Read Ebook: The Negro Migrant in Pittsburgh by Epstein Abraham

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Ebook has 230 lines and 31078 words, and 5 pages

? 25%

.00 TO .60 ?? 4%

OVER .60 ??????? 15%

As to the comparative wages paid here and in the South, it appears from table number X, that the great mass of workers get higher wages here than in the places from which they come, fifty-six percent received less than two dollars a day in the South, while only five percent received such wages in Pittsburgh. However the number of those who said they received high wages in the South is greater than the number of those receiving them here. Fifteen percent said they received more than three dollars and sixty cents a day at home, while only five percent received more than that rate for twelve hours work here. Sixty-seven percent of the four hundred and fifty-three persons stating their earnings here, earn less than three dollars per day. Twenty-eight percent earn from three dollars to three sixty per day, while only five percent earn more than three dollars and sixty cents per day. The average working day for both Pittsburgh and the South is ten and four-tenths hours. The average wage is .85 here; in the South it amounted to .15. It may be interesting to point out that the number of married men who work longer hours and receive more money is proportionately greater than that of the single men, who have not "given hostages to fortune."

It has been stated frequently that the Negro exodus from the South is in a large measure due to the fact that the Southern states have adopted prohibition. While it is true that most of the newcomers are from prohibition states, our figures, however, do not warrant the conclusion that the Negroes came North to use the saloon. We are inclined to believe that the answers to this question were sincere. The classification of "drinkers" includes all persons who imbibe however infrequently and those who drink beer only. Out of the four hundred and seventy-seven persons who answered these questions, two hundred and ten or forty-four percent said that they drank, while two hundred and sixty-seven or fifty-six percent were total abstainers. It is interesting to note that among those who have families in Pittsburgh, the percentage of those who drink is smaller than among those who are single or have families elsewhere. Thirty percent of the former class drink, while seventy percent do not drink at all. The percentage of drinkers of those with their families at home, is even greater than those of the single people, which may be explained by the fact that many of the younger people have as yet not acquired the drink habit.

The church going proclivity of the Negro is well known and is borne out by our study. Of the four hundred and eighty-nine who replied to this question, three hundred and seventy or almost seventy-six percent are either church members or attendants, and only one hundred and nineteen or twenty-four percent do not attend any church.

Proof that these newcomers are not all lazy, shiftless, and immoral is to be found in the statements of savings, and of remittances to relatives in the South. Fifteen percent of the families here had savings. Eighty percent of the married ones with families elsewhere were sending money home, and nearly one hundred of the two hundred and nineteen single people interviewed, were contributing sums to parents, sisters or other relatives. Most of these contributions, amounted to about five dollars per week. Fifty-two persons were contributing from five to ten dollars per week, and seven were sending over ten dollars per week.

ALABAMA ??????????????????????????????????? 177

GEORGIA ????????????? 66

NO. CAROLINA ???????? 38

VIRGINIA ??????? 33

FLORIDA ????? 26

MISSOURI ???? 20

TENNESSEE ???? 20

SO. CAROLINA ??? 15

W. VIRGINIA ??? 15

KENTUCKY ??? 15

PENNSYLVANIA ??? 14

OHIO ?? 13

MISSISSIPPI ?? 10

LOUISIANA ?? 10

ILLINOIS ?? 10

MARYLAND ?? 9

DIST. OF COL. ?? 8

TEXAS ? 4

INDIANA ? 2

Undoubtedly many Negroes have come to the North in response to the seductive arts of labor agents, who worked on a per capita commission basis. These emissaries, both in the North and in the South, made glowing promises of high wages, social equality, and better living conditions above the Mason-Dixon Line. But these inducements were probably not the underlying factor of the migration. They merely gave opportunity for the expression of a growing discontent engendered by many years of oppression. Segregation, lynchings, economic exploitation, and the denial of educational freedom, justice and constitutional right, had filled the Negro's cup of bitterness to overflowing. The South was to his mind still a place of bondage for him and in the North he saw that long dreamed Land of Promise where he might live more freely.

