Chapter IX: Public Opinion in Race Relations (2)

Niggers are different from whites and always will be, and that
is why white people don't want them around. But the only thing
we can do, it seems to me, is make the best of it and live
peaceably with them. The North can never do what the South
does--down there it is pure autocracy. I might say like Russia.
That might have worked here in the North from the start, but
can't be started now, and we wouldn't want such autocracy
anyway. They are citizens, and it is up to us to teach them to
be good ones. How it can be done I don't know--it will have to
come slow, and no one can give a solution offhand. Everybody
says, "We don't want the niggers with us." Well, here they
are, and we can't do anything. Must let them live where they
want to and go to school where they want to, and we don't want
to force their right away.

It is not uncommon to find in some circles and with many individuals a resolute indisposition to discuss any phase of the Negro problem. Convictions regarding the race are so firmly set and hostile that no argument or appeal to fair-mindedness can alter their position.

"Eye Witness," a special writer for the _Chicago Tribune_, encountered this state of mind in interviewing whites and Negroes for a series of articles on the Negro question which appeared in the _Tribune_ in May, 1919. He characterized it as insensate and dangerous. His own statement, published May 4, 1919, said:

Among men like publicists and administrators of large affairs,
who, when they discuss the problems and troubles of their
race, are wont to speak in a rational, or at least mannerly
way, there was often an unfeeling kind of don't-give-a-damn
cry when they talked on this subject that made one wonder how
they had managed so well in maintaining a human and successful
relationship with their white associates in business and with
their employees.

I heard more, far more, insensate language from the lips of
white men than of black men throughout the series of interviews.
The horrible part of that, to me, was that when a white employer
more or less accountable for the well-being of colored workmen,
or a publicist entrusted with a pen that forms and directs
opinions, had railed about "these damn niggers" they appeared
to think they had said something rather gallant and decisive,
for they would smile fatuously and expect acquiescence.

And more terrible than the language was the insensate state
of mind such language betrayed. The only way one could avoid
the suspicion that one was listening to a potential lunatic
or a desperately stupid person without a human or a community
sense, was to allow much for the vehemence of the American
tongue and to concede that these men don't mean one-tenth of
what they say. If they did they would be fomenters of race wars.

2. SENTIMENTAL RELATIONSHIPS

_Sentiment for the "old family servants."_--A white physician born in the South said:

My father owned slaves. He looked out for them; told them what
to do. He loved them and they loved him. I was brought up during
and after the war. I had a "black mammy" and she was devoted
to me and I to her; and I played with Negro children. In a
way I'm fond of the Negro; I understand him and he understands
me; but the bond between us is not as close as it was between
my father and his slaves. On the other hand, my children have
grown up without black playmates and without a "black mammy."
The attitude of my children is less sympathetic toward the
Negroes than my own. They don't know each other.

_Paternal relationship._--In testimony before the Commission a witness said:

The prejudice against the colored people in the South isn't as
strong in some instances as it is in the North. It's a queer
thing, but the white man in the South, and the white woman,
too, has a sort of paternal feeling that he must look after him
and that the colored man's interests are better in his hands
than if he is left to drift for himself. I don't state that
as an actual fact, but I believe it is true. That is their
point of view. They don't hate the colored man. They don't
dislike him, but I should say this, that they won't take him
into their homes. They don't dislike him, provided he keeps
his place. I believe the white people of the South think more
of the Negro than the white people of the North.

3. ABSTRACT JUSTICE

A trained nurse of Woodlawn said:

I meet colored people only on the cars. There are none anywhere
around here, I believe. I don't know how I would feel if they
came to Woodlawn to live. But they must live, and I hear their
quarters are getting too small. It seems that Chicago ought to
let them live somewhere. Some people treat Negroes terrible
and I think that is all wrong. Why can't we act respectably
toward colored people on the cars and treat them nice on the
street? We surely don't want to be like the people in the
South who make colored persons get off the walk when they come
along. But I see white people here almost that bad--can't see
a black man live.

The pastor of a church in Woodlawn said:

I have come to no final conclusion as to the best policy to
pursue in the adjustment of the race problem. I am thinking
about it a great deal and am deeply concerned over the whole
matter. In the present state of popular mind, there is no doubt
but property values are depreciated by the presence of Negro
tenants or property owners in residential sections. However,
if everyone felt as I do, it would not be so. I mean, provided
that the same general social standards were observed by all
nationalities in the city. It would be very fine, it seems to
me, to maintain certain standards in each neighborhood. Why
not bring pressure to bear on white landlords and make them
keep their property up to a given average standard in the
community, that only such a class of people will rent or buy
as are already there? I am very anxious that the Negro shall
be treated fairly. I do not want him to feel that I have stood
in the way of his opportunities and his rights.

A professor at the University of Chicago said:

The final solution, it seems to me, must come as a result of
honest and successful efforts for mutual understanding between
the races. There must be apparent on the part of the white
race an attempt to treat the Negro with justice, and I feel
sure that he will respond. I do not think the black race, as
a race, desires intermarriage more than the white race, yet
the assertion to the contrary is much overworked by the white
opposition in these neighborhoods.

