Chapter I.
The Negro population of the Pittsburgh District in Allegheny County, was 27,753 in the year 1900 and had increased to 34,217 by the year 1910, according to the latest United States Census figures available.[1]The increase during this period was 23.3%. Assuming the continuation of this rate of increase, the total Negro population in 1915 would be about 38,000.
From a canvas of twenty typical industries in the Pittsburgh district, it was found that there were 2,550 Negroes employed in 1915, and 8,325 in 1917, an increase of 5,775 or 227%. It was impossible to obtain labor data from more than approximately sixty percent of the Negro employing concerns, but it is fair to assume that the same ratio of increase holds true of the remaining forty percent. On this basis the number of Negroes now employed in the district may be placed at 14,000. This means that there are about 9,750 more Negroes working in the district today than there were in 1915, an addition due to the migration from the South.
A schedule study of over five hundred Negro migrants indicates that thirty percent of the new comers have their families with them, and that the average family consists of three persons, excluding the father.[2]Adding to the total number of new workers, (9,750), the product obtained by multiplying thirty percent by three, (average family), we find a probable total new Negro population of 18,550 in 1917.
This sudden and abnormal increase in the Negro population within so short a time, of necessity involves a tremendous change, and creates a new situation, which merits the attention of the whole community. Before this great influx of Negroes from the South, the Negro population which constituted only 3.4% of the total city population, lived in a half dozen sections of the city. Although not absolutely segregated, these districts were distinct.
Because of the high cost of materials and labor, incident to the war; because the taxation system still does not encourage improvements,[3]and because of investment attractions other than in realty, few houses have been built and practically no improvements have been made. This is most strikingly apparent in the poorer sections of the city. In the Negro sections, for instance, there have been almost no houses added and few vacated by whites within the last two years. The addition, therefore, of thousands of Negroes, just arrived from Southern states, meant not only the creation of new Negro quarters and the dispersion of Negroes throughout the city, but also the utmost utilization of every place in the Negro sections capable of being transformed into a habitation. Attics and cellars, store-rooms and basements, churches, sheds and warehouses had to be employed for the accommodation of these newcomers. Whenever a Negro had space which he could possibly spare, it was converted into a sleeping place; as many beds as possible were crowded into it, and the maximum number of men per bed were lodged. Either because their own rents were high, or because they were unable to withstand the temptation of the sudden, and, for all they knew, temporary harvest, or, perhaps because of the altruistic desire to assist their race fellows, a majority of the Negroes in Pittsburgh converted their homes into lodging houses.
Because rooms were hard to come by, the lodgers were not disposed to complain about the living conditions or the prices charged. They were only too glad to secure a place where they could share a half or at least a part of an unclaimed bed. It was no easy task to find room for a family, as most boarding houses would accept only single men, and refused to admit women and children. Many a man, who with his family occupied only one or two rooms, made place for a friend or former townsman and his family. In many instances this was done from unselfish motives and in a humane spirit.
A realization of the need for accurate information concerning the Negro migration, and the belief that in an intelligent treatment of the problem lay the welfare of the entire community as well as that of the local Negro group, prompted the attempt at a scientific study of the situation. The primary purpose of the study was to learn the facts, but there was also a hope that the data obtained might lead to the amelioration of certain existing evils and the prevention of threatening ones.
In order to ascertain as many of the facts as possible concerning housing conditions, rooming and boarding houses, three or four family tenement houses, single family residences, camps, churches and other lodging places were investigated. A comparative study of health and crime among Negroes of Allegheny County before and after the period of the Northern migration was also attempted.
Storerooms in the Hill District Converted into Family Residences and Rooming Houses.
Storerooms in the Hill District Converted into Family Residences and Rooming Houses.
A questionnaire concerning kinds of labor in which Negro migrants engaged, and wages paid them both in Pittsburgh and in their native South was prepared; and answers to it from over five hundred individuals were obtained during the months of July and August, 1917. Information relating to housing, rents, health and social conditions was elicited in a similar manner. An effort was made to visit and study every Negro quarter in Pittsburgh. Data was secured from the Negro sections in the Hill District and upper Wylie and Bedford Avenues; the Lawrenceville district, about Penn Avenue, between Thirty-fourth and Twenty-eighth Streets; the Northside Negro quarter around Beaver Avenue and Fulton Street; the East Liberty section in the vicinity of Mignonette and Shakespeare Streets, and the new downtown Negro section on Second Avenue, Ross and Water Streets.
The information thus secured is discussed in the following pages.