Our negro population; a sociological study of the negroes of Kansas City, Missouri

Front matter

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CHAPTER I. General Economic Conditions page 27

The Negro as a wealth-producer. — Economic need of the Negro. — Industrial discrimination. — Assessed property values according to races. — Distribution of real and personal property. — Economic status of the two races. — Taxation and suffrage.— The Negro's sphere of industrial activity.— Negro home-owners. — Attitude of the city toward Negro districts. — Table showing occupations, value of homes, incomes, etc., of Negro property-owners. — Influence of churches upon the economic life of the Negro.

CHAPTER II. The Negro in Business page 42

Attitude of the Negro toward Negro business men. — Development of Negro industries. — Joint stock companies, etc. — List of Negro business concerns. — The Negro as a competitor for the business of the Negro race.

CHAPTER III. Incomes page 47

Labor. — Discriminations against Negro labor. — Table showing distribution of Negro wage-earners according to age and sex. — Occupations, incomes, etc., of Negro male wage-earners. — Skilled laborers. — Unskilled laborers. — Nature of work and influence upon the Negro. — Gainful occupations, incomes, etc., of Negro female wage-earners. — Nature of the work. — The Negro woman as a wage-earner and the influence upon the home.

Our Negro Population.

CHAPTER IV. Expenditures page 6i

Table showing expenditures according to incomes. — Expenditures for various items. — Food, rent, clothing, fuel and light, car-fare, alcoholic beverages, and miscellaneous articles. — Table showing expenditure for various articles.

CHAPTER V. The Housing Conditions page 86

General housing conditions. — Lack of interest in the housing problem.- — Activities of the Board of Public Welfare. — Table showing rent and overcrowding. — Location and description of Negro congested districts, Belvidere, Hicks' Hollow, and The Bowery. — Negro apartment-houses. — Discussion of water, baths and toilets, and privy vaults. — Kansas City's housing code. — Poverty.

CHAPTER VI. Health and Morals page 107

Table showing death-rate in fifteen representative cities. — Comment on table. — Causes of death according to races from various diseases. — Diarrheal diseases, heart diseases and dropsy, pneumonia, tuberculosis, etc. — Relation of races to different diseases. — Table showing birth-rate according to races. — Comparison of birth- and death-rates. — Mortality of Negroes. — Common-law marriage and effect upon the Negro race.

CHAPTER VII. Crime page i 26

Classification of criminals. — Table showing the police force, population, number of arrests, etc., for a number of American cities. — Comment. — Arrests made in State cases. — Arrests made in city cases. — The Reformatory for Women. — The Municipal Farm. — Juvenile arrests and disposal of. — Discussion of conditions producing crime.

Chapter VIII

BenevoIvEnt, Insurance, Social Societies. . . .page 140 Social instincts of the Negro race. — Table showing the strength and benefits of the Negro secret beneficial societies. — Influence on the Negro. — The church as a benevolent agent. — The Negro and insurance. — Nature and object of industrial insurance. — Other societies, such as Young Men's Christian Association, clubs, etc. — The saloon, pool-hall, and barber shop as social centers.

CHAPTER IX. Education page 163

Relation of education to social reforms. — Legal status of the Negro schools. — Table showing school age and enrollment according to races. — Occupations of parents of Negro pupils. — General conditions of the Negro schools. — Comment on tables. — Department of compulsory education. — Illiteracy. — Vacation and night schools. — Lincoln school.— Educational progress of the Negro. — Influence of education on the Negro.

CHAPTER X. Religious Life page i 79

Religious instincts of the Negro race. — Table showing the numerical and financial status of churches. — Comment. — Church property. — Negro ministry. — Organization and activities of churches. — Missions. — Benevolences. — St. Simon's Nursery House. — Allen Chapel. — Institutional church work. — Influence of the Negro churches.

Preface

From the chapters of this book, so carefully prepared by Mr. Martin, one may glean a very striking and significant picture of the Negroes of Kansas City.

The Health of the Negro.

