Chapter I

The Negro population of the Pittsburgh District in Allegheny County, was 27,753 in the year 1900 and had increased to 34,217 by the year 1910, according to the latest United States Census figures available.[1] The increase during this period was 23.3%. Assuming the continuation of this rate of increase, the total Negro population in 1915 would be about 38,000.

From a canvas of twenty typical industries in the Pittsburgh district, it was found that there were 2,550 Negroes employed in 1915, and 8,325 in 1917, an increase of 5,775 or 227%. It was impossible to obtain labor data from more than approximately sixty percent of the Negro employing concerns, but it is fair to assume that the same ratio of increase holds true of the remaining forty percent. On this basis the number of Negroes now employed in the district may be placed at 14,000. This means that there are about 9,750 more Negroes working in the district today than there were in 1915, an addition due to the migration from the South.

A schedule study of over five hundred Negro migrants indicates that thirty percent of the new comers have their families with them, and that the average family consists of three persons, excluding the father.[2] Adding to the total number of new workers, (9,750), the product obtained by multiplying thirty percent by three, (average family), we find a probable total new Negro population of 18,550 in 1917.

This sudden and abnormal increase in the Negro population within so short a time, of necessity involves a tremendous change, and creates a new situation, which merits the attention of the whole community. Before this great influx of Negroes from the South, the Negro population which constituted only 3.4% of the total city population, lived in a half dozen sections of the city. Although not absolutely segregated, these districts were distinct.

Because of the high cost of materials and labor, incident to the war; because the taxation system still does not encourage improvements,[3] and because of investment attractions other than in realty, few houses have been built and practically no improvements have been made. This is most strikingly apparent in the poorer sections of the city. In the Negro sections, for instance, there have been almost no houses added and few vacated by whites within the last two years. The addition, therefore, of thousands of Negroes, just arrived from Southern states, meant not only the creation of new Negro quarters and the dispersion of Negroes throughout the city, but also the utmost utilization of every place in the Negro sections capable of being transformed into a habitation. Attics and cellars, store-rooms and basements, churches, sheds and warehouses had to be employed for the accommodation of these newcomers. Whenever a Negro had space which he could possibly spare, it was converted into a sleeping place; as many beds as possible were crowded into it, and the maximum number of men per bed were lodged. Either because their own rents were high, or because they were unable to withstand the temptation of the sudden, and, for all they knew, temporary harvest, or, perhaps because of the altruistic desire to assist their race fellows, a majority of the Negroes in Pittsburgh converted their homes into lodging houses.

Because rooms were hard to come by, the lodgers were not disposed to complain about the living conditions or the prices charged. They were only too glad to secure a place where they could share a half or at least a part of an unclaimed bed. It was no easy task to find room for a family, as most boarding houses would accept only single men, and refused to admit women and children. Many a man, who with his family occupied only one or two rooms, made place for a friend or former townsman and his family. In many instances this was done from unselfish motives and in a humane spirit.

A realization of the need for accurate information concerning the Negro migration, and the belief that in an intelligent treatment of the problem lay the welfare of the entire community as well as that of the local Negro group, prompted the attempt at a scientific study of the situation. The primary purpose of the study was to learn the facts, but there was also a hope that the data obtained might lead to the amelioration of certain existing evils and the prevention of threatening ones.

In order to ascertain as many of the facts as possible concerning housing conditions, rooming and boarding houses, three or four family tenement houses, single family residences, camps, churches and other lodging places were investigated. A comparative study of health and crime among Negroes of Allegheny County before and after the period of the Northern migration was also attempted.

A questionnaire concerning kinds of labor in which Negro migrants engaged, and wages paid them both in Pittsburgh and in their native South was prepared; and answers to it from over five hundred individuals were obtained during the months of July and August, 1917. Information relating to housing, rents, health and social conditions was elicited in a similar manner. An effort was made to visit and study every Negro quarter in Pittsburgh. Data was secured from the Negro sections in the Hill District and upper Wylie and Bedford Avenues; the Lawrenceville district, about Penn Avenue, between Thirty-fourth and Twenty-eighth Streets; the Northside Negro quarter around Beaver Avenue and Fulton Street; the East Liberty section in the vicinity of Mignonette and Shakespeare Streets, and the new downtown Negro section on Second Avenue, Ross and Water Streets.

