Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/220

 206 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

the same proportion as the total population. The Chicago river and its north branch divide the city into three sections or divi- sions, known as the north, west, and south divisions. The negro population in 1896 was divided among these three sections as follows : north division, 700 ; west division, 2,606 ; south divi- sion, 19,436.

OCCUPATION.

The majority of the men are employed as railroad porters, waiters, janitors, elevator and bell boys, saloon porters, dock laborers, foundrymen, house servants, and coachmen. There are a few in the trades as carpenters, painters, etc., but these are decreasing. Several are in the employ of the United States government as clerks and carriers in the post-office. A few hold political appointments in the various departments of the county and city government. In the professions are found several doctors, dentists, lawyers, teachers, and clergymen. The women are with few exceptions engaged in domestic service. 1 There is a large class of unemployed negroes in the city, numbering several hundreds. Could a careful census of this class be taken, it would no doubt be found to reach into the thousands. From this class the ranks of the criminals are recruited. Mention of this class will be made later on in this study.

NATIVITY.

The negroes of Chicago are from all parts of the United States ; but the majority are from the middle west and south central states, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri furnishing the largest number.

CHURCH.

There are in the city twenty-four negro church organizations, scattered among the following denominations: Baptist, Catholic, Episcopal, Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal Zion, Free Methodist, and Presby- terian. Of these different church organizations, ten own their

1 The writer has not had opportunity to make a careful and systematic study of the industrial condition of the negroes of the city, and does not claim that the fore- going classification of occupations is correct in all its details. He feels safe, how- ever, in saying that in the main it is correct.