Chapter V: Segregation of the Negro

It is hardly to be questioned that since the Civil War the white man and the Negro have been drawing farther and farther apart. Religious teachers, political adventurers, and fortune hunters gave the first great impetus to the movement. The teachers, however, misguided, may have been sincere in their efforts to benefit the Negro; but the carpet-baggers had in mind only personal aggrandizement.

This political separation of the Negroes from the Southern whites was the entering wedge that split asunder the ties that had bound the two races together. Otherwise the Negroes might have divided with the whites between two or more political parties. This would have resulted greatly to their advantage for each party would have bid for their vote.

Upon the passing of the carpet-bag administrations, however, the Negroes lost most of their political importance. Since then it has been further reduced until it is now almost a negligible quantity.

During the Reconstruction period, the attitude of the Negroes served to alienate their former masters, who undoubtedly would have otherwise been their best friends. Between most of the Negroes and the poor whites of the South, there had always existed a feeling of mutual dislike if not contempt. After the War great numbers of the latter secured wealth and influence. Their dislike of the Negro, however, has increased rather than abated.

Thus, the Negroes began to feel the lack of that sympathy, consideration, and direction from the whites to which they had been accustomed. Therefore, whether consciously or unconsciously, they turned to leaders of their own color more readily, and this has gradually developed a feeling of race solidarity. However, this should not be an unmixed evil.

Again, in many parts of the South, the industrial development of the past thirty years has furthered segregation in that section by drawing the whites to the towns and cities. But Negroes have also turned to the cities in great numbers notwithstanding the fact that the industrial enterprises of the cities usually hold out but little if any inducements to such migration. This has given rise to the agitation for the segregation of the races in the cities whether voluntary or by legal enactment. While this is more pronounced in the South it has also spread to the North and West.

One of the most noteworthy examples of voluntary segregation is to be found in New York City:

“In one district of New York City a Negro population equal in
numbers to the inhabitants of Dallas, Texas, or Springfield,
Mass., lives, works, and pursues its ideals almost as a
separate entity from the great surrounding metropolis. Here the
Negro merchants ply their trade; Negro professional men follow
their various vocations; their children are educated; the poor,
sick, and the orphan of their race is cared for; churches,
newspapers, and books flourish heedless of those outside this
Negro community who resent its presence in a white city.”[103:1]

Indeed, in many parts of the country the Negroes have separated themselves from the whites by founding small communities of their own. In almost any state, villages and towns populated and governed almost exclusively by Negroes may be found. A few of the more important are: Buxton, Iowa, 1000 whites and 4000 Negroes; Brooklyn, Illinois, 1600 Negroes; Balor, Oklahoma, 3000; Plateau, Alabama, 1500; Mound Bayou, Mississippi, 700.[104:2]

In addition, there are almost an unlimited number of what may be termed Negro settlements scattered over the country. Such is Petersburg, on a railroad two miles from Hurlock, Maryland, which may serve as an example. It consists of about twenty-five houses and lots or little farms, altogether embracing about one hundred acres. These are mostly owned by the Negroes who live on them. They bought these little tracts several years ago when the land was considered almost worthless as it was so sandy and poor. The men till their lots and occasionally work by the day for some of the surrounding white farmers. In season, the women and children and some of the men as well go elsewhere to pick berries. In the late summer all have employment at home for about two months furnished by a white cannery, near. Altogether it seems to be a very contented community. Each Negro is his own boss and can work when it suits him and stop when he pleases. To make such a living as satisfies him he need work scarcely half of his time. This just suits Negro inclinations and consequently Petersburg is a little paradise for the Negro.

However, the segregation of the Negro is not yet universal. In some towns and cities as well both North and South they are more or less scattered. In the City of Washington they are found practically everywhere. In most cities they occupy the most undesirable parts—such as any low muddy places or narrow alleys. In some small cities of the South, while there may be a well defined Negro section, nearly every well-to-do family has a Negro servant family in the back yard. La Grange, Georgia, is an example.