Three hundred and ninety-five of the four hundred and seventy-four when questioned as to who paid their transportation North replied that they paid their own fare, while only seventy-nine admitted they were brought here at the expense of railroads and other industrial concerns. Numerous stories of persecutions by the White South on trumped up charges of all sorts are told by these migrants. Many of them say they had to leave their homes in secrecy and at night, and to walk to some station where they were not known, before they could board a train for the North. Many reported that they were unable to secure tickets at home, and had to secure them from the North. If tickets were discovered in the possession of a Negro, they were confiscated and destroyed by the police. At times when three or more Negroes were found together, they were suspected of "conspiring to go North"; some mythical charge was brought against them, and they were arrested. Threats and intimidation of all kinds were used against these migrants, both at home and on the train. One very intelligent Negro of about forty who owned property in Alabama related some of the persecutions which he had borne while at home. He told of taking the train at night several miles away from his own town, and of being accosted on board by a white Southerner who pointed to the next car which contained several coffins and said, "Yo Niggahs goin' to Pittsburgh, eh? We all are jes shippin' five of yo back from thah. They froze to death in Pittsburgh." It may be interesting to remark that this occurred in June, 1917, when Pittsburgh was sweltering in the heat of early summer.

Of the more than four hundred men who stated their reasons for coming North, three hundred and twenty-five said that the higher wages and economic opportunities here had attracted them. Two hundred and eighty-eight of these also included better treatment as one of the factors in their migration. As one of them expressed it, "If I were half as well treated home as here, I would rather stay there, as I had my family there and had a better home and better health." Eighty-five had no special reason for their coming, and were "jes travelin' to see the country", or the like. Twenty-five were either tired of their work or wanted to change it. This was the case particularly with the miners from West Virginia and Alabama. Twenty-seven had either lost their jobs, were out of work, or had various other reasons for coming. These figures seem to indicate that the prime causes of the migration are rather fundamental, and not merely temporary.

The Negro migration is similar to the previous European immigration because, while dominantly economic, it is also due to social and political maladjustments; but it is more largely a family migration. For the number of Negroes who brought women and children with them is greater in proportion to the total than was the case with the foreigners. The European usually came alone and sent for his family after a considerable lapse of time. The Negro either brings his family with him or sends for it within the first three or four months following his arrival. The complication of our housing problem is obvious under these circumstances, for Pittsburgh until the present time has attempted to meet the housing requirements of only single men workers of the new labor group.

The short-sightedness of our failure to provide decent homes in the city, in order to retain the labor which is so essential for the expansion of Pittsburgh and the growth of its industries, is again exposed by the figures in our study. Of the three hundred and thirty single men, or men without families here, answering the question as to whether they will remain here, return South or move elsewhere, only ninety-two or twenty-eight percent said they would remain here. A hundred and thirty-seven or forty-two percent were going back or somewhere else, while one hundred and one or thirty percent were still undecided.

As for the reasons why these men would not remain in the city, seventy-nine or fifty-seven percent were leaving because they could not get a better room because the rents paid by them were too excessive for the wages received; thirty-seven or twenty-seven percent, gave family connections as their reason, and the remaining sixteen percent either had no reasons or were leaving because of ill health, bad climate or other unfavorable conditions. The difficulty of securing an adequate labor supply for Pittsburgh is thus, in part, explained by the very nature of the economic problems involved.

This average was obtained by dividing the total number of women and children of the families investigated, by the number of families.

The Pittsburgh Graded Tax Law has, apparently, not been in operation long enough to produce the results desired by its sponsors.

Pittsburgh Sanitary Code of 1913, Sections 132, 133 and 134, pages 75, 76 and 77.

The differences in the totals in this table as well as in a few others, are due to the fact that many have given answers to one question and not to the other.

