The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 18, 1932, Page 6

Page {we -ILY WORKER, EW YORK, MONDAY, APRIL 18, 1932 ta eee Dark Back Alleys and Sky-High Rents oe are walking along a poor| treet. y be in any city | in the United § es. As’ you pro- | ceed, the street becomes progres- | sively more wretched in app« | ance, } This is the very poorest part of! town. You are now in the local! “black belt” Bushtown, Smc Hollow, Catfishville. You have heard about “keeping niggers in their place’, Geographic peak- ing, this is it { In almost every American city,} the Negro section is within shout- | ing distance of the principal busi-| ness district. This means that inter- | spersed among the houses are ware- | , Public garages, factories. It also that the Negro section | is, in most cases, the city’s oldest | residential area, | Perhaps the houses are of the} Old-fashioned type—formerly com- |} fortable dwellings, or the former | stables of such old dwellings. Now | they are defaced, dilapidated, tot- } tering ghosts. Or they may be] “apartments” — which does not | mean modern improvements, but merely smaller rooms with lower! ceilings, and windows looking out on tiny courts, or—no windows at at all. Some of the _ buildings have been legally condemned by the city—but they are still inhabited. Inside the aparmenis, broken window panes, exposed plaster, rot- ten flooring, and rat-castle walls are the rule. Heat is supplied by a gas or coal stove. The plumbing is out of date, leaky and out of order, exuding sewer gas. Light and air are not to be found in quantities worth mentioning. But -say this street in the Negro section is in a small town, or on! the outskirts or in the industrial se¢tion of a larger one. Here the houses are frame shacks, set close together on tiny patches of un- drained, cindery ground, many of the cottages are just so much kin- dling wood. No plaster, no wall- * paper, no plumbing Heat? That is supplied by a small stove. Light? Rarely electricity, sometimes gas; often kerosene lamps or candles. Water? Usually from an outside hydrant, which may serve a whole row of houses, Toilet? A privy in the yard, or on the back porch. On such streets, public improve- ments are notable for their absence. Sidewalks, paved street beds, street ' ! This Jim-Crow sign is in view in a section of every car,-every bus, every wait- ing-room, every restaurant that “Colored.” serves Negroes, throughout the South. This sign is the banner of boss supremacy over both Ne- gro and white workers, whom its Jim-Crow system keeps divided. lights, sewers, are rare. Even more rare is the exercise of such public | services as garbage collection. | But if these city streets are mean, | think of the road that runs through a company-owned suburb.or town! Drainage here was never considered. The huts let in the wind and the vain like seives. Company-owned houses are nearly always bad, but where a majority of Negro labor is employed, they are appalling. 2 Here are a few quotations on in- dividual cases: Elizabeth, N. J. “House has been condemned and is about to fall down.” New York City. “This row of houses is nothing but a fire-trap.” “No baths here.” “The landlord says that if we want repairs we will have to take a rent raise.” Washington, D. C.—‘“Waiter funs DRIVEN FROM THEIR QUARTERS aS SOUTH WASHINGTON, Va.—Negro workers were making a few cents sorting out rubbish from these dump heaps, until the Brick Company decided they weren’t good sights for tourists, and last month had them burned down. allowed to salvage their few belongings. “Rent ygaised from $20.50 to $40 ° , their houses have’ no sewer con- | when owner papered and put on a| nection.” new door.” Richmond, Va.—‘‘Seven out of ev- Houston, Tex. “Houses caught fire} ery 10 houses...in these slums... about two months ago. promised to repair, but hasn’t yet.” “About 17 families to one unsani- Cheaper than horses or machinery! South are forced to do this back-breaking work for a few cents an hour. itary privy.” “No fire plug within five blocks.” “Garbage man has been here once since July, 1928.” And here are some figures: Tulsa, Okla.—‘‘Of 500 homes, 262 have no drinking water except from surface wells, which are polluted by privies every time it rains. Most of them (these 500 houses) have no garbage disposal.” Dallas, Tex.—“Of 1,245 houses, 31 per cent are ‘barely habitable’; 19.2 per cent are ‘unfit for habitation.” Louisville, Ky.—‘“There are ap- proximately 12,000 colored families in the city. At least one-third of Owner} face on unpaved streets.” | ceneteomeeernnevnmneytety nating enn ettmagentntn nn nets “Many houses were built in open violatior of the building laws.” These Negro workers in the Washington, D. C.—Of 4,736 hous- es, 45.5 per cent have gas light: 23 per cent use Kerosene lunips.” State of Pennsylvania.—‘Of ail Negro homes in the state, only 42 per cent have inside toilets; only 20 per cent have bathtubs.” These miserable apartments and shacks cost the Negro workers from 50 to 100 per cent more rent than would be paid for sirnilar accommo- dation in white neighborhoods. Fif- earnings for rent is a usual figure. Often the amount comes up to 75 per cent. Much child labor in Ne- lamp and lard-paid covers for plates, complete the furnishings. The Negro workers living there were driven out without even being gro families is caused by the in- sistent demands of white and Ne- gro realty companies. Most Negro families are forced to take in lodg- ers, thus making overcrowding still worse. Why do the Negroes live in such miserable accommodations at such exorbitant rents? The answer is segregation — segregation in Jim- Crow ghettoes. The poor housing of white workers is in the case of Negro workers made a hundred- fold worse. Forcing the Negro population to live in miserable high-rent neigh- borhoods is part and parcel of the white bosses’ whole Jim-Crow sys- tem. It is also the source of high income’ for a class of real estate owners who grow rich on the rents from segregated, tumble - down dwellings. Not only white, but also Negro real estate owners are in enteenen omen a } this class. segregation? Legislation is only one method. Other methods are agree- ment among property owners, con- tract clauses, legal pacts, “gentle- men’s agreements” not to sell or rent to Negroes over a given period of years. When these methods fail, arresis and the bombing of Negro homes are brought into play. The boss class does not easily renounce a sharp weapon of Jim Crow and an excellent of income for it- self. source | Some of the high-priced, run- | down apartments in the Jim- Crow section of Washington, D. C., in which Negro workers are forced to live. May 1, 1932, will be a day of mass protest against the | white boss lynchers. On this the country in the world will take | the jagainst the danger of war on | day workers of every to demonstrate streets the Soviet Union, for the im- mediate release of the Scotts- boro boys! The Negro share-croppers work from sunup to sundown and pro- ty per cent of a Negro family’s| vide for the landlords’ beautiful homes with the latest improvements. Above is a picture of one of the “homes” in which the landlords force their croppers to live. One mattress, two broken chairs, a smoky FOR THE LANDLORDS’ PROFIT ae nneneeeenememeeneeeees ee into cellar.” “Dangerous gas leaks.” | Death masks of John Rayford and Edward Jackson, murdered by police in Cleveland for resisting the eviction of « jobless worker, How do the bosses enforce tnis . RIGHT OF SELF. DETERMINATION FOR THE BLACK BELT!