But in the greater number of towns and cities the Negro section and the white section have been clearly defined for years. Cambridge, Maryland,—a city of about 5000 whites and 2000 Negroes,—is of that sort. All the Negroes live in the Southwest section except two or three families that live in a kind of alley near the bridge which connects East Cambridge with the main part of the city. One sees but few Negroes on any white street, not even on the main business street except Saturdays when they do their shopping. But on the street just west of the main business street and parallel with it, the business street of the Negro section, only a few whites are ever to be seen but it is always black with Negroes. Here are Negro grocery stores, a drug store, barber shops, theater, schools, and churches. Very few mulattoes are in evidence for the Negroes are nearly all of pure blood. One never hears of any serious trouble between the Negroes and whites of Cambridge for they live in comparative harmony with one another. At East New Market in the same county, a railroad separates the white from the Negro section of the town, while at Vienna, eleven miles distant, the Negro section is several hundred yards from the white part of the town.

Although Negroes constitute about one-third of the population of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, they have not become sufficiently numerous as farmers as to cause much injury to farm land or to farming interests, whether by careless and indifferent farming or by making the country districts undesirable to white people as places of residence. Most of the Negroes in the country districts are used by the white farmers as farm hands. Negroes are seldom able to rent the better grade farms while those owned by them are usually small and poor. As a consequence most of the land on the Eastern Shore is in a high state of cultivation and the farmers prosperous and contented.

In most parts of the farther South, however, except Texas and Oklahoma, and the Piedmont and mountain sections, the whites have allowed the Negroes to gain such a foothold in the country districts that they are now the greatest obstacles to agricultural progress. The South is just beginning to realize the true condition of things.

Indeed, already in North Carolina an agitation has begun for the segregation of the Negro in the rural districts. If this could be accomplished in all parts of the South it would be a wonderful boon to that section. Not only would it to a great extent free the white women from fear of attack by Negroes but this would serve to attract to the South thrifty and ambitious farmers from other parts of the country. A more satisfactory social life could be developed in the rural districts. Adequate schools and churches could better be maintained, not only for the white race but for the Negroes as well. As a consequence both races would be benefited.

With the exception of the establishment in the South of separate schools for the whites and the Negroes, only in comparatively recent years has segregation been brought about by law. More than twenty years ago, however, a few Southern States had laws providing for segregation in railroad travel and now almost every Southern State has such a law. In some, Maryland for example, the law also applies to passenger steamboats. A certain section of the boat is given to the Negroes. Both races have now become so accustomed to these laws that they are generally taken as a matter of course.

Lately many Southern cities have passed ordinances extending the principle of segregation in travel, to street cars. Mobile, Alabama, however, as early as 1902 had such an ordinance in force. As it was one of the first, and but slightly different from those in force in other cities, the main part is quoted here, as follows:

“All persons or corporations, operating street railroads in
the city of Mobile or within its police jurisdiction shall
provide seats for the white people and Negroes when there are
white people and Negroes on the same car by requiring the
conductor or other employe in charge of the car or cars to
assign to passengers to seats in all the cars, or when the car
is divided into two compartments in each compartment, in such
manner as to separate the white people from the Negroes, by
seating the white people in the front seats and the Negroes in
the rear as they enter the car, but in the event such order
of seating might cause inconvenience to those who are already
properly seated, the conductor or other employee, in charge of
the car, may use his discretion in seating passengers, but in
such manner that no white person and Negro must be placed, or
seated, in the same section, or compartment arranged for two
passengers: Provided, That Negro nurses having in charge white
children, or sick or infirm white persons, may be assigned to
seats among the white people.”[109:3]

The conductor is also given the authority of police officer to enforce the law.

The form of segregation which is receiving most attention in the South at present, however, is the effort of various cities,—great and small,—to provide by law, for (as nearly as possible) distinct residential sections for the two races. This question was first agitated in Baltimore in 1809. A segregation law was passed but it was soon pronounced invalid by the courts. In 1911, another such ordinance was put in force but it, too, was declared void, first by the Criminal Court of Baltimore, and later by the Maryland Court of Appeals. The latter Court, however, maintained that the city has the right to pass a segregation law. I quote the following words of the court:

“This Court is of the opinion that the Mayor and City Council
of Baltimore may, in the exercise of its police power, validly
pass an ordinance for the segregation of the white and colored
races without conflicting with the Constitution of the United
States or of the State of Maryland.”[110:4]

Very soon after this, another ordinance was passed. It has now been in operation about four years (1917). However, the Maryland Court of Appeals is holding a case _sub curia_, awaiting a decision of the United States Supreme Court in a case testing the validity of the segregation law of Louisville.[110:4a]

In 1912 the Virginia Legislature enacted a law for the purpose, it seems, of encouraging the cities and towns of that State to segregate the whites and the Negroes. Richmond, however, had already passed a segregation ordinance in 1911. It is as follows:

“That it shall be unlawful for any white person to occupy
as a residence or to establish and maintain as a place of
public assembly, any house upon any street or alley between
two adjacent streets in which a greater number of houses are
occupied as residences by colored people than are occupied as
residences by white people.

