The Dillon herald. (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, August 21, 1919, Image 9
NEGROES IX CHICAGO.
Conditions Out of Which Race Erie-'
tion Has Grown.
F. Frank Gardiner in New York Times
Explotiation of the ne rro in Chica-J
go, by politicians is regarded by many,
as the chief underlying cause of the!
race riots in that city. The bestowal!
of political preferment, and the license
under which "everything went"i
in the Black Belt of the second lar-j
gest American city was the inflammable
part of the tinder which finally j
set the city ablaze.
The influx of thousands of negroes,
from the south i" the last three years,
was a contributing factor. Their
arrival in an already congested dis-j
trict made expansion necessary.;
Steadily the Black Belt, which
stietches for five miles thiough the'
heart of the densely populatd south'
1- - * Ki.lcr.vrl rmt intn what I
sine or ^aitcisu, uuife uui ... -_ .
a few years ago was a choice residential
district. This continuous encroachment
aroused protests and bitter feeling.
The advance guard of the colored
race which moved into white neighborhoods
was the better class of negro
families, who sought to escape
the steady encroachment of the undesirable
element of their own race.
They had no desire to antagonize their
white neighbors. Their relations had
always been friendly. But they were
between two fires. Pressing always
behind them was the influx of a lawless
element of their own race. Few
of the newcomers brought negro
women with them, and some Chicago
observers hold the absence of home
life among them partly accountable
for the present trouble.
Political Power.
The second ward in Chicago is the
heart of the Black Belt. Eighty per
cent, of the voters in this ward are
black. White men represented this |
ward in the city council until 1915
but now bo.h aldermen are negroes.
Two uie'i control most of the negro
vote i.i Chicago. They are Congressman
Alartin B. Madden of the
First Illinois District and George F.
Harding,* former alderman, later
state senator, and now city controller.
It wan the Dalance of power held by
the negroes and swung by Harding
that gave William Hale Thompson,
more widely known as a pro-German
than for his kindnesses to negroes,
the nomination for mayor of Chicago
in the spring of 1915. Harding had
represented the second ward in Chicago
for several years. He retired anu
permitted Oscar De Priest, a negro,
to be elected. In return for this favor
the negroes swept the mayoralty
nomination into Thompson's lap.
Thompson won the nomination by a
margin of few hundred votes.
De Priest became one of the chief
floor leaders in the city council for
the Thompson administration. His
/' public career was cut short by his
. indictment in connection with the al'
leged collection of tribute in the
Black Belt, but he was later acquitted.
Another negro succeeded him.
Then the second ward negroes grew
bolder, demanded both seats in the
city council, and got them.
In his campaign fot* the nomination
^ and election in 1915 Thompson catered
to the negro voters. After his elec
** k . j
UUI1 lie icwttiuea many ui iuch icau
ers with jobs.
So openly did the Thompson crowd
treat with the negroes that someb'ody
dubbed the city hall "Uncle Tom's
Cabin.'' One man caused handbills to
be printed, setting forth a complete
cast of characters, which included
Mayor Thompson and other city hall
jobholders, white and black. It got a
big laugh, which is. Chicago's usual
good natured way of disposing of her
problems.
Lid off the Black Belt.
Thompson had been mayor only a
short time when evidence was apparent
that there was no lid so far as the
Black Belt was concerned. From other
sections of the city white men and
women of the old underworld, who
had experienced some long, lean years
flocked to the neighborhood. White
men bought saloons and cabarets and
pushed negroes to the front as their
ostensible owners. Soon the Slack
Belt became known as the district
where everything "went."
All-night cabarets were jammed
with whites and blacks until the
morning sun streaked the sky over
Lake Michigan. In other parts of the
city saloons and cabarets closed at
1 a. m., but automobiles lined the
curbs for blocks all night in Black
Belt, and late comers stood in line for
hours outside some of the more notorious
"black and tan" cabarets
waiting for a chance to get inside.
jazz Danas ruiea me air witn syncopated
sound, while in the ' cabarets
white and blacks intermingled in carousal
It was here that the "shimmy"
dance is said to have originated.
The rattle of dice ard the click of
poker chips were seldom stilled in the
heart of this district. Gambling was
conducted on a business basis,
"syndicate'' was formed, and no independent
could operate successfully in
that district without its approval.
These gambling houses were run ir
u-nder the name of clubs, but a fat
bankroll gained easy admission to
them.