The information thus secured is discussed in the following pages.

_TABLE NUMBER I_

_Time of Residence in Pittsburgh of 505 Negro Migrants Questioned_

SINGLE MARRIED
1 MONTH █████████████████ 86 ███████████ 58

3 MONTHS ██████████ 51 ██████████████ 70

6 MONTHS █████ 28 ███████████████ 74

12 MONTHS ████ 21 ████████████████ 80

OVER 12 ███ 13 █████ 24

TOTAL PERCENT
1 MONTH █████████████████████████████ 144 29

3 MONTHS ████████████████████████ 121 24

6 MONTHS ████████████████████ 102 20

12 MONTHS ████████████████████ 101 20

OVER 12 ███████ 37 7

Table No. I indicates that the migration has been going on for little longer than one year. Ninety-three percent of those who gave the time of residence in Pittsburgh had been here less than one year. More than eighty percent of the single men interviewed had been here less than six months. In the number who have been here for the longest periods, married men predominate, showing the tendency of this class to become permanent residents. This fact is evidently well known to some industrial concerns which have been bringing men from the South. Many of them have learned from bitter experience that the mere delivery of a train load of men from a Southern city, does not guarantee a sufficient supply of labor. This is evidenced by the fact that the labor agents of some of these firms, made an effort to secure married men only, and even to investigate them prior to their coming here. Differences in recruiting methods may also explain why some employers and labor agents hold a very optimistic view of the Negro as a worker, while others despair of him. The reason why Pittsburgh has been unable to secure a stable labor force is doubtless realized by the local manufacturers. The married Negro comes to the North to stay. He desires to have his family with him, and if he is not accompanied North by his wife and children he plans to have them follow him at the earliest possible date. Although such a man is glad to receive the better treatment, enlarged privileges and higher wages, which are accorded him here, he cannot adjust himself permanently to the Pittsburgh housing situation. He meets his first insuperable difficulty when he attempts to get a house in which to live. Back South, he may have been oppressed, but his home was often in a more comfortable place, where he had light and space. At least he did not have to live in one room in a congested slum and pay excessive rents.

While it is true that the foreign immigrant of a few years ago was probably not accorded any better accommodations in Pittsburgh than is the Negro at present, it should be remembered that the foreigner did not know the language. Everything seemed strange and unfamiliar to him. He was loath to move to an even stranger part of the city and preferred to stay in his first new world home and to live among his own people, even under adverse conditions. It is altogether different with the Negro. He knows the language and the country; he does not fear to migrate and when he does not feel content in one place, he proceeds to look for a better one. We might cite dozens of incidents of men who have either had their families here or intended to bring them, but have gone to other cities where they hoped to find better accommodations. This is certain to continue if cities like Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia keep in advance of Pittsburgh in building or providing houses for these migrants. The Pittsburgh manufacturer will never keep an efficient labor supply of Negroes until he learns to compete with the employers of the other cities in a housing programme as well as in wages.

The actual situation of the Pittsburgh housing problem for the Negro is shown by the figures obtained in our survey. Almost ninety-eight percent of the people investigated live either in rooming houses or in tenements containing more than three families. Thirty-five percent live in tenement houses, fifty percent in rooming houses, about twelve percent in camps and churches, and only two and a half percent live in what may be termed single private family residences.

_TABLE NUMBER II_

_Kinds of Residences of 465 Negro Migrants Questioned_

+----------------------+--------+----------+-------+---------+
| | SINGLE | FAMILIES | TOTAL | PERCENT |
+----------------------+--------+----------+-------+---------+
| Tenement | 30 | 133 | 163 | 35 |
| Rooming and Boarding | 223 | 9 | 232 | 50 |
| One Family House | 6 | 5 | 11 | 2.5|
| Camp | 36 | 0 | 36 | 7.5|
| Mission | 23 | 0 | 23 | 5 |
| | --- | --- | ---| ----|
| | 318 | 147 | 465 | 100 |
+----------------------+--------+----------+-------+---------+

Of the men without families here, only twenty-two out of more than three hundred had individual bed rooms. Twenty-five percent lived four in a room, and twenty-five percent lived in rooms used by more than four people. Again only thirty-seven percent slept in separate beds, fifty percent slept two in a bed, and thirteen percent sleep three or more in a bed.

