The source of this uncorrected OCR text may be viewed in the DjVu format at: http://fax.libs.uga.edu/E185x5xA881p/aup09 or http://purl.galileo.usg.edu/ugafax/E185x5xA881p/aup09 The Atlanta University Publications, No. 9 NOTES,. ON - ' NEGRO CRIME PARTICULARLY IN GEORGIA A Social Study made under the direction of Atlanta University by the Ninth Atlanta Conference Priee, 25 Cents Th> Atlanta University press ' ATLANTA, QA. , 1904 SOME NOTES ON FOR thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and hum= ble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Isaiah Ivii, 15. NEGRO CRIME PARTICULARLY IN GEORGIA Report of a Social Study made under the direction of Atlanta University; together with the Pro= ceedings of the Ninth Conference for the Study of the Negro Problems, held at Atlanta University, May 24, 1904 EDITED BY W. E. BURQHARDT DU BOIS CORRESPONDING SECRETARY OF THE CONFERENCE The Atlanta University Press ATLANTA, OA. 1904 MODIFIED form of slavery survives where- ever prison labor is sold to private persons for their pecuniary profit. —WlNES. CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE ............. v BIBLIOGRAPHY ........... vii 1. The Problem of Crime (F. B. Sanboru) ..... 1 2. Crime and Slavery .......... 2 3. Crime and the Census ......... 9 4. Extent of Negro Crime ......... 13 5. Crime in Cities (by M. N. Work) ...... 18 6. Crime in Georgia. The Prison Commission ..... 32 7. Crime in Georgia. Special Reports ...... 35 8. Atlanta and Savannah (by H. H. Proctor and M. N. Work) . 49 9. Crime in Augusta (by A. G. Coombs and L. D. Davis) . . 52 10. What Negroes think of Crime ....... 54 11. Causes of Negro Crime ......... 55 12. Some Conclusions .......... 60 13. The Ninth Conference ......... 64 14. Resolutions ........... 65 Index ............. 67 H, we who are one body of one soul! Great soul of man- born into social form! Should we not suffer at dismemberment? A finger torn from brotherhood; an eye Having no cause to see when set alone. Our separation is the agony Of uses unfulfilled—of thwarted law. PERKINS-GILMAN. PREFACE A study of human life to-day involves a consideration of conditions of physical life, a study of various social organizations, beginning with the home, and investigations into occupations, education, relig ion and morality, crime and political activity. The Atlanta Cycle of studies into the Negro problem aims at exhaustive and periodic studies of all these subjects so far as they relate to the American Negro. Thus far, in nine years of the ten-year cycle, we have studied physical condi tions of life (Reports No. 1 and No. 2.) ; social organization (Reports No. Sand No. 3); economic activity (Reports No. 4 and No. 7.) ; ed ucation (Reports No. 5 and No. 6.) ; and religion (Report No. 8.) This year we touch upon some aspects of the important matter of Negro crime, confining our study for the most part to one state. The whole discussion of crime in the United States has usually been based on the census returns, and these are very inadequate. In this study the fol lowing sources of information were relied upon : Special studies of court returns and other data in Atlanta and Savannah. Reports from Mayors, Chiefs of Police and other officers in 87 counties of Georgia. Reports from colored and white citizens in 87 counties in Georgia. A study of arrests and commitments in 20 cities of the United States. Seven reports of the Georgia Prison Commission. Answers of 2,000 school children and students. These data are less complete than in the case of most of our previous studies and few conclusions can be drawn until further facts and fig ures are available. The forthcoming government report on crime will undoubtedly be of great aid in further study. In the preparation of this study, the editor is especially indebted to the county officials of Georgia and to a hundred or more private cor respondents. He is under particular obligations to Professor M. N. Work of the Georgia State College, the Rev. Mr. H. H.JProctorof Atlanta, and Frank Sanborn, Esq., of Concord, Mass. The proof reading was largely done by Mr. A. G. Dill, who also drew the diagrams and ar ranged the index. Atlanta University has been conducting studies similar to this for the past nine years. The results, distributed at a nominal sum, have been widely used. Notwithstanding this success, the