OUR NEGRO POPULATION MARTIN (Sinmll Hmv^t^sitg pibatg THE GIFT OF f nj^jiyratecn W ^ WJASImjj^ A.X^SSS^ ^^JK-yj l5 9714 The date shows when this volume was taken. To renew this'Gdok copy the call No. aiid;give to the librarian «.«■-■«> «m »«. *^0"^ "SE RULES. -JlyH 4- 'J**' " *»! Books subject to Recall All books must be re- _ turned at end of coUege year for inspection and NOrtnSTnrr-^^sS^nts must re. \ turn all books before - 1 leaving town. Officers should arrange for the return of books wanted dtuing their absence from town. Books needed by more than One person are held on the reserve list. Volumes of periodi- cals and of pamphlets are held in the library as much as possit)le. For special purposed they are given out for a limits time. Borrowers should' not use their library ^ privileges for the bene- fit of other persons; Books of spedal value and giJt books, when the giver wishes it, are not allowed to circulate. Readers are asked to report all cases of books marked or mutilated. Do not deface books by marks and writing. The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924032556056 r, Cornell University Library F474.K16 M37 3 1924 032 556 056 MAP OF KAN5A5 CITY, MISSOURI ,, 5HCiWIN66E06EAPHICALraS]EraUTfOfl / ^' or THE / / ^^EGEO POPULATZO/1 / ' Our Negro Population A Sociological Study of the Negroes of Kansas City, Missouri, BY ASA E. MARTIN Teacher of History and Civics, Westport High School, Kansas City, Missouri, with a preface by L A. HALBERT Superintendent of the Board of Public Welfare, Kansas City, Missouri. Accepted as a Thesis for a M, A. Degree at William Jewell College, Liberty, Missouri. published by Franklin Hudson Publishing Company kansas city, mo. OPPORTUNITY, 'I expect to pass through this life but once; If, therefore, there is any kindness I can do to any fellow-being. Let me not defer or neglect it — For I shall not pass this way again." Copyright 1913 By Franklin Hudson Publishing Co., Kansas City, Mo. CONTENTS. PrEBACB PAGE 9 Introduction page 23 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. — Ta- ble showiiig occupations, value of homes, incomes, etc., of Negro property-owners. — Influence of church- es 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 com- panies, 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.— Ta- ble showing distribution of Negro wage-earners ac- cording to age and sex. — Occupations, incomes, etc., of Negro male wage-earners. — Skilled laborers. — Un- skilled laborers. — Nature of work and influence upon the Negro. — Gainful occupations, incomes, etc., of Ne- gro female wage-earners. — Nature of the work. — The Negro woman as a wage-earner and the influence upon the home. 5 6 Our Negro Population. CHAPTER IV. Expenditures . . . page 6i Table showing expenditures according to incomes. — Expenditures for various items. — Food, rent, cloth- ing, 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 dis- tricts, Belvidere, Hicks' Hollow, and The Bowery. — Negro apartment-houses. — Discussion of water, baths and toilets, and privy vaults. — Kansas City's hous- ing code. — Poverty. CHAPTER VI. Health and Morals page 107 Table showing death-rate in fifteen representative cities. — Comment on table. — Causes of death ac- cording to races from various diseases. — Diarrheal diseases, heart diseases and dropsy, pneumonia, tu- berculosis, etc. — Relation of races to. different dis- eases. — Table showing birth-rate according to races. — Comparison of birth- and death-rates. — Mortal- ity 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 num- ber of American cities. — Comment. — Arrests made Our Negro Population. 7 in State cases. — Arrests made in city cases. — The Reformatory for Women. — The Municipal Farm. — Juvenile arrests and disposal of. — Discussion of con- ditions producing crime. CHAPTER VIII. Benevolent, Insurance, Social Societies . . . .page 140 Social instincts of the Negro race. — Table showing the strength and benefits of the Negro secret bene- ficial 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 Associa- tion, 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 par- ents of Negro pupils. — General conditions of the Negro schools. — Comment on tables. — ;Department of compulsory education. — Illiteracy. — Vacation and night schools. — Lincoln school. — Educational prog- ress of the Negro. — Influence of education on the Negro. CHAPTER X. Religious Life page i 79 Religious instincts of the Negro race. — Table show- ing the numerical and financial status of churches. — Comment. — Church property. — Negro ministry. — Organization and activities of churches. — Missions. — Benevolences. — St. Simon's Nursery House. — Al- len Chapel. — Institutional church work. — Influence of the Negro churches. PREFACE. From the chapters of this book, so carefully pre- pared by Mr. Martin, one may glean a very striking and significant picture of the Negroes of Kansas City. The EtEAtiPH 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 im- pression 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 tuber- culosis. There is no doubt a close connection be- tween this high death-rate and the great poverty and ignorance that exist among the Negroes. The suf- fering that this condition impUes should arouse the sympathy of every one who has any humanitarian impulses whatever. Nobody shotild be so preju- diced as to be willing to countenance unnecessary 9 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 in- spector into defective homes, and must greatly im- prove 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. h 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 per- sonal 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 re- gard to Negroes is, that they do not seem to have the spirit of depression and despair that one might im- agine 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." 12 Our Negro Population. Although there is great poverty among the Ne- groes, they do not constitute a great burden on the charities of Kansas City. Instead of being relieved, 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 inefficiency 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 accura<:y 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 thor- oughly useful man or worthy man from a doUar-and- cents 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 expend- iture, could not possibly manage to live at all on the income with which the Negroes cover their house- hold budgets, it does not seem very fitting to talk much about the foolish expenditure of the Negroes. And yet it seems hke a terrible loss for the Negroes of Kansas City to spend $400,000 a year on in- toxicating Uquors, and for people who can ill afford it to gamble away probably $50,000 a year, and to Our Negro Population. 13 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 in- dustrial 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 utihze all the productive skill which the Negroes possess. It involves no matter of social equality to give the Negroes equal industrial oppor- tunities 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 them- selves with fuel by picking up waste lumber and scraps of coal and bits of junk tends to conserve and utilize 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 14 Our Negro Population. 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 rap- idly disappearing. The efficiency of the Negro schools of Kansas City, even in the matter of sup- plying 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 compari- sons are possible, Mr. Martin's comparison of col- ored 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 pre- pared for office work or literary or professional pur- suits are either idle or working as porters, barbers, waiters, etc. Since the community is already spend- ing large sums on the education of the Negro, it should at least so modify its system as to get the ut- most possible return for the money invested in Negro education. Our Negro Population. 15 The Negro as a Political 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 pairticipate in political life by voting with the same interest as then: white neighbors. It is un- doubtedly true that comparatively few of them ex- excise any independent judgment, but most of them are guided by some political boss or leader. Not only among the Negroes, but through the commu- nity 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 i6 Our Negro Population. 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 dis- criminated 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 evi- dence 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 Our Negro Population. 17 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 recrea- tion, 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 Sociai. Problems. In regard to the peculiar moral and social prob- lems 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 i8 Our Negro Population. prejudice against Negroes must be achievement of high character, efficient workmanship, good abihty, and absolute merit on the part of the Negro him- self. 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 handi- capped 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 accordiug 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 mar- riage, which it has inherited from the old promis- cuous life of slavery days. There prevails among the Negroes a vast amount of loose family life, con- ducted 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 ex- Our Negro Population. 19 ceedingly detrimental to the children who have been bom 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 in- struction in home Ufe 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 pro- viding 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 fa- ciUties, but it will not be enough to open such school- houses 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 facili- ties. Some people seem to feel that when the schools have been opened, the whole question of es- tablishing social centers has been solved; but this is the merest beginning. There must be trained lead- 29 Our Negro Population. ership 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. Religious 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 imagina- tive and emotional and musical. All these faculties go to enrich their religious experiences. The prob- lem of the Negro preacher of to-day is to fill the im- agination 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 Ne- gro can be controlled without being extinguished. While the Negro churches have their faults, when all Our Negro Population. 21 things are taken into consideration, it seems that they are battling with the problem in a quite com- mendable 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 condi- tion of the Negroes in our city, and it should be sug- gestive to the people of other communities in regard to their problems and duties in the same direction. L. A. H ALBERT, 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 tremend- ous importance to the present and future of this Nation. These problems differ not only from lo- cality to locality, but from man to man, and in addi- tion 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, en- vironment, and capacity of the Negro must be care- fully observed, if the solution of the problems con- nected 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 Uves; yet this fact should be fully reaUzed by all who are concerned either with the discussion of the problem or with the work of uphfting the ract. 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 23 24 Our Negro Population. 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 train- ing," in the broad sense of the phrase, for the masses of the colored population — training that will de- velop 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 dividing- line between the North and the South and the Bast and the West and possesses a representative popu- lation; 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 1912 according to races in twenty representative cities of the United States: Our Negro Population. 25 City. Denver, Colo Omaha, Nebr Cincinnati, Ohio. . . , Philadelphia, Pa St. Joseph, Mo St. louis. Mo Columbus, Ohio . . . . Indianapolis, Ind. . . . Kansas City, Mo. . . . Oklahoma City, Okla. Topeka, Kans Kansas City, Kans. . . Baltimore, Md. . San Antonio, Tex . . . Louisville, Ky Fort Worth, Tex. . . . New Orleans, La Washington; D. C. . . Nashville, Tenn. . Atlanta, Ga White Colored Per Cent Population. Population. Colored. 203,955 5,426 2-5 119,670 4,426 3 5 353.952 19,639 5 4 1,464,549 84,459 5 4 73,154 4,249 5 6 643,069 43,960 6 4 168,772 12,739 7 211,844 21,816 9 3 224,815 23,566 9 7 57,659 6,546 10 I 39,141 4,541 10 4 73,041 9,286 II 2 473,736 84,749 15 I 79,898 16,716 17 3 183,406 40,522 18 60,032 13,280 18 I 249,813 89,262 26 3 236.623 94,446 28 5 73,837 36,523 33 102,937 51,902 33 5 The materials of this study were collected during January, February, March, and April, 1912. A de- tailed 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 repre- sentative families, using the following schedule of questions in his investigation : I. Residence? Number of persons in family? Sex? Age? Number of times married? 26 Our Negro Population. 6. Number of times divorced? 7. Usual occupation? 8. Income per week, head of family? 9. Income per week, wife? 10. Income per week, children? 1 1 . Number of week's employed during 191 1 ? 12. Number of places employed during 191 1 ? 13. Duration of employment in the present place? 14. Rent paid per month ? 15. Number of rooms? 16. Length of residence in the present place? 17. Value of furniture? 18. Owner of home? 19. Mortgage on home, and amount of same? 20. Total wealth? 2 1 . Expenditure for food ? 22. Expenditure for fuel and light? 23. Expenditure for clothing? 24. Expenditure for car-fares? 25. Expenditure for intoxicating liquors? 26. Expenditure for insurance and fraternal dues? 27. Ability to read and write? 28. Member of church? 29. Member of fraternal order? 30. Bath in house? 3 1 . Toilet in house ? In the main, there was but little trouble experi- enced 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. Our Negro Population. 27 CHAPTER I. Economic Conditions. Our first inquiry will be concerned with the Kansas City Negro as a wealth-producer and his con- sequent 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 prop- erty-owners in all the different sections of the city, and after interviewing numerous white men, in- cluding the tax assessors and collectors, who are fa- miliar with the question, I can give, with a fair de- gree of accuracy, the present economic status of the Kansas City Negro. These results are indeed inter- esting and instructive, for the Negro, contrary to the prevalent opinion, is even to-day a great eco- nomic factor. Many of our difficulties with and misunderstandings of the Negro are due to his de- linquencies; 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 2 8 Our Negro Population. 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 employ- ment into a larger world, the white community loses its personal and defiflite information. The Negro passes into the unknown. As he attains progress, he, by that very progress, removes the tangible evi- dence of advancement from the immediate observa- tion of the white community; and yet those who would observe broadly will find a patiently and per- sistently increasing number of true families and real homes — a number far in excess of the popular es- timates. 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. Our Negro Population. 29 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 re- member that the Negro at his emancipation was in no way equipped to acquke 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 hve), 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 it. Kinds of Property. Whites. Negroes. Total. Real . . . . Personal . .. Total $123,037,780 27,942,894 150,980,674 $1,400,000 500,000 1,900,000 $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 dffierent tracts valued at $124,437,780 in the aggre- 30 Our Negro Population. gate, which represents a per capita realty wealth of $501.75. According to the 19 10 census, the white popula- tion 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 i ,000 . . 450 About 81,000 whites and 2,000 Negroes paid taxes during 191 1 upon $28,282,894 worth of per- sonal 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 indebted- ness upon either real or personal property. From Our Negro 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 time- payment 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 sys- tem 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. These figures further show that the entire Negro population of Kansas City (9.47 per cent of the total) possesses $1,900,000 worth of property, per- sonal and real, which represents only .0124 per cent of the entire taxable property of the city. These figures are, indeed, very low ; yet, when we take into consideration the time during which the two races have been accumulating this wealth, the showing is exceedingly creditable. 32 Our Negro Population. Again, the Negro holds .0112 per cent of the real and .0175 per cent of the personal property, or .0124 per cent of the total assessed wealth of the city, which is equivalent to $80.61 per capita, while the white per capita wealth, both real and personal, is $667.96. Recently a committee of the American Economic Association estimated that all of the taxable prop- erty in the United States owned by Negroes amount- ed to $300,000,000, or about $33.00 per capita, these estimates being based upon the 1900 census returns. Taking the rate of increase for the past twenty years, we find that the 19 10 census would raise the amount of taxable property to about $500,000,000, or to $52.60 per capita. *Mr. H. H. Thomas, himself a Negro, in his book, "The American Negro," places the individual average accumulation throughout the South at the present day at $90.00 per capita, but this is evidently an estimate of the total, rather than the assessed valuation. The $80.61 per capita wealth of the Kansas City Negro, while $28.01 above the first estimate for the Negroes of the whole United States, seems, of course, very small when compared with the $667.96 per capita owned by the whites of Kansas City, or with the $1,000 for the whole United States. At the present rate of increase * Thomas, "The American Negro," p. 76. Our Negro Population. 33 it will take the Kansas City Negroes about 250 years to accumulate $667.96 per capita, which is the pres- ent white per capita wealth of the city. The figures further show that the Kansas City Negro is worth $28.01 more than the average United States Negro, while the Kansas City whites are worth $332.04 less. It is also evident that about half of all the Negro property is in the possession of fifty persons; that of this half one-fourth is in the hands of eight per- sons; further, that of this $237,500, more than one- half, $140,000, is owned by one man. These fig- ures show that the wealth of the Negro, as well as that of the white man, is concentrated in the hands of a few men. From data received in a house-to-house canvass of nearly 500 representative heads of families, together with the information secured from the city assessor and collector, I feel safe in saying that not more than one Negro man out of every three pays any form of taxes. This condition is indeed deplorable. It leads us to believe that the Negro looks upon his Government as something foreign to him and of which he is not a part and in which he has no interest. This state of affairs is due largely to the neghgence of our city officials, who do not assess many of these people on account of their poverty, and who make little effort to secure payment from those assessed. 34 Our Negro Population. Every citizen, regardless of his financial status, should be compelled to pay taxes, even though it is only a few cents. It would be a constant reminder that this government is a government of the people, of which he is a part. And when he comes to a realization of this fact, he will be a willing tay-payer and a more desirable citizen. Again, out of a total tax revenue of $1,690,275.1^5 collected by the city during 191 1, only $21,172.35 was paid by Negroes; in other words, 9.47 per cent of the population pays $21,172.35, or .0125 per cent of the total revenue of the city. It is evident that the possession of real estate is notably lacking among Kansas City Negroes, taken as a class, although the percentage of home-owners is rapidly increasing, as there are at the present time about 700 in the most 'desirable sections of the city available to them. The industrious Negro finds himsef very much handicapped, since there is only a small portion of the city where he is permitted to live and a still smaller section where it is possible for him to pur- chase property; these districts are naturally the most undesirable locations in the city: "Hicks' Hollow," "Belvidere," and "The Bowery" are ex- amples. The home-owning district lies between Ly- dia and Kansas Avenues and Twelfth and Twenty- Our Negro Population. 35 seventh Streets, where there are still further restric- tions, as there are many blocks in which Negroes are not allowed to live or owi property. There are several instances where Negro property- owners have been forced out of white blocks by threatening letters, telling them to move within thirty days, over the signature of "Dynamite." In other instances the dynamite stick has actually been used; this was the case on Montgall Avenue, where six explosions occurred during 19 10 and 191 1. Sev- eral of the property-owners on that street had of- fered to sell at a reasonable price after learning that they were not desirable neighbors, although no pros- pective buyers appeared. In a house-to-house canvass in a portion of the Negro property-owning district the following results were secured: Homes owned on Highland between Twelfth and Twenty-seventh Streets 104 Homes owned on Woodland between Twelfth and Fourteenth Streets 12 Homes owned on Woodland between Twenty-fourth and Twenty-seventh Streets 27 Homes owned on Flora between Twenty-third and Twenty-fifth Streets 37 Homes owned on Vine between Twelfth and Fifteenth Streets , '5 Homes owned on Michigan between Twenty-fourth and Twenty-sixth Streets 35 36 Our Negro Population. Homes owned on Cottage between Flora and Wood- land i8 Homes owned on Howard between Vine and Woodland 7 There is a considerable settlement of Negro home- owners in Centropolis and also between Agnes and Walrond Avenues on Fifty-third and Fifty-fourth Streets. In that locality lots 50x150 feet sell at from $3 to $5 per foot. Between forty and fifty Negroes have purchased there during the past two years. The Afro-American Investment and Employment Com- pany, which is located at 1005-7 McGee Street, sold to Negroes during 191 1 $69,000 worth of real estate. This company, which has been in business for five years, reports that during that time only six Negro homes have been forfeited on account of lack of pajonents. The city takes little interest in any of the Negro districts, except to have them well patrolled by po- Ucemen. The streets and walks are poorly kept, and no provision whatever is made for parks, play- grounds, or public baths. The Civic I/eague, of which Mr. W. C. Hueston is president, offered prizes last year for the best-kept yards and houses, and much inteiest was manifested in the contest. The Negroes of Kansas City are beginning to ap- preciate the fact that land-ownership is a powerful factor in the uplift of their race, but something more Our Negro Population. 