The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (Sep. 1913) Vol. 49 pp. 105-119

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Conditions Among Negroes in the Cities

George Edmund Haynes, Ph.d.,

Director, National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes; Professor of Social Science, Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn.

Fifty years after four millions of Negro slaves were made freedmen, there is still the responsibility upon the nation to make that seeming freedom really free. So many other national problems thrust themselves upon the attention of the people today that there is danger lest the nation grow forgetful of the tremendous portent of this special responsibility left it from the past. The present generation is doubtless just as loyal to the principles of liberty and just as faithful to the ideals of democracy as were the fathers of the republic, but the principles and ideals of the American people are meeting the challenge of latter day problems, and the people may become unmindful of unfinished tasks. Thus the condition of the Negro may receive less attention from the nation; his economic and social difficulties may be less generally known; his migrations and concentration in cities, North and South, are given less attention. The increasing segregated settlements and life of Negroes within the cities may excite less concern. The resulting intensified industrial, housing, health and other maladjustments and the Negro's heroic struggles to overcome these maladjustments are in these days likely to be little considered. These conditions demand thought.

I. The Urban Movement

But social changes do not frequently keep time with social thought, for they are usually the result of unconscious social forces. Many of the changes among Negroes, especially the change from country to city, have been of such a character.

The past half century has seen an acceleration of the urban migration of the entire population. The Negro has been in that population stream. At times and in places his movement cityward has been affected by special influences, but where influences have been similar his movement has been similar.

The Emancipation Proclamation not only abolished the ownership of the slave, but it also released him from the soil. With this breaking down of the economic system based upon slavery, many of the landless freedmen fell victims to the wanderlust which has usually affected the masses in times of sudden social upheaval. Thousands of Negroes flocked to the Union Army posts, located in towns and cities. The Ku-Klux terrorism and the mistaken notion of federal paternalistic care added their power to the other forces which operated, during and immediately after the war, to thrust the Negro into the towns. In fourteen Southern cities between 1860 and 1870 the white population increased 16.7 per cent, and the Negro 90.7 per cent; in eight Northern cities (counting all the boroughs of New York City as now constituted as one) the Negro population increased 51 per cent.

But with the removal of exceptional influences, the Negro immigration was reduced. Figures for white and Negro population in principal Southern cities are obtainable from 1870 to 1910, as follows:

Just how far the increase of whites and Negroes in Southern cities has been proportionately affected by the drift to Northern cities from Southern territory cannot be ascertained, as the numbers of Southern whites who migrate North are unknown. Surmises may be made from the per cent increase of Negroes in eight Northern cities, which was as follows:

The increase of the urban population, both white and Negro was greater than the rural increase between 1890 and 1900 (the best periods for which we have figures for good comparisons) for both the Continental United States and for the Southern States. In 242 Southern towns and cities which had at least 2500 inhabitants in 1890, the Negroes increased, 1890 to 1900, nearly one-third faster than Negroes in the rural districts. "In the country districts of the South the Negroes increased (1809 to 1900) about two-thirds as fast as the whites; in the cities they increased nearly seven-eighthsas fast." Figures for the white and Negro increase in both city and country districts follow:

The trend of all these figures shows that where the influences and conditions are similar the movements of the two races have been similar.

The causes, besides the breaking down of the slave regime, that have operated to draw the Negro to urban centers have been those fundamental economic, social and individual causes which have affected the general population. Chief among these has been the growth of industrial and commercial activities in urban centers. From 1880 to 1900 Southern cities (according to the showing of the census figures of manufactures, which are only approximately exact) have increased 143.3 per cent in total value of manufactured products, and 60.9 per cent in the average number of wage-earners, exclusive of proprietors, salaried officers and clerks, in manufacturing enterprises.

Railroad building, total tonnage and gross earnings show the development of commerce. In thirteen Southern states from 1860 to 1900, railway mileage increased 461.9 per cent. Total tonnage for most of this territory increased 90.5 per cent in)the years from 1890 to 1900, while the total freight, passenger, express and mail earnings increased 48.4 per cent in the same decade.

