St. Paul recorder., 1962-12-21
Chicago Negro
Develops Large
Middle Class

more rose from 5000 in 1850 to
5000 in 1860.
The average annual income of
non-white families rose from
$4,000 in 1850 to $4,7OO in 1860.
In 1860 Negro home owners
numbered $1,000, a 13O per cent
rise in ten years. The average
value of non-white home today
is over $17,OO compared to $4,000
ten years ago.
Non-whites 25 years and over
with one or more years Of college
rose from $4,000 in 1850 to At, 900
in 1860.
Non-whites employed in profess
sional, white-collar, managerial,
sales, craft and supervisory posi-
tions rose from $4,000 in 1850 to
81 900 in 1860.
Today in the city there are 27
census tracts, predominantly Ne
gro, where the average family in
come is over $4,000. In three of
these tracts the average income is
$1,000 year, in one, over $4,000
year.
These are the families which
have moved into the University
Apartments in Hyde Park, into
Lake Meadows and Prairie Shores,
and who bought homes in the vari-
GUS suburbs. These are the fam
lilies that will move into Maria
City and the Carl Sandburg
Homes.
In the past when we discussed
equality of hospital care we were
chiefly concerned with care given
low-income Negro families that
wound up in a hospital emergency
room. Today we must also ask how
our hospitals serve the city's Ne
gro middle class and its physicians
who can pay for hospital care anC
who enter not through the emer
gency room but through the hos
pitfalls front door.
When we talk about NegrC
teachers we are no longer talking
only about elementary schools O
high schools, but also about
growing number of Negroes ol
the faculties of the city's JUNO
colleges and our private college
and universities.
Today you can get the daily edi
ton of the New York Times no
only at the University of Chicag
bookstore or at downtown new
stands but also at 35th and Sout
Parkway and 29th and Vernon.
When speaking of the "middl
, class" I hope we are not mis-
, understood. We are not discussin
social standing, family background
moral character, or personal in
tegrity. These are not the specis
property of any class.
We refer only to a certain ir
come, occupation, education an
home ownership. Nothing morC
Nothing less. The only people VIII
do not currently qualify as mid
die class" are those who admit
being wealthy and those VIII
= are on relief or unemployed.
; Many have hoped that walls c
racial segregation and discrimins
/. ton would crlmble as the year
=, went by. While some walls haV
= started to crumble, the crack-up
Y slow and at times painful. It
9 obvious, as it has been true {
Chicago newcomers for over 10
years, that it is the second an
third generations that scale tn
walls and seek new opportunitie
in the wider community. The dt
, velopment of an educated and prC
l pertied middle class among Ne
groes now makes this possible
probable - and inevitable.
Hence, we are at a turning poir
in race relations in the metropol
tan community.
The presence Of a Negro middl
class and the recent recognitio
5 of its existence by communit
leaders - has for the first tim
on the neighborhood level mad
( reasonable dis cussio possibl
about Negro neighbors - instea
t of panic and flight.
In the light of the progress t
: date, it is doubly important tha
remaining barriers of racial dis