further prosecu tion of these important studies is greatly hampered by the lack of funds. With meagre appropriations for expenses, lack of clerical vi NINTH ATLANTA CONFERENCE help and necessary apparatus, the Conference cannot cope properly with the vast field of work before it. Especially is it questionable at present as to how large and impor tant a work we shall be able to prosecute during the next ten-year cy cle. It may be necessary to reduce the number of conferences to one every other year. We trust this will not be necessary, and we earn estly appeal to those who think it worth while to study this, the great est group of social problems that has ever faced the nation, for substan tial aid and encouragement in the further prosecution of the work of the Atlanta Conference. A SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY OF NEGRO CRIME C. H. Alexander.—The Majesty of Law. University, Miss. 1900. Benjamin C. Bacon.—Statistics of the Colored People of Philadelphia. Philadelphia, 1856. Ibid. 2nd ed. with statistics of Crime. Philadelphia, 1859. J. O. Ballngh.—A History of Slavery In Virginia. 160 pp. Baltimore, 1902. J. S. Bassett.—History of Slavery In North Carolina. Johns Hopklns University Studies. Baltimore, 1899. Slavery and Servitude In the Colony of North Carolina. Baltimore. The Johns Hopklns Press. April and May, 1806. L. E. Bleckley.—Outrages of Negroes no Excuse for Lynching. Forum, 16:300. J. R. Bracket!.—Progress of the Colored People of Maryland. Johns Hopklns Uni versity Studies. Eighth Series. The Negro In Maryland. 270 pp. Baltimore. Status of the Slave, 177n-1789. Essay V. In Jameson's Essays In the Constitutional History of the United States, 1775-1780. Boston, 1889. L. Braiidt.—Negroes of St. Louis. Pub. American Statistical Society. Vol. VII., 1808. P. A. Bruce.—Plantation Negro as Freeman. New York, 1889. G. W. Cable.—Negro Freedman's Case In Equity. Century, 7:409. Rev. Dr. R. F. Campbell.—The Race Problem In the South, 1899. C. W. Chestiiutt.—Thomas on the American Negro. Book Buyer, 38:350. T. R. R. Cobb.—Inquiry Into the law of Negro Slavery In the U. S. A. Vol. 1. Phila delphia and Savannah, 1858. Law of Negro Slavery 111 the various States of the United States, 8vo. Philadel phia, [MR. W. H. Colllns.—The Domestic Slave Trade of tlie Southern States. 154 pp. New York, 11104. Colored Statistics.—Nation, 77:100-1. Nov. 10,1!KK. Condition of the Negro In various Cities. Bulletin United States Department of La bor, No. 10. NEGRO CRIME VII J. Cook.—Race Riots In the South. Our Day, 5:408. H. S. Cooley.—Slavery In New Jersey. Johns Hopklns University Studies. Balti more, 1897. J. E. Cutler.—Proposed Remedies for Lynching. Yale Review. August, 190J. F. Douglas.—Treatment of Negroes: the Color-Line. North American, 13:57. Lynching of Black People because they are Black. Our Day, 13:298. W. S. Drewry.—The Southampton Insurrection. Washington, 1900. W. E. B. DuBols.—Thomas on the American Negro. Dial, 30:282. Some Notes on Negroes In New York City. Atlanta University, 1908. The Black North.—The New York Times, 1901. Negro and Crime. Independent, May, 1896. Philadelphia Negro. 520 pp. Philadelphia, 1899. Souls of Black Folk, 264 pp. Chicago, 1903. Negroes of Farmville, Va. Bulletin United States Department of Labor, No. 14. The Negro In Black Belt. Bulletin United States Department of Labor, No. 22. Bryan Edwards.—History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies In the West Indies. London, 1807. R. P. Falkner.—Crime and the Census. Pub. American Academy Political and Social Sciences. No. 190. George Fltzhugh.—Cannibals all or Slaves without Masters. Richmond, 1857. B. O. Flower.—Burning of Negroes in the South. Arena, 7:639. Wm. O. Fowler.—Local Law In Massachusetts and Connecticut historically con sidered: and the Historical Status of the Negro In Connecticut. Albany, 1872 and New Haven, 1875. Wm. Goodell.—The American Slave Code In Theory and Practice. Judicial deci sions and Illustrative facts. New York, 1852. H. W. Grady.—Reply to Mr. Cable (Negro Freedman's Case In Equity). Century, 7:909. H. Gregolre.—Enquiry concerning the Intellectual and moral faculties, etc., of Ne groes. Brooklyn, 1810. F. J. Grimke.—The Lynching of Negroes In the South. 1899. W. Waller Henlng.—Statutes at large of Virginia. Richmond, 1812. F. L. Hoffman.