get on cars and sit where I please.

6. Well, I make more money. I can't save anything from it.
There are so many places to go here, but down South you work,
work, work, and you have to save, for you haven't any place
to spend it.

7. Yes. Better homes. Spend money anywhere you want to, go
anywhere you have money enough to go; don't go out very much
but like to know I can where and when I want to.

8. Have chance to make more money, but it is all spent to keep
family up.

9. At home did not earn much money and did not have any left
to go what few places colored people were allowed to go. Here,
Negroes can have whatever they want.

10. Don't have to worry about how you are going to live. More
money earned affords anything wanted.

11. Have more comforts in the home that could not have at home;
more conveniences here. Wages sons earn make it possible to
have all that is wanted.

12. Yes. Better houses and more enjoyment.

13. Yes. I live in larger house and have more conveniences.
Can take more pleasure; have more leisure time.

14. Yes. Better houses and more amusement. More time of my
own, better furniture and food.

15. Yes. Better houses and furniture. More pleasures because
of shorter hours of work, giving me more time.

16. What little was earned at home was used for food and
clothing. Here, earn more, have more to spend; now and then
put some in the bank, and can spend some for pleasure without
strain or inconvenience.

17. Yes. More places to go, parks and playgrounds for children,
and no difference made between white and colored. Houses more
convenient here.

18. Have more money to spend but when you have to live in houses
where landlord won't fix up you can't have much comfort. Go
no place for pleasure, but enjoy the chance of earning more
money.

19. No comment.

20. Have money to get whatever is desired. Live in a better
house and can go places denied at home. All the family are
perfectly satisfied and are happier than they have ever been.

21. Live in better house than ever lived in. Never had the
comforts furnished here. Some houses there had no water closets;
only had cistern and wells out in the yard.

_Question_: Are you advising friends to come to Chicago?

_Answers_:

1. Yes. People down there don't really believe the things we
write back, I didn't believe myself until I got here.

2. No. I am not going to encourage them to come, for they
might not make it, then I would be blamed.

3. Yes. If I think they will work.

4. Some of them, those who I think would appreciate the
advantages here.

5. No. Not right now, come here and get to work, strikes come
along, they're out of work. Come if they want to, though.

6. Yes. I have two sisters still in Lexington. I am trying
to get them to come up here. They can't understand why I stay
here, but they'll see if they come.

7. Yes. People here don't realize how some parts of the South
treat colored folks; poor white trash were awful mean where
we came from; wish all the colored folks would come up here
where you ain't afraid to breathe.

8. Yes. Want friend and husband to come; also sister and family
who want her to come back that they may see how she looks
before they break up and come. Youngest son begs mother never
to think of going back South. Oldest son not so well satisfied
when first came, but since he is working, likes it a little
better.

Only a few migrants were found who came on free transportation, and many of these had friends in Chicago before they came. Few expressed a desire to return.

VII. EFFORTS TO CHECK MIGRATION

The withdrawal of great numbers of Negroes, both because of the migration and because of military service, left large gaps in the industries of the South dependent upon Negro labor. Thousands of acres of rice and sugar cane went to waste. The turpentine industry of the Carolinas and the milling interests of Tennessee were hard pressed for labor. Cotton-growing was much affected, especially in the delta region of Mississippi. The situation became critical, presenting a real economic problem. Organized efforts were made, and at times extreme measures were taken, to start a return movement. A report was circulated that on one day in the winter of 1919 in Chicago, 17,000 Negroes were counted in a bread line. The "horrors of northern winters" were played up as they had been during the migration.

The press throughout the country was used to spread broadcast the South's needs, its kind treatment of Negroes, its opportunities, and its growing change of heart on the question of race relations. Newspaper articles from sections of the North and South carried about the same story. The _Chicago Tribune_ said in a conspicuous headline: "Louisiana Wants Negroes to Return." Other such headlines were: _Washington Post_--"South Needs Negroes. Try to Get Labor for Their Cotton Fields. Tell of Kind Treatment"; _New York Evening Sun_--"To Aid Negro Return"; _Philadelphia Press_--"South Is Urging Negroes to Return. Many Districts Willing to Pay Fare of Those Who Come Back"; _Memphis Commercial Appeal_--"South Is Best for Negro, Say Mississippians. Colored People Found Prosperous and Happy."

Though such reports were widely circulated throughout the North, the actual efforts of agencies from the South seeking the return of Negro labor centered around Chicago. This was due largely to the fact that from the southern states most acutely in need the drift during the migration had been to Chicago, and because the increase of Chicago's Negro population had been so great.