"Bill" Lewis, noted for years as a
gambler, conducted a game in Thirtyfifth
street near State street. S obrazen
was the conduct of this gambling
house that for a long time Lewis did
not bother to pull the curtains down,
and the games could be watched from
the planform of the elevated railroad
station near by. Finally, out of seem^
ing consideration for the feelings of
(K the police, the shades were drawn.
^ Conditions Generally Known.
The newspapers of Chicago repeatedly
exposed conditions in the Black
Belt. Members of the city council
sometimes denounced it. Reformers
visited the all night cabarets and
wrote long reports about them. Numerous
complaints were made to the
police. Conditions finally became notorious
that the all night cabarets
were closed. For a few weeks the
Black Belt was comparatively quiet,
except for the gambling games, which,
were seldom molested.
Then came vice in a new form; in
the shape of clubs; which were in
reality dance halls. These new places'
had no liquor licenses, although most
of them sold intoxicants, and theyj
didn't open their doors until midnight I
or 1 . m. They caught the crowdsl
which surged out of the cabarets at j
the closing hour and held them un i
til sunrise.
The old Pekin theatre at 2,700!
street, for years one of the leading;
negro amusement houses in the country,
became one of these dance halls. I
They were openly conducted for a |
long time without being molested, but I
early in 1018 the city council passed;
an anti-cabaret ordinance which put!
a damper for a time on the night life i
or me cuy.
Last spring, however, the mayoral-1
ty election came around again. May-1
or Thompson was a candidate for reelection
and was reelected. The black |
Belt did Its duty.
When the primary campaign open-1
ed the lid was tossed overboard. He-J
sorts which had been closed re-opened.
The Black Belt became again the
centre of night activities.
With the elections over in April
and prohibition looming up in the
near future, the hearts or the city authorities
were softened, and the lid
stayed off. In the last few months
conditions in the Black Belt have been
almost unprecedented. Men who have
traveled the country over say tnat ..
where in the United States have they
witnessed such scenes as they saw in
the notorious "black-and-tan" resorts
on the south side in Chicago.
State Attorney Maclay Hoyne of
Chicago a few days ago laid the blame
for the race riots at the door of thi
politicians, who, he said, taught the
negroes disrespect for the law.
"The police department" said Mr.
Hoyne "has been demoralized to such
extent by the politicians, black and
white, on the south side that they grt
afraid to arrest and prosecute m...
wiin poiuicar uacHiug ui ?uu viaim
have political influence.''
Others have issued similar warnings
from time to time in the last two
or three years.
Municipal Judge Harry M. Fisher,
after sitting for a time in the morals
court, where the larger per cent of the
offenders were negro men and women
said:
"My opinion, based on observation
in this court, is that crime conditions
among colored people are being deliberately
fostered by the present city
administration. Disorderly cabarets,
thieves and depraved women are allowed
in the section of the city where
colored people live. They have an exprssion,
'the law is around tpnight,'
as a warning t* behave, so seldom is
the law enforced.'
Chicago's Lesson.
When Chicago began to come out
of the nightmare of rioting last Friday,
it is?probable that the smiles
which greeted that "Uncle Tom's Cabin"
parody had worn off, never to
return. The city's roster of dead was
32, of whom 14 were white. The total
of injured was given in press dispatches
as 300, with the probability
that perhaps 200 others had been injured
without making any report t?
the police and hospital authorities.
Governor Dowder, had sent 6,000
troops to guard the city and quell the
mnhc imHor tho r*f A Hit
?? 1 V V >J| UilVtVl V MV Uti VVV1VU VI AUJVI
Gen. Dickman, and apparently quiet
had been restored.
For five days the district affected
by the rioting hsd been without
fresh meats or vegetables. City Controller
Harding, who owes his political
preferment in large measures to hit,
influence in the Black Belt, sent 2,000
bottles of milk into that area and
the movement of supplies in that direction
was initiated at the same ti..
Negro undertakers began to prepare
for the burial of the dead. During
the disturbance there had been no
funerals in the Black Belt.
Presumably Chicago has learned a
lesson such as she never drew t.
the numerous surveys of negro condl
tions in that city, or from warnings.
Whether other American cities will
take the lesson to heart remains to be
seen.
Chicago's negr0 population is dif
ficult to estimate. The estimates run
from 50,000 to 175,000. There is m
authentic information of recent d;:
on the subject. The United States
census taken in 1910 reports a pop,,
lation of 44,103 negroes in Chicago.
In the last three years however, the
increase has been enormous. The colored
population has grown more rapidly
in proportion to its numbers than
any othe rpart of the city's population.
