The daily worker., 1933-06-03
CHICAGO'S SOUTH
SIDE SEES "RED"

discrimination against Negroes at en-
ployment agencies, at charity stations,
at theaterS, in schools, at bathing
beaches, And he points out the way
in which the police attempt to crush
any protest against this elaborate sys-
tenn Of JIM -Crowtsm.
Protest Scottsboro
a snort, Stocky Negro takes the
platform. In low, tense voice he calls
Ior q protest against the legal murder
OF the nine ScottSboro bows On q
iramed-up charge of rape. He explains
now their lives can only be saved bv
a mass protest Of workers. because
tne Alabama courts and the white
posses who control them want these
Negro boys to die as an example" To
Ine Negro masses Of the South.
a strapping young man in oyeraIls
ana torn shirt proposes the motion
OF protest. Shouts and cheers from
all parts Of the wide circle record
tne unanimous endorsement by the
audience.
On the fringe of the crowd little
groups congregate. A Negro electrician
SHOWS his union card to a small
group. He tells how the white bosc
OF the A. F. Of L. won't let him work
even when he finds a lob. A voIno
Negro says, I'm getting tired waitin'
we gotta start sumpin' soon"
TO understand the growth and de-
VeIopment Of the Washington Park
Forum, one must know something of
the events which have taken mace
on Chicago's South Side during nre-
cedlng years, and Of the conditions
which caused these events.
twenty years ago the Negro nonu-
latlon lived on Wabash Avenue state
street, and a few streets to the west
from 18th to 43rd Street. Outside
OF these four or five streets. most OF
the South Side was occupied bv fairly
prosperous middle class whites. with
some wealthy families still living on
michigan Avenue and Grand Boule-
ward, and large colony of wealthy
Jews on these boulevards and aronnd
Washington Park.
At that time most Negro men work
ed as Pullman porters, walters bar-
oerS, and servants, while the women
cooked, washed, and tended babies
Tor the white bourgeoisie
The War Comes
Then came the war with an almost
complete cessation of Immigrants
from Central and Southern EIrone
The stockyards. the Harvester works
the steel mills, had depended on new
ly arrived European labor to replace
thelr workers who were constantly
leaving these dirty, hazardous indus
trles Tor less strenuous Jobs. The labor
shortage became so acute that the
posses, for the first time. were faced
with paying living wage. and the
workers, organizing unions and strik-
ing Tor shorter hours, safety devices.
and larger pay.
Inc late Ogden Armour distinp-
ulshed himself by solving the dilemma
OF the manufacturers. He sent his
agents into the South to tell the
Negro cotton hands of the good Jobs
which awaited them In Chicago.
thousands and thousands of Negroes
treked northward into the promised
land. The Southern plantation owners,
alarmed at the escape Of
their slaves, tried to restrain their
workers by force. The night riders
rode again. Negroes who had an
nounced their plans to leave we're
lynched. Sheriffs arrested share CROP
pers who were boarding trains, on
the claim Of debts owed. But still the
migration continued, until Chicago's
Negro population numbered between
two and three hundred thousand
people.
ITO be concluded Monday