37 than a desire to own property is necessary in order to bring about its realization. There must be property which is purchasable. The buyers must have steady employment at reasonable wages. The Negroes' sphere of activity, as well as their place of habita- tion, is very much limited, although it is possible for many of the race to buy homes. The following table, which was compiled from information received through a house-to-house can- vass, shows the occupations, average incomes, and other facts in reference to 197 property-owners: -M 1 -d ,Q rTH u Occupations. 6 B a! pq bey H J Barbers 8 50 6 2 2 $1,930.00 $ 800.00 4 Dentists . ... 3 6.0 I 2 2 2,500.00 1,150.00 Draymen . . . 4 50 3 I I 1,900.00 800 . 00 3 Doctors 12 6.0 3 6 8 2,500.00 1,100.00 I Janitors . 19 6.0 13 5 5 2,130.00 820.00 10 Laborers. . . . 41 50 28 7 7 1,800.00 701.30 25 Laundresses . . 10 50 8 2 2 1,720.00 600 . 00 Lawyers. . . . 3 6.0 I 2 2 2,500.00 1,800.00 Porters 12 4-9 7 3 4 1,730.00 710.00 5 Porters, R. W. 20 5-6 8 5 5 2,000.00 I,IOO.OO 4 Teachers. . . . 24 5-8 II 12 12 2,270.00 800 . 00 4 Tailors . . . 5 5-0 4 2 2 1,840.00 770.00 3 Teamsters . . 6 50 4 I I 2,000.00 800 . 00 4 Waiters 22 4.8 8 _2 8 2,100.00 1,000.00 7 38 Our Negro Population. The above data were somewhat difficult to secure with accuracy, especially that in regard to incomes and values of property. The incomes given in the table represent the earnings of both husband and wife. The Negro churches of Kansas City are begin- ning to realize the present weaknesses of the average Negro. They are discovering that it is his lazi- ness, misdirected energy, lack of foresight, pleasure- seeking propensities, and immorality that to a large extent are keeping him in poverty. The fact that about 90 per cent of the property-owners are church members, and that the churches of the city own about $300,000 worth of property, on which there is a debt of not more than $50,000, leads us to believe that their efforts have been at least partly successful. The churches are teaching their people to be proud of their race; to care for and support each other; to look to the future and provide for a rainy day; to see that there is really something in life worth while, aside from the saloon and gambling-den. Many different methods have been ,used with varying de- grees of success by the ministers. One of them has accomplished so much that I believe it would be ad- visable to give a full description of his work. When the Rev. T. H. Ewing took charge of the Vine Street Baptist Church fifteen years ago, only Our Negro Population. 39 three of his members were property-owners. At that time there were not more than thirty-five Negro property-owners in the entire city. During four years he lectured to his people on the lo cents a day saving plan. He advised them to walk to their work and save that nickel ; to live, eat, and dress ac- cording to their means ; to stay out of the saloons and away from the theaters, and to think of and provide for the future. He advised them to buy their gro- ceries in bulk and to pay cash instead of using the 5 and 10 cent credit plan, so popular to-day, and he showed them in plain figures how much could be saved during the year and what could be done with the money. He said : "You are Negroes — poor Negroes at that. You haven't any business buying chicken or porterhouse steak. Buy from $1 to $2 worth of meat — shoulder — at a time, 100 pounds of flour, i bushel of potatoes, and 50 cents worth of beans." After four years he began to preach, "Keep a bank account, and buy a home just as soon as pos- sible," and he has been preaching it ever since. Whether he meets his members in the church, on the street, in his or their homes, he asks them about their bank accounts, their plans for the future, and discusses wages ; and he keeps after them until they come to a realization of the importance of what he 40 Our Negro Population. advocates. There are several interesting organiza- tions in his church, among them ' ' Economic ' ' clubs - and "Financial" companies. The Economic Club was organized some time ago with the following objects : 1. The members are to keep bank accounts. 2 . They must dress according to their means . 3. They must purchase homes as soon as possible, and cease paying rent. 4. They must visit no places of amusement on the Sabbath day, and not more than twice a month on other days, and then they must not pay more than 25 cents for seats. 5. They must keep a close record o'f the number of members who have bank accounts and own property. There are three Financial or joint stock com- panies, one for men and two for women; these com- panies have been in existence for from two to eight years. All three of these companies own property — two, business buildings, and the other one owns a residence, from which fair returns are realized. Mr. Ewing was looked upon by his people for sev- eial years as an uneducated fool, but his sincerity, ceaseless labor, and common-sense have won for him Our Negro Population. 41 the respect and confidence of the entire Negro popu- lation of Kansas City. His church membership is only 600, but 100 of that number own their homes. 42 Our Negro Population. CHAPTER IT. The Negro in Business. The Negro people, as a whole, are suspicious of their own leaders. They hesitate to patronize their doctors and dentists or to purchase supplies from Negro stores. This lack of confidence is a relic of slavery days, when the Negro was forced to look upon his race as inferior. And Negro leaders in the past have not had that sense of fairness and justice that would tend to inspire confidence and trust. Their educated men have too often used the poor and ig- norant ones as a means of acquiring wealth, disre- garding the well-being of the race as a whole. Scores of such men have lived in Kansas City and many are living here to-day. Fortunately, there are also many of the opposite type, who have proved trustworthy, and who are now enjoying the confi- dence and patronage of their own people. The churches have encouraged these establishments and have taught the people to patronize them. A number of joint stock companies, composed mostly of teachers, doctors, and lawyers, have been organized within the last few years. To-day they Our Negro Population. 43 own and operate several stores. "The People's Drug Store," "The Ideal Pharmacy," and "The' Temple Shoe Company" are of Ihe number, most of them being modern, up-to-date establishments. There are in Kansas City, Missouri, four well- equipped Negro drug stores, with a stock valued at $27,500; they are doing an annual business of $57,- 500. Three of these stores have been in operation eight years. There are four undertaking and em- balming establishments, doing an annual business of $600,000 ; one shoe store, one dry goods store, about twenty-five pressing and cleaning establishments-, seven saloons, eighty-five tailor shops, seventy-five pool-halls, two newspapers, and numerous restaur- ants, all doing an annual business of about $325,000. The Negro is just entering the business world as a competitor for the trade of his own people, and thus far he has made a creditable showing. He is fast winning the confidence of his own race, which must be done before he can hope to receive the recog- nition of the white man. The problems and diffi- culties of the colored race are similar to those of the Jew, who has labored patiently and persistently through thousands of years of oppression — labored until he has won success. The excellent work, "White Capital and Colored Saloon," discussing this phase of the question, says : » H a I H H ill H H M O H n a Pi Q h O H h H a o H H Our Negro Population. 45 "Whether the white man hkes it or not, the fact must be faced that under the modern system of industry which deals with the colored man as an independent wage-earner and in which he has the stimulus of the white man's ideals of education, the colored man must advance, and he visibly does advance to the level of understanding and self-reliance in which he will not ac- cept the negrophobist theory of exclusion." Special attention has been given in this discussion to the industrious, property-owning Negro, who rep- resents a small minority of the total population. Out of the 23,566 Negroes in the entire city, about 7,000 live north of Eighth Street, 8,000 on "The Bowery" which is the Negro district between Troost and Woodland and Sixteenth and Twentieth Streets, and about 1,000 in the West Bottoms. Less than i per cent of these 16,000 people own real estate. They are exceedingly indifferent and shiftless. As laborers, their chief characteristics are unreliability and inabihty. They cannot see the necessity for toil so long as they are one dollar ahead. They nearly all drink, both men and women. They buy their groceries — ^in fact, everything they have to pur- chase — on the 5 and 10 cent plan, or for credit on the weekly payment plan. They take more pleas- ure in the regalia of a secret society than in the com- fort of a home. I visited one Negro, a strong, able- bodied man, who occupied three rooms in a basement under a saloon. The rooms were dark — so much so 46 Our Negro Population. that one could not see to read in any of them with- out a Hght, as there was only one small window, which was under the back entrance to the saloon. In this place, unfit for human habitation, the man lived like a beast ; yet his future was well provided for — he belonged to three fraternal orders and carried two insurance policies, all of which guaranteed him a $275 burial, concerning which he spoke with much pride. But to lay aside as much per week against the coming of the inevitable rainy day is a feature of domestic economy utterly beyond his ability to comprehend. As one walks through these districts, visits the saloons, pool-halls, and barber shops, and sees there at all times the large number of idle men, he cannot but realize the difficulties of the Negro problem. There are scores of Negroes who see these condi- tions as they really are and earnestly desire to better them, but their efforts are thwarted on one side by race prejudice, which endeavors to keep the Negro in a position of ignorance, poverty, and dependence, and on the other side by the superstition and the ignorance of the Negro himself. Our Negro Population. CHAPTER III. 47 Incomes. Labor is effort made for the satisfying of human needs. It is one of the three leading factors in pro- duction, the others being land and capital. Labor is the most important of the three, for without it land would not be made productive and capital could not result. Productive labor is that which yields what is necessary for man's needs. How are the needs of the 23,566 Negroes of Kansas City supplied? This question is frequently asked, especially when on Saturdays hundreds of Negroes are seen strolling aimlessly about or lounging at the street corners or in front of the dram-shops. With the colored race it has, in the very nature of things, been a hard struggle. Accustomed in slavery times to depend upon their owners for everything — not only for food, clothing, and shelter, but even for the control of themselves and their children — ^the Negroes had been taught none of the elements of success, self-reliance, or the faculties necessary to good management; they had no realization of the value of money nor of the intelligent use of it. After emancipation, they 48 Our Negro Population. entered the industrial world as free yet unskilled laborers; therefore their employment was limited to certain kinds of work in which training was not required. There is a universal feeling among white laborers that it is not right to employ Negroes when there is white labor to be had, yet the employers, as a rule, hold that the hiring of labor is purely a matter of cents and dollars and not of sentiment. In hun- dreds of cases white laborers have refused to work with Negroes, especially in the skilled trades. The Negroes' labor is there regulated by moral considera- tions, rather than by economic. Where both white and colored labor is employed, the kind of work done by men of each color is usuallv distinct. The whites, as a rule, work inside, where skill is re- quired, and the Negroes do the rough, hard, outside work. I have been told that Negroes do the driv- ing, unloading, and other unpleasant work because white laborers refuse to work during bad weather, and that the whites do the inside work because of their greater ability to assume responsibility. The Negro, for the most part, is an unskilled laborer, but he is highly efficient within the limits of his skill. He works best in gangs, under social im- pulses, and under white bosses. Members of their own race are looked upon by the colored men as Our Negro Population. 49 hard, exacting, unreasonable masters, which many of them doubtless are, because they believe that better results will come from harsh treatment, and they desire, of course, to please their white employ- ers. I have also noticed a similar lack of confidence in a Negro engaged in any capacity other than that of a laborer. Nevertheless, there is a tendency to encourage and support those who hold such positions, since a few are beginning to realize the necessity of working together for the welfare of the race. Eco- nomic development depends upon united effort, and the race as a whole should take pride in every individual promotion. The 23,566 Negroes of Kansas City may be classified as follows : Negro children fourteen years of age and under . . 6,300 Negro men between the ages of fourteen and sixty.. 8, 150 Negro women between the ages of fourteen and sixty. 8, 000 Negroes, male and female, over sixty years of age. . 1,206 These estimates are based upon the 1910 census, together with the school census of Kansas City for the same year. I have included in the last item of the list all men and women, regardless of age, who, because of disease or infirmities, are unable to work. With a desire to answer with accuracy the ques- tion, "How are the needs of the Negroes of Kansas City supplied?" I made a careful investigation of the labor conditions in reference to place of employ- so Our Negro Population. ment, salaries, and the nature of the work, and from the data secured the gainful occupations of the 8,150 males are divided into the following classes : Number. Total Incomes. Barbers Dentists Doctors Janitors Laborers Lawyers Police Service Postal Service Porters in Barber Shops . Porters in Hotels . Porters in Saloons Proprietors, Independent . Pool-Hall Owners. . Preachers Pullman Service Railway Service . ... Teachers Waiters Teamsters . Total 240 $ 140,000.00 4 6,000 . 00 23 27,500.00 350 187,000.00 5,006 1,750,000.00 6 9,000.00 8 8,640.00 20 2 1 ,000 . 00 375 150,000.00 140 67,000.00 600 300,000 . 00 90 55,000.00 75 36,500.00 25 15,000.00 140 108,000.00 250 130,000.00 30 27,500.00 510 408,000.00 210 155,000.00 8,100 , $3,811,140.00 It has been impossible to ascertain the number of skilled laborers in the city, though the number is very small. The trained mechanic is still in a pitiful minority amid a mob of common laborers. It has also been difficult to secure information in re- gard to the number of Kansas City, Missouri, Ne- groes employed in the different classes, since many Kansas City, Kansas, Negroes work regularly on Our Negro Population. 51 this side, and several Kansas City, Missouri, Ne- groes are employed just across the State Line in the great packing-houses. However, after receiving es- timates from the different employers, I feel safe in giving the above figures. Nine hundred of the 5,006 common laborers among the Negroes are employed at the packing-plants, 800 are hod-carriers, 2,000 work on the street for the city or for the Metro- politan Street Railway Company, and the remaining 1,306 are engaged in various forms of labor. The 900 Negroes employed by the packing com- panies receive from i6 to 22^^ cents per hour and work from six to ten hours each day. They have steady employment during the entire year. The Armour Packing Company employs 2,574 men; J4-4 per cent, or 386 of them, are Negroes. This per cent is lower than it has been for years, and it seems to be decreasing each year; a fact which is attributed to the shiftlessness of the young Negroes. The packers are desirous of having at all times at least 25 per cent of their employees Negroes for two reasons: first, the Negro has greater ability than the white to do hard work ; and second, few Negroes belong to labor unions and those who are members seldom strike. One of the two large steam plants of the Armour Packing Company is managed by a Negro, and many other positions requiring skill and responsibility are 52 Our Negro Population. held by them. There is probably no other large em- ployer of Negroes in Kansas City which treats col- ored workmen with more consideration than does the Armour Packing Company. Dressing-rooms and free baths are provided, coffee is served at luncheon (two cups for 5 cents), and the old employees who are unable to keep up their regular work are given other work, which they are able to do, at the same salary. The 800 hod-carriers are employed on an average of twenty weeks each year ; many of them, however, when not worKing at their trade, do anything they can find to do. . The remaining 3,306 laborers, the majority of whom work on the streets, are employed about thirty weeks each year. The hod-carrier re- ceives from $12 to $17.50 per week. Ordinary la- borers average about $10.50 per week when working. The 5,006 laborers earn annually $1,750,000, or $342.74 per capita, and are employed on an average of thirty-one and a fraction weeks per year; there- fore, each of these laborers is idle nearly twenty-one weeks each year. They are not wholly responsible for these conditions, since the nature of the work which they are compelled to do makes it necessary for them to be idle every time the weather is bad; besides, this kind of work is done by jobs, and often employers do not have work to offer. Our Negro Population. 53 The fact that the Afro-American Investment and Employment Company found work for 2,700 dif- ferent men during 191 1 shows conclusively that the Negroes either do not have steady employment or are shiftless and unreliable. Although able to secure work only a little more than half the time, the Negro has not, as a rule, saved his earnings or used them with strict economy, thus providing for his idle days. Neither the white nor the colored man is truly free and independent while he relies upon each day's labor for that day's food and shelter. There are about 1,415 Negroes employed as waiters and porters in hotels, in barber shops, and on trains, who receive an average guaranteed salary of $26 per month or $312 per year, making a total an- nual income of $441,480. According to information given by about seventy-five such employees, the average income is $609.90, which gave a total an- nual income of $863,000 — ^in other words, the people of Kansas City pay in tips $421,120. The single fact that one pays a good round price for certain accommodations, and is then forced to tip the em- ployees in order to get the service paid for is on the face of it absurd. The patron simply gives certain sums of money to the employer with which to pay his employees for rendering to the patron the service 54 Our Negro Population. he has already amply paid for. A law should be passed forbidding the giving or receiving of tips. The employer would then be compelled to pay regular salaries, and as a lesult of competition would render the very best of service possible. As it is to-day, the income of the employees is uncertain and irregular, since each one has a guaranteed salary of only $6.25 per week, and the tips vary greatly from day to day. The Negroes are not altogether responsible for this condition, and from what I could learn they are very much dissatisfied with the whole system. They would prefer regular salaries upon which they could depend, even though their incomes might not be quite so large as they are now, and the patron should welcome the change that would be just and rea- sonable for all concerned. The saloons of Kansas City employ 600 Negro men; in the houses of prostitution are nearly 100 more. Thus we have 700 Negro men constantly in contact with our most degraded citizenship. What effect is this destined to have upon the Negro, since he has been taught for generations to look upon the white man as his superior in every way? Many of these Negroes are not in this work of their own free will, but because of the fact that their field of ac- tivity is so limited that they must work in disrepu- Our Negro Population. 55 table places or be idle and become applicants to our charitable institutions for support. To the list of 700 Negroes employed in the saloons might be added the 1,415 waiters and porters, most of whom serve drinks or do other demoralizing er- rands for their white friends. With 2,115 Negro men — one-fourth of the male wage-earners — directly or indirectly in the liquor business, we cannot ex- pect to see the churches and other elevating agencies materially better the general conditions of the race, especially until more widely opened doors of indus- trial opportunity have been secured. The situation is indeed discouraging, since it is this liquor that is keeping the Negro in poverty and sending to our prisons by the hundreds. The 8,150 wage-earners are idle about 140,925 weeks annually, which is an average of 17.4 weeks for each individual, and he is rarely disposed to pro- duce much more than is required for his maintenance. Few prepare for the idle weeks. However, the needs of the Negro are comparatively few and simple. But idleness breeds crime and immorality. An un- working race can not be said to be truly educated, for labor is itself a part of education. Among the females the gainful occupations are divided about as follows : 56 Our Negro Population. Cooks Housekeepers. . Hotel Maids . Incidental. . . I/aundresses. . Nurses . Seamstresses . Teachers Total Number. • ■ 500 . . 400 100 300 . 1,600 40 90 • • 54 • -3.084 Income. $ 95,000.00 75,000.00 20,000 . 