The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-03-24

WlIllQId Wal VI JlC 4NCSIO AAOAAA
participation in white affairs
have been found to be based on
mere sentiment-to be cow
ardly, unethical, and impossible
of fulfillment.
Ever since the civil war, when the
abolition Of slavery released the
Negro from his bondage to the soil,
there has been greater migration
from the rural to city life CORE
spending to the lesser migration of
the white farmers away from the
land into industry. The movement
of the Negro into the large cltSes
has now reached huge proportions.
According to U. S. Department of
Labor figures, 476,000 Negroes mi
grated from the South to the
Northern cities in 1923.
Segregation Not Legal.
We have already seen, from our
study Of Chicago's South Side, what
miserable surroundings greet the
Southern Negro on his arrival in his
new Northern home. In a legal
sense, there is no segregation of the
Negro in the United States. The
United States Supreme Court in
1917 handed down a decision voiding
existing state and city segregation
laws. "They prevent the occupancy
Of lot by person Of color in a
city block where the greater num-
Der of residences are Occupied by
white persons. Where such ma
jority exists colored persons are ex-
cluded. This introduction is based
wholly upon color, simply that and
nothing more"
eve think this attempt to pre-
vent the alienation of the property
in question to person of color is
not legitimate" concludes the deci-
sion, "and is in direct violation
of the 14th amendment to the fed
eral constitution. The ordinance,
therefore, cannot stand"
Nevertheless, it is a well known
fact that in every city, Chicago in
cluded, incoming Negroes are ex-
pected to take up their residences
in more or less definitely prescribed
areas. The white residents resist
prsistently the attempts of the fast
growing Negro ghetto to spread out
into the outlying districts.
Expansion Necessary.
1t is extremely necessary for the
colored population to expand. The
segregation in Chicago's South Side
for instance, has Jumped together
not only all types and classes Of
Negroes, but as is usually the case
the whites have selected the Negro
quarter as the tRed light district
Hence we find white prostitutes
rooming in the same houses with
cultured and highly respected color
ed families. The Negro youth
thirsting for education, is forced tc
| live in Surroundings near gambling
halls, cheap cabarets, and dens Of
crime. It is the desire of the Negro
families to get out of these squalid
surroundings into better neighbor-
hoods, that leads to expansion Of
the Negro districts, and consequent
friction with the surrounding whites
at is not pleasant for colored
people to break into a new neigh
kborhood," says Mary White Owing.
ton. eff they are not bombed, they
are often insulted and. subjected to
much petty attack. They are also
subjected to the sharpest of sharp
Dreal estate practices, always being
charged more rent than the whites
have to pay, which makes the Negro
skeptical regarding loss in real es-
tate values which they so frequently
hear"
The only expansion Of the colored
districts freely allowed is into sur
rounding neighborhoods which the
whites have already and are aban-
doning, and these homes are taken
up at the cost of much higher rents
than the whites have been paying.
Death Rate Higher.
The evil results of consequent
pressing together of the Negro are
freely admitted. 1t has been shown
that the Negro residences are the
oldest and most dilapidated in the
city.
Summing up the state Of Negro
dwellings, a minister speaking be-
fore a recent colored congress tells
us, "There are three types of Negro
structures, all of which are not
adapted to Goth century civilization.
All ideals Of comfort, progress and
safety are excluded before the
Negro family enters.
"These types are the little separate
shacks built Of the cheapest ma
terial and chosen because Of the
negro'e inability to live elsewhere
old buildings abandoned by whites,
the negroes getting little or no re-
pairs or improvements, and over
crowded tenement houses"
The death rate from tuberculosis
for whites is 10 to every ten thous-
and Of population, as compared to
SO for every ten thousand among
| the Negroes. This il caused. ac-