A minister said:

All I want for the Negro is justice--then I think the economic
laws will settle this problem. Let the people interested try
justice; they will find it will solve the race problem faster
than any other course, just as it will solve any other problem.
Treat the bad Negro just as rough as you treat the bad white
man, but acclaim the good Negro after the same manner of your
acclamation of the good white man.

4. SENTIMENTS STRONGER THAN RACE PREJUDICE

_Class kinship stronger than race._--A Swedish employee in a department store said:

We have quite a number of Negro neighbors where I live, and
several black men work with me, and I want to say I think
they are just as good as anybody. There are classes of people
in every race, and of course there is a rough element among
the blacks. Some highbrows try to make out that they are
representative, but I think opposition to the Negro in Chicago
comes from the "swell" class. I do not have any different
feeling for them than for the same kind of people in any other
race. I think race relations will get better in Chicago. The
workingman has learned that the Negro will treat him right
when he is treated right, and as soon as the other folks find
that out, things will be all right.

The secretary of the Cook County Labor Party said:

I have thought about this problem a good deal, and I think you
will find it is the so-called middle class that is making all
the trouble. The laboring-man does not care who his neighbor
is, so long as he is a good neighbor. I think you can trace
most of the racial activities to jealousy on the part of a
certain class of American citizens who are not any too wealthy
and feel constrained to maintain a sort of fictitious position
in life at the expense of anybody, in this case the Negroes.
You will find that the very well-to-do are not nearly so much
aroused over the problem.

A Japanese said:

I think it is simply a matter of race prejudice, which of course
means first of all that the color is not acceptable, while, in
the second place, they were imported to the United States as
slaves, and thus it always occurs in the American mind that
they are a lower class of people. Furthermore, as they were
slaves and the American does not like them, they don't have
equal opportunities to educate themselves up to such a degree
which means no more than environment. In the last place, they
want to keep away from them. I think it might be said that
they are willing to receive lower wages, which tends to lower
the wage system; thus the American worker suffers a good deal.
In the whole process the Negroes have been kept out of social
and political activities that would have given them a chance
to develop. Allow them to have these activities in the future
and they will make more rapid progress than they have even in
the past.

_General historical comparisons._--A Jewish resident of the West Side said:

I believe that the segregation movement is wrong because it
is unjust and because it is devoid of any principle whatever.
It has not risen out of the consideration of the needs of the
colored people, nor out of consideration of real advantages that
the whites might thereby gain. What is back of race prejudice?
Nothing more than the spirit of superiority and selfishness
which moves the aristocrats to move out of a neighborhood as
soon as a few common people move in. This is here too prevalent.
The segregation movement has its parallel in history. Who does
not remember the old Jewish Ghetto of Amsterdam, Frankfort,
etc., or the Pale of Russia? What has this segregation done
for the Jews? It curtailed their rise, depriving them of an
opportunity to develop, and I foresee the same result in the
new segregation movement, and therefore deem it a great public
evil and moral issue.

5. TRADITIONAL SOUTHERN BACKGROUND

A window dresser said:

I am from the South, and I am used to seeing the Negro kept
in his place. I would colonize them, every one of them, and
make them stay where they are put. I would colonize them in
Africa if I had to do it. There's where they came from and
there's where they belong. Of course, some few northern folks
say that they were taken away against their own wills, but I
say they ought to go back against their own wills.

The woman manager of a tailor shop, Fifty-fifth Street, said: "I am a southerner, and I feel the way they all do about it. I guess you know what I mean. I think the nigger should stay in his place."

6. GROUP SENTIMENTS

_Fear of social censure._--A property owner at Langley Avenue and Fifty-fifth Street said:

"I am not proud to be living on the same street with Negroes,
so I never tell my friends--they would say: 'You must move
out.'"

George L. Giles Post of the American Legion is a Negro post with headquarters at the South Side Branch of the Community Service. Invitations to a musicale and dramatic entertainment for the benefit of ex-service men were sent to all the local posts by the Community Service. It was responded to by the adjutant of George L. Giles Post, who received a reply from the executive secretary saying:

I am quite sure you will understand that our sending one to
the George L. Giles Post was a slip. Will you kindly let me
know if there are other Posts of colored men in the city?

Similar recognition of the force of public opinion may be found in industry. The manager of a large industrial plant, speaking of Negro workmen, said: "I have a feeling that white workers would object to Negroes in any position but that of common laborers, although I have no basis for this opinion." Another said: "I have heard whites remark that they wouldn't want to work here if many colored were employed but none left on that account."

7. ATTITUDES DETERMINED BY CONTACTS

_No contacts but a hostile attitude._--A resident at Drexel Avenue and Sixty-fifth Street said:

I don't see many niggers around here; most of them are west
of Cottage Grove Avenue. I never had any dealings with them,
so can't tell you anything much. I know I don't want niggers
living next door to me, but I can't tell you why. Do you want
them next-door neighbors to you? There are some living down
in the next block--two families of them--between Sixty-fourth
and Sixty-fifth, and I guess they are pretty wild, but I have
never seen them. It's just what people tell me. I never had
any dealings with them.