00 42,000.00 320,000.00 12,000.00 27,000.00 27,500.00 $618,500.00 The above estimates show that there are about 2,500 Negro women working as cooks, housekeepers, and laundresses. They have regular customers and go to and from their work each day. The laundresses are employed on an average of two and one-half days each week, and receive from $1 .35 to $1 .60 per day. The cooks and housekeepers have regular work and receive for their work from $4.50 to $8 per week. In addition to these figures, many of the women take their meals with the people for whom they work. The salaries in the other classes vary greatly, as shown in the table. The Afro-American Investment and Bniployment Company secured 3,600 jobs for Negro women during 191 1. Since there are only 3,084 Negro women who work at all, these figures show conclusively that large numbers are shiftless and unreliable. However, many instances were found where Negro women had worked at the same places for twenty or even thirty Our Negro Population. 57 years, and had at all times given satisfaction. Yet, as a class, they are independent, and quit work whenever they feel disposed to do so, without a minute's notice to the employer. From information secured from white famihes who employ Negroes, I find that the average service with each family is less than eight months per year. Several instances were found where the help was changed as often as every month, or even every week, for months in succession. But the whites have been so long accustomed to this kind of help in their homes that they accept the situation in a spirit of mingled indignation and philosophy. As a result of this situation, Negro help is being gradually displaced by foreign white help, which is more reliable, thus further limiting the Negroes' sphere of activity. The fact that 3,084, or 63 per cent of all Negro women between the ages of fourteen and sixty, are wage-earners, with an annual income of $608,000, shows that they are industrious, and that when they desire to do so they can render efficient service. The tables further show that out of a Negro popula- tion of 23,566, there are 11,184 wage-earners with a total income of $4,419,140. The following table gives the occupations and wages of twenty-five heads of typical Negro families in Kansas City, Missouri, and the average income of 58 Our Negro Population. such families. The data shown were collected by a house visitation in January, 1912 : 0) >> a -1 ^ S3 o o G < . QJ ,Q u a-t! as > CO c n < S« tu R d ^ ^ T) OJ QJ 1 OS H S3 >< W >, OJ N H W >< (U w oi be < C! o o S cj tn :3 ■o fi ffi 0! u SSSSgooooogoooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooo ^ooooooo t5°2.2." 2 9.'^5_ ^^ Oooooc^MMu^OlO"^;o^N^ ON r^ ■<:l- ro tovo CO to Th tJ-vo rOcOfO(N t^-^cow -rj- 0\\0 CO fO CO 88 88 8 O o o o o o o o o o o o o o o O O lO O lO O lo "^ o r^ O w T^ [^ MM (VJ W M O O Q odd ON O -^ ooooooooooooooooooooooooo OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ^OOOOOOOOyDOOiNOioc^OOOOO'^OOO roOOOvOOO>riO'-'wO'-oO'Oi-iNOPiO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOiOOOOO OOiOO CN OiO(N OOCO OO'O O^ *■ 0>o>or^tNOON ■^cO'^CS rOrOCS -^m m rO(N PD-^iOCS o >< N M (N (N N ^ »o cs r^ o\ ^ CO 5 « 0( S CO CO 1 !«. i £S 10 00 4 4 fO CXD >o rO u M Ti- Cv ^ OJ > < M ro CO tN 6§ ^ o< -^ ^o ^ t^ r^ VO 4 -^ 10 10 00 : d 10 M w OJ > « 3 < VO d d CO fe o to "O r* « n |S r-. > 00 o 10 0^ 00 10 &§ ^ 4 d w 00 "S >o >o 10 Tt CO n -^ c^ »N 10 fe (S r^ ro lO o\ i-i -t vO 00 OS M M t«, 6§ M cO Cv 00 CO o\ M rO OS 00 c^ •T) IN •-1 hH ^O ffi 10 00 00 >o 4 vd 10 10 VO r^ t^ 00 ^ 6 3i (N i-i \o t^ M »o IN IN 00 00 M t^ O CJ « rn 01 CO i-< H£ «): w CO ^ »o > 6 Ol CO c^ IN 6.« S "i iO -^ 00 01 IN w ■O r^ VO (N I G o^ o c o ^ B N S8l8 . a 8| 8 y^^ S^: M S^ 3=^ a o^ o o ■* g to a o^ o O to C vo T^ Ov to CI C^ o\ to CO to to 00 to On 00 CO 5- 00 IN rO fO o lO l-H CO 00 to CO lO rO HI tN M IN o to 8 o^ M fO IN »o 00 IN r^ s H- »o 00 n •* CO CO CN o in ■& ^ 8 o CO rO CO 00 ■e- o to CO to to 0^ o\ r^ 1-1 VO 8 ? O M O CO OS ■■o to M ^ r- to ■^ o CO \o CO "5 0( 00 cs CN 8 00 8 o to to CN 0^ \o vO o CO Ov r^ CI r^ to o to 8 ^ 8 CO 00 CO M ON O o to 00 00 8 • 00 00 CO ON 00 CO l-l to ^ r^ o ^ CO CN CN CO CN O On 00 ,H8|8 E o^ o O t^ « 00 E o^ O 00 g _ o mt oo, der ,ooo B* M cji^ 3«S, E °~ 64 Our Negro Population. From these figures some idea of the economic condition of the Kansas City Negroes may be ob- tained. From the 348 families represented, 26 or 7.4 per cent, receive an average annual income of $168, and 64, or 18.3 per cent, receive $238.12. In this first instance the expenditures exceed the income by $49.20 and in the second by $31.72 for each family; in other words, 90, or 25.8 per cent, of the 348 fami- lies represented, are public charges to the extent of !?36.77 per family each year. Most of these fami- lies receive assistance from the white charitable societies of the city. The expenditures of the average family, accord- ing to the figures in the table above, may be classified as follows: Annual Expenditures. Per Cent. Food $202.41 38.46 Rent 116.29 21.27 Clothing 49 • 15 7-62 Fuel and Light 24.81 4.20 Car-fare 18 . 80 3 ■ 00 Other Expenses and Savings. 228.29 25.45 Total $439-75 100.00 The relative expenditures for different purposes are shown in the tables above. The percentages show which are the elastic elements. Rent de- mands a decreasing proportion of income as income increases, going from 31.3 per cent for incomes be- tween $200 and $300 per year to 15.08 per cent for Our Negro Population. 65 incomes of $r,ooo and over, or an average of 21.27 per cent.. Food demands 54.5 per cent for annual incomes between $200 and $300, and gradually de- creases until only 22.6 per cent of the incomes of $1,000 or over are required. Clothing demands a larger proportion of the higher incomes than of the lower, going from 5.15 per cent to 11.35 per cent. Fuel and light, on the other hand, gradually decrease as the income increases, going from 7.9 per cent to 2.78 per cent. Under the heading "Other Expenses and Savings," the ex- penditures, including furnishings, society and church dues, amusements, and miscellaneous, show a rapid increase in percentage with increasing incomes, going from 8.7 per cent for annual incomes between $300 and $400 to 48.92 per cent for incomes of $1,600 and over. Food. Food is much the largest item in the family budget, comprising 38.64 per cent of the total outlay. The average amount spent for food rises from $112 per annum for incomes between $100 and $200 to $250 for the $1,000 and over gioup. But although the average amount increases by about $17.50 with each $100 added income, the percentage of total expenditure decreases by 3.88 per cent. 66 Our Negro Population. Amount and Percentage op Expenditure for Food Av. Food. No. of No. per Total Av. Income Group. Total Per Fam- No. Fam- Income. Aver- Cent ily. ily. age. Total. $ IOC or under $ 200 26 81 31 $168.00 $112 .00 51.5 200 or under 300 64 180 2.8 238.12 147.03 54.5 300 or under 400 78 240 3.08 320.57 163.30 50.9 400 or under 500 62 124 2.7 432.26 185.00 42.8 500 or under 600 22 53 2.4 51727 199.54 38.5 600 or under 700 20 70 3.5 627.50 230.50 36.5 700 or under 800 43 112 2.6 731.81 244 . 34 33.4 800 or under 900 16 43 2.7 814.28 225.00 27.6 900 or under 1000 9 35 3-6 943 60 267.18 28.3 1000 or above 8 20 2.5 1133-33 250. ool 22.6 The above information was indeed difficult to secure with accuracy, -since nearly all the female wage-earners take many of their meals with the people for whom they work. Again, very few keep an itemized account of their weekly expenditures. There is also a disposition among Negroes to assent to any suggestion made upon subjects concerning which they are not informed. The simple question "About what does your grocery and meat bill amount to per week?" nearly always brought the reply, "Good Lord! man, I don't know;" and a re- quest for a rough estimate brought the answer, "I hain't any idea." I might say then: "There are three in your family, and I am sure you are eco- nomical, so your bill would probably not exceed $3 Our Negro Population. 67 per week." "Yessir, mister, I think that's just about right." A suggestion of $6 per week would have received the same answer. I usually inquired in regard to their menu from day to day and for the different meals, asking about the quantity, method of purchasing, and the cost of each article. I also visited the grocerymen and meat-dealers in the Negro districts and talked with them about their Negro customers. No accurate information could be gotten, since the majority of them do a cash busi- ness, hence had few individual accounts. They agreed, however, that the Negro's grocery and meat bill depended upon his present income; that as a class the colored people purchase in small quantities, and are big eaters when they have money, but often during hard times hve for weeks on from $r to $2 per week. Most families bought their supplies from day to day in very small quantities, partly because of the lack of facilities for storing and keeping food and paitly f'om lack of money to enable them to buy large quantities. Many famiUes were found, however, who bought their staple articles, like flour and sugar, once a week; but in the greater number of cases butter was purchased by the quarter-pound, potatoes by the pound, and other supplies by the nickel's worth. Food bought in this way is at least 68 Our Negro Population. 25 per cent more expensive than when purchased in large quantities. It is safe to say that 25 per cent of the Negroes of Kansas City are underfed. The circumstances that frequently attend these families are: first, a large number of mouths to be fed — a larger food ne- cessity to be supplied ; second, a larger dependence on other resources than the wages of the father; third, a desire to save money, even at the cost of adequate nutrition; and fourth, a low family in- come. Excluded from this enumeration is the lack of economy in management and of wisdom in the buying of food; but even vdth the greatest of economy the other causes do not cease to operate. In 95 per cent of these cases there is also evidence of exceptional expenditure for drink. Many of these underfed families are not able to purchase cook-stoves, and as a result are forced to prepare meals on a small heating-stove, which does not cost more than $2 or $3. The stoves have only one cap, hence only one article can be prepared at a time ; they have no ovens, therefore everything must be fried, or purchased from the bakery. In the first instance, the food so prepared is unhealthful, and in the second, very expensive. Often colored men have to get credit from stores until work is resumed or until pay-day, and as a con- Our Negro Population. 69 sequence there is a lien on the furniture as security. The most outrageous prices are charged. Further, the ignorant colored man is often charged for what he does not get, and the prices are from 100 to 300 per cent more than would be charged if he were a white man and paid cash. If these evils were reme- died, the Negro would be able to advance much more rapidly than he has done in the past. If the colored people fully understood these abuses, they would probably associate together to mitigate the evils or to obviate the disastrous results of the credit system. These things cannot be done without the aid of the colored people themselves. With the Negroes of the upper classes whose in- comes exceed $600 per year I found conditions about the same as with the white race. The same articles are purchased and are cooked and served in much the same manner as in the homes of the white men. Rent. Rent is the second largest item in the family budget and is 21.27 per cent of the total outlay. About 87.5 per cent of the Negro families of Kansas City are renters. The accommodations offered are very unsatisfactory and the rent is very high. This subject will be fully discussed in a succeeding chapter on "Housing Conditions." 70 Our Negro Population. Clothing. The expenditure for clothing increases steadily with the increase of incomes, as shown in the ta- ble below, although the percentage remains about the same : Amount and Expenditure for Clothing. Clothing. No. Fam- Total Indi- Aver- age per Total Average Income Group. Per Cent ily. vidual. Family. Income. Average. of Total. $ ICO to $ 200 26 81 3-1 $ 168.00 $ 13.80 6 3 200 to 300 64 180 2.8 238.12 13.90 5 15 300 to 400 78 240 3 08 320.51 18.50 5 4 400 to 500 62 124 2.7 432.26 33.87 7 84 500 to 600 22 53 2-4 51727 41 .80 8 08 600 to 700 20 70 3.3 627,50 62 00 9 8 700 to 800 43 112 2.6 731.81 69.09 9 4 800 to 900 16 43 2.7 814.28 57-14 7 01 900 to 1,000 9 35 3.6 943 ■ 60 107 . 16 II 35 1,000 or over 8 20 2.5 1,133-33 74-30 6 55 A glance at the table reveals the fact that the Negro whose income does not exceed $600 per year pays a very small per cent of his earnings for clothing. There are two reasons why this is true: First, the majority of the colored people are laborers, whose incomes do not justify larger expenditures for this purpose; second, those for whom the Negroes work make liberal gifts of clothing, not only for the workers, but also for other members of the families. Inquiry was made as to gifts of clothing received by Our Negro Population. 71 families interviewed. While the answers brought out no exact data, they did show that a large pro- portion of the families on the lower incomes depend upon gifts to keep up such standard of dress as they maintain. The articles received were usually second- hand, but in fairly good condition, and included shoes, hats, underwear, shirts, and in fact everything needed in the way of clothing. The Negro women wage-earners are the recipients of most of the gifts. Scores of underdo thed famiKes were found. Many of them had gone through the entire winter without overcoats or overshoes and in some in- stances without underwear. Fifteen out of 230 children visited of the school age were out of school because they had not suflficient clothing to wear. Of course, this condition is due, to a certain extent, to mismanagement and the neglect of the fathers and mothers, most of whom purchase a pail or two of beer daily, even though their children must go hungry. It is with this class of Negroes that social workers find the greatest difficulty. The Negroes of this class are irresponsible and utterly blank as to the future. They neither see nor desire to see their true condition; and it is this class that is furnishing a large per cent of the Negro criminals. The situa- tion will remain as it is until these people learn to deny themselves a few drinks, and get out and work 72 Our Negro Population. in order to clothe themselves decently and provide respectable homes and wholesome food for their famiUes. The apportionment of expenditure for clothing among the different members of the family is a subject of interest, though no accurate data could be secured. However, the following conclusions may safely be hazarded : The amount expended for each member of the family increases with each rise of in- come. In the case of families receiving gifts, how- ever, the movement is quite uncertain, perhaps be- cause the amount of gifts received bears no necessary relation to income. It appears also from the in- formation at hand that the father's clothing costs more than that of any other member of the family, and also that the percentage, but not the actual amount, diminishes as the income increases. The mother spends much less on her clothing than the father. Even in families with incomes of over $i,ooo, hardly a case was found in which the women spent as much for clothing as did the men. The boys and girls stand nearly on an even footing in re- gard to expenditure for clothing; the average for the boys, however, being a trifle above that of the girls. In an average family with two children under twelve years of age the clothing allowance would be about as follows: the father one-third, the mother one- Our Negro Population. 73 fifth, and the children from one-fourth to one-sixth. The table further shows that the annual expenditure for clothing of the ninety-six familes whose incomes exceed $600 per year was $70.66 for each family, while that of the ninety families with incomes under $300 was only $13.86 for each individual family. Fuel and Ltght. As shown in the table, of incomes and expend- itures, the amount expended for fuel and light in- creases from $96.20 for incomes between $100 and $200 to $34.47 for incomes between $900 and $1,000, while the percentage gradually decreases from 7.4 per cent to 3.65 per cent. The same lack of judg- ment and the mismanagement which is so charac- teristic of all Negro purchasers is especially notice- able here, and the data were even more difficult to secure than those of the other items of expenditure. Few records are kept of such expenditures, and since the purchases are in small amounts, it is difficult to obtain accurate estimates. The exact expenditures are probably from one-fourth to one-fifth more than those given in the table which represents the estimates given by the difi^erent families. Again, a great many famihes were found who gather a large per cent of their fuel on the streets and elsewhere free of cost. Usually the wood gathered consists of boxes thrown 74 Our Negro Population. out by the merchants or waste material from build- ing operations. Many others pick up coal in the neighborhood of coal-yards and along railroads. Probably 70 per cent of all the Negro families in the city use coal for both cooking and heating pur- poses. The amount of fuel required depends upon the number and si7e of the rooms occupied and the character of the building. Individual economy and extravagance also appear in the variation of expend- itures for fuel and light as well as of taste and habit. Coal is bought in a few cases by the ton or half -ton, but usually in smaller quantities — by the bag of 100 pounds for 50 cents, by the bushel of 75 pounds at 35 cents, and by lesser quantities for from 10 cents to 25 cents. Coal purchased in that way costs at least one-third more than when bought by the ton. The Negro should not be too severely criticised for this lack of economy, as he seldom has the amount of money necessary to purchase a large supply of coal, and besides he has no place to store it, since the white landlord generally makes no provision for such needs. The Negro does practice economy in the use of coal by heating only one room in the house during the winter months. This room is converted into a kitchen, dining-room, bed-room, and living- room, with a great saving of coal, but at a sacrifice of health. Our Negro Population. 75 Very few Negroes with incomes under $500 per year use gas for either heating or cooking purposes. About one-half of those with incomes above that sum use it for both. There is no considerable dif- ference in the cost of the two methods of heating, although the gas is less troublesome and more un- satisfactory during extreme cold weather. It might be added, however, that gas cannot be picked up free, as other forms of fuel are. In regard to the kind of lighting provided, ker- osene is the main reliance among families with incomes under $500 per year, while those with in- comes over $500 per year are about equally divided between gas and electricity. The use of gas for cooking is somewhat less general than its use for lighting. Where kerosene is used, the average amount is about a gallon a week, costing from 12 to 15 cents a gallon and from $5 to $8 a year. From the table on Incomes and Expenditures we see that the average amount spent for fuel and light for the 348 families represented was $24.81, or 4.2 per cent of the total income. Car-Fare. The expenditure for car-fare in a given case de- pends upon the distance of the dwelling from the wage-earner's place of work, rather than upon income 76 Our Negro Population. or occupation. The Negro residence districts of Kan- sas City are so located that few are within walking dis- tance of their work, hence car-fare is necessary. The table shows that the average amount paid for .car-fare by the $ioo to $200 group is only $11.18 and that it gradually increases with every rise in the income until it reaches $28.72 for the $1,000 group. The only relation that car-fare bears to income is, that in the higher incomes steady employment is had, hence car-fare is needed ever day, while in the lower incomes work is secured only a little more than half of the time. The average annual expenditure for car-fare for each of the 348 families represented is $18.80, or 3 per cent of the total income. In the families where both the father and the mother have steady employ- ment this single item of expense amounts to $1.20 per week, or $62.40 per year. If we take 8,000 as the estimated number of Negro families in the city, and $18.80 as the annual expenditure for car-fare, the total amount expended every year by the Negroes of Kansas City is $150,400. Other Expenses and Savings. Under this head are grouped the items of the schedule not already considered, such as furniture, dues and contributions, recreation and amusement. Our Negro Population. 77 education and reading, and miscellaneous. These items represent expenditures for the satisfaction of culture wants — that is, wants arising out of the de- sire for intellectual, social, and ccsthetic qualifica- tions. They also inchide some physical satisfactions which are not indispensable to life, among which are tobacco and alcohol. Studying the table, one is impressed with the truth that the small amount left to the ordinary family is hardly worth considering. The first two income groups, which represent 25.8 per cent of the total, not only have nothing left after the necessities of life have been supplied, but they have not even enough with which to supply these necessities; and the third income group of 78 families, or 22.4 per cent of the total, have only $27.96. The amount and the percentage increase constantly with the rise of in- come, starting with minus $22.6 per cent of the total income for the first group and rising to plus 48.9 per cent for the last group, thus showing that the desire for such satisfactions as we are considering tends to push ahead of the means available for satisfying them. Furniture. An effort was made to get an inventory of the furniture belonging to each family, and on the basis 78 Our Negro Population. of the estimate given the famiHes are classified into groups according to the value of the furniture, as follows: 43 families owning furniture valued at $25 or less. 98 families owning furniture valued at between $25 and $50. 72 families owning furniture valued at between I50 and $100. 48 families owning furniture valued at between $100 and $200. 28 families owning furniture valued at between $200 and $300. 33 families owning furniture valued at between $300 and $400. 26 families owning furniture valued at between $400 and above. As in the case of other items of expenditure, the expenditure for furniture increases in proportion to the rise in income. In most of the houses in the lower income group nothing beyond the barest sup- ply of indispensable articles was to be found, such as beds, bedding, chairs, a table and a stove — ar- ticles which had been purchased at second-hand stores or had been given to them. Twenty- two fami- lies in the last two groups owned pianos. The figures given above are for the renters, hence do not include the 700 Negroes who own their homes. Miscellaneous Expenditures. Under this head are grouped such items as burial expenses, barbers' work, pool-halls, tobacco, theaters. Our Negro Population. 