The cause for many of these migrants not contributing to the support of their families may be explained by the fact that they have not been here long enough to get established.

THE NEGRO'S OWN PROBLEM

The Negro migration is neither an isolated nor a temporary phenomenon, but the logical result of a long series of linked causes beginning with the landing of the first slave ship and extending to the present day. The slavery which was ended by the Emancipation Proclamation and the Fourteenth Amendment of the National Constitution has been succeeded by less sinister, but still significant social and economic problems, which are full of subtle menace for the welfare of America.

The intelligent Negro has long believed that his only escape from the measure of suppression which still exists is to go to the North, and he has seized the opportunity whenever it was presented to him. The present unprecedented influx of black workers from the South is merely the result of a sudden expansion of opportunity due to a war-depleted labor market in the North. The causes for his migration are basically inherent in the social and economic system which has kept him down for these long years in the South. The Negro is beginning to appreciate his own value and duties, and is proceeding to the North where he knows he can at least enjoy a measure of justice. This naturally means a tremendous problem for the North. The race question is no longer confined to the states below the Mason and Dixon Line, but becomes the concern of the whole nation. It may be presumed that the European immigration after this war will not be as great as it was before it. The Negro is taking the place of the foreign worker, and he is certain to become an increasingly important factor in our national political and industrial life. He is already an important political factor in some municipalities; he is soon to be a basic factor in our industries. The Negro who has lived in the North has taken advantage of the industrial opportunities which were open to him, and is continuing to do so more and more.

No exact estimate of the number of Negroes who have come North within the last year is possible. Estimates vary from three hundred thousand to seven hundred thousand. There are probably about two million Negroes now living in the North, and it is of paramount importance that we look into the conditions of these people who although in our midst, are yet so little known to us, and see that they are fitted into their new environment. Our little study of the social opportunities available, and the conditions existing among our Negro brethren may therefore be of great interest, and we are glad to present here some of the facts which were disclosed in our survey of these people who have recently settled amongst us, in order to avail themselves of our hospitality, and industrial opportunities. We have discussed in the preceding pages the immediate opportunities for Negroes in this city as to housing and wages. It may therefore not be amiss to discuss the possibilities of his attaining an advanced political, social and economic status.

However, more and more we are coming to realize that political freedom without industrial opportunities means but little. Democracy must also mean industrial opportunity, and social democracy, as well as political democracy. But the industrial opportunity which the Negro demands is not even the same as is demanded by his more fortunate white-skinned brother. While his fellow-human beings demand a larger voice in industry and business, and a greater share of the product, the Negro is still meekly begging for his inalienable right to participate in industry, to help extend and build it up. It is the denial of this right that confronts the Negro in the North, and makes his problem of paramount significance.

The great majority of the Negro migrants come North because of the better economic and social opportunities here. But even here they are not permitted to enter industry freely. They are kept in the ranks of unskilled labor and in the field of personal service. Until the present demand for unskilled labor arose, the Negroes in the North were for the most part, servants. There were very few Negroes occupied otherwise than as porters, chauffeurs, janitors and the like. The Negro at present has entered the productive industries, but he is kept still on the lowest rung of the economic ladder.

From a study of colored employees in twenty of the largest industrial plants, in the Pittsburgh district, arbitrarily selected , we find that most of the concerns have employed colored labor only since May or June of 1916. Very few of the Pittsburgh industries have used colored labor in capacities other than as janitors and window cleaners. A few of the plants visited had not begun to employ colored people until in the spring of 1917, while a few others had not yet come to employ Negroes, either because they believed the Negro workers to be inferior and inefficient, or because they feared that their white labor force would refuse to work with the blacks. The Superintendent of one big steel plant which has not employed colored labor during the past few years admitted that he faced a decided shortage of labor, and that he was in need of men; but he said he would employ Negroes only as a last resort, and that the situation was as yet not sufficiently acute to warrant their employment. In a big glass plant, the company attempted to use Negro labor last winter, but the white workers "ran them out" by swearing at them, calling them "Nigger" and making conditions so unpleasant for them that they were forced to quit. This company has therefore given up any further attempts at employing colored labor. It may be interesting to note, however, that one young Negro boy who pays no attention to such persecution persistently stays there.