_Generalization from a particular experience._--A teacher in the Wendell Phillips High School said:

You can't trust the best of them. The minute you have your
back turned something disappears. They are the worst bunch of
little thieves I ever struck. A few weeks ago I had a colored
girl helping me fix costumes in my little office. During the
hour she was in there I was absent about five minutes. She
had hardly got out of the building before I discovered that a
dollar had disappeared out of my purse. I questioned her for
thirty minutes next morning, but not a word of confession.
Another time I had small change in the top drawer of my desk.
While I was teaching a class, two girls slipped into the office
and helped themselves to half of it. I surprised them when I
unexpectedly entered the office to get something. Everything
here that isn't tied or watched walks off. It didn't used to
be this way before the colored came in so thick; then I never
locked my office, and now I have everything under lock.

The proprietor of a woman's dress shop on Sixty-third Street said:

Little of my trade is colored, possibly 2 per cent. We do not
cater to colored trade. We do not want it. If colored people
come in, we will sell them if they buy quick and get out.
Our trade does not care to deal where colored people are also
accommodated.... You will find it pretty hard to be neutral in
Chicago. The more I know of niggers, the more I am convinced
that there is no good nigger but a dead one. I had a colored
helper who wanted tips every time he was asked to render
services outside of his recognized regular duties. I gave him
a good salary, $18 per week, and yet he was never satisfied,
and one day he got hold of the keys to the cash drawer and
ran away with $300.

_Exaggerated notion of prosperity._--A physician said:

I think that the solution of the race problem can come only by
recognition by white men of the Negroes' potential equality.
They are only fifty years out of slavery, and in that fifty
years they have progressed faster than the white race has
done in a hundred years. The Negro man of forty today is less
advanced than the white man of forty, but I expect his son
to be almost on a par with our sons, and his grandson will be
every whit as good. The husband of the colored woman who has
been getting our dinners for us for a number of years is making
more killing steers for Armour than I am. He makes $16 a day.
They have $12,000 worth of Liberty bonds. They are sending
all of their relatives through high school and declare they
will put them through the University of Chicago. In fact we
are compelling the Negro to get an education, and he cannot
help but progress. Colonizing the Negro is merely making him
bitter and postponing the day of settlement. Presently we shall
have with us under such a régime a race of comparative equals
very much disgruntled by the unfair treatment accorded them. I
think you will find that practically all the professional men
in this building, at least a very large percentage of them,
think as I do on this subject.

_Contact with servants._--A resident of Woodlawn said:

Practically my only contact with Negroes is with servants and
laundresses. I have had colored women working for me for many
years, and the majority of them I could not trust outside my
sight. By that I don't mean they would steal--they just weren't
dependable. It is all wrong for colored children and white
children to be in school together. There should be separate
schools, because the two races of children are as different
in everything as in their color.

The interviewing of hundreds of white persons, members of practically every social class, reveals little information regarding the sources of their beliefs about Negroes. Some think them instinctive; some hold that their opinions are a result of observation; some, who make discernible effort to stem the current of prejudiced views and remain fair, have read the books of Negroes. But by far the greater number either admit or otherwise give evidence of having absorbed their views from tradition.

Information by word of mouth, unquestioned statements, uncorrected accounts, all continue to add credence to any current interpretation of an act involving Negroes. The fault lies for the most part at the information source. Fairly to judge the Negro group, or any member thereof, there should be some unquestioned basis of fact, yet the assumption is common that almost any Negro can be judged by what has been observed in the conduct of the family cook or chauffeur, who no more represents the whole or the majority of Negroes than a white cook or chauffeur can be said to represent the whole or the majority of the white race.

IV. SELF-ANALYSIS BY FIFTEEN WHITE CITIZENS

To secure definite information upon this background twenty representative white persons were selected at random, and eighteen carefully prepared suggestive questions were put to each of them. The purpose was to draw out the raw material of their unqualified opinions on the question of the Negro, and to ascertain as far as possible the background in their early experiences. The questions were suggestive in order to compel a disclosure of mental attitudes. The only qualification in the selection of persons was their probable capacity for self-analysis and a willingness to answer. The length and difficulty of the questions put made it necessary to limit the selection of persons to a few, who in appreciation of the inquiry, could and would give it a careful study. Fifteen of these persons entered into the spirit of the inquiry and submitted the results of their self-scrutiny.

These fifteen include business and professional men and women, none of whom, however, is actively associated with racial movements. They represent probably a fair sample of sentiment and at the same time ability to analyze accurately their own feelings and opinions.

The questions put were as follows:

1. Have you formed definite opinions about Negroes? Briefly,
what are they?

2. Do Negroes in your opinion possess distinguishing traits
of mentality or character?

3. As well as you can remember, on what facts, authorities,
information, sources, do you base your opinions?

4. What incidents or experiences involving Negroes either in
Chicago or elsewhere stand out in your memory?

5. As a child, did you have contacts of any kind with Negroes?

6. Can you recall any early prohibitions of association by
word or printed warnings of any sort, implied prohibitions in
institutional or social arrangements?