All the facts available show that the Negro shares the influence of these developments. That he is a main factor in the labor of the South is evident. In a number of Southern cities the white and Negro increases in selected gainful occupations were as follows, between 1890 and 1900: in domestic and personal service, male whites increased 42.3 per cent, Negroes 31.1 per cent; in trade and transportation occupations, male whites increased 25.2 per cent, Negroes 39.1 per cent; in manufacturing and mechanical pursuits, male whites 16.3 per cent, Negroes 11.6 per cent.

The divorce of the Negro from the soil after emancipation, and the growth of the industrial and commercial centers are causes which are supplemented by the effect of higher wages paid weekly or monthly in the city on the economic motives of workers; by the trend of legislation, especially labor laws, which favor the city and which, in practical effect in some parts of the South, make harder the uninviting lot of the land tenant; by improved educational and amusement facilities, and by the contact with the moving crowds; while the paved and lighted streets, the greater comforts of the houses and other conveniences which the rustic imagines he can easily get and the dazzling glare of the unknown great world are viewed in decided contrast to the hard, humdrum conditions and poor accommodations on plantation and farm.

The available facts and figures bear out the conclusion that along with the white population the Negroes, under the influence of causes likely to operate for an indefinite period, will continue to migrate to the towns and cities, and that they will come in comparatively large numbers to stay.

Already the Negro urban population has grown to considerable proportions. In 1860 it is estimated that about 4.2 per cent of all the Negroes in the United States were urban dwellers (places of 4,000 or more). By 1890 it had risen to 19.8 per cent (places of 2,500 or more; the figures for 1890 and since are not, therefore, comparable with those for censuses preceding); in 1900 it was 22.7 per cent, and in 1910, 27.4 per cent, or more than one-fourth of the total Negro population. In 1910 thirty-nine cities had 10,000 or more Negroes, and the following twelve cities had more than 40,000 Negroes each:

Negroes constituted one-fourth or more of the total population of twenty-seven principal cities (25,000 or more total population), and in four of these cities—viz., Montgomery, Ala., Jacksonville Fla., Savannah, Ga. and Charleston, S. C.—the Negro population was something more than one-half.

II. Segregation Within the City

Migration to the city is being followed by segregation into districts and neighborhoods within the city. In Northern cities years ago Negro residents, for the most part, lived where their purses allowed. With the influx of thousands of immigrants from the South and the West Indies, both native Negro and newcomer have been lumped together into distinct neighborhoods. In Southern cities domestic servants usually still live upon the premises of their employers or near by. But the growing Negro business and professional classes and those engaged in other than domestic and personal service find separate sections in which to dwell. Thus the Negro ghetto is growing up. New York has its "San Juan Hill" in the West Sixties, and its Harlem district of over 35,000 within about eighteen city blocks; Philadelphia has its Seventh Ward; Chicago has its State Street; Washington its North West neighborhood, and Baltimore its Druid Hill Avenue. Louisville has its Chestnut Street and its "Smoketown; ' Atlanta its West End and Auburn Avenue. These are examples taken at random which are typical of cities, large and small, North and South.

This segregation within the city is caused by strong forces at work both within and without the body of the Negroes themselves. Naturally, Negroes desire to be together. The consciousness of kind in racial, family and friendly ties binds them closer to one another than to their white fellow-citizens. But as Negroes develop in intelligence, in their standard of living and economic power, they desire better houses, better public facilities and other conveniences not usually obtainable in the sections allotted to their less fortunate black brothers. To obtain these advantages they seek other neighborhoods, just as the European immigrants who are crowded into segregated sections of our cities seek better surroundings when they are economically able to secure them.

But a prejudiced opposition from his prospective white neighbors confronts the Negro, which does not meet the immigrant who has shuffled off the coil of his Continental condition. Intelligence and culture do not often discount color of skin. Professions of democratic justice in the North, and deeds of individual kindness in the South, have not yet secured to Negroes the unmolested residence in blocks with white fellow-citizens. In Northern cities where larger liberty in some avenues obtains, the home life, the church life and much of the business and community life of Negroes are carried on separately and apart from the common life of the whole people. In Southern communities, with separate streetcar laws, separate places of amusement and recreation, separate hospitals and separate cemeteries, there is sharp cleavage between whites and Negroes, living and dead. With separation in neighborhoods, in work, in churches, in homes and in almost every phase of their life, there is growing up in the cities of America a distinct Negro world, isolated from many of the impulses of the common life and little known and understood by the white world about it.