79 and alcoholic drinks. It will not be without im- portance to consider some of these items separately. The Negroes of Kansas City pay about $60,000 each year for burial expenses, which gives an average of $100 for each of the 600 deaths. Practically all this business is handled by the four Negro em- balming and undertaking establishments. Twenty- three and sixth-tenths per cent of the deaths were those of members of the fraternal orders. The ex- penses in such cases are paid by the orders, and in nearly all other cases, whether for men, women, or children, enough insurance is carried to guarantee them a respectable burial. There are 85 Negro barber shops in the city. The 8,150 Negro male wage-earners of Kansas City spend annually about $114,000 in these shops. The per capita expenditure is $13.98. The cost of two shaves per week and six hair-cuts during the year represents an annual expenditure of $17.10. Since the average expenditure is $13.98 for each wage- earner, it is evident that only a very limited number do their own barber-work. This is due, in part, to the lack of facilities in the homes of the Negroes. No effort has been made to collect data on the amount of expendittu-es for tobacco, for theater tickets, and for pool-playing. However, a fair es- timate would probably be about $30,000 for theater 8o Our Negro Population. tickets and $30,000 for tobacco, while pool-playing would cost about $48,000. In regard to the expenditure for alcoholic drinks the information was incomplete, as no records were kept of such expenditures. I did find out, however, that 96 out of the 348 heads of families visited do not drink intoxicating liquors at all. Many others reported only a moderate use of them. I usually asked for weekly or monthly estimates of such ex- penditures, but no definite answers were received, not because they considered it a personal matter, but because they did not know. In nearly all cases where the men drink the women drink also, though with much more modera- tion, as they, of course, are not permitted to enter the saloons. About half of the liquor drunk by the Negroes of the city is purchased by the can and drunk in the homes. Most of the saloons handle cheap beer and cater to this home trade. One would naturally believe that this method of drinking would greatly lessen the quantity consumed, but I do not think that it makes any particular difference, since all the Negro congested residence districts are well supplied with saloons. A careful study of these districts, together with the locations of saloons, shows that at least 75 per cent of the Negroes of Our Negro Population. 8i Kansas City live within two blocks of at least one saloon. I was in 60 different homes where 220 people were drinking when I called. In every instance more than one person was in the room, which goes to prove that this method of drinking is governed b\ the same social tendencies that prompt drinking in the saloon. Negroes, both men and women, are great people when idle to visit among their friends, and one of the first thoughts when a friend calls seems to be to send out for a pail of beer ; after which the)' consider themselves equipped for an enjoyable visit, and are free to drink as long and as much as they please. I was told by the policemen who work in these districts that there is as much drunkenness from this kind of drinking as from the saloon, and probably more arrests result therefrom. The revel- lers often drink until one or all are intoxicated, then the husband or wife, the man or woman with whom they chance to be living just at the time, arrives home from his or her work. Jealousy on the part of one or more members of the party results in a "free for all" fight, which ends in the arrest of all the participants. In my house visitation I found some persons intoxi- cated, and since most of my visits were made during the afternoon, it is evident that a great deal of drinking is done during the day. 82 Our Negro Population. One afternoon, standing on the corner of Inde- pendence Avenue and Troost, I counted twenty-two pails of beer that were taken out of one saloon in just thirty minutes, which is a common occurrence in any of the congested Negro districts of the city. I was indeed glad to find that only a small per cent of the Negro property-owners were habitual drinkers. Anyone who is purchasing a home must work regularly, and at the wages a Negro is com- pelled to accept, be very economical in order to meet the monthly payments. I have noticed also that the men who have steady work do very little drinking — a fact which is easily explained. In the first place, they could not hold their positions and drink to excess ; and in the second place, excessive drinking would weaken their efficiency, and thus make it impossible for them to keep up the standard of work required for any considerable length of time. Only 7 of the 596 saloons in Kansas City at the present time are owned and operated by Negroes. However, about 50 white saloons cater to Negro trade. I talked with about twenty proprietors in these white saloons concerning their Negro trade, and asked each to make an estimate of the annual expenditure by the Negro for liquors in the entire city. Four reported an annual Negro business of between $15,000 and $20,000, six between $10,000 Our Negro Population. 83 and $15,000, and ten between $5,000 and $10,000. All of these saloons make a specialty of catering to Negro trade, therefore are more generally patronized than others. There are fifteen saloons east of Troost Avenue on Eighteenth Street, Nineteenth Street, and Vine Street that sell to the Negroes of that vicinity about $150,000 worth of liquors each year. The expend- iture in the district north of Eighth Street and east of Main is about the same. The estimates for the other sections of the city were about $100,000, which gives a grand total of $400,000 for the annual ex- penditure for liquors by the 23,566 Negroes of Kansas City. Representing 8,000 as the total num- ber of Negro famihes in the city, and $407,000 as the total expenditure for alcoholic drinks, we get an av- erage annual expenditiure of $50 for each family. In addition to the saloons mentioned above, there are a number of Negro clubs that, after paying a $25 fee, are incorporated under the State laws and are permitted to sell liquors to their own members. Such organizations — ^both white and colored — avoid the. payment of the license. This enormous expenditure for alcoholic drinks is indeed appalling, and the outlook is very discour- aging. It is the source, either directly or indirectly. 84 Our Negro Popuij^tion. of much of the Negro's poverty, crime, and im- morality. The following table gives a comprehensive view of the different items of expenditure for the entire Negro population of the city : Alcoholic Drinks $ 400,000 Barber-work 1 14,000 Car-fare 150-400 Clothing. 393-200 Church 38,000 Dues for Insurance and Fraternal Orders. . . 175,000 Food 1,619,280 Fuel and Light , i93.440 Funerals . 60,000 Pool-halls 45.000 Theaters . . 30,000 Tobacco 30,000 Taxes 21,170 Rent 900,320 Other Expenses and Savings 249,330 Total $4,419,140 It seems safe to conclude, from all the data that we have been considering, that an income under $500 per year is not enough to permit the maintenance of a normal standard. A survey of the details of ex- penditure for each item shows deficiency for almost every family in the lower income groups. An income of $600 or over probably permits the maintenance of a normal standard, at least as far as the physical man is concerned. With such an in- Our Negro Population. 85 come the Negro is able to buy food enough to keep soul and body together and clothing and shelter to meet the most urgent demands of decency. The percentage of families who show a deficiency tends to diminish as the income increases, though extrava- gant families and economical families are found in all the income groups. The results of our investigation indicate that while the personal factor does not operate in the case of every family, the limits within which it may affect the actual sum total of the material comforts that make up the living of the family are set by social forces which find expression on the one side in the income which the family receives — that is, in the rate of wages received by the father and other mem- bers of the family who are at work, and on the other side in the prices that have to be paid to get housing, food, and the other means of subsistence. 86 Our Negro Population. CHAPTER V. Housing' Conditions. Kansas City possesses one of the very best park and boulevard systems in the country, and has an exceptionally large area upon which an unusual number of pleasant detached houses are owned by people in moderate circumstances. Few cities in the United States have better housing for the middle classes and for a large part of the working class ; yet, in spite of these hopeful conditions, Kansas City has a housing problem of sufficient gravity to call for a vigorous movement to eradicate the evils which now exist. The housing problem as related to the Negro is an especially serious one, since only limited dis- tricts are available to him for residence purposes; and, as the population increases, these districts must either be enlarged or become over-crowded. The latter course has usually prevailed, and as a result the conditions have been gradually growing worse. The white public as a whole have taken little in- terest in, and hence know practically nothing con- cerning, the general welfare of the Negro. They do not seem to realize that he is a citizen, exercising the Our Negro Population. 87 rights of suffrage. When they do recognize this fact they will desire to make the very best citizen possible out of him. They will then judge him by the same standards by which they now judge the members of their own race. They will also see that cleanliness, sense of security, modesty, health, and good citizen- ship all depend upon the kind of houses in which people live, regardless of race or color. "Given a clean, lighted, ventilated house, and there is hope; given a dirty, unsanitary, dark, neglected house, and despair and immorality are inevitable." Such considerations as the above have been gradually taking a hold upon the minds and con- sciences of public-spirited men and women of Kansas City for several years; and as a result the Board of Public Welfare has been created, with authority "to take such steps as may be found necessary and ex- pedient so as to acquire full knowledge of the condi- tions of the people and the manner of living in the various parts of the city, and for that purpose it may employ investigations,'.' etc. This board has done a wonderful work since its organization, and the in- formation secured has provided a sufficient amount of startling data to arouse public interest in a further study of the problem in a scientific manner for the purpose of eradicating many existing evils and es- tablishing a standard plan of housing for the future. 88 Our Negro Population. It is the purpose of the present study to do for the Negro what has been done for the other races of the city, so that he may receive his just share of in- terest and consideration. The following table shows the number of rooms and the rent per month ac- cording to classified incomes of 348 representative Negro families: Ill •< a Oi w o H a tn n K > s <; fa w !S O b O tH 15 w o SI :8^ ■ ■ -O • 00 :888 o oE MM . M - M M M « •^fa N n ■ tS IH M M a -""£ 8888888 d o o P^S N f^ 10 lO iO lO tJ- « ri a »o 1^ ca « « t^ N M ^O 10 w .*^ o" 88§888a85>8 p ^>. OM^OCirDrOTj-rOM o o ^ / •■ -^tJ-ioO rOrOO\iOw m ■* ►H M 10 000>0000000 J-' 6 r^ O CO o po "-J00 U-) o H p^>; lO t^ r- r^co 00 CO N d "N (§ ■^ <> fo O "H -^00 w hH M n M fO lO CO "H M M 00>o0i0000 - ■ B o *^ d u^iofOO-'J-O'-frO «§ ^ tJ- lo-o \0 r^ r^oo A °^ 00 r^OO M CO rO^O W ^fe l-l M W \o • o o o • .^ d ■ o o - • S «:^ ■ to •<*• lO to ■ o •^^ ^ d a • tJ- n vo - ; fO M "HTl-coOfN fOiOO jooo ■^i^ior^'-i -^i-tow n M (N »-< M 00 d 1 O tJ-OO N cs O rO\D O^00 ^fa c^ »0 r>->0 CN n •'d- »-< • 4) ID a 8888888800 N to T}- tovo r^oo o\ M -o § ' ^ *&*«:*(?:«*?: ^9. ^^5:^ (H tfl 000000000"* ■S Hi J+J+J+J+J-J-l+J+J+J IH 1 8 88 88"?88 8 8 -t N CO-^lO^Dt^OO Osi-i i « ^^^ *:« i«* w.^* »«* B» 1 1 90 Our Negro Population. These figures show that the 1,009 persons repre- sented occupy 179 rooms, which gives an average of 1.06 rooms for each individual. These figures do not indicate overcrowding to any great extent, since the estimate for overcrowding is usually placed at 1.5 persons per room. We note also that 181, or 52 per cent of the families, occupy three rooms. The congested Negro districts of Kansas City are located between Troost and Woodland Avenues and Seventeenth and Twenty-fifth Streets, between State Line and Bell Street on West Ninth Street, between Seventeenth and Twentieth Streets on Vine Street and Flora Avenue and between Harrison Street and Highland Avenue and Fifth and Eighth Streets. Most of the Negro tenement-houses are located on "The Bowery," which is the first district named above, where the population has been concentrat- ing for several years. With this shifting of popula- tion from "Belvidere" and "Hicks' Hollow" on the North Side to "The Bowery" has come about also the moving of the Negro slums. Most of the buildings here are two- and three-story brick structures, ar- ranged in two- and three-room apartments. They are nearly all poorly constructed and are crowded closely together, many of them facing the alleys. Twenty-two blocks in this vicinity has a population of 4,295. O H O Z U a H M O ei O 92 Our Negro Population. For several years there has been a great demand for Negro apartments; they have become quite fashionable among the Negroes, as well as among the whites, and as a result a great many have been erected to supply this demand. They offer some conveniences, such as brick buildings, paved streets, light and water, which the old dilapidated buildings on the North Side do not offer. In "Belvidere" and "Hicks' Hollow," which are the most notorious sections of the last-named dis- tricts, the buildings are mostly old two- and three- story frame houses, many of which have been va- cated by the whites, or condemned by the city and moved by the owners to these Negro residence dis- tricts, where they can be rented without trouble with the city officials. These buildings are crowded and jammed together along the streets and alleys, nearly covering the entire block. As they are prac- tically worthless, the owners cannot afford to repair them. Nevertheless, each apartment of two or three rooms brings its owner regularly his $8 or $io each month. Though more than i,ooo Negroes live in "Bel- videre" and "Hicks' Hollow," paved streets and sidewalks are exceptional, as the city seemingly takes little interest in the district, except to have it well patrolled. Our Negro Population. 93 Another large element of the Negro population lives along Independence Avenue, West Ninth Street, Eighteenth Street, Nineteenth Street, and elsewhere over business houses, such as saloons, pool-halls, etc., which occupy the first floors of the buildings. I found the housing conditions far worse here than among any other class visited. Whole families live in a single room which has but one window, through which both light and ventilation must be supplied; the halls are long, dark, and dingy, with neither light nor ventilation. The occupants are of the most ignorant and shiftless type of Negroes. I have described in a preceding chapter the housing conditions in the Negro home-owning dis- tricts, where between 700 and 800 houses are owned and occupied by Negro families. This class is aug- mented by about 1,900 Negro families who rent detached houses. As a rule, these houses contain about five rooms, which are found clean and well furnished, thus presenting no housing problem. In the congested districts described above, where more than 15,000 Negroes Uve, the accommodations offered — whether the old dilapidated buildings in "Belvidere" or the cheap tenements on "The Bow- ery" — are very limited. Nearly half of the houses are without water, while less than one-fourth of them possess either baths or toilets. In many cases the 94 Our Negro Population. water must be secured from a hydrant back of the houses; these hydrants are, of course, frozen up during a good portion of the winter — a condition which makes it necessary for the famiUes to carry water from neighbors who chance to be fortunate enough to have water in the house, or to secure it from a near-by saloon. I was told by a number of white landlords that they could not afford to put water in the houses, since the Negro could not be depended upon to keep the house warm, which re- sulted in the freezing of the pipes and a large plumb- ing bill. Several instances were cited where such bills exceed the rent during the winter months. In many of the tenement-houses a single hydrant in the hall supplied water for all the families in the building. Toilet accommodations are also totally inade- quate. The present requirements of the sanitary ordinances of the city provide that not less than one water-closet or privy shall be furnished for every twenty persons, while the new building code provides that there must be one of these for every fifteen per- sons, lyittle effort has been made to enforce these provisions, especially in the old buildings where t h mass of the Negroes are living. In the limited number of houses where toilets are provided the arrangement is extremely bad, since many of them have no opening on the outside air, Our Negro Population. 95 being located in small rooms adjoining the kitchens and opening into the kitchens from the inner wall. The effect on the atmosphere and the ventilation of the rooms can well be imagined. Where the toilets are not provided in the houses the privy vault is located in the back yards, and since there are alley houses in most of the Negro districts, these privies are necessarily very near the houses. In one place in "Belvidere" I counted eighteen privies in one group that were completely surrounded by two- and three-story houses, none of which were more than thirty feet away. In many other instances they were found closely grouped together and often without doors. The privy vault is the most evident evil in con- nection with our city's housing. Most of these privies are built of wood and are placed over holes of uncertain depth dug in the ground. In some of the Negro residence districts, as there are no sewers, back-yard privy vaults are a necessity. Our laws provide that no yard privy be built without a permit fixing the proper location, kind, and construction; these permits are supposed to require the privy to be renewed yearly and to be cleaned three times a year. On special inquiry concerning the enforcement of this law, I found a number of cases where for several years families had been using privies that had not 96 Our Negro Population. been cleaned during the entire time. Other instan- ces were found where the provisions of the law had been complied with, though little effort was evident on the part of the city to enforce the law in the Negro districts, except when formal complaints were made. Only a small per cent of the houses in the con- gested Negro districts are provided with baths, either tub or shower, though the nature of the daily work done by both the Negro men and the Negro women makes it absolutely necessary for them to keep clean, if they are to retain their health and self- respect; yet the houses in which they are forced to live are not provided with the means. In an inves- tigation made by the Board of Public Welfare near Garrison Square only two bath-tubs were found in 827 Negro houses. However, the conditions are not so bad in the other sections of the city. Since baths are not provided by the Negro in his house, there remains no place in the entire city, save the free baths in the Allen Chapel African Methodist Church and a few Negro barber shops where the Negro can se- cure a bath. Again, most 01 the Negro residences are provided neither with gas nor with furnaces, and since the basements are rented for living purposes, no place is Our Negro Population. 97 provided for storing fuel, and as a result it must be purchased in small quantities. The question naturally arises, "Why do these Negroes live in such houses and in such environment, or why do they not move into more desirable sections ox the city?" As stated before, the habitation of the Negro is restricted to certain districts, where he must live under the conditions existing there. Hun- dreds of Negroes, however, seem perfectly satisfied, not only with their accommodations, but also with their station in life. As they were compelled during the slavery days to be satisfied and contented with any form of habitation provided for them by their masters and to be thankful for it, it is not strange that the free Negro to-day is willing to accept what is offered him. Two generations are not sufficient to emancipate him from the old life completely, especially since the white race spent several genera- tions teaching or compelUng him to accept without question what was placed at his disposal. The table above shows that 13 of the 348 families occupy one room, 69 two rooms, 181 three rooms, 55 four rooms, 21 five rooms, and 9 six rooms. Unless the location, the condition of the rooms, and the ac- commodations ofi'ered are understood, one is likely to believe that these districts are not overcrowded. An investigation, however, will reveal the fact that 98 Our Negro Population. many of these houses are back-alley houses, base- ments, or tenements which are situated in the low, unhealthy, and unimproved sections of the city, and that many of them are woefully overcrowded. Such houses are found in nearly every Negro district in the city. They are especially numerous in the Negro boarding-house districts. In one instance I found fifteen people, of whom eight were children under twelve years of age, living in a five-room de- tached house. In another instance on "The Bow- ery" I found thirty- two people living in a twenty- four-room tenement. Numerous similar instances might be given. Only those who have carefully explored these habitations can begin to conceive of the pitiful and tragic results of the close herding to- gether of men and women and children, who are not only members of families, but boarders, under cir- cumstances where modesty cannot be known and where vice and immodesty grow out of the noxious situation. It is impossible for the traditions to be cherished and sentiments and affections to be de- veloped in the home and family under such condi- tions and in such an atmosphere. It is not possible to specify as to all the numerous safeguards which a housing code ought to provide. All rooms, however, should be provided with open- ings to the outside air, and in case of dark or inside Our Negro Population. 