7. When were you first conscious of a racial difference?

8. Whom of your friends, acquaintances, favorite authors,
scholars, etc., do you regard as best fitted to speak with
authority on the question?

9. Do you ever inquire for information on this subject? Whom
do you ask? What Negroes do you know whom you would consider
leaders among colored people in Chicago? in the United States?

10. Did you ever read a Negro periodical? What did you think
of it?

11. What subjects of discussion most frequently lead to the
Negro?

12. In what circles is this subject most frequently discussed?

13. If it were in your power to make whatever social adjustment
you deemed wise, what disposition would you make of the Negro
population?

14. If Negroes obstinately objected to your plan and you still
had power, what would you do?

15. What do you think of the following propositions:

_a_) When you educate Negroes you increase their
demands. Either their education should be curtailed
or modified or their demands granted.

_b_) Prejudice has its principal basis in fear.

_c_) Isolating groups favors the unhampered
development of special group prejudices. Do prejudices
form a background of conflicts? The greater the
isolation, the greater the prejudices and, as would
naturally follow, the greater the chances of conflict.

_d_) A minority of the population should not expect
complete justice at the hands of an overwhelming
majority.

Their answers are given separately. The letters used to designate the different persons are arbitrary.

A--

I have rather definite opinions of Negroes. As a class they
cannot be depended upon. They are shiftless and really must
be treated like children. I make allowance for the fact that
they have not the years of education back of them.

My opinions are based on visits made to the South and on
information obtained from relatives who live in the South
as well as from the colored help we have had. As a child my
contact with Negroes began with our Negro house servants,
and my first consciousness of a racial difference came while
visiting relatives in the South. I know but two persons who
might speak with authority on the race question. They are Edgar
A. Bancroft and Miss Mary McDowell. It is very seldom that I
inquire for information on this subject. People whom I know
are not interested in the problem.

The only Negroes whom I know are my present colored help and
those who have worked for me. I don't know whom to consider
leaders among the colored people either in Chicago or in
the United States. Concerning the Negro periodicals, I have
occasionally read copies of one of their newspapers which bore
out my opinion of their simple minds. Discussion of domestic
help and of newspaper articles about Negroes and sociological
conditions most frequently lead to the discussion of the
Negro in my circle. If it were in my power to do so, I would
segregate Negroes as to living quarters and do all possible
to help them educate and help themselves.

Concerning proposition (_a_) I agree that if you educate
Negroes, you increase their demands, but I also believe that
as they become educated, greater demands will arise in their
own groups.

In my opinion prejudice has its principal basis in the fact
that one can't depend upon Negroes.

I do not believe that it is necessarily true that a minority
of the population should not expect complete justice at the
hands of the majority if the proper appeal is made.

B--

I have more or less definite opinions about Negroes. I
believe that as a race they are entitled to more leniency and
consideration than we would give to adult whites because as a
race they are not as mature as whites. I think it is unfortunate
that we have such a race question to deal with, but we ought
to meet it squarely and insist that under the law Negroes
are entitled to equal protection and equal consideration. I
do not believe in any attempt at social equality because the
antipathy between whites and Negroes is so acute that such
attempt would not only break down itself but it would lead to
serious race difficulties. I think the Negro race has as much
right to protect its race purity as the white race. I believe
Negro women are entitled to the same protection from white men
that we demand on behalf of white women against black men. I
believe Negroes should have decent housing conditions, proper
social outlets and opportunities to earn a living at the same
wages paid white men for the same class and character of work.
They should share equally in the benefits of government, with
particular reference to schools, bathing-beaches, playgrounds,
parks, etc. They should be protected against exploitation by
employers, property owners, merchants, etc.

I do think Negroes possess distinguishing traits of both
mentality and character. For many years now I have come into
more or less personal contact with Negroes. I have been in
contact with them in public schools, in colleges, in politics
and in civic work. I cannot say that any particular incidents
or experiences stand out in my memory.

My opinions are based upon my personal observation, personal
contacts with Negroes and discussions with other white persons
having independent contacts. As a child I had practically no
real contact of any kind with Negroes. I don't recall now
any Negro children in any of my primary grades, and while
there were Negroes in my native city, they were few and in a
neighborhood far removed from my own home. I imagine that I
was first conscious of a racial difference when I first saw
a Negro.

I don't recall any early prohibition against association with
Negroes although I do recall clearly that the attitude of my
family and associates, generally, was not one of approval.
Negroes were regarded as an inferior race, and I think as a
child I gathered the impression that contact with them was to
be avoided. My feeling is that if in normal circumstances I had
been thrown into more or less contact with Negroes, prohibition
against association, except where absolutely necessary, would
have been forthcoming.

I have never formally asked for information on the subject, but
I have discussed the matter with a good many people and have
given thought to it. I know a good many Negroes, not only in
Chicago but outside, but I don't know many of them intimately.
Among the leaders of the Negroes in Chicago are Dr. Bentley,
Dr. George C. Hall, Edward H. Morris, Edward H. Wright, Louis
B. Anderson, Oscar De Priest. In the United States, since
the death of Booker T. Washington, I imagine that two of the
outstanding men are Mr. Moton and Professor Du Bois.