III. The Sequel of Segregation

In the midst of this migration and segregation, the Negro is trying to make a three-fold adjustment, each phase of which requires heroic struggle. First, there is the adjustment that all rural populations have to make in learning to live in town. Adjustment to conditions of housing, employment, amusement, etc., is necessary for all who make the change from country to city. The Negro must make a second adjustment from the status of a chattel to that of free contract, from servitude to citizenship. He has to realize in his own consciousness the self-confidence of a free man. Finally, the Negro must adjust himself to the white population in the cities, and it is no exaggeration of the facts to say that generally today the attitude of this white population is either indifferent or prejudiced or both.

Now, the outcome of segregation in such a serious situation is first of all to create an attitude of suspicion and hostility between the best elements of the two races. Too much of the Negro's knowledge of the white world comes through demagogues, commercial sharks, yellow journalism and those "citizens" who compose the mobs, while too much of the white man's knowledge of the Negropeople is derived from similar sources, from domestic servants and from superficial observation of the loafers about the streets. The best elements of both races, thus entirely removed from friendly contact, except for the chance meeting of individuals in the market place, know hardly anything of their common life and tend to become more suspicious and hostile toward each other than toward strangers from a far country.

The white community is thus frequently led to unjust judgments of Negroes and Negro neighborhoods, as seen in the soubriquets of "little Africa," "black bottom," "Niggertown," "Smoketown, "Buzzard's Alley," "Chinch-row," and as indicated by the fact that the individuals and families who live in these neighborhoods are all lumped by popular opinion into one class. Only here and there does a white person come to know that "there are Negroes and Negroes just as there are white folks and white folks." The most serious side of this :attitude and opinion is, that the Negro is handicapped by them in securing the very things that would help him in working out his own salvation.

1. The Sequel in Housing Conditions

In the matter of the housing conditions under which he must live, reliable investigations have shown that in several cities the "red-light" districts of white people are either in the midst of, or border closely upon Negro neighborhoods. Also respectable Negroes often find it impossible to free themselves from disreputable and vicious neighbors of their own race, because the localities in which both may live are limited. And on top of this, Negroes often pay higher rentals for accommodations similar to those of white tenants, and, frequently, improved houses are secured only when white people who occupied them have moved on to something better. In Southern cities, many of the abler classes of Negroes have escaped the environment of the vicious element by creating decent neighborhoods through home ownership, and by eternal vigilance, excluding saloons, gambling places or other degrading agencies. For the poorer and less thrifty element, in a number of towns and cities, loose building regulations allow greedy landlords to profit by "gun-barrel" shanties and cottages, by "arks," of which the typical pigeon-house would be a construction model, and by small houses crowded upon the same lot, often facing front street, side street and the alley, with lack of sewerage and with other sanitary neglect, which an inspector of one Southern city described as "a crying disgrace to any civilized people."

Yet, in the face of these handicaps, thousands of homes that would do credit to any people on earth are springing up in these cities. In the absence or with the indifference of sanitary authorities, intelligent Negroes are not only struggling to free themselves from disease-breeding surroundings, but they are teaching the unintelligent throng. In spite of spontaneous schemes of real estate owners and agents to keep them out of desirable neighborhoods, in spite of the deliberate designs of city segregation ordinances such as have been passed in several cities and attempted in others, in spite of intimidation, the abler Negroes in some cities are buying homes and creating decent neighborhoods in which to live. However, the larger proportion are rent payers and not owners, hence they need intelligent leadership and influential support in their efforts for improved housing and neighborhood conditions.

2. The Economic Sequel

Three facts should be placed in the foreground in looking at the economic conditions of the segregated Negro in the city. First, the masses of those who have migrated to town are unprepared to meet the exacting requirements -of organized industry, and the keen competition of more efficient laborers. Second, organized facilities for training these inefficient, groping seekers for something better are next to nothing in practically all the cities to which they are flocking. They, therefore, drift hit or miss into any occupations which are held out to their unskilled hands and untutored brains. Natural aptitude enables many to "pick up" some skill, and these succeed in gaining a stable place. But the thousands work from day to day with that weak tenure and frequent change of place from which all unskilled, unorganized laborers suffer under modern industry and trade.