“That it shall be unlawful for any colored person to occupy
as a residence or to establish and maintain as a place of
public assembly any house upon any street or alley between
two adjacent streets on which a greater number of houses are
occupied as residences by white people than are occupied as
residences by colored people.

“That no person shall construct or locate on any block or
square on which there is at that time no residence any house
or other building intended to be used as a residence without
declaring in his application for a permit to build whether
the house or building so to be constructed is designed to be
occupied by white or colored people, and the Building Inspector
of the city of Richmond shall not issue any permit in such
case unless the applicant complies with the provisions of this
section.

“That nothing in this ordinance shall affect the location of
residences made previous to the approval of this ordinance,
and nothing herein shall be so construed as to prevent the
occupation of residences by white or colored servants or
employes on the square or block on which they are so employed.

“Every person, either by himself or through his agent,
violating, or any agent for another violating any one or
more of the provisions of this ordinance shall be liable to
a fine of not less than $100 nor more than $200, recoverable
before the police justice of the city of Richmond, and, in the
discretion of the police justice, such person may, in addition
thereto, be confined in the city jail not less than 30 nor
more than 90 days.”[112:5]

Some of the principal reasons for the demand for the segregation of the two races in towns and cities are given in the _Preamble_ to the Virginia law of 1912 as follows:

“Whereas the preservation of the public morals, public health,
and public order, in the cities and towns of this Commonwealth
is endangered by the residence of white and colored people in
close proximity to one another: therefore, be it enacted by the
General Assembly of Virginia,” etc.

The effect upon public order of the “close proximity” of the two races may best be shown by the following quotations:

“Having occasion to ride on the Guilford Avenue car last week,
going down town, there were 10 or 12 Negro men in their dirty
working clothes. On one seat there were two of them; the other
8 or 10 had each of them a separate bench. Refined handsomely
dressed women entering the car had to stand or sit beside one
of these dirty Negroes. I am not an enemy to the race. I
believe they should have as good accommodations as we have, but
they should be to themselves.”[113:6]

* * * * *

“I prefer rubbing elbows with them (Negro guano factory
laborers) to riding with the so-called respectable Negroes on
the Preston Street and other cross-town lines. On the Preston
street line in particular conditions have become so unbearable
that the writer, who formerly used this line to reach his place
of business, has been obliged to adopt a more circuitous route,
which takes fully twice as long.

“On this line respectable white people and white women
especially, are subjected to every species of affront and
insult, which they cannot resent without risk of being
drawn into a dispute, in which no decent person cares to be
involved. The Negroes realize this and it emboldens them still
further.”[113:7]

* * * * *

“Residents in the 1300 block, Myrtle Avenue were greatly
excited yesterday by a colored family moving into 1334 during
the morning. The block is occupied by white people and this is
the first intrusion by Negroes.”[113:8]

* * * * *

“Angered because a colored family had moved into house No. 128
Patapsco Avenue, a crowd of about 100 residents of Pimplico
gathered before the dwelling last night and battered it with
sticks and stones until every window pane was smashed, valuable
chandeliers demolished and plaster knocked in great clouds from
the walls.”[114:9]

* * * * *

“About 150 determined white men gathered early yesterday
evening at a house on Mattfeld Avenue near Falls road, and
camped on the grounds until a Negro family of two men and three
women and two children living in the house left. . . . After
the Negroes had found a place the men scattered. . . . No
violence or cruelty was meant toward the Negro family, but that
the neighborhood was determined to show that it was white and
meant to stay white.”[114:10]

Indeed, objections are often made to the location of Negro churches, schools or Y. M. C. A.’s in or near white neighborhoods. The following newspaper headings may be sufficient to indicate the situation:

“Relay [Md.] Objects to Negro College,”[114:11] “Mount
Washington Up in Arms Over the Plan to Locate Morgan College
[Negro] There,”[115:12] “Lafayette Square Protests Against
Putting a Colored School On Its Borders.”[115:13]

Nor is this attitude toward the Negro confined to the South. If the North had as many Negroes in proportion to its population as the South, the feeling there would be just as acute. The following quotations so indicate:

