Hartford-Springfield chronicle., 1940-06-15
BOOK REVIEW
NEGRO HOUSING IN CHICAGO,
by Horace R. Cayton. New York:
 Council for Social Action. 15 cents.

by Horace R. Cayton. New York: Council for Social Action. 15 cents.
 Professor Cayton, the Fisk Uni versity sociologist, has provided scientific confirmation of the hous- ing conditions among Chicago's Negroes imaginatively described in Richard Wright's great novel, 'Native Son." which MT. Cayton often quotes as his text at various points of his comprehensive dis cussion. The Council for Social Action of the Congregational and Christian churches, the headquar- ters of which are at 289 Fourth avenue, New York, must be com- mended for having performed a real service of practical Christian ity in publishing Mr.. Cayton's study.
 Pointing out that "at least one third of the population of the United States lacks the money to pay for adequate housing facili- ties," the author illustrates how this general truth, which will not brook denial, applies to the Black Belt of Chicago. MT. Cayton de- clares: Except for the very early period of it's history, Chicago has never afforded enough room for it's Negro population. In 1917, at the height of the migration, only one Negro out of every thirteen looking for a house in the city could be successful in his search. :" Today race prejudice confines the Negro citizenry to ghetto which is woefully overcrowded because of natural increases in the popula- tion and of migration from the South. Such segregation is legal ized by pernicious restrictive cov- enants or agreements, enforce able by the courts, between a cer- tain percentage of property own CTS within an area not to rent or sell their property to Negroes" Illinois State courts have upheld these covenants, but Carl A. Hans berry and Harry H. Pace, the prominent fnanciers, have taken steps to appeal two cases to the United States Supreme Court. MT. Cayton correctly observes: Be cause of these covenants, no ex- pansion of the Negro population into areas adjacent to the existing community is possible"
 A special merit of Mir. Cayton's booklet is that he does not try to write with that Olympian de- tachment so often affected by aca- demic men in order to conceal their cowardice. He. attacks boldly, let ting the chiPs--ff=S.sss .s -rr=c -sr.s.-=c they may. He shows, for example, the pres ident of the University of Chica- go, Dr. Hutchins, justifying re- strictive covenants. He praises the courageous Negro legislators who have fought and are fighting the vicious un-American practice of residential segregation, wh i c h forces Negroes to pay high rents for dilapidated quarters, which creates the overcrowding respon- sible Gin large degree) for crime and vice. Some of these leaders we ought to know: A. c. McNeal, president of the local NAACP; Aldermen William l.. Dawson, Robert R. Jackson, and Earl B. Dickerson, of the National Negro Congress; A. L. Foster, executive secretary of the Chicago Urban League. The violations of the civil rights of the Negro people as evil denced in restrictive covenants have the earnest concern of the entire Negro community.
 MT. Cayton's warning against attempts to halt the natural ex- pansion of Negro Chicago should be cited: Population movements springing from human needs can- not forever be stopped by a resort to legalism." His conclusion is that the covenants ought to be even though such aboli- tion would not completely solve the Negro housing problem, as "the of Negroes would, in all probability, remain in a solidly Negro community" It would, how ever, be victory over reaction, and such victories, nowadays, are never to be despised.
 William Harrison.