The Chicago Commission on Race Relations was a non-partisan, interracial investigative committee, appointed by Illinois governor

Frank Lowden Frank Orren Lowden (January 26, 1861 – March 20, 1943) was an American Republican Party politician who served as the 25th Governor of Illinois and as a United States Representative from Illinois. He was also a candidate for the Republican pre ...

. The commission was set up after the Chicago riots of July and August 1919 in "which thirty-eight lives were lost, twenty-three Negros and fifteen whites, and 537 persons were injured".The purpose of the commission was to investigate the causes of the Riot and make recommendations to prevent a tragedy like this from reoccurring. The research was the first extensive research on interracial Black-white relations conducted in Chicago funded by a government agency. The sociological study was published in 1922 by the University of Chicago Press as ''The Negro in Chicago – A Study of Race Relations and a Race Riot''. The study included a substantial review of the background of the riots, the riots themselves, and their aftermath, together with original work and investigation into the relations between and perceptions of the black and white communities in Chicago. ''The Negro in Chicago'' ran to 672 pages with a number of plates, plans and other additional matter.

The Commission

The Chicago Commission on Race Relations was established at a meeting of eighty-one citizens, representing forty-eight social, civic, commercial, and professional organizations of Chicago. They set up a commission composed entirely of men six

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

s and six

European-American European Americans (also referred to as Euro-Americans) are Americans of European ancestry. This term includes people who are descended from the first European settlers in the United States as well as people who are descended from more recent Eu ...

s: European Americans *

Edgar Bancroft Edgar Addison Bancroft (November 20, 1857 – July 28, 1925) was an American lawyer and diplomat. He served as United States Ambassador to Japan from 1924 to 1925.

William Scott Bond William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Eng ...

* Edward Osgood Brown * Harry Eugene Kelly *

Victor Lawson Victor Fremont Lawson (September 9, 1850 – August 19, 1925) was an American newspaper publisher who headed the ''Chicago Daily News'' from 1876 to 1925.David Paul Nord. "Lawson, Victor Fremont". ''American National Biography Online''. Oxford Univ ...

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African Americans *

Robert Sengstacke Abbott Robert Sengstacke Abbott (December 24, 1870 – February 29, 1940) was an American lawyer, newspaper publisher and editor. Abbott founded ''The Chicago Defender'' in 1905, which grew to have the highest circulation of any black-owned newspaper i ...

George Cleveland Hall George Cleveland Hall (22 February 1864, Ypsilanti, – 17 June 1930, Chicago) was an American physician who became a prominent humanitarian activist. He headed the Urban League in Chicago of which he went on to become vice-president. In 1915 he w ...

* George H. Jackson *

Edward H. Morris Edward H. Morris (May 30, 1858 – February 3, 1943) was an American lawyer and state legislator in Illinois. Biography Edward H. Morris was born in Flemingsburg, Kentucky, on May 30, 1858. He graduated from St. Patrick's High School, Chicago ...

* Adelbert H. Roberts *

Lacey Kirk Williams Lacey Kirk Williams (1871, Eufaula, Alabama-1940) was an African-American who became President of the National Baptist Convention. He was appointed Vice President to the World Baptist Alliance in 1928. He died in an aeroplane crash in 1940. In 191 ...

Before conducting the research, the commission felt that a strong emphasis should be placed on understanding the life of the Negro in Chicago, in particular the relations between the two races. The following six subcommittees were created: * Committee on Racial Clashes * Committee on Housing, Committee on Industry * Committee on Industry, * Committee on Crime * Committee on Racial Contracts * Committee on Public Opinion Chicago at this time experienced a substantial increase of Black migration from the South.

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

had brought industrial jobs to cities in the North but many of these jobs were subject to a

color bar Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crimes against hum ...

and only available to whites. The arrival of black people in northern cities led to an increase in rent in underdeveloped neighborhoods and

white flight White flight or white exodus is the sudden or gradual large-scale migration of white people from areas becoming more racially or ethnoculturally diverse. Starting in the 1950s and 1960s, the terms became popular in the United States. They refer ...

. Expansion of the

ghetto A ghetto, often called ''the'' ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished t ...

caused friction among white residents such that "bombs were thrown at black owned homes". The research was conducted by a series of "conferences or informal hearings, and through research and fieldwork carried on by staff or trained investigator". Chicago's neighborhoods were classified into four groups: (1) mixed, unadjusted neighborhoods; (2) mixed, adjusted neighborhoods; (3) contested areas; and (4) neighborhoods that are entirely white or negro. The study concluded that there were no immediate solutions to remedy the tensions between the racial groups and suggested that "through mutual understanding and sympathy between the races will be followed by harmony and co-operation".

Records

The records of the commission are stored in the Illinois State Archives.

References

Race in the United States {{Chicago-stub