“Boston, March 23.—Refusing to associate with Dr. Melissa
Thompson, a Negress of North Carolina, who has been appointed
a physician in the maternity department of the New England
Hospital for Women and Children in Roxbury, five young white
women doctors sent in their resignation.”[115:14]

* * * * *

“Boston, Sept. 8.—Here where years ago a mob of exclusive Back
Bay residents stormed the old courthouse to free a Negro from
his Southern master, descendants of the Back Bay rescuers
to-day are fighting against serving as election supervisors
with a Negro, whose appointment became known Wednesday.”[115:15]

* * * * *

“Ithaca, N. Y., March 28.—The petition of more than 200 women
in Cornell University against the admission of [Negro] women
into the only dormitory in the University has been forwarded to
President Schurman.”[116:16]

* * * * *

“New York, July 2.—Twenty teachers, about half the staff at
Public School No. 125, in Wooster Street, Manhattan—have
applied for transfers, owing to the assignment by the Board
of Education of William L. Burkley (mulatto) as head of the
school.”[116:17]

* * * * *

“Burlington, Vermont, dislikes the idea of having the Tenth
Cavalry at Fort Ethan Allen. The Tenth happens to be a colored
regiment and the prospect of having 1200 Negro soldiers within
three miles of the city is greatly exciting many of the people
of Burlington.”[116:18]

* * * * *

“Akron, Ohio, August 13.—A serious race riot may take place if
notices posted on the homes of North Side Negroes last night by
members of a citizens’ ‘Vigilance league’ in that section of
the city, who have warned the Negroes that unless they sell
their property and leave that section of the city, they will be
forcibly evicted from their homes, which are also threatened
with destruction.

“Members of the ‘Vigilance league’ declare to-day that the
Negroes are practicing a form of blackmail by buying property
in the fashionable residence district of North Hill, which they
occupy until their white neighbors pay an exorbitant price for
their property to get rid of them.

“They say several instances of this kind have been recorded
recently and feeling against the Negroes reached a high pitch
at a secret meeting held last night. The public have taken
every precaution to guard against a serious outbreak.

“The Negroes have been given one week in which to sell their
property and leave that section of the city by the ‘Vigilance
league.’”[117:19]

* * * * *

“Bellville, Ill., Oct. 7.—Ten of the 13 Negroes who have been
on trial here for a week, charged with the murder of Detective
Samuel Coppedge on the morning of July 2, which precipitated
the East St. Louis, Ill., race riots were convicted to-day
and sentenced to 14 years in the penitentiary. Three were
acquitted.”[117:20]

* * * * *

“York, Pa., Aug. 20.—Dr. George W. Bowles, a Negro physician,
has started a movement here for the segregation of his race.
Bowles believes that Negroes would be better taken care of
if in one part of the town. Now the blacks are housed in
the alleys and few are permitted to rent houses on the main
streets.”[118:21]

A few such Negro leaders as Dr. Bowles, just mentioned, seem to appreciate the advantages of segregation for the Negro, and for both races. Others, however, object to segregation because to their minds, it is a denial of social equality with the white race, or that they are deprived of the best living conditions. If the Negro had the proper race pride he would welcome the opportunity to live among his own race. He would delight in the companionship of those of his kind. Among the Negroes would develop grades of society as among white people. Indeed, already in Baltimore Druid Hill Avenue and other streets have become a sort of aristocratic section for the Negroes. Those who have money have the opportunity to live among their own race in the best manner possible.

Other races are so proud of their traditional grandeur or present attainments as to claim superiority and exclusiveness. But the Negro has such little race pride that were it possible every Negro man would have a white wife and every Negro woman a white husband. Many Negro leaders are so lacking in race esteem as to seize every opportunity to force themselves into the society of other races. And although they possess a strong sense of their rights they are usually found unmindful of attendant obligations.

The great mass of Negroes, however, soon accommodate themselves to segregation regulations, whether for schools, railways, or for the residential sections of cities and seem to care but little about the question of equality. It is only when stirred up by the unwise of their own race, or by some sentimental, if well-meaning, but shallow-thinking whites, who have lived far removed from association with Negroes, that they manifest much interest in such matters.

In association among races, unless there is some strong cementing influence to counteract it, friction is likely to occur between them in proportion to racial difference. And so long as racial antipathy shall exist—and practical minded men see no signs of an end of it in the near future—regulations for the promotion of harmony should be encouraged by both whites and blacks.