—Race Traits and Tendencies of the Negro. American Economic Association. 11:1. Hull House Maps and Papers. New York, 1895. J. C. Hurd.—The law of freedom and bondage In the United States. Boston and New York, 1858,1862. Edward Ingle.—The Negro In the District of Columbia. Johns Hopklns University Studies. VoL XI. Baltimore, 1893. Southern Side-lights. Boston, 1896. E. A. Johnson.—Light Ahead for the Negro. 132 pp. New York, 1904. F. A. Kellor.—The Criminal Negro. Arena, 25:59-510; 86:30-821. Experimental Sociology. 316 pp. New York, 1901. Fanny Kemble.—A journal of a residence on a Georgia plantation. New York, 1883. J. Bradford Laws.—The Negroes of Cinclare Factory and Calumet Plantation, La. Bulletin United States Department of Labor, No. 38. George Llvermore.—An historical research respecting the opinions of the founders of the Republic on Negroes as slaves, as citizens and as soldiers. Boston, 1802. K. Miller.—Review of Hoffman's Race Traits and Tendencies of the Negro. Pub lications of the American Negro Academy, No. 1. Montgomery Conference on race problems. Proceedings, 1900. George H. Moore.—Notes on the history of slavery In Massachusetts. New York, 1800. I vni NINTH ATLANTA CONFERENCE Kdward Needles.—Ten Years' Progress, or a Comparison of the State and Condition of the Colored People in the City and Couu ty of Philadelphia from 1837-1847. Philadelphia, 1850. Negro Problems and the Negro Crime. Harper's Weekly, 47:1050-1. June 20,1903. Now Negro Crime. Harper's Weekly, 48:120-1. Jan. 23,1904. New Negro Crime considered: Southern View. Harper's Weekly, 47:1830. Nov. 14,1903. F. L. Olmstead.—The Cotton Kingdom. New Yoi-k, 1861. Journey in the Back Country. London, 1861. A journey in the sea-hoard slave states. New York, 1860. A journey through Texas. New York, 1857. T. N. Page.—The Negro: The Southerner's Problem. 810 pp. New York, 1901. Present state and condition of the free people of color of the city of Philadelphia and the adjoining districts. Philadelphia, 1838. Iteport of the Committee on the Comparative Health, Morality, Length of Sen tence, etc., of White and Colored Convicts. Philadelphia, 18-18. Win. Noel Sainsbury, editor. Calendar of state papers. Colonial series. America and the West Indies. 1574-1070. London, 1860-18(8. W. S. Scarborough.—Lawlessness vs. Lawlessness. Arena, 24:478. Servitude for Debt in Georgia.—Outlook, 74:480. June 27,1903. Bernard S. Steiner.—Slavery and Connecticut. Johns Hopkins University Studies. Baltimore, 1898. G. M. stroude.—A sketch of the laws relating to slavery in the several states of the United States of America. Philadelphia, 1827. A. Sledd.—Another View. Atlantic, 90:65-73. July, 1902. Social and Industrial Condition of Negroes in Massachusetts. 34th Annual Report Ma.ss. Bureau of Labor. 1904. A Statistical Inquiry into the Condition of the People of Color of the City and Dis tricts of Philadelphia. Philadelphia, 1849. E. Tayleur.—Social and Moral Decadence. Outlook, 76:260-71. Jan. SO, 1904. Walter T. Thorn. The Negroes of Lltwalton, Va. Bulletin United States Depart ment of Labor, No. 37. The Negro of Sandy Springs, Md. Bulletin United States Department of Labor, No. 32. Wm. H. Thomas—The American Negro. New York, 1901. United States Census, 1870. United States Census, 1XM). United States Census, 1890. B. T. Washington.—Future of American Negro. Boston, 1899. S. D. Weld.—American slavery as it is: testimony of thousands of witnesses. New York, 1889. I. B. Wells-Barnett.—A Red Record. 1890. W. F. Wlllcox.—Negro Criminality. American Journal Social Science, 37:78. Oeo. W. Williams.—History of the Negro Race in America from 1719-1880. New York, 1883. G. B. Winton.—Negro Criminal. Harper's Weekly, 47:1414. August 29,1903. M. N. Work.—Crime Among Negroes in Chicago. American Journal Sociology, 8:204. Can-oil D. Wright.—Slums of Great Cities. 7th Special Report of the U. S. Depart^ ment of Labor. Washington, 1894. Richard K. Wright, Jr.