About ninety-five percent of the colored workers in the steel mills visited in our survey were doing unskilled labor. In the bigger plants, where many hundreds of Negroes are employed, almost one hundred percent are doing common labor, while in the smaller plants, a few might be found doing labor which required some skill. The reasons alleged by the manufacturers are; first, that the migrants are inefficient and unstable, and second, that the opposition to them on the part of white labor prohibits their use on skilled jobs. The latter objection is illustrated by the case of the white bargemen of a big steel company who wanted to walk out because black workers were introduced among them, and who were only appeased by the provision of separate quarters for the Negroes. While there is an undeniable hostility to Negroes on the part of a few white workers, the objection is frequently exaggerated by prejudiced gang bosses.

That this idea is often due to the prejudice of the heads of departments and other labor employers, was the opinion of a sympathetic superintendent of one of the largest steel plants, who said that in many instances it was the superintendents and managers themselves, who are not alive to their own advantage and so oppose the Negro's doing the better classes of work. The same superintendent said that he had employed Negroes for many years; that a number of them have been connected with his company for several years; that they are just as efficient as the white people. More than half of the twenty-five Negroes in his plant were doing semi-skilled and even skilled work. He had one or two colored foremen over colored gangs, and cited an instance of a colored man drawing a hundred and fourteen dollars in his last two weeks pay. This claim was supported by a very intelligent Negro who was stopped a few blocks away from the plant and questioned as to the conditions in the plant. While admitting everything that the Superintendent said, and stating that there is now absolute free opportunity for colored people in that plant, the man claimed that these conditions have come into being only within the last year. The same superintendent told of an episode illustrating the amicable relations existing in his shop between the white and black workers. He related that a gang of workers had come to him with certain complaints and the threat of a walk-out. When their grievances had been satisfactorily adjusted, they pointed to the lonely black man in their group and said that they were not ready to go back unless their Negro fellow worker was satisfied.

Paradoxical as it may seem, the labor movement in America--which it is claimed was begun and organized primarily to improve the conditions of all workers, and protect their interests from the designs of heartless and cruel industrial captains--has not only made no effort to relieve and help the oppressed black workers who have suffered even more than the whites from exploitation and serfdom, but in many instances have remained indifferent to the economic interests and even served as an obstacle to the free development of the colored people.

Since the East St. Louis race riots in July of this year, and later on the Chester and other race clashes, the press has been full of controversy concerning the colored labor problem in the North. Employers as well as many prominent persons openly laid the blame for the spilling of the blood of women and little children at the door of the labor unions. On the other hand, the labor men almost as a unit have charged the responsibility for these riots to the Northern industrial leaders who are bringing these laborers to be used as a tool to break up the labor movement in the North.

The motives of the employers who are bringing the colored migrants are obviously not altruistic. They are not concerned primarily with freeing the Negro from the economic and political restrictions to which he is still subjected in the South. It is not to be assumed that their interests extend further than the employment of these ignorant people as unskilled laborers. Indeed the sheer economic interest of the Northern industrial concerns which are bringing the Negro migrants, may be illustrated by the following contract, which is typical of many agreements signed by migrants when accepting transportation North.

"It is hereby understood that I am to work for the above named Company as ...................................., the rate of pay to be .................................. The ............ Railroad agrees to furnish transportation and food to destination. I agree to work on any part of the .............. Railroad where I may be assigned. I further agree to reimburse the ............ Railroad for the cost of my railroad transportation, in addition to which I agree to pay ................................ to cover the cost of meals and other expenses incidental to my employment.

I authorize the Company to deduct from my wages money to pay for the above expenses.

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