I am a subscriber to the _Crisis_. In general my feeling is
that the tendency of this periodical is to stimulate and foster
race feeling among the Negroes. I don't say this critically. It
may be the best thing to do, considering all the circumstances,
and anything that will make for growth in self-respect,
character and initiative on the part of the Negroes is to be
commended even if, at the same time, race spirit is fostered
and developed.

Generally speaking, I find that discussion most frequently leads
to the Negroes when there are questions of lynching, race riots,
crimes or disturbances in which Negroes are involved. It also
comes up in connection with public schools, churches, parks
and public transportation systems. I had it arise recently in
connection with the Naval Academy at Annapolis. My experience
is that this subject is most frequently discussed among those
interested in social problems.

I used to think that the Negro question might be best solved
if the Negroes would be colonized in some favorable spot in
Africa under an American protectorate until they were capable
of self-government. I realize, however, that no such scheme
ought to be attempted if the Negroes obstinately objected, and
in that event I would see to it, if I had the power, that they
were protected from exploitation, were given a square deal
and had the equal protection of the laws. They should have
schools adequate to their needs and average living conditions.

I believe the Negro race should be educated, but I believe
at the same time that the most solid foundation for the race
is education in accordance with the ideas of the late Booker
T. Washington as I understand those ideas. While I think this
type of education will mean more for the race in the long run
I believe at the same time that individual Negroes should have
an opportunity fully to develop individual capacities.

I think there is an element of fear in the prejudice of
Negroes, but I don't think this is the chief element. I think
the real basis for this prejudice is a racial antipathy that
is instinctive and fundamental in the white race. I imagine
that in individual cases where this prejudice does not exist
it is not because it was not there originally, but because it
has been overcome by reason and education. It isn't unlikely
that this prejudice is in the main grounded upon an instinct
in the white race to keep its strain pure and strong.

It seems to me that it isn't isolation so much as it is contact
that favors the development of race prejudice. If the Negroes
had never been brought out of Africa, we wouldn't feel the
prejudice that we do. Or, if they were restricted to one or
two southern states, prejudice in other parts of the country
would rapidly disappear. A community that has no Negro problem
is relatively free from prejudice. It is when the two races
come into contact that prejudices run riot and race conflicts
result. My own opinion is that if you should scatter the Negro
population throughout Chicago and its suburbs and put one
or two Negro families in every block, race prejudice would
increase enormously.

A minority of the population will not get complete justice
at the hands of an overwhelming majority. But this is true of
all minorities, whether racial, political, or religious. All
we can do is to keep working for an approximation to ideal
justice. A minority has the right to demand, and a majority
should be willing to grant, substantial justice and that is
all that can be expected in the present state of civilization.

C--

My opinion is that we must cling to the ideal of Lincoln--the
right of every human being to equality in the real sense of
the term. I have found, however, that Negroes are dull and
sensitive. These opinions are based upon observation at Tuskegee
and in this school--[the Lewis Institute]. Among my outstanding
experiences is a visit made to Tuskegee and meeting Booker
T. Washington. The visit showed great hope for the Negro. As
a child I had no contact aside from living in the same city
with them.

It has always been considered unwise in the circles in which
I moved for whites and blacks to associate socially. I first
became conscious of a race difference when a very small
child--about three years of age.

Booker T. Washington, Cable, Dunbar, southerners and northerners
who have traveled in the South are probably best fitted to
speak for Negroes. I do inquire of both Negroes and whites
for information. The only Negroes I know are working people.
Robert Jackson, alderman, and Ed. Green, lawyer. Booker T.
Washington's successor. I have read one Negro paper. It was
insistent in a very fair way on the political rights of the
Negro. Good. Lynchings, lying, stealing, and the attacking of
little girls are the subject of discussion that most frequently
lead to the Negro, and these occur principally among men who
have seen Negroes socially and women who have hired them.

As a solution I would colonize them in Africa, and if they
objected I would use all peaceable means to force them to go.

Regarding the propositions: Their education should be increased
and the demands produced by education met.

Prejudice has its basis in race repulsion. Unless the isolation
is African colonization, there will be group prejudices.

Every man or group should demand and get complete justice.

D--

I assume that it is a fact recognized by science that Negroes
are so different from whites that the two races cannot
be amalgamated. This fact interposes a barrier to social
relationships. I share in the general dislike of Negroes as
neighbors or traveling companions on the street cars. The white
race is responsible for the existence of the Negro problem in
America, and must submit patiently to the penalty for many years
to come. Lincoln's second inaugural is the best expression of
this thought. The Negro race is extraordinarily docile and easy
to handle. If surrounded by good living conditions and given a
proper education they would be good citizens. The progress of
their race since slavery, considering their many handicaps, has
been very creditable. The prejudice against them is probably
the most deep-seated of all American prejudices, and must be
reckoned with as one of the great factors in the problem.