—The Negroes of Xenia, Ohio. Bulletin United States Depart ment of Labor, No. 48. NEGRO CRIME 1. The Problem* (by FRANK B. SANBORN). Crime is in general that portion of human depravity and passion which is regarded and punished by human laws. As distinguished from vice, it is more overt, more dreaded by the community, and held in greater abhorrence; while vice is more insidious, more general, and more ruinous to the individual, though often held in little reprehension by the community. For example, the vice of drunkenness was little censured among English-speaking persons a century ago and is still rather held in honor in some parts of the world; while the crime of parricide, though infinitely less pernicious (because it could never be come common) has ever been execrated by all. But since vice is de fined by conscience and opinion, and crime by law (which is the tardy result of conscience and opinion), nearly every vice comes, in some time or place, to be stigmatized as a crime, while crimes are often re manded to the catalogue of vices, and sometimes of virtues. For a two-fold reason, then, the moralist cannot regard crime precisely as it is esteemed in the popular judgment. It was once a crime where I stand to teach a slave to read, but not a crime to buy or sell that slave. We should call the first a virtue now; while the second might be held either a vice or a crime, or even a virtue, according to circumstances. Although there are many exceptions, the mass of what we term crime is the direct or indirect result of poverty and its attendant evils. Crime from other causes, however, is also painfully common. With vice the case is different. That also is fostered by poverty and misery, but it is no less stimulated by the ease and opportunity of affluence. Between vice and crime, the distance is usually short; but pauperism is not seldom an intermediate stage. From the class of comfortable and respectable persons, men are continually lapsing, through vice, into pauperism, either in themselves or their children, and from pauperism into crime. Even when this is not its genealogy, crime may ordinari ly be traced to one of the five general causes of pauperism, which in 1867 were thus assigned by me in a report to the Governor of Massa chusetts, of which state I was then an official, charged with the in vestigation of such subjects:— •Remarks to the Conference, Tuesday evening, May 24,1904. 2 NINTH ATLANTA CONFBEBNOB "The causes of pauperism are (1) Physical inferiority and degrada tion; (2) Moral perversity; (3) Mental incapacity; (4) Accidents and infirmities; (5) (and often the most powerful of all), Unjust and un wise laws and the customs of society. Such are the general causes, but under the five heads come innumerable minor and proximate cau ses,—intemperance, profligacy, insanity, indolence, false education, ig norance, superstition, monopolies, privilege, indeed, all the enemies of human advancement. For pauperism is one of the sloughs in which the progress of mankind is arrested." From this unhappy slough, most of the crime of the community emerges, and among the emissaries of crime are the tramps that patrol the land, especially in wealthy manufacturing communities like New England. They find in great cities the haunts of vice, and keep up a sort of circulation, like the veins and arteries of the human body, from one part of the land to another. A stationary class of vicious and crimi nal persons in the cities are the confederates and refuge of these wan dering criminals, and vice versa,—a city criminal taking refuge in the moving army of tramps, and thus oftentimes escaping arrest. It will readily'be seen that Negro slavery, while preserving the com munity from an excess of technical pauperism, naturally furnished the same atmosphere of vice and crime, when the strong- hand of slave law was removed by general emancipation. A similar result followed the emancipation of the serfs in the Middle Ages, and explains the out breaks of crime and disease which marked the 14th and 15th centuries in Europe. 2. Crime and Slavery.* Mr.Winos, the American criminologist, has said: "A modified form of slavery survives wherever prison labor is sold to private persons for their pecuniary profit." The history of crime in the Southern states of America illustrates this. Two systems of controlling human labor which still flourish in the South are the di rect children of slavery. These are the crop-lieu system and the con vict-lease system. The crop-lien system is an arrangement of chattel mortgages, so fixed that the housing, lahor, kind of agriculture and, to some extent, the personal liberty of the free black laborer is put into the hands of the landowner and merchant. It is absentee landlordism and the " company-store " systems united. The