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"At midnight, Monday, street-car clashes ended by reason of a general strike on the surface and elevated lines. The street-railway tie-up was complete for the remainder of the week. But on Tuesday morning this was a new source of terror for those who tried to walk to their places of employment. Men were killed en route to their work through hostile territory. Idle men congregated on the streets and gang-rioting increased. A white gang of soldiers and sailors in uniform, augmented by civilians, raided the 'Loop,' or downtown section of Chicago, early Tuesday, killing two Negroes and beating and robbing several others. In the course of these activities they wantonly destroyed property of white business men.

"Gangs sprang up as far south as Sixty-third Street in Englewood and in the section west of Wentworth Avenue near Forty-seventh Street. Premeditated depredations were the order of the night. Many Negro homes in mixed districts were attacked, and several of them were burned. Furniture was stolen or destroyed. When raiders were driven off they would return again and again until their designs were accomplished.

"The contagion of the race war broke over the boundaries of the South Side and spread to the Italians on the West Side. This community became excited over a rumor, and an Italian crowd killed a Negro, Joseph Lovings.

"Wednesday saw a material lessening of crime and violence. The 'Black Belt' and the district immediately west of it were still storm centers. But the peak of the rioting had apparently passed, although the danger of fresh outbreaks of magnitude was still imminent. Although companies of the militia had been mobilized in nearby armories as early as Monday night, July 28, it was not until Wednesday evening at 10:30 that the Mayor yielded to pressure and asked for their help.

"Rain on Wednesday night and Thursday drove idle people of both races into their homes. The temperature fell, and with it the white heat of the riot. From this time on the violence was sporadic, scattered, and meager. The riot seemed well under control, if not actually ended.

"Friday witnessed only a single reported injury. At 3:35 a. m. Saturday, incendiary fires burned forty-nine houses in the immigrant neighborhood west of the Stock Yards. Nine hundred and forty-eight people, mostly Lithuanians, were made homeless, and the property loss was about $250,000. Responsibility for these fires was never fixed. The riot virtually ceased on Saturday. For the next few days injured individuals were reported occasionally, and by August 8 the riot zone

had settled down to normal and the militia was withdrawn." 21 The casualty list of the riot included thirty-eight persons killed, 537 injured, and about 1,000 rendered homeless and destitute. Nine people were indicted for participating in the riot, and of these five were convicted, three Negroes and two whites.22

"Report, Chicago Commission on Race Relations, pp. 4-7.

"Ibid., p. 48.

CHAPTER 9

EDUCATIONAL STATUS OF NORTHERN NEGROES

Problem of Avoiding Race Friction in the Elementary Schools-Social Separation of the Races in the High Schools-Lack of Elementary Education Adapted to the Negro's Needs-Negroes in Northern and Western Universities

A'

LL the states of the North, and also those of the West except as to a few localities, have abolished separate primary schools for the Negroes. In some cities of the West the Negroes have favored a return to the separate schools,1 and in two cities, Cincinnati, Ohio, and Gary, Indiana, separate schools have been established. One of the arguments for the separate schools was that a larger number of positions would be open to Negro teachers. The Negro press, however, bitterly denounces separate schools as an odious form of "jim-crowism."

The dual system of schools, which prevailed in the North and West before the Civil War, was found to be impracticable in view of the small Negro population and the difficulty of maintaining the Negro schools on an efficient basis. The mixed schools at first created indignation among some white parents. In Ohio, for example, in order to keep Negro children out of the schools, the farmers drove away the Negro tenants. At the present time one rarely hears of opposition to the mixed schools, and no serious evil consequences seem to have followed their introduction. The schools have proved to be unobjectionable chiefly because the number of them which have Negro pupils is very small and because in schools attended by Negroes there is no enforced or necessary social intermingling of the races. At the recess periods white and colored children play together or in separate groups as they may choose. In a number of mixed schools in Chicago the children of both races play together during school hours, but in the afternoons and evenings the ground is occupied exclusively by one race or the other. In the kindergartens of Chicago white children

3

'Baker, Following the Color Line, p. 228.

'Quillin, The Color Line in Ohio, p. 94.

'Report, Chicago Commission on Race Relations, p. 249.

Ibid., p. 274.

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sometimes object to holding the hands of Negro children, and in the grade schools white mothers sometimes object to their children marching in the graduation exercises with Negro children."

The city schools are generally located with reference to diminishing as far as possible the contact of the two races, and, as a means of avoiding friction, the whites and blacks are sometimes transferred from one school to another. In Lincoln district, Chicago, which is a Negro center, white children are transferred to other schools, and the Negro children residing outside but nearby are urged to attend the Lincoln School."

In cities with a large Negro population there are Negro teachers, and, while they are usually assigned to schools in the Negro quarter, they also in some instances teach in schools in which the pupils are predominantly white. In the Negro quarter of Harlem, New York, two of the schools have all colored teachers; one other of the schools has fourteen colored teachers out of a total of sixty-one.

The admission of Negroes to the elementary schools in the North and West represents a rational adjustment to existing conditions, and, if the same conditions as to number and distribution of the Negro prevailed in the South, mixed schools would exist in the South to the same extent that they now exist in the North and West.

Among the high schools of the North, as among the elementary schools, there are relatively few which have any Negro pupils, and, where both races attend them, the proportion of Negro pupils is much less than in the mixed elementary schools. The degree of harmony between the races in the high schools depends largely upon the relative proportion of Negro pupils. Where the Negro pupils are few in number there appears to be very slight friction, but where they nearly equal the whites the friction sometimes kindles into violence.

In regard to social contact of the pupils, the Chicago Commission on Race Relations says:

"In high schools, with their older pupils, there is an increased race consciousness, and in the purely social activities such as clubs and dances, which are part of high-school life, there is none of the general mingling often found in semi-social relations such as singing and literary societies." 8

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The white principals and teachers generally try to allay race prejudice and make the Negro and white children work together harmoniously. In some cases the principals are ardent believers in social equality and hope to bring it about through the influence of the school."

In regard to the value of elementary and high school education for the Negroes, there are reasons for doubting whether the curriculum designed primarily for the whites is meeting the needs of the colored people. The vocational instruction which is the main function of the high school relates to occupations not often entered by the Negroes. In mixed schools where Negroes are few, there will always be difficulty in offering occupational instruction of a kind which will fit the Negro for the work open to him.

Even where there are separate schools for Negroes the difficulty of giving suitable vocational training is very great. As yet the Negro finds the door of opportunity open to him chiefly in the field of unskilled labor, and special training for this field cannot be given in the schools; and if it could be given, the Negroes would not want it, for their pride leads them everywhere to prefer the kind of instruction given to the whites. A mere literary education may indeed be a source of satisfaction to the Negro, but, unless accompanied by something more practical, it is apt to leave him where it found him so far as making a living is concerned.

In some cases the instruction imparted to Negroes is of no value because of the vicious environment in which the school is located. For example, in the Brooklyn High School of East St. Louis in 1917, "twenty-four out of twenty-five girls who were in the graduating class went to the bad in the saloons and dance halls and failed to receive their diplomas." 10

In regard to the practical value of the Negro schools in Washington, D. C., William Archer says that the educational facilities "have been excellent for many years, on the whole as good as they were for whites, yet it does not seem to have had the effect of bettering their worldly positions; few attained positions of trust and responsibility. It is true they were handicapped by their color in competition with whites, but there was a wide field for personal advancement and social usefulness among their numerous kinsfolk. Professor Kelly Miller says on this point: "There is perhaps no place on earth where so much culture 'Report, Chicago Commission on Race Relations, p. 255.

1o Ibid., p. 76.

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