99 rooms now existing, provision should be made to have windows cut to provide Ught and ventilation. Each room should contain at least 150 square feet of floor area and should have window area totaling one- eighth of the floor area of the room. To avoid over- crowding, express provision should be made that a minimum of 600 cubic feet per individual should be allowed. These houses should also have cellars, city water, and modern toilet facilities. These advantages will be much easier to secure now than ten years or even five years hence. On account of existing laws and inadequate enforcement of those now existing, conditions are growing worse every day. A housing law, to be effective, must be enforced, not only on complaint, but at all times. The tenants generally do not know to what con- veniences they are entitled. They frequently vio- late provisions of a housing code without knowing that their acts constitute a violation. Provision should be made for systematic inspection on the ini- tiative of a single department of city government, so that the responsibility for the same may be placed and that a determinate system may be formulated and carried out. Good housing laws without ade- quate provision for persistent and energetic enforce- ment of the standard would fail. loo Our Negro Population. And now what do those who rent pay for their wretched accommodations? The figures tabulated above include only 348 families, which are, however, taken from representative famiUes and districts, and which therefore can be counted upon as fairly ac- curate data. Ivittle difficulty was encountered in ascertaining the separate rental of the living quarters of the families visited. The figures given in the table indicate that the average' Negro family occupjdng one room pays $4.27 per month; two rooms, $5.50; three rooms, $7.95; four rooms, $12.27; fi"ve rooms, $14.28; and six rooms, $18.16. These figures further show that each of the 348 families pays on an average $8.65 per month for rent, making a total of $3,010.20 per month and $36,122.40 per year for the entire group. Again, from these figures, knowing the total number of Negro families in the city, we are able to secure the amount expended for rent by all the Negroes of Kansas City, Missouri — namely, $900,320. The question naturally arises, whether or not a large proportion of the poorer classes of these sections who must live in rented property are paying too much rent for the advantages they receive, and whether or not the amount paid is out of proportion with the investment involved. This is a very dif- ficult question to answer. It is probable that the Our Negro Population. ioi average Negro laborer pays too high rent for the wages he secures, though the per cent of income ex- pended for rent by all the Negro renters of Kansas City is only $21.27, which is a little less than 2 per cent more than the amount estimated as a just per cent of the poor man's income to be used for this purpose. As a rule, the investor cares but little about the comfort and convenience of his proper- ties, except as they return to him a greater income, because he does not hve there, and his every effort is to increase their money-making power. The house built for investment will be usually built as cheaply as possible to conserve this income. I talked with a number of white men who owned residence property in the Negro localities and they all spoke of the Negro as being a good tenant, espe- cially of apartments. They said that the Negro paid better than any other class — a condition which they attributed to the fact that he had been taught that he must pay his rent or move out at once. Again, since the Negro districts are so limited, they had no difficulty in keeping their houses full all the time at even a higher rent than they could possibly ob- tain from whitej tenants. Several apartment-houses were found which had been built for and rented to white tenants; they were only about half occupied most of the time,' This vicinity became rather un- I02 Our Negro Population. desirable for white people as a result of the increase of Negro houses in that immediate neighborhood. The apartments were then changed into Negro apartments, and the rent raised $5 per month. No difficulty was encountered in keeping every room rented all the time. I investigated the housing conditions and the rent questions in several residences and apartments owned by some wealthy Negroes, and was much in- terested in finding the conditions and the rent charged the same as in the adjoining houses, which were owned by whites. Mr. H. O. Cook, of the Lincoln High School, working under the direction of the Department of House Inspection during the months of July and August, 1 912, made a thorough investigation of the housing conditions in the district from Tracy to Euclid Avenues and from Eighteenth Street to the Belt Line, as well as on a part of Seventeenth Street between Woodland and Euclid Avenues. In his report to Mr. L. A. Halbert, superintendent of the Board of Public Welfare, he says in part: "In all, the work covered 282 single houses and 59 apartments or tenements containing 2,465 rooms, of which 334 were without sufficient sunlight and 843 without suf- ficient ventilation. Of the total number, 1,251 were sleeping-rooms (more than 50 per cent), of which 173, or 14 per cent, had less than 400 cubic feet of space for each Our Negro Population. 103 occupant. This becomes serious when we take into ac- count the unwillingness of many of those who live in such an unsanitary and congested neighborhood to give correct returns of all those who sleep under their roof. Of the total number of houses, 151 had city water in the yard and 126 had water in the house, leaving 64, or 18.7 per cent, without, except in a few cases where an old well or cistern furnished a limited and dangerous supply. There were 2 1 2 privy vaults, none of which had any water connection, and 52 of which had no sewer connection whatever; these latter, even with attention, cannot be anything but a menace to the health and comfort of the surrounding tenants. "The question of cleanliness is so near to morality that I wish to call especial attention to the lack of washing and bathing facilities. There are 267 sinks in the district, nearly half of the families being without, and but 99 bath- tubs — I tub to every 22 persons; but when you take into account that most of the apartments have a sink and bath for each apartment, you may readily see that the great majority of the 2,192 persons have neither. "Two notable examples of this condition can be seen in the Hadley Flats at Nineteenth and Woodland and the Taft Flats on Nineteenth near Euclid. The former has 48 rooms, with a rear apartment of 20 rooms, and the latter 36 rooms, with a rear apartment of 10 rooms, all divided into two-room suites, with neither sink nor bath for more than 150 persons. The conscience of some owners ought to be aroused, if the city will not compel them to give these tenants a chance to be clean as well as to enrich some owner. These conditions are duplicated on I^ydia Avenue near the Belt I/ine and at 1913-15-17-19 East Nineteenth Street." The word poverty, as generally defined and em- ployed in sociological writings at the present time, means that economic and social state in which per- Our Negro Population. 105 sons have not sufficient income to maintain health and physical efficiency. All who do not receive a sufficient income to maintain the minimum standard of living necessary for efficiency are known as the poor. Pauperism, on the other hand, is the state of legal dependence in which a person who is unable or unwilling to support himself receives relief from public sources.* The word, however, is popularly used to mean a degraded state of willing dependence. A review of the tables on incomes, expenditures, and the housing conditions leads us to a realization, of the fact that under the existing conditions there must necessarily be a large number of the poor and paupers among the Negroes of Kansas City. Among the leading causes of poverty may be mentioned unemplojnnent, widowhood and desertion, sickness and accident, and old age. The Board of PubUc Welfare has, ever since its organization, recognized that cases of destitution must receive relief, and it helps private charitable institutions in many ways to give this relief as ef- fectively as possible ; but primarily it believes in at- tacking the causes of poverty by doing what it can to insure justice and to make the people self-sus- taining. The real reUef-work of the Board is done through the numerous affiliated charities in the *Ellwood, "Sociology," p. 242. io6 Our Negro Population. city. However, only a limited number of them, of which the Provident Association is the most promi- nent, give regular assistance to Negroes. Only one- fifteenth of the institutional charities of the city goes to the Negro, who constitutes 9.7 per cent of the total population and a much greater per cent of the poverty. The Provident Association does not make any race distinction. For twelve years the Negroes rep- resented 35 per cent of those to whom it rendered assistance. The last three years, however, through more and better facilities for doing reconstruction work among the Negroes, it has been able to lower this per cent to 17 per cent. Very little work of this nature has been done, while no greater work could be undertaken by the charitable societies of the city. The social workers say that no class of people with whom they have to deal is so shiftless, indolent, and lazy as the Negro; that he has very little self- pride, and hence will lie and misrepresent the facts in order to get any assistance whatever. The better class of Negroes have thus far taken little interest in caring for the poor of their own race. I have been told that only two Negro doctors of the city will give free medical aid to the Negro charitable societies. As a result of this lack of interest and co- Our Negro Population. 107 operation, only two or three such societies, with ac- commodations for not more than fifty people, exist in the city, and these are supported partly by the white people. CHAPTER VI. Heai^th and Morals. The report of the Census Department on mor- tality statistics of 1909 (registration area) contained the following table of percentage of deaths per i ,000 of population in cities of the United States with over 100,000 population: >' < 6 fO lO N t^ O W fO^ 0^ Tt-^ \0 M »C W PO ■^ ■^ t|- lO >0 >0\0 00 00 00 o « O) ' ' o d f^ lO t^^O On W CO N On tOOO O t-t N ■-i N coco CO in M CO cOfOTi--^Td--<:t-T^iOior^Q0 to o 6 looo coi^Oncooo r^oo^vo in lO fOfomto-^u^to^O lO O\00 vO M H M M (S to 1 d C1tNN»or*rOMTt- ID ^O CO t^ ■<:h M Tj- lO --^ lO CO lO^ r-- On 00 00 Ov iOtJ-0 w woo O'O'O O r^iOMNO ■^ O t-i CO^'^COiO'^tO r^OO 00 0\ On CO ONOO t^O On^coO O >h O O >0 O "OOO mOOmOcoi^Onw t^ N NO »0 t^VD ONMt^cooiWMOO •H ON M CJ Tj-^VlrJ--^ri-r^OO O\w00 MMPIM t}-00 N w fOVO -^-^O iOOn-^OO N O »-• ro-^-^ioto^ »O00 00 ON O 00 « OOO ClOO fOcOcOMVO OnOn ThVO »o >o O w io>oioNC^ r->.T!-r^oo O O m'O J=> ..2 , 2 « 3 o S-ti s g o- a -c c 2 1^- ij rn H nl en JJ ^o a Our Negro Population. 109 This table indicates a low death-rate for the av- erage Northern city and a high death-rate for the average Southern city, with Kansas City numeri- cally and geographically about half way between them. Some writers attribute this fact to the cli- matic conditions, while others say that it is the result of the unusually large death-rate of the Negro population of the Southern cities. The vital statistics of Southern cities show that the Negro death-rate is very much higher than the white death-rate. In ten Southern cities, for ex- ample, Hoffman gives the average death-rate as 20 per 1,000 for the white population and as 32.6 per 1,000 for the Negro population. These same cities in 1 90 1 to 1905 showed an annual average death- rate for the whites of 17.5 and for the Negroes of 28.4.* An examination of the vital statistics of the Northern cities gives approximately the same ratio between the two races, though the Negro is not so numerous, hence his high death-rate does not ma- terially lower the general average. These vital sta- tistics further show that the death-rate among the whites is also sHghtly higher in the Southern cities than in the Northern cities. *Ellwood, "Sociology," p. 210. no Our Negro Population. The following table shows the death-rate for certain causes by races in Kansas City for 191 2. The figures given represent the rate per 1,000 population. Causbs op Dsath According to Racejs in. Kansas City, Missouri. 1912. Causes. Kansas City. Cancer and Tumor Diphtheria Diarrhoeal Diseases Heart Diseases and Dropsy . . Nervous System, Diseases of. Old Age Pneumonia Scarlet Fever Typhoid Fever Tuberculosis Urinary Organs, Diseases of . The following table gives the causes of deaths for a number of diseases according to races for the first nine months of 191 2 : * The data given in this and the following tables in this chap- ter were secured from the Health Department of Kansas City. o < w Q o Pi M n S D o H <^ CO lO CO « w " ?< 00 ■ CO OT ^ :?o> P>?'S^ - •<4- CO « <^ < d 00 N N l^ • w " - i-i ■ yn ■ CO ^ N " 1- '^ W M fO N o^^ ^;? >. d N O Ov CO ■* ■ PI ; " " CO ■ M ►-. ^ 1^ CO >o « „ „ CO « ^O "JT S d 2 VOVO ■* CO w • CO N CO COVO =1 ^ ^ to w >-< (S M M 1-1 M M w *0 VO 1 d „ w • CO M • CO CO "O : vo ^ O " CO M O t-^ M w CO "^ *0 ?? H d ^ OV T)-00 M . l-H Ov : ^ : o < ^ ^ CO CO " «Sm " " - N lO M lO Si d s^ " lO ■* N M CO : o' ^ ^ «COm"m""" -^^52^ Pn 2^M . \0 N O -co . 0\ C» 00 M O =1 o y a ^ 5j 3 d o fi i '-' §£-' ^ ^d CO ■ " 80 »i3>''^ o ■M "i* S Ui* ■♦^ ,^H u/ So QW Our Negro Population. The total number of deaths from all causes during the months given above is as follows: White . . Colored. . Total . White .... Colored. . . Total . White .... Colored. . . Total . White . . Colored . January. February. •307 . 68 ■375 •324 67 •391 March. April. ■354 89 ■443 ■376 . lOI Total 477 May. White . . Colored . Total . . .278 • ■ 54 •332 June. White 226 Colored 67 Total . ■293 Our Negro Population. 113 July. White : 309 Colored 59 Total 368 August. White , 261 Colored . 47 Total . 308 September. White 270 Colored . 57 Total 327 The largest number of deaths in Kansas City for any month in 191 2 was 477 in April, while June, with only 293 deaths, was the month of lowest mortal- ity. The average number of deaths per month for both races taken together was 362.2, which gives a total of 4,418 deaths for the entire year. Taking the regular rate of increase of population for the past ten years as 8,000, we secure a total population of 264,000 for 1912. Now, from these figures we are able to secure the annual death-rate for the entire city as 16.7 per 1,000 population. The average number of white deaths per month for 1912 was 300.5, which gives a total of 3,606 for the entire year. Estimating the population for both races on the basis given above, we get a white popu- 114 OuJ^ Negro Population. lation of 238,000 and a colored population of 26,000. From the total population and the total number of deaths for 191 2 we secure the regular death-rate for the year as 15.5 for the whites and 31.2 for the colored per 1,000 population. This exceedingly high death-rate for the Kansas City Negro is indeed appalling, especially when we realize that the death-rate for the entire United States, including all races, was only 16. i for 1906, 16.4 for 1907, and 15.3 for 1908. However, it is evident from the facts given above that these figures, though very high, are not out of proportion to those given for the Negro in other large cities of our country. When these mortality statistics are analyzed, moreover — while they show that Negro mortality at aU ages is greater than white mortality — it is seen that the regular number of deaths is greatest among Negro children under f oiu-teen years of age ; this, of course, is largely because of the ignorant manner in which Negroes care for these children. Again, since nearly half of the Negro women are compelled to work for a living, the children are necessarily neglected. The most noticeable feature of the mortaUty tables given in this chapter is the tremendously high death-rate for the Negroes shown for the more or Our Negro Population. 115 less constitutional diseases, such as tuberculosis, pneumonia, diseases of the nervous system and heart, and diseases of the urinary organs. These figures, together with other evidence furnished by the United States Census, seem to show that the Negro has much less power of resistance in the struggle for life than has the Caucasian. This fact holds true in all sections of our country. The table above, giving the causes of death ac- cording to races in Kansas City, shows that 9 out of 1 1 of the most common diseases claim a higher per- centage of Negroes than of whites; of these 9 dis- eases, tuberculosis is by far the most fatal. It col- lects as tribute in Kansas City annually 6.2 Negroes out of every 1,000 of their population, while the claim upon the white race is only i . i per i ,000 ; this means that the death-rate in Kansas City from tu- berculosis is more than five times as great for Negroes as for whites. Pneumonia makes the second great- est claim upon him, with a ratio of more than 3 to i . It would be a difficult task indeed to undertake to explain fully these facts; however, a few condi- tions may be named, which may tend greatly to increase the death-rate, not only of these two dis- eases, but of all diseases. First, there are the un- sanitary conditions of the houses in which they live, such as old dilapidated frame buildings without ii6 Our Negro Population. water, toilets, heat, or sufficient ventilation. These conditions could be greatly improved by a strict en- forcement of the laws already on our statute-books. Second, there is the unsanitary condition of the streets and alleys in the Negro residence districts, which is due to a large extent to the negligence and lack of interest on the part of the city in the general welfare of the Negro. Third, we see the ignorance and the carelessness of the Negro in supplying the needs of his physical being, such as good, wholesome food, sufficient clothing, etc. Hundreds of Negro men and women go through the entire winter with neither overcoats nor overshoes, and some even without underwear. Fourth, the nature of the Negro's work makes it necessary for him to undergo frequent exposures, since much of his work is out of doors. Lastly, certain traits and tendencies have been emphasized by generations of vicious practices ; and to-day bad whiskey, cocaine, and sexual im- morality continue the sad work of debilitation. There were 71 Negro deaths in Kansas City during 1912 due to diseases of the urinary organs, which were results, directly or indirectly, of the evils just named. These figures represent 8.8 per cent of the total number of deaths in Kansas City for 1912. Whether or not the ravages of disease can be stopped at this late day is an open question; how- Our Negro Population. 117 ever, if the excessive mortality lies merely in the conditions of life and not in race traits and ten- dencies, the question can and will be solved; but be- fore these conditions can be successfully met the white race and the Negro race must come to a better understanding and appreciation of each other. The interests of the two races are very closely associated, and neither race seems to realize this fact. Yet, the health and prosperity of one race depends upon the health and prosperity of the other to a very large extent. We are putting forth every effort to raise to our standard the foreign element of our popu- lation while we are doing practically nothing for the Negro, with whom we are much more closely associated. There are probably 800 Negro women either afflicted with tuberculosis or having the dis- ease in their immediate families who daily leave these consumptive homes and enter our homes to cook our food, wash and iron our clothing, and sweep and clean our houses. Therefore, should we not strive to free the Negro from these deadly diseases, if for no other reason than to save the members of our own families ? And if, as it is often claimed, the Negro will not or can not adopt our standards, then it is our duty to compel him to live up to such a standard as we may deem necessary to insure the integrity of our own standard. ii8 Our Negro Population. It is usually assumed that the birth-rate among Negroes is in excess of that among the whites ; how- ever, this statement cannot always be borne out by the figures. Where statistics have been gathered in the Northern cities they have usually revealed a very low Negro birth-rate.* The figures given in the following table, showing the number of births according to races in Kansas City, Missouri, for the first ten months of 19 12, are in harmony with the statement above: Births in Kansas City According to Sex AND Racb, 1 91 2. 1912. January . February. . March .... April . May. June. . . July ..... August . September. . October. . . . White. M. F. Total 223 217 172 190 177 177 242 249 229 255 208 198 195 172 162 181 197 216 213 219 431 415 367 362 339 358 439 465 442 474 Colored. M. F. Total 21 14 16 II 15 22 12 18 12 16 19 17 8 12 18 II 18 12 II 18 40 31 24 23 33 33 30 30 23 34 An examination of the figures given in this table shows that there was an average of 409 white children * Hoffman, "Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Ne- gro," Chapter II. Our Negro Population. 119 born each month or 4,908 during the entire year of 191 2. This table also shows that there was an av- erage of only 30 Negro children born each month, or a total of 360 for the entire year. These figures give us a total of 5,268 births for 1912. Now, from this data, together with the total population of the city, we are able to secure the birth-rate as 19.9 per 1,000 of population, while the birth-rate according to races was 20.6 per i,qoo of the white population and 13.8 per 1,000 of the colored population. Comparing the number of deaths and of births in each race according to their respective population, we secure the following percentage : Dbath- and Birth- Rate in Kansas City by Races FOR 1912. 1912. January . . February. . March .... April May June July August .... September . Entire Year Death-Rate per 1,000 Pop. W. ■55 •32 .48 •58 . 12 •95 .29 .09 ■13 •50 C. 2 .61 2.60 3-42 3-88 2.08 2-59 2.27 1.80 2 . 19 31.20 Birth-Rate per 1,000 Pop. W. I I I I I I I I I 20 81 75 54 52 42 50 85 95 79 60 C. 1-53 1. 