CHICAGO RACE RIOTS.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17632, 8 December 1922, Page 3

CHICAGO RACE RIOTS.

—4 THE COLOUR PROBLEM. The Commission composed of seven representative white and six representative negro citizens of Chicago to enquire into the race riots which too* place there in 1919, have spent a year on examining conditions, and have just issued a pamphlet summary of their forthcoming report. The "explosion _ot bad feeling was due to- the sudden increase of the negro population in Chicago between 1910 and 1920 by 148.5 per cent. One of the most striking of the recommendations is that there should be formed a permanent race-ieiation society to promote inter-racial understanding, tolerance, and co-operation, a suggestion that has constantly been put forward by the C-.mrch and Racerelation Section of the Federal Council of the The Commission studied the psychological, economic, and social conditions of race relation of the city, and the investigations revealed the fact that rumours to the effect that the negroes had set fire to houses at the back of the 6tockyards and mythical 6tories about negro crime had led to "reprisals on the part of white ruffians." Of the 1338 articles about negroes published in three Chicago newspapers, Gos—or nearly 50 per cent.—dealt with riot, .crime, and vice. Yet it appeared that in parks and other public places where people of both races were, left to come and go freely there developed a voluntary racial grouping with an absence of friction. In 89 per cent, or the industries investigated, wher© negroes were employed, the- were found ; working in close association with white employees, with friction rarely manifested in any form; while in one or two of the older neighbourhoods, comprising thousands of white and nesrro residents, there Had been no outbreaks, not even during the riot under investigation.