_TABLE NUMBER III_

NUMBER OF PEOPLE IN BED ROOM

ONE ████ 22

TWO ██████████████████████ 111

THREE ████████████ 61

FOUR ███████████████████ 98

FIVE ████ 22

SIX ████ 19

OVER SIX ███████████ 57

The conditions in these rooming houses often beggar description. Sleeping quarters are provided not only in bedrooms, but also in attics, basements, dining rooms and kitchens. In many instances, houses in which these rooms are located are dilapidated dwellings with the paper torn off, the plaster sagging from the naked lath, the windows broken, the ceiling low and damp, and the whole room dark, stuffy and unsanitary. In one or two instances, these rooms, with more than six people sleeping in them at one time, have practically no openings for either light or air.

In the more crowded sections, beds are rented on a double shift basis. Men who work at night sleep during the day in the beds vacated by day workers. There is no space in these rooms, except for beds and as many of them are crowded in as can be possibly accommodated.

There is rarely a place in these rooms for even suitcases or trunks. Under such circumstances the rooms can be kept clean with difficulty, and there is apparently no disposition to wrestle with the dirt and litter. Very few of these sleeping rooms have more than two windows each, and many have only one window. Only a few are provided with bath rooms, while a great number have the water and toilets in the yards or other places outside the house. Many of these roomers complain that often they are not given any soap, and are never given more than one towel a week.

_TABLE NUMBER IV_

_Rents Paid in Rooming Houses by 305 Roomers_

+-------------------------+------------+
| | Percentage |
+-------------------------+------------+
| 168 paid $1.50 per week | 55 |
| 103 paid $1.75 per week | 34 |
| 13 paid $2.00 per week | 4.25 |
| 14 paid $3.00 per week | 4.25 |
| 7 paid Over $3.00 | 2.5 |
| | ______ |
| | 100 |
+-------------------------+------------+

The rents paid by these roomers are shown in table number IV. They varied from $1.50 to $3.00 per week, and in a few instances were as high as $4.00 per week. In a number of cases, the men also board in the same place in which they room, paying from five to seven or eight dollars per week for food and shelter.

_TABLE NUMBER V._

ONE WEEK’S COST OF BOARD PER MAN

$2 PER WEEK ██ 4

$3 PER WEEK █████████████████ 34

$4 PER WEEK ███████████████████ 39

$5 PER WEEK █████████████████████████████ 59

$6 PER WEEK ██████████████████████████████████████ 77

$7 PER WEEK ████████████████ 31

$8 PER WEEK ████████████ 24
AND OVER

The situation in the camps is not better than that in rooming houses. In one railroad camp visited, the men were lodged in box cars, each of which was equipped with four or eight beds, or they were quartered in a row of wooden houses two stories high, each room of which contained from six to eight beds. It is true that the rents charged in this camp were only the nominal sum of five cents per night, or $1.50 per month, but the men had to buy their food from the camp commissary, using company checks, and also had to prepare it themselves. Practically every man interviewed complained of the high prices charged, and that this complaint was not altogether groundless was evident from the scanty purchases being made by these men at the time of the investigator’s visit. In another railroad camp, located near Pittsburgh, which was visited in the early spring, about one hundred men were lodged in one big “bunk-house”, containing about fifty double-tier beds. Although there were adequate toilet and shower bath facilities, the beds were unclean. This company also boarded these men, making a flat weekly charge.

The rooming houses with one exception are conducted by colored people, who act either as janitors or as hosts. In only one case, as far as our investigation extended, did we find a white woman running a rooming house for colored people. Many of these houses are in reality run by Whites, who keep a colored janitor or manager in the House. Several of the big rooming houses on lower Wylie Avenue, for instance, are conducted for a local white merchant, who keeps a colored janitor in each of them, and only visits them to check the books and collect the rents. In many instances however, houses are operated by colored people, who either run or lease them. Most of these lessees or owners are Pittsburghers, but a few are newcomers, who, having brought a bit of capital with them have opened rooming houses as investments. Some of these people have become the prey of cunning landlords. In one case in the down town section, a colored migrant rented an old and dilapidated shack, paying fifty dollars a month, and was unaware that the contract signed by him specified that he pay for his own repairs. The Negro claims that as the house is very old and in such bad condition, it would cost him an additional fifty dollars each month to keep it habitable.

