with the Kenwood and Hyde Park Property Owners' Association. Although the bombing was an expression of resentment against Negroes because they moved into this block, there are circumstances which indicate that the resentment did not come from the neighbors. For example, the wife of a Negro physician owning and living in a house in the same block was asked by her white neighbors to serve as chairman of a committee to keep up the property in the neighborhood.
RACIAL CONTACTS AMONG CHILDREN IN AN ADJUSTED NEIGHBORHOOD
The first Negro family to move into the Vernon Avenue block immediately south of Thirty-first Street bought its residence in 1911. It was five years before another Negro family came. White neighbors, who were and are very friendly, said this family's good care of its lawn was an example for the whole block.
When an apartment house in which a Negro family lived on South Park Avenue near Thirty-first Street was burned, white neighbors took them into their home and kept them until another house was secured. At a meeting of the City Club of Chicago a white man who had lived in this area for forty years thus characterized the relations between whites and Negroes living there:
Having lived on the South Side in what is now known as the "Black Belt" for forty years, I can testify that I have never had more honest, quiet, and law-abiding neighbors than those who are of the African race, either full or mixed blood. In the precinct where I live we have several families blessed with many orderly and well-behaved children, of Caucasian and African blood. They seem to get along nicely, and why should they not? … There is no race question, it is a question of intelligence and morality, pure and simple.
Occasional minor misunderstandings have resulted from contacts in this area, but they have not been conspicuously marked by racial bitterness. Objections, sometimes expressed when the tradition of an "all white" neighborhood was first broken, disappeared as the neighbors came to know each other. Long residence is apparently one condition of the adjustment process.
Expansion and adjustment.—The first noticeable expansion of the Negro population following the migration in 1917 and 1918 was in the area extending south from Thirty-ninth Street to Forty-seventh Street on Langley, St. Lawrence, and Evans avenues. Negroes began moving into this area early in 1917, first a few and finally in large numbers. There is yet no compact group, for these Negro families, while numerous, are well distributed. The experiences of some of the first families there are interesting.
A Negro woman bought a piece of property on Langley Avenue, near Forty-third Street, when every other family in the block was white. The courtesy shown her by them was all that could be desired, she declares. There are still six or eight white families in the block, and they continue on the most friendly terms with her. A Negro woman in another block has white neighbors all around her, but there has been no racial objection or friction. Another, who owns her property on Evans Avenue, has had no trouble with white families that remain in the block. So with a Negro who rents from the Negro owner of a flat on East Thirty-sixth Street. A Negro who has bought a home on St. Lawrence Avenue near Forty-seventh Street declares that the white families living thereabouts "treat my family right." In one block on St. Lawrence Avenue a Negro family is surrounded by white neighbors, but no trouble has been experienced. In a block on Langley Avenue another family of Negroes has had no clashes with the white neighbors who compose most of the neighborhood.
A woman who built her home in the 4800 block on Champlain Avenue, when hers was the only Negro family there and has lived there ever since, had no trouble with neighbors until other Negroes moved in. Then a white woman circulated a petition for the purpose of compelling the Negroes to move out. This effort failed. In another block on East Forty-sixth Street a Negro family lives in a neighborhood which has a majority of whites, but the relations have been amicable. An apartment house on Champlain Avenue near Forty-sixth Street is occupied entirely by Negroes, though there are white families all through the neighborhood. One Negro who has lived there for three years says they have never been molested. A pioneer Negro family in a white block on Vernon Avenue near Thirty-ninth Street reports no trouble with the white neighbors.
DISTRIBUTION OF NEGRO POPULATION 1920
DATA OBTAINED FROM FEDERAL CENSUS
Two women who were among the last of the whites to leave the Langley Avenue vicinity say they always found the Negroes to be kindly neighbors. A Negro family on Forty-first Street has been there a year without friction with white neighbors. In another block on East Forty-second Street a Negro woman reported that, though there are white people all through the neighborhood, the two races get along peaceably. In the 400 block of East Forty-sixth Street a similar report is given. In still another block on Champlain Avenue lives a woman who has been in the midst of white families for a number of years without experiencing animosity. On East Forty-second Street a Negro family has lived for three years in similar freedom from racial friction.
In another instance a pioneer Negro family in a block otherwise wholly white was well regarded by all except one of the neighbors. This white man who voiced loudly his objections to the "invasion" was one who, because of his drunken habits and troublesome nature, had long been considered an undesirable neighbor by other whites in the block.
Woodlawn.—Relations in Woodlawn, where the Negro population increase has been relatively large, are for the most part friendly. There is an association of Negro property owners interested in keeping up the physical appearance of their homes in the neighborhood. No clashes have been reported except one instance of a group of white boys from another neighborhood throwing stones at a building where they saw Negroes. Following the stirring up and organization of anti-Negro sentiment in Hyde Park, an attempt was made to organize white Woodlawn property owners against the invasion of the district by Negroes. This organization was not a great success. There have been no bombings in this district, and no concerted opposition to the presence of Negroes as neighbors. Long residence together and the good character and conduct of both Negroes and whites are probably important reasons for lack of friction.
2. THE WEST SIDE
A situation like that in the adjusted neighborhoods of the South Side exists in the district bounded by Washington and Kinzie, Ashland and California avenues, where there has been a settlement of Negroes for many years. Houses are cheaper than on the South Side, and although the general standard of workingmen's homes compares favorably with that on the South Side, few of the abandoned good residences formerly occupied by wealthy persons are available for Negroes. The densest and oldest settlement of Negroes is within the boundaries named, although the Negro residence area actually extends many blocks beyond them on all sides. There has been little friction, though the area has 9,221 whites and 6,520 Negroes. South of Washington Boulevard occasional difficulties have been met by the incoming Negro population, similar to those found in areas where the most congested Negro population on the South Side is spreading. On the West Side no bombings have occurred, although there have been frequent protests against the expansion. Some streets have come to be recognized as Negro streets.
In recent years many Negroes have bought homes on the West Side when they could not easily find living quarters in or near the older Negro residence areas on the South Side. Almost uniformly they keep their homes in good condition, which cannot be said of all the Negroes who settled early in this district. West Side Negroes, laborers for the most part, are generally home-loving, hard-working, and desirous of improving conditions for their children. Older settlers among them have been able to make their adjustments without great difficulty and with no marked antagonism from white neighbors.
Though