The third fact of prime importance is the prejudice of the white industrial world, which the Negro must enter to earn his food, shelter and raiment. This prejudice, when displayed by employers, is partly due to the inefficiency indicated above and the failure to discriminate between the efficient individual and this untrained throng. When exhibited by fellow wage-earners, it is partly due to fear of probable successful competitors, and to the belief that the Negro has "his place" fixed by a previous condition of servitude. But in the cases of many employers and employees, as shown in numbers of instances carefully investigated, the opposition to the Negro in industrial pursuits is due to a whimsical dislike of any workman who is not white and especially of one who is black!

The general result of this inefficiency, of this lack of facilities and guidance for occupational training which would overcome the defect, and of this dwarfing prejudice is far-reaching. In both Northern and Southern cities the result is a serious limitation of the occupational field for Negroes, thus robbing them of better income and depriving the community of a large supply of valuable potential labor. Examination of occupational statistics for Northern cities shows that from about three-fourths to about nine-tenths of Negro males engaged in gainful occupations are employed in domestic and personal service. Workmen in industries requiring skill are so well organized in the North that Negroes in any numbers must enter the trades through union portals. Only in late years, and frequently at the time of strikes, as in the building trades' strike of 1900, the stockyards' strike of 1904, and the teamsters' strike of 1905 in Chicago, has the Negro been recognized as a fellow-workman whose interests are common with the cause of organized labor. A large assortment of testimony lately gathered by Atlanta University from artisans and union officials in all parts of the country gives firm ground for the conclusion that, except in some occupations largely the building and mining trades, white union men are yet a long distance from heartily receiving Negro workmen on equal terms.

In Southern cities Negro labor is the main dependence and manual labor is slow to lose the badge of servitude. But for selected occupations in Southern cities between 1890 and 1900 the rate of increase in domestic and personal service occupations among Negroes was greater than those in manufacturing and mechanical pursuits, and than those in trade and transportation, if draymen, hackmen, and teamsters are omitted from the last classification. The occupations of barbering, whitewashing, laundering etc., are being absorbed by white men. The white firemen of the Georgia Railroad and Queen and Crescent Railway, struck because these companies insisted upon giving Negro firemen employment on desirable trains. These are indications of a possible condition when the desire of white men for places held by Negroes becomes a matter of keen competition. An able writer on the Negro problem has asserted that in the South the Negroes can get any work "under the sun." But since an increasing proportion of modern industry is conducted in the shade, the Southern city Negro of tomorrow may find it as difficult to wedge his way into the better paid occupations as does his black brother in the North now.

When it comes to the question of business experience and opportunity, the sea is still thicker with reefs and shoals. A Negro who wants training and experience in some line of business that he may begin some enterprise of his own, finds, except in very rare cases, the avenues to positions in white establishments which would give him this experience closed. The deadline of his desire is a messenger's place or a porter's job. How can a porter learn to run a mercantile establishment or a messenger understand how to manage a bank? His only alternative, inexperienced as he may be, is to risk his meager savings in venturing upon an unsounded sea. Shipwreck is necessarily the rule, and successful voyage the exception.

The successes, however, in both industry and trade are multiplying, and with substantial encouragement may change the rule to exception in the teeth of excessive handicaps. There was an increase between 1890 and 1900 of 11.6 per cent of Negroes engaged in selected skilled and semi-skilled occupations in Southern cities. In 1910 the executive council of the American Federation of Labor unanimously passed a resolution inviting Negroes, along with other races, into its ranks. Some of its affiliated bodies have shown active sympathy with this sentiment, and have taken steps in different cities to bring in Negro workmen. All of eleven Negro inventors of 1911 were city dwellers. The "Freedmen's Bank," which had branches in about thirty-five cities and towns failed in 1873. During its existence it held deposits of over $50,000,000 of savings of the freedmen. Although the confidence of the freedmen was shaken to its foundation, they have rallied and in 1911 there were 64 private Negro banks in the towns and cities of the country. Many of these are thriving institutions. There is no means of knowing the number and importance of other Negro business enterprises. But judging from studies of Negro business enterprises made in Philadelphia and in New York City, and from the widespread attendance upon the annual meetings of the National Negro Business League, substantial progress is triumphing over unusual obstacles.