_TABLE NUMBER VI_

_Number of Rooms Per Family of 157 Negro Families_

PERCENT

ONE ROOM ██████████████████████████████████████ 77 49

TWO ROOMS ████████████████ 33 21

THREE ROOMS █████████ 18 12

FOUR ROOMS ████████ 16 10

OVER FOUR ██████ 13 8

The deplorable housing of migrant families is shown in table number VI. Of the 157 families investigated, seventy-seven or 49% live in one room each. Thirty-three or 21% live in two-room apartments, and only forty-seven families or 30% live in apartments of three or more rooms each.

Of these forty-seven families, thirty-eight kept roomers or boarders, totalling one hundred and thirty-one, or an average of 3.5 roomers per family. Eighty-one of the total of one hundred and thirty-nine houses inspected, had water inside the house, while fifty-eight houses secured water from yard or street hydrants or from neighbors. Only thirty-four of the total were equipped with interior toilet facilities; the rest had outside toilets. Of the latter, forty-two had no sewerage connections, and used filthy, unsanitary vaults.

The rents paid for the “residences” described above appear in the following table:

_TABLE NUMBER VII_

_Rents Paid by 142 Families Investigated_

$10 PER MONTH ████████████████████ 41

$15 PER MONTH ██████████████████████████████ 60

$20 PER MONTH █████████ 18

$25 PER MONTH ██████ 13

OVER $25 █████ 10

The sections formerly designated as Negro quarters, have been long since congested beyond capacity by the influx of newcomers, and a score of new colonies have sprung up in hollows and ravines, on hill slopes and along river banks, by railroad tracks and in mill-yards. In many instances the dwellings are those which have been abandoned by foreign white people since the beginning of the present war. In some cases they are structures once condemned by the City Bureau of Sanitation, but opened again only to accommodate the influx from the South. Very few of these houses are equipped with gas. Coal and wood are used both for cooking and heating. During the hot days of July, the visitor found in several instances a red hot stove in a room which was being used as kitchen, dining room, parlor and bedroom. This, however, did not seem to bother the newcomers, as many of the women, being unaccustomed to the use of gas, and fearful of it, preferred the more accustomed method of cooking.

A few of these families were found living in so-called “basements”, more than three-fourths under ground, a direct violation of a municipal ordinance.[4] Some rooms had no other opening than a door. The rents paid for such quarters are often beyond belief. In one of these rooms in the Hill District, where only the upper halves of the windows were level with the sidewalk, lived a man, his wife and their five children, the eldest of whom was sixteen years old. The rental was six dollars per week. Another family paid twenty-five dollars per month for three small rooms on the ground floor. The kitchen was so damp and close that the investigator found it impossible to remain for long, because it was difficult to breathe. The ceilings in many of the houses visited were very low, hardly higher than six or seven feet and the rooms were often piled high with furniture. That the owners of these houses cared little about improving their houses was indicated in several cases by the fact that water faucets and toilets had been out of commission for months, and no effort at repair had been made.

Because of these bad conditions many peculiar maladjustments exist. A certain man lived in a rooming house, while his young wife and baby lived in another place. In addition to his own rent and board, he paid ten dollars a week for the keep of his wife and baby. In another case, a family was forced to pay six dollars a month storage on the furniture which they had brought from the South, because their new quarters were too cramped to accommodate it.

A goodly number of the migrants have evidently been accustomed to much better living conditions than are offered them here, and in spite of almost insurmountable obstacles, still preserve something of their cleanly habits. Few of these people intend to remain here unless they can get a better place to stay. All complained, some with tears in their eyes, of the bad housing accorded them. As one intelligent and hard working woman who lived in one room expressed it while packing her trunks to go back to Sylvester, Georgia, “I never lived in such houses in my life. We had four rooms in my home.” This woman was earning ten dollars per week and her husband was profitably employed, yet they choose to relinquish the comparatively large rewards of the North, rather than do without the decencies of life which they had known in the South.