In my opinion they are characterized by distinctly inferior
mentality, deficient moral sense, shiftlessness, good nature,
and a happy disposition. I have in mind no special facts,
authorities or sources of information on which I base my
opinions. I do, however, recognize the bearing of Christianity
on the problem, and find it impossible to formulate a viewpoint
which I can reconcile with the demands of Christianity.

We had a Negro family chauffeur some years ago who misconducted
himself so seriously as to have caused a very considerable
increase in the family prejudice against the race. If he had
been an Irish man our prejudice against him would not have
extended to his race. As a child I had no contacts with Negroes,
excepting one or two fellow-pupils in public schools of whom
I saw very little, and a few servants in the neighborhood who
were of the old-fashioned type, of pleasant memory.

I can recall no early prohibitions of association with Negroes.
There were so few in my neighborhood that they constituted no
real problem. As to implied prohibitions, I suppose I understood
at a very early age the existing social difference, although
I remember no instances of this.

I cannot remember when I first became conscious of a racial
difference, but I assume it was at a very early age.

I do not know that I can cite any friends, acquaintances,
favorite authors or scholars well fitted to speak with authority
on the question. Lincoln's views always seemed true to me, while
I have not been so favorably impressed by southern writers.
Every southerner I have ever met, no matter how reasonable
on other subjects, seemed to be incapable of looking at this
question with an open mind. His confidence that he knew all
about the Negro and the problem seemed absolute, and therefore
he was not in position to learn. I occasionally inquire for
information on this subject. Naturally most of the men of whom
I have made inquiries have been white, as I come in contact
with very few Negroes. I have, however, talked with Negroes
who have expressed their willingness to be segregated if the
segregation was complete enough to rid their district of all
whites, and give them fair living conditions. I cannot say that
I know any Negroes, although there are a few with whom I have
sufficient acquaintance to talk with them occasionally. As to
their leaders in Chicago, I have assumed that their political
leaders and their ministers were their leaders, the ministers
having a larger place of leadership than ministers among white
people. I used to come in contact occasionally with colored
lawyers who were capable men, and I believe leaders of their
race, and I understand that there is a colored physician, whose
name I cannot recall, who is the real leader of the best Negroes
in Chicago. Nationally I could not name any since the death
of Booker Washington, whom I very much admired, excepting Du
Bois whom I have heard speak, and with whose views I do not
sympathize. I do not remember ever reading a Negro periodical.

As I live on the South Side the subject of discussion most
frequently leading to the Negro is their encroachment on white
residence districts. Two years ago my church was given up to
a colored congregation, and the church into which we were
transferred is seriously threatened by the same invasion.
Property interests in a large part of the South Side bring up
the question, as does the unpleasantness of meeting them on the
street cars. I do not hear serious constructive discussion in
any circle. The invasion is deplored in all circles, social,
business, church and others.

I would not undertake to make any social adjustment on my
present information, except segregation of the Negroes in a
part of the South Side, and this only if it had the approval of
their own leaders. I do not approve of "Jim Crow" street cars
for Chicago, although I would not insist on their abandonment
in southern cities where they are already used, and I would
not favor any radical change if the better Negroes obstinately
objected.

I believe in educating Negroes, even though I am not sure
to what it will lead. I hope that as the race progresses the
prejudice against it will be modified. Still this prejudice is
so very great that I think it would be foolish for the Negroes
ever to seek a high station through demands. Probably many of
their demands should be granted, but they will make greater
progress by reckoning with the prejudice, and continuing their
present conciliatory attitude.

I do not believe that prejudice is based on fear. There is,
of course, a well-founded fear of many individual Negroes, but
I do not believe that the white race is conscious of any fear
of the Negro race as such. I think the prejudice is based on
the relative inferiority of the Negro race.

As a general proposition this is doubtless true that isolation
fosters prejudice. As applied to Negroes, however, it is
doubtful whether it would produce more conflict than the
present system. I would feel more hopeful of the overcoming
of the prejudice through more intimate contact with Negroes
if the difference between Negroes and white men were not so
fundamental.

As an abstract proposition the despotism of a majority cannot
be justified. I would say it is a very bad doctrine to spread
among a majority, but has in it a certain amount of practical
truth which the minority would do well to bear in mind.

E--

Negroes do possess distinguishing traits of mentality and
character. My opinions are based upon my personal observation.

As I knew the Negro in the South he was inclined to be indolent,
shiftless and lacking in a high sense of honesty, though
religious. His disposition is a happy one, and often his good
will is shown in many ways of gratitude and faithfulness. These
traits I have seen expressed in service as servants, in the
cotton fields, in their homes, and on town streets. In Chicago,
when the Negro has long been a resident here, having larger
advantages in education and employment, I find the colored
man honest in business and other transactions, diligent at
work, and inoffensive, but firmly standing for his citizenship
rights, and wanting to live peaceably. My Chicago experience
has been principally as a physician visiting in Negro homes.

When a boy I worked in the cotton fields with Negroes, and
I attended some of their religious meetings for the sake of
amusement. It was a social law in the South that we must not
eat at the same table with Negroes, and we were not to sit
with colored people when riding on street cars or on trains.
However, if a Negro was driver of a horse and buggy, the most
beautiful and refined woman might sit on the same seat with
the colored driver. White people visiting a colored church
were given seats to themselves, usually front seats. Colored
children could not attend white schools. At the age of six when
I first saw Negroes, I became conscious of a race difference.