convict-lease system is the slavery in private hands of persons convicted of crimes and mis demeanors in the courts. The object of this section is to sketch the rise and development of the convict-lease system, and the efforts to modify and abolish it. Before the Civil War the system of punishment for criminals in the South was practically the same as in the North. Except in a few cities, however, crime was less prevalent than in the North, and the system of slavery naturally modifted the situation. The slaves could become criminals in the eyes of the law only in exceptional •First printed in slightly altered form in the Missionary Review of (lie World, Oct., 1801. NEGBO CEIMB 3 cases. The punishment and trial of nearly all ordinary misdemeanors and crimes lay in the hands of the masters. Consequently, so far as the state was concerned, there was no crime of any consequence among Negroes. The system of criminal jurisprudence had to do, therefore, with whites almost exclusively, and as is usual in a land of scattered population and aristocratic tendencies, the law was lenient in theory and lax in execution. On the other hand, the private well-ordering and control of slaves called for careful co-operation among masters. The fear of insurrection was ever before the South, and the ominous uprisings of Cato, Gabriel, Vesey, Turner, and Toussaint made this fear an ever-present night mare. The result was a system of rural police, mounted and on duty chiefly at night, whose work it was to stop the nocturnal wandering and meeting of slaves. It was usually an effective organization, which terrorized the slaves, and to which all white men belonged, and were liahle to active detailed duty at regular intervals. Upon this system war and emancipation struck like a thunderbolt. Law and order among the whites, already loosely enforced, became still weaker through the inevitable influence of conflict and social revolution. The freedman was especially in an anomalous situation. The power of the slave police supplemented and depended upon that of the private masters. When the masters' power was broken the patrol was easily transmuted into a lawless and illegal mob known to history as the Ku Klux Klan. Then came the first, and probably the most disastrous, of that succession of political expedients by which the South sought to deal with the consequences of emancipation. It will always be a nice question of ethics as to how far a conquered peo ple can be expected to submit to the dictates of a victorious foe. Cer tainly the world must to a degree sympathize with resistance under such circumstances. The mistake of the South, however, was to adopt a kind of resistance which in the long run weakened her moral fiber, destroyed respect for law and order, and enabled gradually her worst elements to secure an unfortunate ascendency. The South helieved in slave labor, and was thoroughly convinced that free Negroes would not work steadily or effectively. Elaborate and ingenious apprentice and vagrancy laws were therefore passed, designed to make the freed- men and their children work for their former masters at practically no wages. Justification for these laws was found in the inevitable ten dency of many of the ex-slaves to loaf when the fear of the lash was taken away. The new laws, however, went far beyond such jnstiflca- ion, totally ignoring that large class of freedmen eager to work and earn property of their own, stopping all competition between employers, and confiscating the labor and liberty of children. In fact, the new laws of this period recognized the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment simply as abolishing the slave-trade. The interference of Congress in the plans for reconstruction stopped the full carrying out of these schemes, and the Freedmen's Bureau consolidated and sought to develop the various plans for employing 4 NINTH ATLANTA CONFERENCE and guiding the freedmen already adopted in different places under the protection of the Union Army. This government guardianship established a free wage system of labor by the help of the army, the striving of the best of the blacks, and the co-operation of some of the whites. In the matter of adjusting legal relationships, how ever, the Bureau failed. It had, to be sure, Bureau courts, with one representative of the ex-master, one of the freedmen, and