The thing that has impressed me as the most striking and sensational feature of this report is the revelations it makes about the death-rate and birth-rate among the Negroes. The Negroes of Kansas City have more than twice as high a death-rate as the white people, and, contrary to the general impression that they are prolific in raising children, it appears that the birth-rate among the Negroes is actually lower than it is among the whites. Five times as many Negroes as whites die from tuberculosis. There is no doubt a close connection between this high death-rate and the great poverty and ignorance that exist among the Negroes. The suffering that this condition implies should arouse the sympathy of every one who has any humanitarian impulses whatever. Nobody should be so prejudiced as to be willing to countenance unnecessary lo Our Negro Population.

suffering, even on the part of animals, much less of human beings.

Not only this humanitarian sentiment, but a sense of real danger should arouse the community to a determined effort to remedy the conditions implied in this high death-rate, because the presence of a host of Negroes afflicted with tuberculosis working as servants, washerwomen, porters, etc., etc., is a constant menace to the health of all our citizens. However revolting it may seem, it is nevertheless a fact that those diseases connected with the social evil which are sometimes called the "Great Black Plague" are also continually being communicated from one race to another, and there is no disease which breeds in poverty and filth that may not be communicated from the easy victims who live in want and squalor to the most prosperous people in the community.

The community must send the housing inspector into defective homes, and must greatly improve the housing conditions, raise the standard of sanitation, provide sewers and city water for all the houses, exercise more rigid control over contagious diseases, and perfect the medical inspection in schools until every child is carefully inspected and every sign of sickness among the children is followed up by the school nurse.

Our Negro Population. ' ii

Economic Life.

Among the features of the picture which stand out boldly none is more prominent than the poverty of the Negroes of Kansas City. About 20,000 of them are renters; of these, about 15,000 have not personal property enough to be subject to any taxation. Many of them have not enough food to maintain them in proper health. Hundreds of children go to school without enough clothing to keep them warm in the winter time. In cold weather the majority of the Negro families huddle around the kitchen fire and live almost entirely in one room. Robert Hunter describes poverty as the constant fear of want. One thing that helps the situation with regard to Negroes is, that they do not seem to have the spirit of depression and despair that one might imagine would go with so great poverty.

One of the screens exhibited at the Kansas City Child Welfare Exhibit contained this statement, which was compiled from the records in the Board of Public Welfare Research Bureau :

"One hundred thousand dollars given annually for child improvement by private charities of Kansas City.

"One thousand dollars goes to Negro children.

"Fifteen out of one hundred children in Kansas City are Negroes.

"The colored child gets only one-fifteenth of his share."

Although there is great poverty among the Negroes, they do not constitute a great burden on the charities of Kansas City. Instead of being relfeved, they simply live below the poverty-line, and, as a result of their bad conditions, die a premature death. One of the greatest causes of this poverty is, no doubt, the inefhciency of the Negro as a producer. A good deal of this is due to the lack of training, both in the habits of persistent application and thoroughness and also in mental accuracy and manual dexterity. The greatest service which could be performed for the Negro by our public school system would be to train him so that he will have the requisite character and skill to be a thoroughly useful man or worthy man from a doUar-andcents point of view.

So long as it is true that most white people in the community, and especially those of us who would be inclined to criticise the Negro for foolish expenditure, could not possibly manage to live at all on the income with which the Negroes cover their household budgets, it does not seem very fitting to talk much about the foolish expenditure of the Negroes. And yet it seems like a terrible loss for the Negroes of Kansas City to spend $400,000 a year on intoxicating liquors, and for people who can ill afford it to gamble away probably ;j!>50,c)oo a year, and to buy in very small quantities or on installments and pay nearly twice what the same articles cost more prosperous people.

