The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1912-01-26
COLORED PEOPLE
PLEAD FOR HOMES
Even Council Committee Ad-
mits That They've Had a
Rather Hard Time.
ANNEXATION DID NOT HELP
Need OF Larger Living Quarters
Strongly Emphasized and
Urged.
ANNEXATION DID NOT HELP

| That the City Council has not dealt
fairly with the negro since his clint
! nation from politics was tacitly admit
ted by special Council committee last
| night. whom 1t began n general discuf
sion OF the housing problems of the
negro race in their bearing not only
| on health and morality. but their effect
on the city generally. Tho special
committee was appointed ns result
OF the passage last year of the scgre-
Eaticn ordinnncc-an effort on the part
OF the Council TO prevent negroes from
encroaching on Clay Street.
Twenty or more OF the representative
leaders of the negro race appeared be-
lore the committee last night. showing
that while lamentations havo been made
| In all directions and large sections i'm
proved for tho homes OF white people,
there has been no addition TO the ne
gro quarter OF the city In a generation;
that rows OF houses have been stand
ing In tho city limits for forty years
without water or sewerage: that there
/, rs neither curbing. paving nor street
cleaning through the poorer sections:
! that contaminated wells are used by
| hundreds of families who arc unable
to secure city water. both because Of
the uHwlllinSness of tho city to extend
Its mains and because of the conduct
OF property owners and agents, who
oven where such mains arc provided
will not supply plumbing for their prop
| critics until compelled to do so by the
Board of Health.
Mrs. MunfOrd Tells of Conditions
Mrs u 3. Munrord. an active leader
| in every movement for social uplitt in
Richmond. and Miss Cooke member
| OF tho Nurses Settlement. descr' bed
conditions as they had seen them
whole blocks OF houses. in which hun
drcds OF people live. from three to
! eight in room. and in whose behalf
| neither the city nor the property own
er has raised hand III years.
Members OF the committee had no DC
tense. One member. who is also n
| member OF the Street Committee, adj
| United that improvements had gone
J where they would do the most good
| politically, and that since the negro
| had been oustcd from politics he had
little chance in 4 body whore approprs-
ations arc divided according TO ward
lines and expended BY those fighting
| for recollection.
D. Webster Davis, DR.. W. II. Hughes,
| w. i. Jordan and others presented the
| side OF the negro patiently and effect
! lively. Frankly. they saw nothing to be
| gained by the annexation OF outlying
| territory for negroes. as had been sug
| Eested. In generation the city had
| failed TO give them curb,nE and sewers
| in tnickly settled parts of Jackson
| Ward, and they saw no reason 10 be-
lLave that those Improvements necessary
for healthy living would be given In
| some newly annexed section. where the
Inevitable boom would occur and real
estate agents force tho prices and rents
| above the heads of those whom Il was
| hoped TO aid.
Need for Moro Room,
! The negro leaders told of their oppo-
sition TO tho segregation ordinance no;
because they wished 10 push themselves
on the whites or to live IN section
where they were not desired, but be-
cause homes were Mt n premium in the
limited area assigned 10 them. anG
they believed that the natural increase
I in population, as shown by census tiS
urcs justified their taking over West
Clay Street, as they did take over West
Leigh Street and ST. James street II
previous years There arc now AI.2@.
negroes in Richmond. according to tht
overwhelmingly one-third of the
population. Complaint was also made
that in the distribution of the so sa'
looms allowed by city ordinance. practi'
| cally no saloons arc allowed III th'
white residence sections, the white bar:
being confined nearly entirely to bus
incss streets. while there are twenty
two barrooms west Of Fifth and nortl
of Clay Streets. in what is entirely ;
negro residence district
Miss Cooke offered to supply the
committee with several hundred views
OF unsanitary conditions breeding dis
ease and immortality, and Mrs. Munford
urged upon the committee as it:
greatest opportunity for service to tho
city that it make critical study OF
the housing coalitions Of Richmond
especially of the colorcd race, TO see
IL therein could not he found the Ike;
to the large percentage of crlme, ano
, to Richmond's enormous death rate
shown by census figures to be the
. largest OF any city OF its size anL
Z conditions in the United States.
The committee adjourned to make
!, u tour of inspection of old jackson
/ Ward, that the members may see fol
| themselves the conditions depicted. :
visit will also be made to the section
south OF Cary and west Of Randolph
streets. which Mr.. Mitchell predicted
would furnish ample room for the de
vciopmcnt of the colored race. Later
a report will be submitted to the
Council setting forth the necess ~
pending further general annexation
Iof territory, Of making better pro
vision for the sewerage and waite
1 supply of the poorer sections of th'
4 city-whitc and colorcd--and that spe
i cial provisions be made for gas, wafer
4 sewers and the opening and improve
l ment Of streets through the congcstct
portions OF the negro quarter north o
a CLAY and west of Fifth Street.
III