_TABLE NUMBER VIII_

_Ages of the 506 Migrants Interviewed_

+----------------+--------+---------+-------+------------+
| | SINGLE | MARRIED | TOTAL | PERCENTAGE |
+----------------+--------+---------+-------+------------+
| Under 18 years | 13 | 1 | 14 | 3 |
| From 18 to 25 | 115 | 39 | 154 | 30 |
| From 25 to 30 | 31 | 63 | 94 | 19 |
| From 30 to 40 | 34 | 101 | 135 | 27 |
| From 40 to 50 | 7 | 66 | 73 | 14 |
| From 50 to 60 | 4 | 28 | 32 | 6 |
| 60 and over | 2 | 2 | 4 | 1 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| | 206 | 300 | 506 | 100 |
+----------------+--------+---------+-------+------------+

AGES OF MIGRANTS

UNDER 18 YEARS ███ 14

FROM 18 TO 25 ███████████████████████████████ 154

FROM 25 TO 30 ███████████████████ 94

FROM 30 TO 40 ███████████████████████████ 135

FROM 40 TO 50 ██████████████ 73

FROM 50 TO 60 ██████ 32

60 AND OVER █ 4

Table number VIII is significant because it enables us to shed light upon one important phase of the migration. It appears that more than seventy-five percent of the Southern migrants are between the ages of eighteen and forty. Only ten percent of the 506 people questioned were under eighteen or past fifty years of age. This fact is significant, both to the industrial concerns which are in need of a labor supply and to the community as a whole. For the industrial concerns, it means that these migrants are the most desirable laborers, men at the height of their wealth producing capacity. They satisfy the pressing need which has confronted the local manufacturers since the foreign supply of labor was cut off by the war. From the standpoint of the community, it is important to know that the influx lays few immediate burdens upon the city. There are few minors to be educated and few aged or dependent ones likely to become a public charge.

The percentage of single people between the ages of eighteen and thirty is far greater than that of the married ones, which is a natural expectation. Of the five hundred and thirty persons interviewed, two hundred and nineteen or forty-one and one-half percent were single; one hundred sixty-two or thirty and one-half percent were married, and had already brought their families here, while one hundred and thirty-nine or twenty-eight percent were married, but were here without their families. Ninety-eight of the families had children; thirty-nine of the families had no children here, and seventeen families either had some or all of the children in the South, while the remaining six placed their children under the care of relatives or institutions. The number of children per family of those who had their wives here, varied from one to ten. Forty families had one child each; twenty-three, two children each, fifteen had three children each, and twenty had four or more children each. Nineteen families had one or more children under twenty helping to support them, but only four had more than one child assisting in the support of the family. Among the one hundred and forty-nine persons whose families remained in the South, ninety-six had children and seventeen had none. Of the remainder a number stated that they had one or two of their children with them, while others gave no definite information. Sixty-three of those who had children at home had no more than two children each, while thirty-three had three or more children at home. These figures seem to indicate that the migration is largely that of small families.

The Negro migration from the South into Pittsburgh, while it has been accentuated and accelerated by the present war, which created a greater need for labor, is not in reality an altogether new thing for Pittsburgh. There has been a steady influx of Negroes, though in small numbers, since the pre Civil War days. Pittsburgh and Allegheny were important stations of the Underground Railway, and many a Negro came to Pittsburgh from the near-by slave states, as to a city of refuge. The Negro population in Allegheny County grew steadily from 3431 in 1850 to 34,217 in 1910. The percentage of Negroes in the total population of the County has continually increased within the last four decades. (Two and two-tenths percent in 1880 and three and four-tenths in 1910). Negroes have always been attracted by the opportunities which this city with its abundance of work and good wages could offer them in improving their economic status.

The recent unprecedented influx of Negroes had made the Negro population in Pittsburgh increase more than twice as fast within the last two years as during the entire ten years preceding. The percentage of Negroes in our total population has leaped very suddenly. This fact is sufficient to warrant our serious study and active efforts toward the social orientation and adjustment of the new element in our midst.

From the standpoint of Pittsburgh’s industrial and business interests, however, the migration into this district, has not been at all satisfactory. Pittsburgh as the steel center of the country, is naturally playing a more important part than ever in the present crisis, and has felt a proportionate increase in the need for a labor supply. The Negro migration in Pittsburgh, it can be safely stated, has not usurped the place of the white worker. Every man is needed, as there are more jobs than men to fill them. Pittsburgh’s industrial life is for the time being dependent upon the Negro labor supply.