It is surely one very important feature in the industrial failure of the Negro that so many useful occupations are closed to him because of his color. It is really a very foolish policy that benefits nobody to refuse to utilize all the productive skill which the Negroes possess. It involves no matter of social equality to give the Negroes equal industrial opportunities with everybody else in the community, and the dollar which he produces is just as good a dollar as that produced by any other man. There is no doubt that the efforts of the Negroes to supply themselves with fuel by picking up waste lumber and scraps of coal and bits of junk tends to conserve and utiHze things that might otherwise go to waste, but it is no doubt a means of continually tempting them to petty thievery. It is also true that the habit of making up to the Negro what he lacks in wages by giving him old clothes and tips, etc., etc., tends to pauperize him and break down his self-respect. If the Negro can be given a practical education that will fit him for earning a living, and can have a free opportunity to give a dollar's worth of service for a dollar's worth of pay, the problem of poverty will largely take care of itself. In other words, the economic salvation of the Negro cannot be worked out without providing him industrial and moral training through the public school.

InteivUgence:.

No doubt the standard of general intelligence among the Negroes is very low, but illiteracy is rapidly disappearing. The efficiency of the Negro schools of Kansas City, even in the matter of supplying purely literary or cultural education, is low. Many teachers are poorly equipped for their duties. Many have too many pupils to look after. From almost every point of view where statistical comparisons are possible, Mr. Martin's comparison of colored and white schools shows the colored schools to be behind. These defects are worth noticing; but the greatest defect is one I have already noted in connection with the Negro's earning capacity — namely, that his education is very illy adapted to his needs. A good many Negroes who have been prepared for office work or literary or professional pursuits are either idle or working as porters, barbers, waiters, etc. Since the community is already spending large sums on the education of the Negro, it should at least so modify its system as to get the utmost possible return for the money invested in Negro education.

The Negro as a PoliticaIv Factor. The Negro as a factor in political life in Kansas City would form an interesting subject of inquiry. There are 4,500 registered Negro voters, and there are probably at least 6,000 male Negroes of voting age. At the last Presidential election the total number of voters in Kansas City was 61,637. This shows that while about one-tenth of the population of Kansas City is Negro, only one in fifteen of the registered voters is a Negro. Apparently, they do not participate in political life by voting with the same interest as their white neighbors. It is undoubtedly true that comparatively few of them exexcise any independent judgment, but most of them are guided by some political boss or leader. Not only among the Negroes, but through the community generally, there is great need of free and open discussion of civic and political questions and of systematic education on social problems. Clubs for the free and fair discussion of political questions from all points of view which are independent of control of any particular party are much needed, and would raise the standard of intelligence among the voters very materially. The number of arrests among Negroes is sometimes affected by political bias, and this undoubtedly has some effect on the comparative statistics of crime between Negroes and white people; but the fact that Negroes are very poor and generally without much influence probably has an even greater effect on the number of arrests and convictions charged against them.

The Negroes are probably not accorded positions in public offices in proportion to their numbers or to their merits. The Negroes are undoubtedly discriminated against in the use and equipment of public parks, playgrounds, and baths. They should at least have places in proportion to their numbers that are equal in quality and equipment and extent to those provided for the white people. Whether they pay taxes directly or not makes no difference, because they all pay taxes indirectly when they pay their rent or when their labor produces the profit by which any employer pays his taxes.

While the Negro may be compelled to fear the Government and obey it, he cannot regard it with loyalty and affection unless he sees convincing evidence that it is fair and just to him. It is not only important for him to know that he will receive that to which he is justly entitled, but it is also equally important for him to know that none of his race can receive any kind of immunity from just prosecution because of some political reason.

The Negroes have started commercial amusement parks in two or three places and their presence has been strenuously objected to by white neighbors. It is probably true in these particular cases that the conduct of the parks was not above reproach ; but it is important that if any attempt is made by the Negroes to supply themselves with legitimate recreation, nothing should be put in their way. Absolute justice toward the Negro on the part of every public agency is fundamental, if we expect to make a good citizen of him.

Moral and Social Problems.

