Mr. P. Roberts was a prosperous Negro in Florida. He was an experienced
concrete maker, earning according to his statement more than five and
six dollars a day at home, and owning property in the South. When the
industrial boom began he thought that the wages in his line were much
higher here than in his own home town, and that it would pay him to
come North. He came to Pittsburgh together with his wife, five children
and an old invalid mother who was confined to bed. When first visited,
Mr. Roberts occupied two small rooms, each having one window, in a
rooming house where there were about twenty-five male roomers. This
man could get no work here in his own trade, and was trying to save up
enough money from his $3.00 to $3.60 a day to go back to Florida. When
Roberts was visited again about six weeks after the first visit, his
old mother had already passed away, his wife had died of pneumonia,
while his oldest girl of sixteen who had been taking care of the
four little tots was sick in bed, and the children were playing on
the streets. Roberts was still trying to save from his $3.60 a day
sufficient money to carry him back to Florida, which he still considers
his home, as he owns property there.
These amazing instances of individual maladjustments are bound to
arise in any group which goes through such a sudden and abnormal
transformation. But they are even more frequent in the race which is
still primitive and child-like in many ways, with no one to direct,
guide and protect them.
But the significance and danger of these wrongs are even of greater
importance for the community as a whole, than for the few individuals
affected. The fact cannot be over-emphasized that the community
ultimately pays the price for its stupidity. Indifference to this
problem at present when it still can be coped with and adjusted will
result in an uncontrollable situation later. We have seen above some
of the costly results of our housing and wage conditions. We have also
learned in this war that we can no longer afford to breed and foment
discontent and antagonism among our own people. We must not only see
that the strangers among us are adjusted, but that they also do not
become a menace to the well-being of the community.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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