19 .92 .88 1 .27 1 .27 I . II I . II .88 13-80 I20 Our Negro Population. A number of important conclusions may be drawn from the vital and population statistics given above, which are well worth emphasizing. The native Negro population of Kansas City not only is not increasing so fast as the white, owing largely to its high death-rate, but is actually de- creasing. The records of the Health Department for 1912, which are given above, show 811 Negro deaths with only 361 births — in other words, the Negro deaths during 191 2 exceeded the Negro births by 450, while the white births exceeded the white deaths by 1,204. The fact that the Negro popula- tion is actually increasing is due to the large immi- gration to Kansas City from other sections of our country. Dr. Wm. J. Thompkins, one of the leading Negro doctors in the West, who has charge of the Colored Department of Child Hygiene for the Health De- partment of Kansas City, in his report to the Health Commissioner, Dr. W. S. Wheeler, in 191 1, says in part: "With the assistance of a nurse, I canvassed the area between Twenty-seventh Street and Third Street and Cherry Street to Brooklyn Avenue, which takes in the Black Belt of the metropolis. I found the families to be small, but the large per cent of the mothers nursing their own babies. * * * l^he most alarming thing was to find a hundred couples <^y^^^..^.. THE PEEBY SANITARIUM. The Perry Sanitarium is located at 1214 Vine Street. The institution was founded in 1910 by Dr. J. Edward Perry, with the object of providing open-door hospital service for his own patients and for those of the many other Negro phy- sicians practicing in Kansas City and the surrounding territory. This institution is the only one of its kind in this section of the country. About 100 operations are performed there annually. Only a few of the hospitals of Kansas City admit Negro patients, and when admitted the number is limited and the accommodations very unsatisfactory. 122 Our Negro Population. who were good-livers that have been married from one to four years without babies, showing a racial suicide or racial sterility." This same condition was noted in my house visitation, where 92 Negro families out of 348 were found without children. The high death-rate among the Negroes indicates that a rapid process of elimination of those who can not adapt themselves to their environment is going on among them. This selective process will tend toward the survival of the more fit elements among the Negroes, and therefore towards bringing the Negro up to the standard of the whites. We can easily see the evidence of the working of this process in the misery and the vice that are so preva- lent among the American Negroes of to-day. It is the duty of the white race, by education and other means, to help the Negro in this great struggle, so that we may lessen the miseries and brutality of the natural process of eliminating the unfit. A great deal has been said and written con- cerning the immorality of the Negro race, though no great amount of statistics has been gathered to prove this assumption. The conclusions have been drawn almost entirely from the court records, which, while dealing with only one phase of the question, serve as a fair index to the real moral condition of the race, because the conditions and influences of the home Our Negro Population. 123 are certain to follow them through life and, to a large extent, to guide and direct their activities. As a slave, the Negro was sadly deficient morally. The chastity of the female slave was never esteemed of much account, since it was an impediment to her master's wealth. Slave girls, however young, were not valued lower for having become mothers without waiting to be wives, nor were many masters likely to rebuke this as a fault or brand it as a shame. The sacredness of the home was not and could not be understood by the Negro slave. As a result of -the abolition of slavery the Negro was turned loose in the world, a free man, but without money, without education or training, and with a strong race prejudice against him. As a re- sult of this prejudice, he is compelled to follow cer- tain lines of work which throw him into daily con- tact with the very worst element'of our own popu- lation. Then, too, we have done practically nothing to raise his moral standard, enforcing upon him with a great deal of vigor every law save the moral law; and as a result of this lack of interest and lack of en- forcement of the moral laws upon the Negro, we find hundreds of Negro men and women living together under the common law of marriage. Divorces and breach of promise suits are practically unknown among the Negroes of Kansas City. We demand of 124 Our Negro Population. them the attainment of no moral standard; hence they can see no necessity for going to the expense and trouble of securing either a marriage license or a divorce decree. They move about from place to place, living with first this one and then that one — no excuse, explanation, or secret being made of it; nor is this practice confined to the lower class of Negroes only. I was informed by several different people that certain Negro teachers in our public schools were living with men under the common- law marriage. The relations existing between the sexes among all classes of Negroes are exceedingly lax, though there are hundreds of Negro men and women against whom this charge can not be brought. Mr. H. O. Cook, in his report to the Board of Public Welfare on "Housing Conditions" referred to above, says : "Of 649 families, 209, or more than 32 per cent, are separated. Few of these are divorced, and, though one cannot be exact, fully 50 per cent of these have con- tracted other alliances with which the law and the senti- ment of the neighborhood are not concerned. It can be readily seen what an unwholesome influence this must have upon the 423 children of the district, many of whom must grow up with no idea of a pure home life." These conditions must be remedied before the Negro can materially advance, because without the sacred home and its influences a strong character Our Negro Population. 125 cannot be developed. Therefore, if we desire to make of the Negro a good law-abiding citizen, we must go back to the original institution — the home — and reconstruct it so that we shall have good true husbands and wives and mothers and fathers, and then, and not until then, will crime and the ravages of disease as a natural result be checked. 126 Our Negro Population. CHAPTER VII. Crime. A law, as usually defined, is a rule of action es- tablished by recognized authority to enforce justice and prescribe duty or obligation. It is also one aspect or phase of social life — namely, that which has to do with the control of conduct through organ- ized social authority. Crime, as ususally defined, is a violation of law, hence it is primarily a legal matter. However, it is also a social matter, being an expres- sion of social maladjustment. This lack of adapta- tion is very often caused by certain psychological and biological conditions of the individual. According to this classification, there are three main groups of criminals : (i) There is the instinct- ive or born criminal, who, being somewhat defective mentally, is not capable of distinguishing between right and wrong. This class is small, constituting not more than 15 per cent of our prison population. (2) The habitual criminal is often a normal person, who has acquired the tendency to crime from his environment; this class embraces many who are above the average in ability and who deliberately Our Negro Population. 127 choose a life of crime. He is the most dangerous criminal with whom we have to deal. Another type of the habitual criminal is the weak person, who drifts into crime through temptation, because he lacks sufficient strength of character to throw off the evil. It is estimated that both types of the hab- itual criminal constitute from 40 to 50 per cent of our prison population. (3) The single offender is the criminal who commits only a single crime through some sudden stress or temptation; there are also two types of this class — namely, the criminal by passion and the accidental criminal. Strictly speaking, the single criminals are only legal crimin- als, and not criminals in the sociological sense, be- ing relatively moral and law-abiding citizens whose variation from the normal is confined to some single offense.* Now, if criminals differ according to this classifi- cation, it is necessary for us to make a detailed study of each individual in each group, in order that we may inteUigently apply the proper method of treat- ment. Heretofore criminals have usually been grouped together as law-breakers and treated ac- cordingly. One of the most important features of the Negro problem in the United States is the strong tendency *Ellwood, "Sociology," pp. 270-71. 128 Our Negro Population. among the race toward crime. Statistics show that the Negro is everywhere more criminal than the white man, and that his tendency towards crime in- creases as we go North — doubtless largely because in the North he is in a strange and more complex environment, and finds greater difficulty in making social adjustments. It is my purpose in this chapter to make a de- tailed study of crime according to races in Kan- sas City, Missouri, analyzing the peculiar conditions under which these crimes are committed, and as nearly as possible tracing out their relations In the annual report of the Chief of Police to the Board of Police Commissioners for the fiscal year 191 1 the following list of cities was submitted, show- ing their population, area, size of force, and total number of arrests: City. Area, Popula- tion. Sq. Miles. Force. 248,381 59 502 687,029 62 1,835 465,766 40 686 2,785,283 191 4,206 124,096 25 128 301,408 53 339 213,381 54 248 373-857^ 23 506 214,744 54 273 Yearly Arrests. Kansas City, Mo. . St. Ivouis, Mo Detroit, Mich Chicago, 111 Omaha, Neb Minneapolis, Minn Denver, Colo Milwaukee, Wis . . St. Paul, Minn 31,450 37,102 17,875 81,269 11,167 12,794 12,578 8,827 6,154 Our Negro Population. 129 The number of arrests made in the cities named above, per 1,000 of their respective populations, gives the following results: Kansas City, 126; St. Louis, 54.0; Detroit, 38.4; Chicago, 29.2; Omaha, 90.0; Minneapolis, 42.5; Denver, 48.4; Milwaukee, 23.4; and St. Paul, 28.8. It is evident from these figures that the conditions or the causes producing crime are indeed numerous in and around Kansas City, Missouri, when com- pared with the other great cities of the middle part of the country. , Mr. Wentworth E- Griffin, the Chief of Pohce for Kansas City, Missouri, reviews this situation as follows : "By reason of location and environment, Kansas City, Missouri, is confronted in its police work with con- ditions which have no parallel in any other inland city. Being the gateway for the entire West and Southwest, as evidenced by its size as a railway center, transient people in large numbers and for various causes are drawn here: a constant tide of emigration is passing through, and the criminal class comes with the throng. " Fiuthermore, Kansas City, Missouri, is the trade- center not only for the residents of rural districts of vast extent, but for many near-by cities and towns with popu- lation ranging in number from a few hundred to many thousands. The fact that Kansas City, Kansas, sep- arated from Kansas City, Missouri, only by the State Line, is located in a prohibition State, and a number of coimties in Missouri contiguous to Kansas City are ' dry,' accounts for the daUy advent here of still another class, whose mission adds to the volume of police work." I30 Our Negro Population. These conditions certainly tend to draw to our city a large criminal class ; however, there are other and more important causes, especially in the case of the Negro, which are daily producing a criminal ele- ment in our population. These causes will be dis- cussed at length in a succeeding paragraph. The following table, which shows the number of arrests made by the Kansas City police force in State cases during 191 1 according to offenses, race, and sex, will give a fair idea of the nature of the criminals and the degree of the crimes committed: Arrests Made in State Cases in Kansas City, Missouri, 191 i. Offense. Assault, to kill . . Assault, criminal . . Assault, common . Adultery . . .... Burglary Concealed weapons . Embezzlement . Forgery Fugitive from justice Highway robbery I/arceny, petit . Larceny, grand Murder Robbery . Rape Miscellaneous . Total Total. Female. W. I C. 67 42 57 13 199 156 59 70 332 75 318 151 42 23 14 1,488 2,411 4 2 o 6 4 I 4 I 36 10 I I o 40 118 3 2 I o 2 o o o 8 2 5 7 5 o o 21 56 Male. W. 38 23 34 7 119 131 49 69 210 59 210 92 10 13 10 731 1.675 22 15 22 o o 24 6 o 78 14 95 42 26 9 4 131 562 Our Negro Population. 131 From these figures we see that 1,793 whites and 618 Negroes were arrested in Kansas City during 1911 for violating State laws. In other words, the Negro people of Kansas City, who constitute less than one-tenth of our total population, furnished more than one-fourth of the arrests for crimes against the State. It is also interesting to note the serious nature of the crimes most common among them. The figures show that 31 out of 42, or 74 per cent, of the arrests for murder were against Negro men and women; 5 of these 42 arrests were made against Negro women. About 38 per cent of the arrests for assaults, criminal and to kill, and for burglary, were against the colored race, while the per cent for grand and petit larceny is more than 32. This table further shows that 32.1 per cent of the crimes committed by women, as measured by the number of arrests, were by Negroes, while only 25.1 per cent of those committed by men were by colored persons, which indicates that the criminal tendency of the Negro women and men is greater than that of the white women and men. The report of the reformatory for women for the year ending April 15, 191 1, is indeed encouraging; it is in part as follows : "A comparison of this year's statistics of women prisoners with last year's shows some interesting facts. The total number of women received last year was 606 as 132 Our Negro Population. against 494 this year, making a decrease of 112. A fur- ther analysis of these figures according to the color of the inmates shows the striking fact that the number of col- ored women decreased 162, while the number of white women increased 50. The only changed conditions that we know of that would seem to account for this situation is the fact that all Negro bawdy-houses were closed early in the year covered by these figures, and on the other hand, the white women were committed a little more freely by the judges after the separate reformatory for women was established." The following table gives the number of arrests made in city cases during 191 1 according to race, sex, and offense ; Arrests Made in City Cases During 1911. Offense. Total. Female. Male. W. C. W. C. Bawdy-house keeper. . . . Bawdy-house inmate . . . Bawdy-house frequenter Begging upon streets . . Disturbing the peace . . Drunk upon the street . . Gambling-house keeper . Gam. -house frequenter. . Liquor-selling, illegal . . . Non-support Night-wandering Playing dice Smoking opium Vagrancy Miscellaneous 957 471 801 48 5.580 7,089 139 1055 449 357 351 59 44 3.580 8,059 834 346 I 284 299 6 22 227 7 382 448 44 125 2 259 102 I 6 28 124 5 331 199 59 589 43 3.943 6,369 lOI 614 340 303 30 17 2,201 6,332 20 212 2 1,094 319 37 429 59 54 29 15 656 1,060 Total 29,039 2,886 1,126 20,941 3,986 Our Negro Population. 133 This table shows that there were 29,039 arrests in city cases during 191 1, of which 14,199 were white and 3,234 were colored. These figures give a per- centage of 82.5 for the whites and 17.9 for the colored. Under the division "Miscellaneous" are grouped a number of offenses which are not really criminal, such as having no automobile license, investigation held by chief, having no dog muzzle, no occupation license, and no dog tax, violating rules of the road, and so forth. Most of the criminal offenses are grouped under the headings, "Disturbing the Peace," "Drunken- ness," "Gambling," " Frequenting Gambling-Dens, " and "Vagrancy"; 17,443 crimes are placed under these five classes of offenses, of which 3,234, or 18.5 per cent, are by Negroes. The criminal tendency of Negro women, when compared with that of either white women or Negro men, is even more evident in city than in State ar- rests; this fact is especially emphasized by the figures given in the table above, which shows that the number of female Negro arrests for disturbing the peace, drunkenness, and vagrancy is nearly equal to the number of female white arrests, though there are less than one-tenth as many Negro women as white women. 134 Our Negro Population. There can be no doubt whatever that the alert- ness, efficiency, and conscientious performance of duty of the average poHceman is everywhere some- what increased when the offender chances to be a Negro; his conviction is also much more certain. This is due, in part, to the inability of the Negro to secure the necessary legal assistance and in part "to the sangfroid with which the average white judge and jury convict the Negro brought before them." The criminal statistics given above have been based upon the arrests and not on convictions, since complete data for all the offenses are not available. However, we have a detailed report of the Municipal Farm for the year ending April 15, 191 1, which rep- resents the commitments for criminal offenses in city cases. The report is as follows: Prisoners Received by Months. Month. April 15-30, 19 II May, 1911 June July August September. . .-. October November December January February March April 1-15, inclusive. W. Men. 94 196 238 189 136 170 161 133 157 135 159 126 62 1.956 C. Men. 71 100 71 45 70 52 62 56 50 49 26 652 Total. 94 196 309 289 207 215 231 185 219 191 209 175 88 2,608 Our Negro Population. 135 How Returnbd. Black. Paroled. . . Fines paid . Expired Deaths Escaped Appealed To City Hospital . To Asylum "If we take into account the 9 1 colored prisoners re- ceived at the old Work-house on Vine Street, who were discharged from there before the balance of the men were transferred to the Farm, we find that a total of 2,699 male prisoners were received during the year, which is a de- crease of 288 from last year. It is interesting to note that the number of Negroes received decreased 247. Al- though Negroes only constituted 27^ per cent of the total number received, that race is credited with 85.5 per cent of the total decrease for the year. It is further in- teresting to note that the first report issued by the Board showed that 38 per cent of the prison population were Negroes, the second showed that 33 per cent were Negroes, and now this report shows that only 27.5 per cent of the men received this year were Negroes." The juvenile arrests by the police, which include persons under twenty years of age, for the year ending April 15, 19 12, were as follows: White males arrested 1,332 White females arrested 381 Black males arrested 480 Black females arrested . 198 Total . 2,391 136 Our Negro Population. From these figures we see that the number of Negro juvenile arrests is 28.3 per cent of the total. These figures are indeed alarming, especially since they indicate a very strong criminal tendency among the young Negroes. Kansas City has very poor facilities for caring for Negro juvenile criminals, and this accounts to some extent for their large number. The following table shows the disposal of the juvenile cases for the past four years. The figures given represent the convictions and not the arrests. Disposal op the Juvenile Cases. Dis- Sent Sent charged to to First Par Total. Per Coun- Insti- Hear- oled. Cent. try. tution. ing. 1908 — White boys. . . 89 114 182 276 661 57-2 Negro boys. . . 17 30 31 69 147 12.7 White girls . . 62 41 95 99 297 255 Negro girls . . 8 16 14 12 50 4-3 1909 — White boys. . . 51 162 112 335 660 55-9 Negro boys. . . 13 42 20 85 160 13s White girls . . 43 45 25 187 300 25-4 Negro girls . . 9 24 7 21 61 51 1910— White boys. . . 56 155 64 315 590 53-9 Negro boys. . . 19 40 15 76 155 14.2 White girls . . 68 51 23 151 293 26.7 Negro girls . . 9^ 29 3 16 57 5-2 1911 — White boys. . . 25 182 79 204 490 590 Negro boys. . . 14 36 IS 61 126 1518 White girls . . . 54 60 10 56 180 21 . 1 Negro girls . . 10 20 2 2 34 41 Our Negro Population. 137 The respective ages of persons arrested during 191 1 on city and State charges are as follows: Ages. White. Male. Female Colored. Male. Female. Total. ID to 19.. . . 20 to 29.. . . 30 to 39.. . 40 to 49. . . 50 and over 1,253 8,010 6,728 4.348 2,277 Totals. . 22,616 149 1.520 910 221 204 154 2,041 1,422 607 324 3.004 4.548 54 418 265 410 135 1,610 11,989 9.325 5.586 2,940 1,282 31.450 The tables given in this chapter show a very high percentage of crime for the Negro element of our population. I will now biiefly note some of the most im- portant social and physical conditions under which the Negro hves which give rise to crime. I . The domestic conditions or the family life of the Negro have a more pronounced influence in the production of crime than any other set of causes. Statistics prove that the illegitimate children of all races notoriously drift into the criminal classes. The conditions of the Negro home and the family rela- tions have been discussed in the preceding chapters, hence need not be emphasized in this connection. However, some of them which directly influence 138 Our Negro Population. crime might be profitably mentioned again — such as common-law marriage, together with the loose moral code resulting from this practice, and the neglect of the children, due to the fact that the women work away from the homes a good portion of each day. 2. The industrial conditions also have a pro- found influence on crime, not only among Negroes, but aniong all races and classes. It is, however, especially applicable to the Negro as a result of his peculiar industrial position. The nature of his work is such that it is necessary for him to be out of em- ployment much of his time, and his low wages, to- gether with his extravagant habits, often reduce him to actual hunger and privation, and the hungry man is always a dangerous man. 3. The density of population in the Negro dis- tricts naturally causes strife and contentions that frequently result in crime. This situation is ven more complicated by the presence of saloons, gam- bling-houses, and pool-halls. I was told by a po- liceman who has been working in one of the worst Negro districts for eight or ten years that the three main causes for crime among Negroes were: first, women; second, liquor; and third, the "gang." All three of these influences can be found actively at work in any congested Negro section of the city. Our Negro Population. 139 4. Another very important cause of crime is the natural criminal instincts of the Negro race, which are evident not only in Kansas City, but in nearly every city in the United States where statistics have been gathered. 5. The peculiar political position held by the Negro in this as well as in other cities in the United States develops a disregard for and a lack of interest in the law, which naturally increases the volume of our crime. The best method of dealing with crime is to pre- vent the existence of the criminal class. In order to successfully accomplish this task, three things are necessary: First, good birth, which means that only those who are physically and mentally sound are allowed to marry; second, home and school training that will enable each individual to adjust himself to the social life; and third, social environ- ment, which must be carefully looked after in order to ensure the best development of the individual, and to prevent his environment from being in any way a drawback to him.