I regard Rev. John R. Hayworth as fitted to advise on the
question. I have sought information from about twenty-five
Negroes when in their midst as their physician. I am acquainted
with at least a dozen Negro families but can give the names
of only three. I consider Alderman De Priest, Mr. Lucas and
Colonel Jackson leading colored men; Dr. George Hall is also
well known. I have never read a Negro periodical.

In Chicago the subject of undesirable neighbors leads to the
discussion of Negroes in our neighborhood improvement clubs.

Believing that both black and white people prefer to live
separately, I would make agreeable provision for separate
locations in which each might live and in so doing abide by
the wish of the majority and enforce its dictates.

The Negro should be given the advantage of education, culture
and good employment. We should expect to grant him better
living conditions on account of such advantages.

Prejudice against the Negro has its principal basis in not
understanding him, as well as fear and an inborn dislike for
people of another race.

There never seemed to be any conflicts in the South because the
whites and blacks occupied separate parts of towns. Colored
people in the South seem to prefer to live in communities to
themselves, because a bond of sympathy holds them together.

It is better for a minority to bear an injustice than for an
overwhelming majority to bear an injustice.

F--

Negroes should have the same rights as we.

I know of no distinguishing traits.

My opinion is based largely on reading, as I never lived in
the South. I had no early contacts. There were few Negroes
near, and none in my schools. As authorities I would mention
Professor Du Bois, Fannie B. Williams, Professor Graham Taylor.
I know an able colored woman, a member of the Chicago Woman's
Club and women who have worked in our home.

Occasionally I read a Negro periodical.

The discussion of lynchings and riots at home and church lead
most frequently to the Negro.

Our schools, trades and professions should be opened to Negroes
and they be permitted to take care of themselves. Let them
follow their own bent so long as it injures no one else.

Of course, when you educate Negroes you increase their demands.
Grant their demands.

Egotism and the jealousy that we whites are better are the
basis of prejudice.

It is true that a minority has no right to expect complete
justice from the majority, if Negroes reason from experience;
but the colored race probably has idealists who hope for better
future treatment.

G--

The trouble is with the whites; selfishness and pride have
caused the situation and the regulation of the Negro according
to faulty concepts of right will always fail. The Stock Yards
riots gave proof of equality in passion, cowardliness, and
unfairness between blacks and whites.

Negroes lag in evolution through hinderment. They may put
reason above emotion as they develop mentally, as do cultured
whites, but a better evolution may bring trained intuition
from crude emotion.

My opinions are based upon short trips South, residence in
Louisville and northern contacts, plus general reading.

My only contacts are on the streets.

Children's talk and the term "Nigger" just called my attention
to a race difference.

I know a few highly educated Negro pastors. I never read
Negro papers. The subject of interracial marriage leads to
the discussion of the Negro.

As a solution they should be distributed without boundaries,
among whites, as to residence, occupation and society. They
would not object; it is what they fight for--equality.

Negro faults are the result of retarded mental growth. Why
further retard them? The problem ceases to be as their mental
level rises. Prejudice is the result of selfishness in whites.
Your third proposition is absolutely true.

Injustice to the minority by the majority is unconstitutional,
un-Christian and unwise.

H--

My opinion is that the Negro is entitled to life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness as well as the white. The very
fact that his skin is differently colored than mine is no
reason why he should not be free to develop himself mentally,
morally, and physically the same as I do. Observation is basis
of my opinion. No contacts or warnings as a child. No friends
particularly familiar with question.

I have given this matter some little consideration, and have
discussed it with some Negroes as well as many white men. It
is my opinion that the consensus of opinion among Negroes to
whom I have talked is that they have no particular desire to
mix socially with the white man, but that they do feel they
should be given opportunity for development along those lines
for which they are best fitted. I am not acquainted particularly
with any of the leaders in this movement anywhere.

I read no Negro periodical. Racial equality is the subject
that leads to the Negro.

In all circles where general subjects are usually discussed
the question of the Negro arises.

Until the white man is ready to give the Negro a square
deal, I would suggest that he be segregated, and given every
opportunity for development possible under such segregation.
If they objected I would insist upon majority rule.

Nothing is gained by keeping the Negro ignorant, any more than
would be gained by keeping the white man ignorant. Education
of all of our races will bring about the world's salvation.

Prejudice among white women has its basis in fear but not
particularly among men. This is partly due to the publicity
given to all acts against women by Negroes, in my judgment.

The history of the world has proved that most of the races on
earth tend to group themselves, which is the natural thing,
because of the community of interest.

Until the Golden Rule is accepted unanimously majority rule
will continue to be the human law and under our present world
political arrangements, it seems to be about as fair as any
arrangement could be.

