African Americans; United States -- Race relations
It is urged in the South that the North is not entirely appreciative of
the influx of so many Negroes. But, on the other hand, it is alleged
that the large Northern companies sent their agents into every State
in the South seeking labor. It was certainly useful to the companies.
And although the loose and nondescript unemployed immigrants were
guilty of a number of crimes, it is generally held that those who
found employment proved very steady and reliable. The Negro proved a
safe man in the munition factory, and it was found he could do a white
man’s job in a mine and in the steel works. The employers of labor were
well pleased. But there was a section of the community that was not
pleased, and that was the working class—the poor Whites once more, who
saw in Negro migration an influx of non-union labor, depressing wages,
and lowering the standard of living. The workingmen speedily quarreled
with the Negro—seeing in him the oft encountered strike breaker.
Those who have gone through the Negro district of Chicago, with its
filthy, ramshackle frame buildings occupied by Negro families, a family
to a room, know how appalling is the aspect of the Negro there. In
the old days the white population took it as a matter of course, as
they did so many other things in this evil industrial conglomeration
so aptly called the _Jungle_. But too much competition and too many
unfamiliar, gloomy Negro faces on the streets caused the nervous shock
which accounted for the Chicago riots, begun strangely enough not by
a Negro attack, but by a white youth knocking a Negro boy off a raft
on the lake and drowning him. The three days’ free fight which ensued
was one of the most disillusioning episodes in the history of Northern
friendship for the Negro.
Nevertheless, Negro leaders still cry “Come North!”
* * * * *
There have always been those who thought that the Negro problem could
be solved by encouraging migration. The exodus to the North was hailed
as a partial liquidation of the Southern trouble. Doubtless an even
distribution of Negroes over the whole of the country would put them
in the desired minority as regards Whites. Outnumbered by ten to one,
they would never seem to threaten to grasp electoral control or be in
a position to use physical force with a chance of success. But these
are highly theoretical suppositions. Even at the present great rate
of exodus it would take hundreds of years to even them out, and there
is no reason to think that the emigrants would distribute themselves
easily. They would probably crowd more and more into the large cities
like Chicago and Pittsburgh, and be as much involved in evil conditions
there as they were in the South.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account