In spite of its necessity, Pittsburgh has not received a sufficient supply of Negroes, and certainly not in the same full proportion as did many smaller industrial towns. Pittsburgh manufacturers are still in need of labor, and this in spite of the fact that the railroads and a few of the industrial concerns of the locality have had labor agents in the South. These agents, laboring under great difficulties because of the obstructive tactics adopted in certain southern communities to prevent the Negro exodus, have nevertheless succeeded in bringing several thousand colored workers into this district. That they have had little success in keeping these people here, is acknowledged by all of them. One company for instance, which imported about a thousand men within the past year, had only about three hundred of these working at the time of the investigator’s visit in July, 1917. One railroad, which is said to have brought about fourteen thousand people to the North within the last twelve months, has been able to keep an average of only eighteen hundred at work.

It must be admitted that the labor agents, because of their eagerness to secure as many men as possible, are not particular as to the character of those they are bringing here, and there is therefore a goodly number of idle and shiftless Negroes who are floating and undependable. On the other hand we must not fail to recognize that most migrants come through their own volition, pay their own fares, leave their native states, and break up family connections, because they are in search of better opportunities, social and economic. As a class they appear to be industrious, ambitious, pious and temperate, and are eager to get established with their families.

In the foregoing pages, we have discussed the housing and rooming situation which confronts the Negro. An examination of the kind and hours of work and wages received, discloses another reason why many of these people do not remain here.

_TABLE NUMBER IX_

_Occupations of Migrants in Pittsburgh as Compared with Statements
of Occupations in South_[5]

+--------------------------------+------------+-----+-------+-----+
| OCCUPATIONS | PITTSBURGH | % | SOUTH | % |
+--------------------------------+------------+-----+-------+-----+
| Common Laborer | 468 | 95 | 286 | 54 |
| Skilled or semi-skilled | 20 | 4 | 59 | 11 |
| Farmer | | | 81 | 15 |
| Miner | | | 36 | 7 |
| Saw Mill Workers | | | 9 | 2 |
| Ran own farm or father’s farm | | | 33 | 6 |
| Ran farm on crop sharing basis | | | 22 | 5 |
| Other Occupations | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| | --- | --- | --- | |
| | 493 | 100 | 529 | 100 |
+--------------------------------+------------+-----+-------+-----+

From the foregoing table, it is apparent that ninety-five percent of the migrants who stated their occupations, were doing unskilled labor, in the steel mills, the building trades, on the railroads, or acting as servants, porters, janitors, cooks and cleaners. Only twenty or four percent out of four hundred and ninety-three migrants whose occupations were ascertained, were doing what may be called semi-skilled or skilled work, as puddlers, mold-setters, painters and carpenters. On the other hand, in the South fifty-nine of five hundred and twenty-nine claimed to have been engaged in skilled labor, while a large number were rural workers.

_TABLE NUMBER X_

_Comparison Between Hours of Work Per Day in Pittsburgh
and in South_

HOURS OF LABOR
IN PITTSBURGH

UNDER 10 ████████ 16%

10 HOURS ██████████████████████████████ 51%

10 TO 12 ██████████████ 28%

OVER 12 ██ 4%

NOT STATED █ 1%

IN THE SOUTH

UNDER 10 █████████████ 27%

10 HOURS ███████████████████ 38%

10 TO 12 ███████ 14.5%

OVER 12 ███████ 14%

NOT STATED ███ 6.5%

A comparison between work hours of migrants in the South and in Pittsburgh, reveals another interesting feature. As against the twenty-seven percent who were working less than ten hours a day at home, only sixteen percent are working for a like period here. A greater number work a ten-hour day here than in the South, (fifty-one percent as against thirty-eight percent), and there seems to be a greater number working over twelve hours per day before coming North, than afterward. This is probably due to the fact that a considerable body of these men were farm laborers.

