Topic 5A: Racial Segregation in 19th Century US Cities

Yik Loh

Racial segregation can be defined as the separation of people in everyday activities in to groups according to racial characteristics. Although evident in many countries even today, it is particularly prominent in America as most African Americans were brought over as or descended from slaves.

Even after being freed in the aftermath of the Civil war in-between 1861-65, African Americans continued to live segregated and with fewer rights until the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and 1968 when all forms of segregation were outlawed. Therefore before the Act, there would be signs indicating areas where African Americans could legally eat, drink, walk, talk or rest. De Facto Segregation (in practice but not by law) is still present in today’s society. For example, there is a pattern occurring wherein whites live in more affluent suburbs and minorities dominate the urban centres. Research also indicates that many whites are willing to pay a premium in order to live in a predominantly white neighbourhood.

This week’s reading by Baldwin focuses in particular on the ‘Black Metropolis’ in Chicago. African American settlement was concentrated in to small parts of the city, the largest being a five mile long narrow strip in the Near South Side called the ‘Black Belt’. Despite other neighbouring residential areas, African Americans were prevented from renting or buying houses in those areas with the rationale of protecting property values. This effectively kept those areas all white while African Americans who managed to move in to white areas as well as the agents who had sold to them suffered racial violence in the form of having their homes bombed. The fact that the African Americans were restricted to a small area even as their population sky-rocketed meant that it resulted in overcrowded housing even as there was an abundant surplus in other parts of the city.

Sourced from: http://www.americanhistoryusa.com/static/images/chicago-south-side-1919.jpg

At the time, Chicago’s business as well as social institution was rather indifferent to the African-American community. This meant that the ‘Black Belt’ grew to become a completely independent social, commercial and economic area. Thus it took on characteristics of a ‘city within a city’ leading to the term ‘Black Metropolis’.

The South Side community in Chicago grew rapidly with its population growing from 320 in 1850 to 30,000 in 1900. With the advent of the ‘Great Migration’ between 1910-20, where large numbers of African Americans left the rural south for opportunities in the North, the African American population of Chicago reached 110,000 by 1920. This increase in population led to access to financial resources and meant that the lack of support from the white financial community in supporting black enterprise became much less of an obstacle. The greater financial resources meant that the commercial and business interests within the ‘Black Metropolis’ was able to diversify in to a wide range of professional, commercial and manufacturing interests. Thus it was able to satisfy its own demand for goods and services while being cut off from the rest of the city.

The main business and commercial district was known as the ‘Stroll’. It illustrated the struggle between three basic images that came to represent the ‘Black Metropolis’. These images were black primitivism, racial respectability and leisure based labour. Together they show how the ‘Black Metropolis’ was not just a built environment but also an ideal that was fought over by different intellectual groups.

‘Black Primitivism’ was essentially a way in which African Americans and thus by extension the ‘Black Metropolis’ was viewed. Baldwin points out that at the time; ‘deviance’ was identified as a Negro trait in contrast to the traits of ‘enterprise and action’ that characterised white civilisation. This could be seen through the types of enterprise found in the ‘Stroll’ especially at night where it was the chief source of Vice and Amusement in Chicago. Businesses like brothels, theatres, clubs and illegal lottery operators were the most profitable institutions in the area. The difference between white and black civilization can be identified by how Baldwin describes, “White tourists could enter, partake of, and enjoy the ‘vitality’ and ‘spirit’ of the African safari in the city’. Although later studies would discredit African Americans having genetic traits like deviance, attributing the lack of black assimilation to slavery and racial discrimination, they still stressed the need for African Americans to assimilate in to white customs.

Many of the older African American residents in Chicago tried to gain respectability from the white people by running respectable businesses like banks and insurance. They blamed southern migrant behaviours and ways for the racial tension and violence at the time which would result in events like the race riots of 1919. However, it was undeniable that it was the leisure and entertainment world that provided ‘the socioeconomic and conceptual base for the black metropolis. This is perhaps best personified by the fact that black businesses like beauty salons or lunch counters often struggled and had to serve as legal fronts for gambling institutions. The fact that this was the case showed the power of black consumer culture which we still see today despite their lack of presence in the mainstream world at the time.

Employment for new migrant African Americans at the time was difficult especially due to the fact that trade unions excluded black working men who had acquired skills in southern states. They were mostly restricted to unskilled labour, service positions or dangerous work. For women, it was even worse with most restricted do domestic labour. This made work in the sex trade more tempting as they were able to sell their bodies for $25 a week in comparison to $6 working as a maid. Eventually new institutions were formed in response to post-migration realities and programs for education, sports and music were formed. The most successful of these was the Chicago Urban League which sought employment for both black working and professional classes.

We can see then the struggles that African Americans went through as a result of segregation and how they were forced to rely on entertainment and leisure as their main form of socioeconomic progress. Although this made earning respect from the white community more difficult, the lack of support from the rest of the city of Chicago meant that it was the only viable option. Despite the struggles within the Black Metropolis in establishing housing, employment and respect, the South Side managed to become self-sufficient as a city within a city largely thanks to a large population movement in to the city and gradual transformation in to a unique consumption lifestyle. The Black Metropolis thus grew in to an independent city where self-transformation and the formation of dreams could occur as well as a desire for a different city and world.