3. The Sequel in Health and Morals

Crowded into segregated districts; living in poor houses for the most part for which they pay high rentals; often untaught and without teachers in the requirements of town life; walled in by inefficiency, lack of training and the chance to get the training; usually restricted from well-paid occupations by the prejudice of fellow-employees and frequently by the prejudice of employers; with a small income and the resulting low standard of living, the wonder is not that Negroes have a uniformly higher death-rate than whites in the cities and towns, but that the mortality is as small as it is and shows signs of decrease. Forced by municipal indifferences or design in many cities to live in districts contaminated by houses and persons of ill-fame; unable often to drive from their residential districts saloons and dens of vice; feeling the pressure of the less moral elements of both races, and feeling that weight of police and courts which the poor and the oppressed undoubtedly experience, the marvel is not that the criminal records outrun other elements of our urban population, but that impartial observers both North and South testify to the large law-abiding Negro citizenship, and to the thousands of pure individuals, Christian homes and communities.¹

In speaking of the Negro death-rate in Southern cities, Frederick L. Hoffman, who cannot be charged with favorable bias, said in 1906, "without exception, the death-rates are materially in excess of the corresponding death-rates of the white population, but there has also been in this case a persistent decline in the general death rate from 38.1 per 1,000 in 1871 to 32.9 in 1886 and 28.1 in 1904." Data from other investigations for five Southern cities (three cities not included in Mr. Hoffman's studies) show results similar to his. Figures for the death-rate of Negroes in Northern cities are not available.

Infant mortality, tuberculosis and pneumonia are chief causes of the excessive death-rate. Negroes in cities have an excessive number of female breadwinners, and a large proportion of these are married women. The neglect of the child, while the mother is "working out" during the long hours of domestic service, and ignorance of child nurture are the ingredients of the soothing-syrup which lulls thousands of small children into the sleep of death. Undernourishment due to low pay, bad housing, poor sanitation, ignorant fear of "night air" and lack of understanding of the dangers of infection make Negroes the prey of diseases now clearly proven preventable. With an aroused public conscience for sanitation and adequate leadership in education on matters of health these conditions are gradually removable.

The mental and moral conditions of a people cannot be shown by case counting. Tables of criminal statistics are quite as much a commentary on the culture conditions of the whole community as upon the accused Negro. The best study of crime in cities showed that down to 1903 there was a general tendency toward a decrease among Negroes. Available testimony for Southern cities from the days of the Freedmen's Bureau superintendence down to the present time is decidedly in favor of the Negro, even under an archaic penal system. Personal observation for fifteen years during residence in and repeated visits to a score of the larger cities and a number of the smaller ones, leave the writer with a firm conviction of decided advancement. The intelligence and character demanded of ministers, teachers, doctors, lawyers and other professional classes, the drawing of social lines based upon individual worth, the improved type of amusement and recreation frequently in evidence and similar manifestations are a part of the barometer which clearly shows progress.

4. The Sequel in Miscellaneous Conditions

To make the view of urban situation among Negroes full and clear, a number of conditions which exist in some cities but are absent in others should be included in the list. In many cities the sequel of segregation means less effective police patrol and inadequate fire protection; in others it means unpaved streets, the absence of proper sewerage and lack of other sanitary supervision and requirements.

The provision which people have for the play life of their children and themselves is nearly as important as the conditions of labor. Facilities for amusement and recreation, then, are of great importance to the Negro. Wholesome amusement for all the people is just beginning to receive deserved attention. But the Negro is in danger of being left out of account in the movement. Playgrounds in Negro neighborhoods are so rare as to excite curiosity, and organized play is just being heard of in the Negro world. There is hardly a city where unhindered access to theatres and moving picture shows exists. In a few Southern cities "Negro parks" of fair attractiveness are being provided because exclusion from public parks used by whites has been the custom. Here and there enterprising Negroes are starting playhouses for their own people.