_TABLE NUMBER XI_

_Comparison of Wages Received Per Day in Pittsburgh and in South_

IN PITTSBURGH

UNDER $2.00 ██ 5%

$2.00 TO $3.00 ███████████████████████████████ 62%

$3.00 TO $3.60 ██████████████ 28%

OVER $3.60 ██ 5%

IN THE SOUTH

UNDER $2.00 ████████████████████████████ 56%

$2.00 TO $3.00 ████████████ 25%

$3.00 TO $3.60 ██ 4%

OVER $3.60 ███████ 15%

As to the comparative wages paid here and in the South, it appears from table number X, that the great mass of workers get higher wages here than in the places from which they come, fifty-six percent received less than two dollars a day in the South, while only five percent received such wages in Pittsburgh. However the number of those who said they received high wages in the South is greater than the number of those receiving them here. Fifteen percent said they received more than three dollars and sixty cents a day at home, while only five percent received more than that rate for twelve hours work here. Sixty-seven percent of the four hundred and fifty-three persons stating their earnings here, earn less than three dollars per day. Twenty-eight percent earn from three dollars to three sixty per day, while only five percent earn more than three dollars and sixty cents per day. The average working day for both Pittsburgh and the South is ten and four-tenths hours. The average wage is $2.85 here; in the South it amounted to $2.15. It may be interesting to point out that the number of married men who work longer hours and receive more money is proportionately greater than that of the single men, who have not “given hostages to fortune.”

It has been stated frequently that the Negro exodus from the South is in a large measure due to the fact that the Southern states have adopted prohibition. While it is true that most of the newcomers are from prohibition states, our figures, however, do not warrant the conclusion that the Negroes came North to use the saloon. We are inclined to believe that the answers to this question were sincere. The classification of “drinkers” includes all persons who imbibe however infrequently and those who drink beer only. Out of the four hundred and seventy-seven persons who answered these questions, two hundred and ten or forty-four percent said that they drank, while two hundred and sixty-seven or fifty-six percent were total abstainers. It is interesting to note that among those who have families in Pittsburgh, the percentage of those who drink is smaller than among those who are single or have families elsewhere. Thirty percent of the former class drink, while seventy percent do not drink at all. The percentage of drinkers of those with their families at home, is even greater than those of the single people, which may be explained by the fact that many of the younger people have as yet not acquired the drink habit.

The church going proclivity of the Negro is well known and is borne out by our study. Of the four hundred and eighty-nine who replied to this question, three hundred and seventy or almost seventy-six percent are either church members or attendants, and only one hundred and nineteen or twenty-four percent do not attend any church.

Proof that these newcomers are not all lazy, shiftless, and immoral is to be found in the statements of savings, and of remittances to relatives in the South. Fifteen percent of the families here had savings. Eighty percent[6] of the married ones with families elsewhere were sending money home, and nearly one hundred of the two hundred and nineteen single people interviewed, were contributing sums to parents, sisters or other relatives. Most of these contributions, (sixty-five percent) amounted to about five dollars per week. Fifty-two persons were contributing from five to ten dollars per week, and seven were sending over ten dollars per week.

From table number XII, it seems that only a few of the Southern states have borne the brunt of the exodus. Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia taken together, have contributed sixty percent of the migrants, Alabama and Georgia giving forty-seven percent of the total number. Alabama was the native state of more than forty-nine percent of the married men who have families here. This altogether disproportionate influx from Alabama, as compared with other states, is probably due to the fact that our state and the former have similar industries. Birmingham, Alabama, as is well known, is called the “Pittsburgh of the South”; and it is therefore natural that the labor agents from this district should make a special effort to secure the labor which is more or less familiar with the iron and steel business. Again, it may be presumed that a great many who were working in the steel industries or in the mines of Alabama have come to Pittsburgh in order to secure familiar employment. A considerable number, however, may have come because of the crop failure and the ravages of the boll-weevil which have made the cultivation of cotton unprofitable during recent years.

_TABLE NUMBER XII_

_Home States of 567 Migrants_

ALABAMA ███████████████████████████████████ 177

GEORGIA █████████████ 66

NO. CAROLINA ████████ 38

VIRGINIA ███████ 33

FLORIDA █████ 26

MISSOURI ████ 20

TENNESSEE ████ 20

SO. CAROLINA ███ 15

W. VIRGINIA ███ 15

KENTUCKY ███ 15

PENNSYLVANIA ███ 14

OHIO ██ 13

MISSISSIPPI ██ 10

LOUISIANA ██ 10

ILLINOIS ██ 10

MARYLAND ██ 9

DIST. OF COL. ██ 8

TEXAS █ 4

INDIANA █ 2

Undoubtedly many Negroes have come to the North in response to the seductive arts of labor agents, who worked on a per capita commission basis. These emissaries, both in the North and in the South, made glowing promises of high wages, social equality, and better living conditions above the Mason-Dixon Line. But these inducements were probably not the underlying factor of the migration. They merely gave opportunity for the expression of a growing discontent engendered by many years of oppression. Segregation, lynchings, economic exploitation, and the denial of educational freedom, justice and constitutional right, had filled the Negro’s cup of bitterness to overflowing. The South was to his mind still a place of bondage for him and in the North he saw that long dreamed Land of Promise where he might live more freely.