I--

The Negro seems to me to be evolutionally handicapped, but
possesses the qualities of children--imitativeness, affection,
loyalty, receptiveness, lack of responsibility, carelessness,
improvidence. They also seem to me to lack racial pride, for
which their history in this country may well account. There
are fine Negroes and those who are as worthless as "poor white
trash." To judge them all by either the best or the worst would
be manifestly unfair. I feel that they have, as a race, never
had a fair chance for their finest development.

I have lived among them and practiced medicine in their families
for ten years.

The most tender, loving service, beyond monetary recompense,
of one Negro woman who worked in my family for ten years. Her
intimate, gentle, faithful services to members of my family
in health and sickness will always endear her to us and make
us more conscious of the possibilities of members of that race.

The community in which I was raised had so few Negroes
that there was no occasion for contacts or prohibitions to
association. I suppose as a boy I first became conscious of
race difference.

I have discussed this question with intelligent Negroes, have
heard some fine sermons by Negro preachers, and am somewhat
familiar with the writings of Booker T. Washington and Du Bois.

I do not read their periodicals.

Mention of the servant cited in a foregoing question, newspaper
accounts of lynchings, house-bombings most frequently lead to
discussion of Negroes among our personal friends.

I feel that Negroes would be happier if segregated in
neighborhoods which allowed contact with the dominant race. I
feel that they are as unhappy to be isolated among whites as
the whites would be to be isolated among Negroes. I feel they
should have the right to live under decent conditions, with
those things which make life livable and enjoyable. Probably
part of my unwillingness to have them for neighbors lies
in the fear of undesirable neighbors (bad citizens), in the
fear of property depreciation which would follow, and because
of the lack of interests in common that make for neighborly
intercourse. I suppose I am as inconsistent as others in this,
for in my heart I have no prejudice of which I am aware, yet I
believe I am infected with the universal indefinite prejudice,
if I could but analyze it thoroughly.

Their education should not be curtailed, but enlarged. Their
demands should be granted if not incompatible with the common
good.

It is probably true that prejudice is based on fear, a result of
the abuse of female slaves by the whites in slavery time, and
the resultant desire on the part of a few Negroes engendered
during the reconstruction period by the carpet-baggers, to
have social equality. I have discussed this subject of "social
equality" with intelligent, fine Negroes, and believe they
meant what they said when they assured me that among decent
Negroes there is no more desire for this than there is among
the white people. I feel that it is a bugaboo, useful in
increasing fear and prejudice against the Negro.

By segregation, I did not mean isolation, but the natural
grouping together of Negroes under wholesome conditions, but
which permitted their contact through employment, through
meetings for the common good, with the dominant race.

Even a minority has the right to expect and demand justice
in opportunity to develop industrial, social and spiritual
growth. I recognize that education of both whites and blacks is
necessary to overcome fear and prejudice and make this possible.

J--

My opinion, which is still open to conviction, is that the
Negro race overlaps the white race throughout the bulk of the
frequency curves of distribution of intelligence of the two
races; but the average of the Negro race is probably lower
than that of the white race, and among the extreme varieties
the Negroes probably go lower and the whites higher than the
similar varieties of the other race. This refers to distribution
of inherent capacity. But I believe that many of them are
modifiable and differ only in their average distribution from
similar qualities in whites. Also that certain distinguishing
traits may be so adjusted to the circumstances under which
Negroes are educated and employed as to be distinctly
advantageous, both to themselves and to society.

Aside from my conversation with southerners, I have made
a special study of the Negro problem in connection with my
undergraduate work, and again at the University of Pennsylvania.
I am familiar with a number of worth-while sources which can
be listed on request. I lived for four winters in St. Louis,
where I saw a great many Negroes, but knew none. Some excitement
was caused there by an instructor inviting a mulatto school
principal to address our sociology class. There was no protest
here in Evanston. I also passed through the South, and stopped
twice at New Orleans.

As a child in Portland, Oregon, I had two Negro nurses. At the
age of perhaps seven or eight years, one of my nurses returned
for a visit, and I was teased by companions for kissing her.
That was my first consciousness of a racial difference.

My authorities and sources of importance are the N.A.A.C.P.,
Urban League, the Race Relations Commission, and certain
Negroes. I might also mention the two Spingarns and Mr. Roger
Baldwin. I know C. S. Johnson, T. Arnold Hill and the colored
members of the Commission, together with the union leaders whom
I heard. W. E. B. Du Bois, Haynes, Dr. Roman, J. W. Johnson,
T. A. Hill, I regard as leaders among the Negroes.

I read the _Crisis_, and occasional newspapers. The _Crisis_
is good except the fiction; the newspapers are rather poor.

Race relations, mob action, venereal disease, and housing
questions lead to discussion of the Negro.

As a solution I suggest equal facilities, spontaneous
segregation, spontaneous co-operation in common interest,
education in matters of sex. In this program there would be
no compulsion involved--unless possibly upon the whites.

Their education should be modified and their demands granted
so far as they can be harmonized with the general good.

The main question involved in prejudice seems to me whether
it is an interest or an instinct. If it is an interest then
changes in social organization may with comparative ease abate
the fear and the prejudice. If it is an instinct then we can
only deal with it by repression and sublimation of a more
deeply psychological character.