Immediately following the riots in Chicago and Washington, rumors gained wide currency that hundreds of migrants were leaving for sections of the South. So strong was the belief in the truth of this report that a Chicago newspaper telegraphed the governors of southern states inquiring the number of Negroes they needed. Agents of the South, including representatives of the Tennessee Association of Commerce, the Department of Immigration of Louisiana, the Mississippi Welfare League, and the Southern Alluvial Land Association, visited northern cities with a view to providing means for the return of Negroes. Although free transportation was offered, together with promises of increased wages and better living conditions, the various commissions were disappointed.

Their interviews with Negroes living in Chicago revealed a determination not to return to conditions they had left two years before. To offset this objection, two Chicago Negroes and one white man were taken to Mississippi by a representative of the Mississippi Welfare League to make an investigation. They visited several delta towns, traveling for the most part in automobiles and interviewing farmers and laborers. They reported in substance as follows:

Railroad accommodations for Negroes were adequate and uniform,
irrespective of locality; treatment accorded Negro passengers
by railroad officials was courteous throughout. Public-school
terms were nine months in the city and eight months in the
country for white and colored alike, and the strongest possible
human ties between planter and worker exist.... In no instance
were Negroes not given the freest use of sidewalks, streets,
and thoroughfares and we were unable to find any trace of
friction of any kind between the races.

An effort was then made by the Chicago Urban League to ascertain the precise state of affairs. Its southern representative questioned hundreds of Negroes living in the South, regarding improved relationships. Answers to this query were all about the same. Some of them are quoted:

There has been no change. Lincoln League organized in this
city has been denounced by the white newspapers as a movement
that will cause trouble, and the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People, and the Urban Leagues of
various cities have been called "strife breeders and meddlers
in southern affairs"; Jim Crow accommodations are just the
same as ever. If there is any change for the better, I can't
see it.

It is ridiculous for any Negro to say he finds conditions
better here. Don't you remember that Negroes answering an
invitation to meet the Welfare Committee of white men not long
ago were told as soon as they got into the meeting place that
the Committee was ready to hear what Negroes wanted, but that
the question of the Negro's right to exercise the right of
voting would not be allowed to be discussed at all, and that
that must be agreed to before any discussion whatever would
be entertained, and that the Negroes left the meeting place
without a chance to demand the one thing they wished to enjoy?

* * * * *

Some deceitful, lying Negro may say that times are better, but
he would, at the same time, know that he was not telling the
truth. Haven't you been hearing more reports of lynching of
Negroes than you ever did in your life, since the war? Where,
then, is there any improvement? Ain't all the judges, all the
police and constables, all the juries as white man as ever?
Does the word of a Negro count for more now than it did before
the war? Don't white men insult our wives and daughters and
sisters and get off at it, unless we take the law into our
own hand and punish them for it ourselves, and get lynched
for protecting our own, just as often as ever? How much more
schooling from public funds do our children get now than they
got before the war? How much more do we have to say now than
we had to say before the war about the way the taxes we pay
shall be spent for schools, or for salaries, or for anything
connected with administration and government? Why, even the
colored man in Caddo parish who subscribed for $100,000 in
Liberty bonds and bought lots of War Savings stamps, and others
who bought less, but in the hundreds, and thousands of the
bonds and War Saving stamps, have no more to say about affairs
now than they ever had. Where is the improvement?

The Urban League also made an inquiry into the numbers of Negroes leaving and arriving in the week following the riot, and when the strongest efforts were being made to induce a return of migrants. During this period 261 Negroes came to Chicago and 219 left the city. Of the 219 leaving, eighty-three gave some southern state as their destination. For the most part, they were persons returning from vacations in the North, and Chicago Negroes going South to visit or on business. Some were rejoining their families. Fourteen were leaving because of the riot. None, however, indicated any intention of going South to work.

It is clear that migrant Negroes are not returning South. On the contrary, there is a small but continuous stream of migration to the industrial centers of the North. No great number of Negroes returned to the South even during the trying unemployment period in the early part of 1921. Census figures for Chicago for 1920 show a number much smaller than the usual estimates of the size of the Negro population during the period of the heaviest migration. This may be accounted for by the fact that Chicago has been used as a re-routing point to other northern cities. The decrease from 1918 undoubtedly means that some returned to the South, but it is apparent that the great majority of the migrants remain, despite the hardships attending shortage of work.