In regard to the peculiar moral and social problems presented by the Negro race, it is probably a fact that some prejudice exists against the Negro race on account of their previous condition of slavery, but this is by no means responsible for the total amount of race prejudice which may exist in the community. Race prejudice exists in every nation and between all races to a very great extent. The hatred of the Negro is no more intense than the feeling against the Chinese and Japanese on the Pacific coast. A considerable part of feeling against Negroes as a race is due to their shortcomings and actual inferiority on the part of the mass of the Negro people. It does not help to improve their condition for anybody to deny or slur over this fact. By far the most important factor in removing the prejudice against Negroes must be achievement of high character, efficient workmanship, good abiHty, and absolute merit on the part of the Negro himself. While this is true of the race as a whole, it is not true in the same degree of individuals, because the very best Negro individual is bound to be handicapped by the general reputation of his race. The mental suffering which the Negro of intelligence and refinement must undergo is distressing beyond the power of any ordinary white person to imagine, and it is only fair to demand of the white community that they should be discriminating in their judgments and that Negroes should be judged according to their individual merits and qualities, and not merely according to their color.

The morals of any community must be based, to a great extent, on the character of its home life. One of the greatest handicaps suffered by the Negro race in this country is its low appreciation of marriage, which it has inherited from the old promiscuous life of slavery days. There prevails among the Negroes a vast amount of loose family life, conducted under the general designation of "common-law marriage" — where people live together without being regularly married. When the people become dissatisfied, there is a shifting of partners, which often results in jealousy and fights, and is always exceedingly detrimental to the children who have been born of such unions. I believe that a campaign of drastic enforcement of marriage laws among the Negroes would help to educate them along these lines very materially and would improve conditions. Careful instruction in sex hygiene and morality and a thorough training in domestic economy and instruction in home Hfe in its broadest sense would go a long way to uproot this evil. Schools, churches, and public machinery must all be brought to bear on the solution of this particular problem.

The Negroes are fond of recreation and music and are very sociable by nature; therefore a great power for uplifting them might be exercised by providing them with proper amusements and giving direction to their social and recreational life. This could be done most thoroughly and admirably through the free use of the public school buildings, if they were properly equipped with recreational facilities, but it will not be enough to open such schoolhouses as we now have for this purpose. They are very poorly adapted to use as recreation centers in their present form and with their present facilities. Some people seem to feel that when the schools have been opened, the whole question of establishing social centers has been solved; but this is the merest beginning. There must be trained leadership and supervision and convenient facilities; these are almost wholly lacking up to the present time. These agencies would be the most efficient weapons in fighting the evils of intemperance, lust, and gambling.

RHIvIGious Life.

In regard to the religious life of the Negroes, I may say that it is a subject of great fascination, because the religious experiences of the Negroes are full of emotion and visions of poetic imagery that are often beautiful and suggestive. The Negroes are imaginative and emotional and musical. All these faculties go to enrich their religious experiences. The problem of the Negro preacher of to-day is to fill the imagination of the Negroes with true, pure, and lofty ideals, and to transmute his emtions into motive power for doing good, and to use his musical talent to enrich his religious worship. The trouble has been that religion has not always been linked up with morality and self-control. The community should expect the Negro religious organizations to exercise moral leadership over their people. They should be appealed to to co-operate in moral and social reforms. It is to be hoped that the emotional life of the Negro can be controlled without being extinguished. While the Negro churches have their faults, when all things are taken into consideration, it seems that they are batthng with the problem in a quite commendable way.

This study of the Negro race in Kansas City by Professor Martin puts the community in possession of much valuable information that should be of great service to the people, both white and colored, who are interested in improving the character and condition of the Negroes in our city, and it should be suggestive to the people of other communities in regard to their problems and duties in the same direction.

L. A. Halbert, General Superintendent, Board of Public Welfare.

Introduction

The pressure of nearly ten millions of Negroes in the United States, the greater number of them massed below the Mason and Dixon Line, has created economic, political, and social problems of tremendous importance to the present and future of this Nation. These problems differ not only from locality to locality, but from man to man, and in addition to a personal and local equation there is a class equation, which is determined to a large extent by the place of residence and the environment in which the individual has been reared. The character, environment, and capacity of the Negro must be carefully observed, if the solution of the problems connected with his existence here is ever to be found.

