The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-08-18
CHICAGO'S BLACK
 BELT CENTER OF NEW CRIME WAVE
Whites Fear 100000 In District May Spread
 To Other Sections

CHICAGO, Aug. 1.-The H'Black Belt" gradually extending through the center of Chicago is found to be the center of the midsummer crime wave that has swept the city, bringing an almost unprecedented number of kill ings and major felOnies-the parties to practically all of which, however are negroes, and not whites and negroes in quarrels.
 \ Here one of the largest negro dis tricts in the county, already populated by nearly 100000, is being flooded with floaters and unemployed. Recent out breaks have caused Chief of Police Col lins to throw in additional police re- serves to protect the growng trouble center. Irresponsible colored clements, he says, are causing the great number Of law-abiding to get the reputation of criminal class.
 Yet Chicagoans do not like to con slider the problems raised by their rapidly extending colored section. They take little interest in the killings, the gambling, the depredations of the near South Side, which is solidly black But they are becoming seriously concerned as the negroes leave the old scenes and 
 Take Over Gold Coast"
 Already they have taken over the one-time "gold coast" of the South Side In scattered families they are reaching out as far as Seventieth street, some seeping over into the district approach ing the elite Hyde Park neighborhood. Washington Park, formerly a great playground for Southsiders, was this summer largely taken over by negroes. Their advance has caused property owners to form an association with funds pledged to buy any real estate which a negro seeks to purchase in the remaining white portion of the South Side, one of the most aristocratic of residential sections.
 Alfred Anderson, editor of the De- fender, negro weekly publication claim ing over 500,000 circulation, spokesman for the Chicago colored people, told the writer that the negroes do not intend to restrict themselves to their present bound, but will live wherever they feel they care to live and have means to buy property.
 "We feel" he said, ~that we should have the same privileges as any other class. The attitude of some property owners, who shy for blocks around when some one of us buys property in new section, has enabled the colored people to profit. They have been able to buy real estate for song, and later to sGfl to their own people for near the fair price. This attitude to the white residents is neither fair nor sensible"
 The editor declared that the negroes of Chicago, who form probably the largest colony in the country. are satis- fled. Unemployment, however, has hit them hard. The result is the outbreak of the crime wave which the police chiei has found to beSeentered in the black belt. He has set out to close up some of the gambling halls where the gal loping dominoes" romp for high stakes and other forms of gaming are engaged in on a big scale. Tough loafers are heinz hauled in nightly in big patches. The police Say that they are getting noticeable results in their attempt to rid the district of serious crime.
 Send Them To Farms.
 Incoming negroes, however, are find ing it hard to get work and here the editor of their paper says that efforts are being directed to head them for farms in the undeveloped regions of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan. Some already have set out for these cheap land sections, he declares, while others are being urged to try their hand at northern agriculture.
 The great number of colored persons still seem determined to build up their Chicago district. They have taken over the work in the packing house district almost to the exclusion of white help, and are filling a good share of the un- skilled jobs in other industries. With most of the negro population concen- trated in it's own section, friction with whites is largely lacking, fact that leads the editor of the Defender to say that likelihood of further disturbances such as the race riot of five years ago is very remote.