Junius B. Wood of The Chicago
Daily News, who made an extensive
survey of the negro problem in Chicago,
estimated the colored population
in 1916 at 75,000. The seady influx
of thousands of negroes from the
south and the continuous spread of
the colored section of the city indicates
that the population is more tha
Ifin.OA of nrosnn t Tf it? o *1 * f ft 1 I
* v W|V v Ml, A W IO A UlliltUli
population to count. Probably more
than 50 percent, are lodgers.
Chicago's Black Belt is an average
of half a mile wide, although it flares
to one and two miles in width at certain
points. From Twenty second
street it runs south beyond Sixtythird
street. South State street is
the back-bone. The south side elevated
railroad runs through the heart of
the district its entire length. The
South State street surface car line is
patronized almost exclusively by negroes.
Most of the other surface car
lines connecting the ioop," Chicago's
business district with the south side,
run through part of the negro district.
The eastern edge of the Black Belt
is a handsome residential district, on
which the negroes have encroached
steadily for years. Its western boun
is a railroad and industrial district.
There are other colored sections in
the city, two on the south side and
one on the west side, but they are
restricted In area.
Advantages of Negroes.
For years negroes lived in Chicago,
without friction and without disturb-j
ances of any kind. Leaders of the race
held positions of trust. Thousands of
them bought homes. Many of themj
achieved success as lawyers, physicians,
and in business. Their children j
went to the public schools with white
children. There wars no segregation.
Some negroes held public office, botl.
elective and appointiv. Twelve negroes
have served in th? Illinois state
legislature.
It has been said that churches probably
wield more power among negroes
than with any other single class in the
United States. Tlw? colored people in
Chicago have sixty churches, which
had a membership in 1916 of 31,870.
Their membership is probably much
larger now. They are financially prosperous
and most of the larger ones
maintain employment agencies. Many
of them conduct day nurseries where
children are cared for while their
uiui uri & ui *v.
Chicago has two institutions conducted
by colored people for members
of their own race, which -are models
of their kind. Oneis the Provident
Hospital, at 16 West Thirty-sixth
street, which has figured prominently
in the day's news concerning the
rioting. The other is the Wabash Avenue
department of the Young Men's
Christian Association, at 3,783 South
Wabash Avenue conducted exclusively
for colored men.
The Provident Hospital is the leading
institution of its kind in the
United States. With the Nathan M.
Freer $30,000 home for nurses, the
plant represents an investment of
$125,000 and is free of debt. Its
affairs are conducted exclusively by
negroes, and about one-third of the
sufferers cared for there are charity
patients. Money for the establishment
of this institution was given by Philip
D. Armour Marshall Field and Geo.
M. Pullman, deceased and H. H. Kohlsaat,
a retired newspaper publisher.
Negro Institutions.
The Y. M. C. A. establishment cost
$185,000. It has more than 1,500
members, and 150 young men live in
its dormitories. The negroes have
their own stores and theatres and
thai-o ic n hanlt cnnriliptorl hv a neern
and patronized almost exclusively by
members of his race. Many newspapers
are published by and for negroes
in Chicago. Some are local but others
have national circulation. The Defender,
published by R. S. Abbott, has the
largest circulation of its kind in the
United States.
In Chicago, as elsewhere, negro
families of the better class have always
been ambitious to get into better
homes and better surroundings
This has been one of the chief cause
of complaint. The entrance of colored
residents into high-class white neighborhoods
has always been met with
protests, and sometimes with threats,
Sometimes real estate operators wert
back of these invasions. Thy hoped
to profit by affecting real estate value.
A <-tudy of the negro housing problem
in Chicago made by the Chicagc
School of Civics and Philanthropy re
vealed that colored tenants paid disproportionately
higher rent for theii
apartments, which, as a rule, were ir
poorer repair than those of their immigrant
neighbors.
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Druggists refund money if PAZO OINTMENT faili
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a?? ??
ft ICE C
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TOWN i
For Stores, Part
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j CHARLIE
GINNERS Ar
Just received carload of Galvan
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Sharpeners and Gummers. All
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Boiler, Shafting and Pulleys.
COLUMBIA
828 WEST GERVA1S STREET
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COLUMBIA, S. C.
The C. & B. Hat Company
123 Broad St.
JACKSONVILLE, FLA.,
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. w-o, v.- 'XTED
n F ^ CATALOGUE
?
Loose leaf ledgers, binders, Index
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FOR SALE
Registered Duroc Pigs, Gilts an
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Telephone Route
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ARCADIAN Sulphate of Ammonia
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For information
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g tom" ai
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