The present study of this question has revealed to me as never before the fact that the average Negro is totally out of adjusment to the society in which he lives; yet this fact should be fully realized by all who are concerned either with the discussion of the problem or with the work of uplifting the race. The Negro does not enjoy the respect and confidence of his employer— a condition which is due largely to the fact that the Negro has not been able to adapt himself to the free wage system. If this is true, the solution of the problem consists, first of all, in giving the Negro such training as will fit him for a place in our industrial life. This means "industrial training," in the broad sense of the phrase, for the masses of the colored population — training that will develop character and the intelligence necessary for efficiency in production on the one hand and for citizenship on the other.

With the desire to call these facts to the attention of the public, I have made a detailed study of the 23,566 Negroes of Kansas City, Missouri, believing that a better understanding of them and their various relations will remove some of the greatest obstacles in the way of the Negroes' advancement.

Kansas City, Missouri, is located on the dividingfine between the North and the South and the East and the West and possesses a representative population; hence the social, economical, and political conditions which exist here are typical of the country as a whole.

The following table shows the distribution of population for 191 2 according to races in twenty representative cities of the United States:

White City. Population.

Denver, Colo 203,955

Omaha, Nebr 1 19,670

Cincinnati, Ohio 353»952

Philadelphia, Pa 1,464,549

St. Joseph, Mo 73>i54

St. Louis, Mo 643,069

Columbus, Ohio 168,772

Indianapolis, Ind 211 ,844

Kansas City, Mo 224,815

Oklahoma City, Okla.^. 57,659

Topeka, Kans 39,141

Kansas City, Kans. . . . 73,041

Baltimore, Md 473, 73^

San Antonio, Tex 79,898

Louisville, Ky 183,406

Fort Worth, Tex 60,032

New Orleans, La 249,813

Washington, D. C 236.623

Nashville, Tenn 73,837

Atlanta, Ga 102,937

The materials of this study were collected during January, February, March, and April, 191 2. A detailed study was made of all phases of Negro life, such as schools, churches, crime, etc. The writer also made a personal canvass of five hundred representative families, using the following schedule of questions in his investigation : Residence ?

Per Cent

Population.

Colored.

5.426

2.5

4,426

19,639

84,459

4,249

43,960

12,739

21,816

23,566

6,546

I

4,541

9,286

II 84,749

I

16,716

40,522

13,280

I

89,262

94,446

36,523

51,902

Number of persons in family?

Sex?

Age?

Number of times married?

Our Negro Population.

7 8 lO 12

15 16

17 18 19 20 21 22

23 24

25 26

27 28

29 30 31

Number of times divorced ?

Usual occupation?

Income per week, head of family?

Income per week, wife?

Income per week, children? -

Number of week's employed during 191 1 ?

Number of places employed during 191 1 ?

Duration of employment in the present place?

Rent paid per month?

Number of rooms?

Length of residence in the present place?

Value of furniture ?

Owner of home?

Mortgage on home, and amount of same?

Total wealth?

Expenditure for food?

Expenditure for fuel and light?

Expenditure for clothing?

Expenditure for car-fares?

Expenditure for intoxicating liquors?

Expenditure for insurance and fraternal dues?

Ability to read and write?

Member of church?

Member of fraternal order?

Bath in house?

Toilet in house?

In the main, there was but little trouble experienced in the matter of securing answers to questions ; in fact, if the willing spirit of the answers is an index to their accuracy, the report is 99 per cent correct. Questions 11, 21, 22, and 25, however, were very hard to answer, and the results obtained from them may be of little value. As to the other questions, the answers were as satisfactory as could be expected.