* *Enwood, "Sociology,"' pp. 289-90. I40 Our Negro Population. CHAPTER VIII. Benevolent, Insurance, and Social Societies. There has been a rapid development and spread of all sorts of beneficial, insurance, and "burial" so- cieties in Kansas City and elsewhere during the past few years. This is not, however, a phenomenon pe- culiar to Negroes alone, for these same social ten- dencies are to be found among the whites, from whom the imitative Negroes have copied. These societies are but the result of man's sA:ial instinct, which not only leads individuals to associate with one another, but leads them to work together for the purpose of natural protection and helpfulness. The mass of the race is so honeycombed with these social and benevolent societies that any directed influence may reach every atom of the race composition in however remote a corner. There are in these orders men of all ranks of society, of all religious persua- sions, of all conditions of wealth and poverty, of all degrees of ignorance and knowledge, of all political views, "thus furnishing a common ground upon which all may stand and realize the great principle of the brotherhood of man. ' ' The purely benevolent Our Negro Population. 141 societies are more or less local and are usually inde- pendent of the secret orders, being established for specific purposes in their respective communities. These societies may be divided into two general classes: First, those organized and controlled by Negroes themselves, with functions partly social and partly economical ; second, those organized and man- aged for them by whites as a purely business propo- sition, such as insurance. In Kansas City, Missouri, there are at leat thir- teen societies of the former type, all of which are secret and rituaUstic. These societies usually have for their members sick benefits, together with a burial and endowment provision. The following table gives a comprehensive view of the status of the various societies in January, 1912: -12 a * ■■Sfe 10, S ^ J.! -a .S B B " .o "_- • **e *'- cOoooSiooOoe*! > e3*" O "J O "S'" "a; 5 3 O fl 3.2 fl 3.2 3 O a, m O O t '''Si ■ lO .oo . \ Q O m Q O 15 a si i 3 « rt O.oS"" o.'^ >^ s s , 0) g a 1 TO"" O ' 3.2 ^.„ _ J4 S ■»g£ = CQto :>oooo»oOO ^®* of* to* ■*- a « o a g 'oj a K' a o tt) o ^ a a « a 3 H a HWdoHWrnm '.2 5 a -^ a^ P0-' §0 Igo O OJ 3 M^ i^ to o o ^ ^ o o a-. ^ o o o ^ i> ^s .'J >o CO Til cc "l s H •a '^ a I w 13 o w S ^5 O HO Our Negro Population. 143 The first five orders named in the table are for men only and have a membership of 3,776, and the next two orders — namely, the International Order of Twelve, and the Sons and Daughters of Jerusa- lem, with a membership of 850 — are for both men and women, while the last six orders in the list, with a membership of 3,429, are composed of women only. An examination of the figures above shows : 1 . That there are 8,055 members of the different fraternal orders, of whom 4,226 are men and 3,829 women. Many Negroes, however, belong to several different orders. 2 . That there are 135 different lodges or ' ' house- holds," as the chapters for women are called, with an average membership of 59. The social tendencies of both the Negro men and the Negro women are here clearly prevalent. They take a great deal of interest in everything their chapters do and attend the meetings with much more regularity than those of their respective churches. 3. That the average initiation fee for the male orders is $11.50, while that for the female orders is only $4.51. Again, the male orders pay monthly dues of 50 cents, while the female, with one excep- tion, pay only 25 cents. 4. That out of a total membership of 8,055 there were 134 deaths during 191 1, for which the orders 144 O'-'R Negro Population. paid to the beneficiaries $10,720 for burial expenses, $16,800 in endowments, and about $1,400 for sick benefits, giving a total of $28,920. The Masonic Order alone paid to the beneficiaries of its 15 de- ceased $3,000. 5. That each of the thirteen orders has sick benefits ranging from $2.50 to $4.50 per week, and that, with one exception, they all provide burial expenses. However, six of the, orders have special fees with which to provide this burial fund. All the orders, with two exceptions, have endowment poli- cies ranging from $100 to $500, for which still ex- tra fees of from $2 to $4 are charged. Several or- ders require their members to carry endowment policies with them; however, in most cases this proposition is optional. A disposition on the part of many of the members to take advantage of the sick benefits has resulted in the enactment of rules requiring a doctor's certificate before aid is given. This provision, however, is not enforced by many of the lodges. 6. That the average total annual dues, includ- ing endowments, paid by each male member is $8 and by each female member $4.60. 7. That the 8,055 members of the thirteen fra- ternal orders pay annually to their respective chap- ters $55,411.40. Our Negro Population. 145 8. That they have property valued at $46,100. This wealth, owned in common in these several lodges, cannot but have a wholesome effect upon the membership population at large. The financial managers receive excellent training for larger service. The vast amount of suffering in the race, arising from the condition of ignorance and poverty, reveals the need of stirring to action the benevolent feeling of the race. The benevolences of the societies named above are directed in five channels: widows, orphans, care of sick, burial of dead, and special donations. The moral effect of these societies deserves a more than passing notice, since all permanent indi- vidual and racial character must rest on morality. Theoretically, the moral requirements of all these societies are such that no person known to be ad- dicted to immoral practices is admitted as a member. Drunkenness and other evil habits of intemperance are censured. Obedience to the laws of the land and respect for order are cardinal doctrines. These ideals are indeed high and ennobling; however, it must be said that little effort is made to secure their realization. The position and infiuence of these societies is such that if they so desired, they could probably more successfully check the evils now so prevalent among Negroes than any other institu- 146 Our Negro Population. tion. Instances are numerous, however, where they have really shielded their own members from the law. It may be said in the Negroes' behalf that this condition is due largely to the attitude of the Gov- ernment officials toward them and also to their own relation to the Government. Prom a religious point of view, these societies, in theory, are religion itself. They teach the same doctrine taught by the Church, though in a very different way. I was told by several of the leading Negro church-members of the city that these fra- ternal orders were a great hindrance to their work; that on account of the ideals, though not necessarily the real teaching and practice of those ideals, they seem to think that neither they need the Church nor the Church needs them, The fact is especially em- phasized by the figures above, which show a total annual expenditure of $55,411 for the thirteen fra- ternal orders and only $38,000 for the thirty-five different churches and missions. Nearly every family visited in my house-to-house canvass reported an expenditure for insurance. I found that the insurance on the lives of persons is, for the most part, of the "industrial type"; that is, for a weekly payment of a fixed sum of from 5 to 25 cents in most cases — an amount which is determined by the age of the insured and the amount of in- THE MASONIC TEMPLE. At the corner of 18th Street and Woodland Avenue. 148 Our Negro Population. surance carried. The money received from the in- surance company usually goes to pay the funeral expenses attendant on the death, so that it is more properly described as "burial insurance" than "Ufe insurance." A limited number of families, as will be seen later, do carry a real life or an endowment policy of $500 or more. The leading industrial insurance company doing business in Kansas City carries both types of policies and handles about 98 per cent of the Negro insurance business of the city ; the other 2 per cent is distribu- ted among various companies. The Negro is unable to secure a policy in many of the larger companies, especially those located in Massachusetts. The reason given for this discrimination on the part of the companies is the unreliability of the Negro, while the company named above gives the opposite reason for making a specialty of his business. In view of the fact that this company handles prac- tically the whole of the Negro insurance business of the city, I think it would be worth while to explain fully its method of dealing with the Negro and the nature of its policies, so that perhaps we shall be able to understand why the Negro is so faithful to his obligations to this company while he disregards others. Our Negro Population. 149 The annual business of the company has rapidly increased during the past ten years until to-day the weekly collections on the industrial policies alone exceed $1,000,000. It has sixty agents in Kansas City, Missouri, and 50,000 different industrial poli- cies, 22,000 of which are held by the Negroes of the city. It is with these 22,000 policies that we are now concerned. The information in regard to them was cheerfully given by one of the head men in the company's employment here, and hence can be re- lied upon as fairly accurate. These data were fur- ther verified by the Negro policy-holders themselves. Practically all the policies held by the Negroes of the city are industrial and are based upon the weekly payment of 5 cents. For each nickel added the value of the policy increases accordingly. There are two types of industrial insurance — namely, infant and adult. Under the division of "Infant Insur- ance" are classed all the policies held by children be- tween the ages of one and ten — ^the value of the policy depending, of course, upon the ages of the child, and ranging from $7.50 for infants between the ages of one and two to $150 for infants between the ages of nine and ten. Insurance is carried on prac- tically every child in the city, though few of the premiums exceed 5 cents per week. The adult in- surance on premiums of 5 cents per week is $116 at I50 Our Negro Population. ten years of age, $ioo at fifteen, $90 at twenty, $80 at twenty-five, $73 at thirty, $53 at forty, $37 at fifty, $23 at sixty, and $12 at seventy. Nearly every adult of both sexes, even though he belongs to one or more of the fraternal orders, carries insurance also. Only 24 of the 348 heads of families visited were without insiu"ance, and in most of those cases the other members of the families held policies. The average premium paid by each of the 22,000 policy-holders is about 10 cents per week, giving a total annual expenditure of $114,400, which repre- sents only the value of the premiums paid to this one insurance company. This concern also holds a number of life policies, ranging from $500 to $5,000. The premiums on the industrial policies are about double those on the ordinary life policies — a fact which is due to the extra trouble and incon- venience involved in the collections. I have been told by men who are in positions to know the real facts in the case that two different industrial in- surance tables with different premiums are carried — one for Negroes and the other for whites. Of course, the one with the higher rate is intended for the Negro. This state of affairs is partly explained on the ground that the unsanitary conditions under which the Negro lives make his liability greater. Our Negro Population. 151 It may be said, however, in behalf of the com- pany that most of its employees learn to understand and sympathize with the Negro ; indeed, they could not work with them as they do and do otherwise. The company has in its employment in Kansas City twelve nurses, who are sent out to visit and to care for its sick policy-holders. In most instances, how- ever, only friendly visits are made and advice given, though in extreme cases they stay with the patient until assistance is no longer needed. As stated above, a very large per cent of the Negro insurance of the city is written by one com- pany. There are two reasons why this condition is true: First, many of the larger companies will not handle Negro business on account of the smallness of their policies, difficulties of collection, and the gen- eral race prejudice against them ; and second, this in- surance company makes a specialty of their business, and for business purposes and other purposes poses as the Negroes' friend. It raises the insurance rates, and of course can well afford to write small policies and put up with the difficulties connected with the collections, since these nickels quickly accumulate into dollars, as the weekly collections of the com- pany, given above, indicate. While we see many things about these fraternal orders and their in- surance business to criticise, yet there are many 152 Our Negro Population. things worthy of praise. They mean more to the Negro than we think, unless we really understand his financial status and the condition under which he lives. It is true too much emphasis is placed upon what he terms "a respectable burial," which means great display and the expenditure of a sum of money greatly in excess of the amount which his station in life would justify. Burials are usually referred to as "seventy-five," "one hundred," or two-hundred-dollar" burials, or as "beautiful and elaborate funerals." They are made the. occasion for new hats, fine clothes, and, in short, a great display. A "respectable burial," although com- mendable, does little toward uplifting the Negro or toward solAdng the many problems connected with his industrial and social position. More attention should be given to life here on earth, and more pride taken in the home, the clothing, the table, than in the mere appearance of wealth displayed at the oc- casional funeral of a friend. Probably 90 per cent of the insurance is carried with the object of pro- viding this burial fund. I found numerous instances where families were regularly receiving coal and groceries from the Provident Association of the city and at the same time paying premiums on insurance for every member of the family. At the suggestion that they drop the insurance and use this extra sum Our Negro Population. 153 of money with which to purchase coal and groceries, and in so doing make themselves independent of the charitable institutions of the city, they would an- swer, "Man, I have just got to be buried if I should die." It is true very few Negroes of Kansas City are buried at the expense of the city, yet it is a ques- tion as to whether it is more desirable to live in poverty, ignorance, and dependence and be buried in luxury with the appearance of wealth than to live a respectable, honorable, independent life. I do not mean to criticise the principles of in- surance, though certain types of policies are not commendable; yet I do believe that the Negro has entirely the wrong attitude toward insurance, and that the kind of policies carried by him are expensive and in no way a business-like proposition. In addition to the fraternal orders there are a number of other social societies among the Kansas City Negroes, such as the Brotherhood, the Civic League, the Negro Social Workers, and the Colored Y. M. C. A. The Brotherhood is an organization of Negro social workers. Its sole object is the social better- ment of the race. Rev. K. S. Willett, of the Negro Episcopal Church, is president. He has introduced a departmental system for the better expedition and greater thoroughness of the work. The city is di- 154 Our Negro Population. vided into several districts, and in each district there are workers in all the departments, each worker re- porting to the superintendent of his department, who summarizes and tabulates these reports. The departmental work is divided into the following divisions : First, housing and sanitation ; second, home and family ideals; third, juvenile improve- ments; fourth, health and study; fifth, industrial conditions; and sixth, study of morals. The Broth- erhood, though comparatively a new organization, is doing a great work. It is interesting the Negro in the unfortunate members of his own race, and is bringing him to a better understanding of the condi- tions under which he lives, with the object of bet- tering them. The Civic League, of which Mr. W. C. Hueston is president, was organized in 1907, with the object of de- veloping the people commercially, intellectually, and morally. It has monthly meetings, at which are dis- cussed the civic problems of the day, such as civil ser- vice, municipal ownership of electric light plant, etc. It is making a special effort to develop patriotism and to encourage independent voting. Last summer it gave a prize of $25 for the best kept yard, and the same offer is being made this summer. The Negro Social Workers are a club com- posed of twenty women members, with Mrs. Lu- ellen Williams as president. They are doing about Our Negro Population. 155 the same work as the Brotherhood, outUned above, and are working under the direction of Miss Ellen Cook, of the Provident Association. During the ex- treme cold weather of January and February, 1912, when there was so much suffering and want among the Negroes of the city, they offered their assistance to the Provident Association in caring for those in need. Though this organization has been in exist- ence only one year, it is studying the problems in a scientific way under the instructions of an ex- perienced teacher. Miss BUen Cook; hence, we have every reason for beheving that the order will prosper in the work it has undertaken to do. Another institution that is destined to be a great factor in uplifting the race is the Colored Y. M. C. A. The first Colored Y. M. C. A. of this city was a vol- untary organization, and little interest was mani- fested in the work; hence it soon fell to pieces. It was organized again in 1907 on a much larger scale, and since that date the organization has been gradu- ally extending its influence and activities until today the membership numbers more than 250. It has Bible classes for men and boys that meet every Sun- day afternoon, with a weekly attendance of from 40 to 150.- Numerous gatherings are provided, at which talks are made by some of the practical lead- ers of the city, viz. : R. S. I^atshaw, A. New, I. h. 156 Our Negro Population. Dayhoff, James T. Bradley, H. M. Beardsley, W. A. Mars, and J. B. Clark on the following subjects: ' ' Citizenship, " " Savings, " " Mission of Workhouse, ' ' "Building of a City," "Banking," and "Hotel Work- ers." Often regular debates are held, at which the • different civic problems are discussed. A great deal of interest has been manifested in these. A regular night school is conducted, in which the common- school studies are taught by Messrs. Edw. B^ Thompson, J. T. Fox, and M. Ross, all of whom teach in the public schools. The executive committee of the organization is composed of H. O. Cook, Jas. H. Crews, F. A. Harris, S. S. Daily, J. E. Spegener, W. H. Peck, Edw. Ross, W. G. Morley, and G. N. Grisham. The board of trustees is composed of Edw. Ross, F. A. Boaz, Benj. Thomas, and J. F. Shannon. Mr. R. B. De Frantz is employed as department secretary, with a salary of $1,000 per year. The Y. M. C. A. rooms are located at 1419 East Eighteenth Street. They are very much cramped in their pres- ent quarters; however, they have an attractively furnished reading-room. Hot and cold baths are accessible to the members, though they have no place to put into use the gymnasium apparatus on hand. 158 Our Negro Population. The organization is supported by a membership fee of $2 per year and by voluntary contributions. In December, 19 10, Julius Rosenwald, a philan- thropic citizen of Chicago, offered $25,000 to every Colored Y. M. C. A. in the country that raised at least $75,000 in the next five years; the amount, $100,000, to be devoted to the cost of land, building, and furnishing of such institutions. Four cities — Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Washington — have already quaUfied. The Kansas City Colored Y. M. C. A. has at the present time about $12,000 worth of property. A canvass to secure the re- maining $63,000 wilj probably be made this fall. A great deal of interest is already being manifested in this work by all who are interested in the advance- ment of the Negro, and we have every reason for be- lieving that it will succeed. The present Colored Y. M. C. A. is located in the center of the great con- gested residence Negro district, and this fact offers an excellent opportunity to render a great deal of valuable service to the race. So far the Negro churches have not been successful in getting hold of the young Negro, whose criminal tendencies, immor- ality, and shiftlessness seem to be gradually increas- ing. The Y. M. C. A. appeals to him in a different way from any other organization, and if it succeeds in permanently influencing the Negro — and we have Our Negro Population. 