In the provision for education, the opportunity of the city Negro is much greater than that of his rural brother. Yet, while one rejoices over this fact, candor compels consideration of the relative educational chances of the black boy and the white one. Some of the Northern cities which have no official or actual separation in public schools may be passed without scrutiny. In others and in some border cities like St. Louis, Washington and Louisville, where there are separate schools, the standards and equipment for the Negro schools compare favorably. Also a large need of praise is due Southern communities for the great advance which has been made in public opinion and financial support for Negro education. Yet, in many cities, although local pride may apply names and give glowing descriptions, those who have seen the public school systems at close range know that they are poor compared with white schools in the same places. The bona-fide Negro public high schools in the cities of the South can be counted on the fingers of the two hands. Public schools all over the land have been tardy to the call of the educational needs of the masses of the people. The "dead hand" of past aims, content and methods of education still clasps many communities in its icy grip. It is well-nigh impossible to tell in a generalized statement the significance of this condition as applied to the city Negro. The hopeful sign of the situation is the awakening of the South to the need.

IV. Suggestions for Solution

The recital of the foregoing facts and conclusions would be of little consequence unless it led somewhere. The summary of the discussion presents a clear case of a large nation-wide Negro migration to towns and cities, such as is taking place among the entire people; a segregation within the city of Negroes into distinct neighborhoods with a decreasing contact with the larger community and its impulses; accompanying housing, economic, health, moral, educational and other conditions which are more critical and are receiving less attention than similar problems among the white people. With such a problem before us, what should be done?

1. There should be an organized effort to acquaint the Negro in the country with the desirability of his remaining where he is unless by education and training he is prepared to meet the exactions of adjustments to city life. The roseate picture of city existence should be corrected. Simultaneously with the agricultural and other improvements of country life calculated to make its economic and social conditions more attractive should go an effort to minimize the activities of labor agents, employment agency sharks and the other influences that lure the rustics from home.
2. Recognizing that already more than two score cities and towns have large Negro populations in the first stages of adjustment, organized effort should be made to help the Negro to learn to live in town. The thoughtful white and colored people in each community will have to break the bonds of this increasing segregation and come into some form of organized community cooperation. The danger most to be feared is antagonism between the better element of both races, because they may not know and understand each other. The meeting on the high levels of mutual sympathy and cooperation will work wonders with prejudices and conventional barriers.
3. The cooperative movement of the white and colored citizens of each locality should work out a community program for the neighborhood, housing, economic, educational, religious and other improvement of the Negro. The time is at hand when we should not let this matter longer drift.
4. Such a movement should sooner or later become conscious of the national character of the problem and the towns and cities should unite for the exchange of plans, methods and experience and for general cooperation and for developing needed enthusiasm.
5. The Negro must have more and better trained leadership in these local situations. Slowly but surely we are listening to the lesson of group psychology and common sense-and are beginning to use the most direct way of influencing the customs and habits of a people by giving them teachers and exemplars of their own kind. If the Negro is to be lifted to the full stature of American civilization; he must have leaders—wise, well-trained leaders—who are learned in the American ways of thinking and of doing things. And it should never be forgotten that the Negro himself has valuable contributions to make to American life.
6. The final suggestion is that the white people of each locality can best foster mutual confidence and cooperation of Negroes by according them impartial community justice. This means "a square deal" in industry, in education and in other parts of the common life. It means equality of opportunity.

These conditions among Negroes in the cities arise as much from the many changes which are taking place in the life of the Negro as from the changes taking place in the life of the nation. The Negro is awakening to a race consciousness and to the consciousness of American citizenship. His migration is a part of his groping efforts to better his condition; he is trying to engage in industry and commerce and is accumulating wealth. Above the ruins of the slave cabin he is building homes. Upon the ash-cleared hearth of the chattel he is developing the sacredness of family relationships. Where once he toiled that the children of others might have leisure and learning, he is trying to erect schools and colleges for the education of his own. In lieu of the superstition and ignorance which savagery and serfdom had made his daily portion, the Negro is trying to cultivate an ethical and religious life beautiful in holiness and achieving in service. In these efforts for self-realization in the city the Negro needs the fair dealing, the sympathy and the cooperation of his white brother. For the problem of his adjustment is only a part of the great human problem of justice for the handicapped in democratic' America.

Notes

1. The writer has had to condense into a few clauses here the conclusions from a large amount of testimony and facts. ↩