CHAPTER I. Economic Condittons

Our first inquiry will be concerned with the Kansas City Negro as a wealth-producer and his consequent material progress during the past twenty years. Kansas City does not make any classified race distinctions on her tax lists; therefore it has been somewhat difficult to secure accurate data. However, after visiting several hundred Negro property-owners in all the different sections of the city, and after interviewing numerous white men, including the tax assessors and collectors, who are familiar with the question, I can give, with a fair degree of accuracy, the present economic status of the Kansas City Negro. These results are indeed interesting and instructive, for the Negro, contrary to the prevalent opinion, is even to-day a great economic factor. Many of our difficulties with and misunderstandings of the Negro are due to his de- Hnquencies; quite as many, however, are due to his advancement. One of the tragic elements of the situation lies in the fact that the white community knows practically nothing of the most honorable and most hopeful aspect of Negro life, while the press keeps us informed to the uttermost concerning the disturbing elements among the colored population.

Seeing the Negio on the street is not seeing the Negro ; it is a one-sided view, yet it is the only one of which the white community has direct and accurate knowledge. The white world at its best is looking upon the Negro world at its worst. When the Negro passes out of domestic service or unskilled employment into a larger world, the white community loses its personal and definite information. The Negro passes into the unknown. As he attains progress, he, by that very progress, removes the tangible evidence of advancement from the immediate observation of the white community; and yet those who would observe broadly will find a patiently and persistently increasing number of true families and real homes — a number far in excess of the popular estimates. Scores of such homes exist in Kansas City for those who will try to find them and will try sympathetically to know them.

Economically, the Negro needs more widely opened doors to industrial opportunity, so that wage-earners may receive steady employment and better remuneration — remuneration that will enable them to purchase more and better homes.

Previous to the year 1890 the Negro freeholder of Kansas City was a safely negligible quantity in the city's economic situation. But we must remember that the Negro at his emancipation was in no way equipped to acquire property, and that, in addition to his ignorance, superstition, and poverty, he was and is to-day held back by many forms of discrimination at the hands of his white brother. He must live in certain sections of the city (usually where the white man does not care to live), pay exorbitant rent for the limited number of houses available to him, and do only certain kinds of work and then at the wages offered him. Yet, in the face of all these difficulties, he has made remarkable progress.

The following table gives a comprehensive view

of the total assessed property values of Kansas City,

Missouri, for both races :

Assessed Property Values of Kansas City, Missouri, 19 n.

Kinds of Property.

Whites. 1 Negroes.

Total.

Real

Personal . . .

Total

^124,437,780

28,442,894

152,880,674

About 40,000 different people own real estate in Kansas City, Missouri, and pay taxes on 116,000 different tracts valued at $124,437,780 in the aggregate, which represents a per capita realty wealth of $501.75.

According to the 19 10 census, the white population of Kansas City, Missouri, was 224,680 and the Negro population was 23,566. From these figurew we get a white per capita realty wealth of $543.69, while the Negro per capita is only $59.40.

Again, of the 40,000 different property-owners, only about 800 are Negroes. From these figures we get $3,138.90 as the average white holding and $1,750 as the average Negro holding. The $1,400,- 000 worth of real estate owned by the Negroes of Kansas City is distributed among 800 different holders, about as follows :

Owning property valued above $10,000 50

Owning property valued betw. 5,000 and $10,000. . 100 Owning property valued betw. 1,000 and 5,000. .200 Owning property valued betw. 500 and 1,000. .450

About 81,000 whites and 2,000 Negroes paid taxes during 191 1 upon $28,282,894 worth of personal property, which represents a total per capita wealth of $114.04. These figures, taken by races, give the whites a per capita wealth of $124.27 and the Negroes $21.21.

It has not been found possible to take account in these returns of the mortgages and other indebtedness upon either real or personal property. From

Our Nf.gro Population. 31

the acknowledgments, however, of the owners of houses visited, I found between 60 and 70 per cent encumbered. Among the poor class of Negroes there are many claims and liens held by timepayment concerns against pianos, organs, sewing machines, pictures, and furniture. It is probable that two-fifths of the personal property is more or less encumbered in this way. In its effect upon the Negro as a potential property-accumulator, this system is exceedingly deplorable. I was told by a second-hand furniture dealer that he realized from 400 to 500 per cent upon all furniture sold to Negroes on the weekly payment plan. The payments are kept up for a few weeks or months; then the articles are taken from the Negroes because of their inability or disinclination to continue the burden of the weekly payments.