159 every reason for believing that it will — the effect of this work is sure to react upon the churches. The Y. M. C. A. and the churches have a wonderful field of labor open to them, and the solution of the Negro problem depends, to a large extent, upon the accom- plishment of the tasks set before them and in a full realization of their ideals. They must provide some substitute for the saloon and pool-hall before their work and influence are felt by the mass of the race or the general conditions materially bettered. The church as a social center will be discussed in the chapter on "Religious I,ife." It might be said in this connection, however, that several of the churches are doing some social settlement work, that several also have circulating libraries, club-rooms, etc., though this kind of work has only recently been introduced in the churches. The great social centers for the Negroes of Kan- sas City to-day are the saloons, pool-halls, and bar- ber shops. The pool-halls and barber shops are well provided with chairs, which are usually filled during all hours of the day. Many of those who frequent these places seldom patronize the business, but come to meet and talk with their friends. It is a common occurrence to see twenty or even thirty men stand- ing around a pool-hall or barber shop — in fact, one would seldom find fewer than ten in any one of them i6o Our Negro Population. between noon and midnight any day during the week. These facts and figures further show the strong social tendencies of the Negro. Most of the saloons in the Negro sections of the city occupy large rooms, provided with from one to fifteen tables. I visited six such saloons on Eighteenth Street be- tween Troost and Woodland on Friday evening the latter part of February and found in them 167 Negro men, and not more than 15 of these 167 men were drinking; the others were either pla5ring cards or gathered around the tables watching others play. In several instances I saw money on the table, which was, of course, good evidence of betting. I visited nearly every saloon in all the Negro district and found the conditions were about the same, though probably not so bad as in other localities. I was told by several bartenders that the crowds were nearly double on Saturday nights what they were any other nights. The saloon is thus made the general loafing-place for the idle Negro, where he spends his extra change, if he chances to possess any, endeavoring to satisfy his natural thirst for liquor or to display the appearance of wealth to his many friends gathered around him. If a canvass of all the Negro pool-halls, barber shops, and saloons were made any evening between 7 and 10 o'clock, 1,800 or 2,000 Negro men would be found in them; and if the Our Negro Population. i6i canvass were made on Saturday night, the number would probably exceed 3,000. The question natur- ally arises. What can we substitute for the saloon as a social center that will be strong enough to draw the Negro away from the saloon and influence him permanently against it? The first step necessary for the realization of this end would be to secure the enactment of a law for- bidding the use of chairs or tables in saloons; when this had been secured, and the Negro churches and other organizations brought to a reaHzation of their real work and the opportunity placed before them, numerous club-rooms under the different auspices might be established in the localities where they are most needed and might be provided with chairs, pool- tables, a reading-room, etc. Such rooms would be especially inviting to the Negro men who were work- ing regularly and were natiurally too tired to spend the evening standing around in a saloon. How- ever, the conditions under which the Negro lives, the kind of work he does, the example set by his white friend, and the hold the saloons now have upon the race as a whole, all go to make this a most difficult task — so much so that any solution of the problem would require years of persistent labor with thie proper application of the elevating agencies that might be thrown about him. The liquor problem 1 62 Our Negro Population. must be solved before the general conditions under which the Negro lives can be materially bettered; this will never be accomplished until the social aspect of the drink and the saloon has been removed. Our Negro Population. 163 CHAPTER IX. Education. As the ultimate reliance in all social reform or social reconstruction must be upon the education of the individual, therefore a permanent higher type of social life can only be secured by raising the intel- ligence and the character of the individual members of society. Education has a very important bearing upon every social problem; hence, these problems can be more successfully attacked by means of edu- cation than in any other way. They are constantly becoming more complex, owing to the diverse racial elements in the schools and the aptitude of the different types of children enrolled. The Constitution of Missouri, adopted in 1865, provided for separate schools for children of African descent. All pubUc school funds were to be appro- priated in proportion to the number of children, without regard to color. Separation of the schools is required by the laws of 1865, of 1868, of 1869, by the Constitution of 1875, and by a law of 1889, which last made it unlawful for colored children to 164 Our Negro Population. attend a white school or white children a colored school. The Board of Education of any city, town, or village is required to provide schools for the col- ored children who may reside within the limits of said city, town, or village. The Assembly of 1889 ordered the establishment of such separate schools whenever there should be in any school district fifteen or more Negro children of school age; such schools to be the same in conduct, management, con- trol^ advantages, and privileges as the white schools of coresponding grades. A subsequent legislature made provisions for combining contiguous school districts in which the number of children of school age was less than fifteen in each. The following table shows the number of persons according to race between the ages of six and twenty, and the school enrollment for those years clearly illustrates the attitude of Kansas City toward the enforcement of these laws and consequently toward the education of the Negro : School Statistics op Kansas City, Missouri. White. Colored. Number Between Ages 6 and 20. Enroll. Per Cent of Enroll. Number Between Ages 6 and 20. Enroll. Per Cent of Knroll. 1877... 1880. . . 1885... 1890. . . 1895 ■■ ■ 1900. . . 1905. • • I9II . . . 7.432 • 13.240 • 23,138 . 39,020 ■ 37.716 ■ 54.159 • 63.471 . 68,320 4,226 7.403 10,490 16.315 17,861 25.310 29,480 32.635 56 55 45 41 47 46 46 47 9 9 3 8 3 7 4 7 871 2,035 2,372 3,700 3,824 5,248 6,263 6,500 406 623 1,516 2,063 2.147 2,971 3.123 3.521 46.6 30.5 63 -9 55-7 56.1 56.6 49.8 54 I Our Negro Population. 165 From these figures we see that ever since 1885 there has been a larger per cent of Negro children of the school age in school than of white children. This condition is indeed difficult to explain, unless it be attributed to the fact that only a few occupations are open to Negro boys, hence there is little induce- ment for them to leave school ; it might be explained in part by the fact that a great many white children attend private schools, hence are not enrolled in the public schools. According to the United States Census for 1910, the population of Kansas City was about seven times the enrollment in the public schools; the per cent being about the same for both races. The occupations of the parents or guardians of the Negro pupils in the elementary schools of Kansas City, Missomi, are as follows: Agents 4 Baxbers 42 Railroad Men 105 Boarding-house and Hotel Keepers 59 Butchers 9 Clerks 15 Confectioners 2 Contractors 16 Draymen and Teamsters 217 Electrical Service 2 Engineers 12 Farmers or Gardeners 39 Laborers 1.318 i66 Our Negro Population. Laundresses 639 Manufacturers i Mechanics 86 Merchants 6 Peddlers 42 Professionals 15 Public Officers 20 Saloon Keepers 10 Seamstresses 77 Miscellaneous 472 Total 3,210 The birthplaces of the 3,210 Negro pupils in the elementary schools of Kansas City, Missouri, are as follows : Birthplaces of Colored Pupils. Kansas City 1,328 Missouri, outside of Kansas City. 908 Alabama 23 Alaska 5 Arkansas . 87 Arizona 2 California 2 Colorado 17 Connecticut 2 District of Columbia 3 Florida 2 Georgia 9 Illinois 37 Indiana 3 Iowa 18 Kansas 345 Kentucky 42 Louisiana 71 Maine 2 Our Negro Population. 167 Massachusetts 4 Michigan 2 Minnesota 5 Mississippi 32 Montana i Nebraska 5 Nevada 3 New York 5 Ohio 12 Oklahoma 75 Oregon 3 Pennsylvania 4 South Carolina i Tennessee 45 Texas 71 Virginia 2 West Virginia 3 Wyoming i Unknown 30 Total 3,210 The following table gives a comprehensive view of the condition of the colored schools of Kansas City, Missouri: ;3 o a •a o S OJ (u o 0) COCO CI CO n N O \0 t^\0 00 C4 lO O IN Tf CH u^ CO r^ 0\ r^ ,_, i-H OnOO O O r^ 1-^ lO vO "-I 0\ cs >n -^ O "O lo r^ i^\o t1- u-j r^ o) CO lO (N CO r^ IN •^ M M W 1-^ M lo '-' 00 tnO lOOOvO i-i OO'O'-^'O M »0 cOOO -^ 00 GnO 0^»0 ■"^lOfOtOO n-iO'J^cO fOd'O^-^oooO'^ ctr^cocNiooo V- +j Oh 1) m 3 > O Qj OJ 03 bo 3 a c O VO VO ro CO O >0 00 vo »o lO »o ^ O O r^ CN -^ 1^00 00 ■ 00 00 00 VOCIOOOO^MTj- -lOMVO o >. cS-jJ O. OPL, Boo 3 O OOOOOOioOOOOOO OOoOMMOt^Or^OioOO O O COOO CO -tJ- ^VO CO u^^ ^00 00 f M 01 O * 3 ? o o is 176 Our Negro Population. dally and more or less devoid of moral training. The school then, indeed, must supplant the home. Tracing the history of the Class of 191 1 back- ward to its entry in the high school, we secure the following results : Boys. Girls. 1907-1908. ... 44 73 1908-1909 29 55 1909-1910 17 32 1910-1911 . ... 10 23 The per cent of all the high schools of the city for the same period of years was 37.4. A fairly large per cent of the graduates of the Lincoln High School continue their school work in various colleges and universities, as will be seen by the following figures : Total. Per Cent Held. 117 84 71 49 42 33 28 Number Went to in Class. Other Schools. Class of 1909. . 28 15 Class of 1910. . . . 28 10 Class of 191 1. . 33 10 Many of these students attend the various schools in Kansas, while there are Negroes in Kansas City who are graduates of nearly every large Negro school in the country and most of the Eastern and Northern universities. Bight alumni of Lincoln High School received diplomas from various of these schools dtuing the single year of 191 1 . Our Negro Population. 177 The educational progress among the Negroes has been more satisfactory than their industrial progress. At the time of the emancipation 95 per cent of all the Negroes in the United States were illiterate, while only 44.6 per cent were illiterate in 1900. This de- crease in the percentage of ilUteracy among the Ne- groes is especially noticeable in Missouri, where the percentage decreased from 53.9 per cent in 1880 to 41.7 per cent in 1 890 and to 2 8 per cent in 1 900. The percentage of ilUteracy in Kansas City for 1900 was only 3.9 per cent; the native white being .7, the foreign white 8.8, and the colored 19.4 per cent. The Government statistics on this subject, according to the 1910 census, are not as yet available. I think that I am safe in saying that the Ameri- can people have arrived at the stage where they are willing to say that the Negro is essentially human and can be educated, that he should be the chief agent for his own education, and that the education of Negroes, as of whites, should be compulsory. The welfare of the white people in this and eveiy other large city in our land requires the proper edu- cation and training of the Negro. Under present conditions our efforts should be more largely and im- mediately directed to the training of the Negro children in the practical industries which directly affect his physical welfare. Instruction in hygiene 178 Our Negro Population. and sanitation is of paramount importance. Unless the Negro home is reconstructed and made clean and sanitary, and efforts are made to prevent and elim- inate disease, all efforts educationally will be futile. Early and middle adolescence is still the great crime period. The shrinking of the average home largely accounts for this condition, but the ethical failure of the public school is to a large degree responsible also. It is significant that the worst year in boy- hood is usually the year after leaving school. One cause, and a very important one, is the fact that the children are too often turned out of our schools half educated and hence ill equipped to meet and solve the difficult problem of life. To assure the future of any people there must be a growth in both thinking and doing. The Negro race especially must learn to think and to do for itself. The youth of the race should be taught to be industrious, to learn that work hurts no one, and that all labor is honorable. A trained intellect and a trained body go together to make a perfect man. Our Negro Population. 179 CHAPTER X. Reugious Life. The strong social tendencies of the Negro, as re- lated to fraternal orders, clubs, etc., have been dis- cussed in a preceding chapter, and it now remains for us to examine, in all its varied relations and ac- tivities, another great social and religious institu- tion — namely, the Church. The Church appeals especially to the Negro for two reasons: first, his childish emotional nature is essentially religious — fearing or adoring the unseen powers; and second, the Church serves not only as the religious, but also as the social center for him. The easy method of organization in the churches and their insistence on feeling, rather than on conduct, have appealed strongly to the great mass of the Negro people. The following table reveals the numerical and financial strength and the benevolent activities of the Negro churches of Kansas City, Missouri. It will be seen that the Roman Catholic Church has not made the progress among Negroes which one would expect of the Church which has such a hold upon the common people of southern Europe. Only a small i8o Our Negro Population. number are members of the Episcopalian and the Christian Churches, while the majority belong to the Baptist Church. The rest are divided among the four branches of the Methodist Church, the African Methodists being decidedly the strongest : Negro Chukches op Kansas City. 11 P IS o . •S-2 H <^ g.a 6 II 3,900 1.958 750 125 93 180 150 -w 35 (U gs pq ii c 11 S2 OS p3S Baptist. . . A. M. E.* M. E C. M. E.. A.M.E.Z . Christian . Episcopal. Catholic. . 9 4 I I I 2 I O 8 3 I o 2 O I I $190,300 163,010 25,000 5,000 2,000 1 2,000 12,000 $15,300 35,665 2,600 1,600 1,900 8,400 $1,250 858 350 100 125 60 205 $6,050 7,864 600 150 225 275 2,000 $5,045 4,109 1,405 700 850 100 620 Total . . 19 i6 7,156 $409,310 $65,465 $2,948 $17,164 $12,829 The table above shows that there are in Kansas City 19 Negro churches and 16 missions, with a total membership of 7,156. These 7,156 Negro church- members own church property valued at $409,310, or $57.19 for each individual member. These figures are indeed gratifying, since the per capita wealth of the Kansas City Negro is only $80.61. It might be *A. M. E. — African Methodist Episcopal. M; E. — Methodist Episcopal. C. M. E. — Colored Methodist Episcopal. A. M. E. Z. — ^African Methodist Episcopal Zion. Our Negro Population. i8i added, however, that the large majority of the Church members are adults, and, as stated in a pre- vious chapter, are the large Negro property-owners of the city; hence the per capita wealth of the church members would be far in excess of the figures given for the entire city. The total church indebtedness is only $65,465, which, it seems to me, is rather remarkable. The Second Baptist Church, located on the southwest corner of Tenth and Charlotte Streets, of which Samuel Bacote has been pastor for nearly thirty years, has a church plant valued at about $100,000, which is entirely free from debt. The Vine Street and the Pleasant Green Baptist churches, valued at $27,000 and $17,000, respectively, are also free from debt. This excellent financial condition of the Negro churches of the city is not due entirely to the Negro himself, since a great deal of assistance has been given to these churches by the white people of the city. Again, several pieces of church proper- ty, purchased twenty or thirty years ago at small figures, have greatly increased in value during the past few years. It is indeed a curious phenomenon that we have 23,566 Negroes, comprising 9.7 per cent of a commu- nity's population (but holding only .0124 per cent of that community's property), owning church property 1 82 Our Negro Population. equal in value to nearly one-fifth of all their other property. When he attends church, the Kansas City Negro is in surroundings not altogether com- mensurate with his financial ability. The meager exhibit of the foregoing table in the way of contribu- tions for other than local needs need not, therefore, surprise us. This fact may be further emphasized by the following figures, which show that the total contributions to the Church during 191 1 were $32,941, or $4.61 for each individual member. The donations for benevolences, which included foreign and home missions and local charities, were $2,948, or go. 41 for each church member, or $0. 1 2 for each Negro of Kansas City. These figures do not reveal a very altruistic conception of religious obligations. The total membership of 7, 156 for all the churches of the city, though seemingly large, gives a per cent which is, in reality, far below what it should be and what it has been in former years. The ministers of the dilTerent churches tell me that they are not able to get a permanent hold upon the young men and women of to-day, a fact which is attributed to the influence of the saloons, pool-halls, nickel shows, a^nd other places of amusement, which as social centers are gradually taking the place of the churches. The churches are just awakening to a realization of this condition, and it is hoped that they will be able to ALLEN CHAPEL A. M. E. CHUECH Is located on the southeast corner of Tenth and Charlotte Streets. church work has recently been installed there. Institutional 1 84 Our Negro Population. solve this problem, and thus give to the Church the religious and social position it should occupy. Only lo of the 19 Negro preachers of the city devote their entire time to the church work, while the remaining 9 follow various lines of work, con- tributing to the Church as much time and ability as they have at their disposal. A majority of the regu- lar ministers are college men, posessing a marked degree of ability, of whom Wm. H. Peck, of Allen Chapel African Methodist, Samuel W. Bacote, of the Second Baptist, and Rev. E. S. Willett, of the First Episcopal Church, are the most prominent. These men, together with several others, are doing a work that would be creditable to any church, re- gardless of race or color. The Negro churches have practically the same organization as have the white churches, such as Sunday-schools, Young People's Unions, Women's Clubs, Mission Classes, etc., while a few of these churches, in addition to these activities, provide libraries, playgrounds, and nurseries. In native ability, training, and conduct the Negro ministers of Kansas City are probably considerably above the average Negro niiriister. But here, as elsewhere, and as in the case of many a white min- ister, the Negro minister too often preaches simply to supply a natural demand, and is content to Our Negro Population. 185 achieve, as a rule, the standard which his flock sets for him. Poor leadership morally and empty ser- mons intellectually are much more easily over- looked by the. ordinary Negro congregation than ina- bility to draw the crowd and secure money with which to erect elaborate church buildings. The sixteen Negro missions in the city are, as a whole, not doing a very commendable work. Some of the churches, under whose auspices these missions are established, exercise a very loose supervision over them, and the exceedingly small contributions for this purpose do not provide ample funds with which to employ efficient workers and to do a cred- itable work. There are, however, two missions and nurseries that are decidedly above the average — one established by the Episcopal Church and the other by the Allen Chapel African Methodist Church. I shall outline briefly the work of each of these institutions. The Saint Simon's Nursery House was estab- lished by the Negro Episcopal Church of this city in 1910 for neglected Negro children. It is located at No. 558 Lydia Avenue, in what is known as "Hicks' Hollow," which is one of the most poverty-stricken and disreputable Negro sections of the city. It is one of the few Negro charitable institutions that have received the approval of the Board of Public 1 86 Our Negro Population. Welfare. It is supported almost entirely by volun- tary contributions. The institution has accommo- dations for only twenty children; however,' it is taxed to the limit all the time. It should be en- larged or a similar one erected, by which at least seventy-five needy children could be cared for. The Nursery House is managed by an experienced worker, who devotes to it all his time. This institution is doing a noble work in an organized and business- like way, and deserves the support and confidence of all good people. Allen Chapel, the largest African Methodist Church in Kansas City, was enlarged last year so as to furnish room for all the various activities of insti- tutional church work. It now has free baths, a swimming-pool 32x15 feet, a basketball court, a gymnasium, a circulating library, a day nursery, and a domestic science room. This church, together with others, has gone into active competition with the Negro saloons, nickel shows, pool-halls, and the Negro "Lid" Club in bidding for the interest of the Negro race. Religious conditions among the Negroes of Kan- sas City are not satisfactory. The churches are not strongly attracting the elements they ought to have — namely, the exceptional, the educated, the enter- prising Negroes — in short, the leaders of the race. THE SECOND BAPTIST CHURCH Is located on the southwest corner of Tenth and Charlotte Streets. It is the largest Negro church in the city. The property is valued at $100,000, and is entirely free from debt. 1 88 Our Negro Population. There is in Kansas City a wonderful opportunity for the educated Negro who has a love for humanity that will lead him to give his life to the uplifting of the great mass of his race. There could be no greater or nobler work. As stated in another chap- ter, the Negro's sphere of activity is so much lim- ited that he is forced to come in contact with our most degraded citizenship; hence he becomes hard- ened to these evils. I have been told by people who were in positions to know the facts that often Negro women sing during the night in the, white bawdy-houses and for the Negro churches on Sunday mornings, while many Negro men serve as bar- tenders and porters in saloons during the week, then ^it on the front seats in church on Sunday. These acts are not thought to be inconsistent with Chris- tian teaching. These conditions make the problems all the more diJKcult; hence they demand educated and efficient workers. It may be said of the edu- cated Negro, the same as of the educated white man, that he does not seem to realize that his permanent progress depends, to a very large extent, upon the general advance of the whole race; neither is he la- boring to uplift the race as he should, but rather to use the ignorant Negro as a means by which he may accumulate a fortune. Our Negro Population. 189 The Negroes are dividing into two distinct classes more decidedly, it seems to me, than any- other nationality in our country. A minority are improving, taking advantage of education, advanc- ing in morality and industry, acquiring property, and becoming good citizens. These few are setting a standard and are giving us hope of what the Ne- gro can and may become. The majority are not improving, but are rather retrograding. They are thinking that a little education will give them the privilege of living without manual labor; they are making higher wages the way to less work, rather than the way to a higher standard of life; they are shiftless, immoral, and criminal. It is the work and province of the Church to try to increase the smaller higher class and to decrease this larger lower class. The latter group will steadily decrease in two ways : first, by promoting their best into the higher class, thus swelling that slowly; second, by casting off their worst through the diseases that spring from idleness, self-indulgence, filth, and immorality. /^'J<^^ V