Three hundred and ninety-five of the four hundred and seventy-four when questioned as to who paid their transportation North replied that they paid their own fare, while only seventy-nine admitted they were brought here at the expense of railroads and other industrial concerns. Numerous stories of persecutions by the White South on trumped up charges of all sorts are told by these migrants. Many of them say they had to leave their homes in secrecy and at night, and to walk to some station where they were not known, before they could board a train for the North. Many reported that they were unable to secure tickets at home, and had to secure them from the North. If tickets were discovered in the possession of a Negro, they were confiscated and destroyed by the police. At times when three or more Negroes were found together, they were suspected of “conspiring to go North”; some mythical charge was brought against them, and they were arrested. Threats and intimidation of all kinds were used against these migrants, both at home and on the train. One very intelligent Negro of about forty who owned property in Alabama related some of the persecutions which he had borne while at home. He told of taking the train at night several miles away from his own town, and of being accosted on board by a white Southerner who pointed to the next car which contained several coffins and said, “Yo Niggahs goin’ to Pittsburgh, eh? We all are jes shippin’ five of yo back from thah. They froze to death in Pittsburgh.” It may be interesting to remark that this occurred in June, 1917, when Pittsburgh was sweltering in the heat of early summer.

Of the more than four hundred men who stated their reasons for coming North, three hundred and twenty-five said that the higher wages and economic opportunities here had attracted them. Two hundred and eighty-eight of these also included better treatment as one of the factors in their migration. As one of them expressed it, “If I were half as well treated home as here, I would rather stay there, as I had my family there and had a better home and better health.” Eighty-five had no special reason for their coming, and were “jes travelin’ to see the country”, or the like. Twenty-five were either tired of their work or wanted to change it. This was the case particularly with the miners from West Virginia and Alabama. Twenty-seven had either lost their jobs, were out of work, or had various other reasons for coming. These figures seem to indicate that the prime causes of the migration are rather fundamental, and not merely temporary.

The Negro migration is similar to the previous European immigration because, while dominantly economic, it is also due to social and political maladjustments; but it is more largely a family migration. For the number of Negroes who brought women and children with them is greater in proportion to the total than was the case with the foreigners. The European usually came alone and sent for his family after a considerable lapse of time. The Negro either brings his family with him or sends for it within the first three or four months following his arrival. The complication of our housing problem is obvious under these circumstances, for Pittsburgh until the present time has attempted to meet the housing requirements of only single men workers of the new labor group.

The short-sightedness of our failure to provide decent homes in the city, in order to retain the labor which is so essential for the expansion of Pittsburgh and the growth of its industries, is again exposed by the figures in our study. Of the three hundred and thirty single men, or men without families here, answering the question as to whether they will remain here, return South or move elsewhere, only ninety-two or twenty-eight percent said they would remain here. A hundred and thirty-seven or forty-two percent were going back or somewhere else, while one hundred and one or thirty percent were still undecided.

As for the reasons why these men would not remain in the city, seventy-nine or fifty-seven percent were leaving because they could not get a better room because the rents paid by them were too excessive for the wages received; thirty-seven or twenty-seven percent, gave family connections as their reason, and the remaining sixteen percent either had no reasons or were leaving because of ill health, bad climate or other unfavorable conditions. The difficulty of securing an adequate labor supply for Pittsburgh is thus, in part, explained by the very nature of the economic problems involved.

[1] 13th U. S. Census, Penna. Bulletin, Table I, page 12; 1910.

[2] This average was obtained by dividing the total number of women and children of the families investigated, by the number of families.

[3] The Pittsburgh Graded Tax Law has, apparently, not been in operation long enough to produce the results desired by its sponsors.

[4] Pittsburgh Sanitary Code of 1913, Sections 132, 133 and 134, pages 75, 76 and 77.

[5] The differences in the totals in this table as well as in a few others, are due to the fact that many have given answers to one question and not to the other.

[6] The cause for many of these migrants not contributing to the support of their families may be explained by the fact that they have not been here long enough to get established.