It would be almost as reasonable to expect an idiot and a genius to find a common ground of association as to expect it of a white man and a Negro. For in both races there is a failure to recognize that consciousness of kind which is the basis of all pleasant association. Indeed, even the subdivisions of the white race show a strong preference each for those of his own division. An Italian prefers to associate with an Italian; a German, with Germans; and a Jew, with Jews.

So, in the last analysis, the most potent reason for the segregation of the whites and the Negroes is their unlikeness. For they are antipodal in the extreme: the nadir and zenith of peoples. This dissimilarity cannot be removed by soap and water, time, charity, education, or culture. After all these it will yet remain.

Another reason for segregation is the criminality and immorality of the Negro race. Even if it would benefit a few Negroes or satisfy their vanity to travel with whites or to live on the same street with them is little reason why the comfort, property values, health and morals of the whites should be endangered thereby. The better elements of society have rights as well as the worst and the majority should receive consideration as well as the minority. It is in strict accord with sound ethical principles that laws should aim to level up rather than to level down.

Again, the susceptibility of the Negro to disease is another very potent reason for segregation laws. The Negro’s manner of living since his emancipation—irregular in every way, sometimes half-starved—together with their immoral habits, have so weakened the constitutions of a great part of them that they easily become victims to disease.

According to the _Washington Post_ (March 3, 1917) of 20,000 Negroes who had lately arrived in Philadelphia from the South 1000 were ill with pneumonia and tuberculosis, of whom 700 were said to be dying.

The “Negro Year Book” for 1914-15 makes the statement that 450,000 Negroes in the South are seriously ill all the time, and that 600,000 of the present Negro population will die of tuberculosis. When one recalls that thirty-five years ago tuberculosis among Negroes was scarcely heard of, he may the better appreciate the full force of the above statement in regard to tuberculosis among Negroes.

In a letter calling a conference in Baltimore to consider better housing conditions for the Negro, Mayor Preston said:

“The insanitary housing of many of our colored people and the
congestion within the area in which they reside are developing
breeding for disease. The condition is a serious menace to
the general health of the city. It threatens to become in the
future a matter of such gravity as to challenge the thoughtful
consideration of our entire community. . . .

“The high death rate in Baltimore is occasioned by the
high mortality among the colored people. The death rate
from tuberculosis alone is three and a half colored to one
white.”[122:22]

The Health Department, in a bulletin issued about the same time, showed that the death-rate per thousand of the Negro population of Baltimore was 33.96, while that of the white population was but 16.91. What is true of Baltimore is more or less true elsewhere.

It is needless to consider other reasons for segregation laws, the three given; viz., to lessen friction, to check criminality and immorality, and to prevent the spread of disease, are sufficient warrant for segregation laws of whatever kind.

FOOTNOTES:

[103:1] _The Outlook_, Dec. 23, 1914.

[104:2] “Negro Year Book,” 1914-1915.

[109:3] Code of Mobile, 1907, p. 330.

[110:4] _Baltimore Sun_, Aug. 6, 1913.

[110:4a] Found void by U. S. Supreme Court, Nov. 5, 1917.

[112:5] _Baltimore Sun_, Aug. 8, 1913.

[113:6] Letter to _Baltimore Sun_, March 11, 1914.

[113:7] _Ibid._, Aug. 18, 1913.

[113:8] _Baltimore Sun_, Aug. 22, 1913.

[114:9] _Baltimore American_, Sept. 21, 1911.

[114:10] _Baltimore Sun_, May 19, 1916.

[114:11] _Ibid._, January 13, 1914.

[115:12] _Baltimore Sun_, August 26, 1913.

[115:13] _Ibid._, Aug. 14, 1915.

[115:14] _Ibid._, March 24, 1911.

[115:15] _Baltimore American_, Sept. 9, 1911.

[116:16] _Washington Times_, March, 28, 1911.

[116:17] _Baltimore Sun_, July 3, 1909.

[116:18] _Democrat and News_, Cambridge, Md., Sept. 3, 1909.

[117:19] _Baltimore American_, Aug. 14, 1913.

[117:20] The _Philadelphia Record_, Oct. 8, 1917.

[118:21] _Baltimore Sun_, Aug. 21, 1913.

[122:22] _Baltimore Sun_, Feb. 20, 1917.