one of the Bureau itself, but they never gained the confidence of the com munity. As the regular state courts gradually regained power, it was necessary for them to fix by their decisions the new status of the freedmen. It was perhaps as natural as it was unfortunate that amid this chaos the courts sought to do by judicial decisions what the legislatures had formerly sought to do by specific law —namely, reduce the freedmen to serfdom. As a result, the small peccadilloes of a careless, untrained class were made the excuse for severe sen tences. The courts and jails became filled with the careless and ig norant, with those who sought to emphasize their new found free dom, and too often with innocent victims of oppression. The testi mony of a Negro counted for little or nothing in court, while the accusation of white witnesses was usually decisive. The result of this was a sudden large increase in the apparent criminal popula tion of the Southern states—an increase so large that there was no way for the state to house it or watch it even had the state wished to. And the state did not wish to. Throughout the South laws were immediately passed authorizing public officials to lease the labor of convicts to the highest bidder. The lessee then took charge of the convicts—worked them as he wished under the nominal control of the state. Thus a new slavery and slave-trade was established. The abuses of this system have often been dwelt upon. It had the worst aspects of slavery without any of its redeeming features. The innocent, the guilty, and the depraved were herded together, chil dren and adults, men and women, given into complete control of practically irresponsible men, whose sole object was to make the most money possible. The innocent were made bad, the bad worse; wom en were outraged and children tainted; whipping and torture were in vogue, and the death-rate from cruelty, exposure, and overwork rose to large percentages. The actual bosses over such leased pris oners were usually selected from the lowest classes of whites, and the camps were often far from settlements or public roads. The prisoners often had scarcely any clothing, they were fed on a scan ty diet of corn bread and fat meat, and worked twelve or more hours a day. After work each must do his own cooking. There was insufficient shelter; in one Georgia camp, as late as 1895, sixty-one men slept in one room, seventeen by nineteen feet, and seven feet high. Sanitary conditions were wretched, there was little or no medical attendance, and almost no care of the sick. Women were mingled indiscriminately with the men, both in working and in sleeping, and dressed often in men's clothes. A young girl at camp NEGRO CRIME Hardmont, Georgia, in 1895, was repeatedly outraged by several of her guards, and finally died in childbirth while in camp. Such facts illustrate the system at its worst—as it used to exist in nearly every Southern state, and as it still exists in parts of Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, and other states. It is difficult to say whether the effect of such a system is worse on the whites or on the Negroes. So far as the whites are concerned, the convict-lease system lowered the respect for courts, increased lawlessness, and put the states into the clutches of penitentiary "rings." The courts were brought into politics, judgeships became elective for shorter and shorter terms, and there grew up a public sentiment which would not consent to consider ing the desert of a criminal apart from his color. If the criminal were white, public opinion refused to permit him to enter the chaingang save in the most extreme cases. The result is that even to-day it is difficult to enforce the criminal laws in the South against whites. On the other hand, so customary had it become to convict any Negro upon a mere accusation, that public opinion was loathe to allow a fair trial to black suspects, and was too often tempted to take the law into its own hands. Finally the state became a dealer in crime, profited by it eo as to derive a net annual income from her prisoners. The lessees of the convicts made large profits also. Under such circumstances, it was almost impossible to remove the clutches of this vicious system from the state. Even as late as 1890, the Southern states were the only sec tion of the Union where the income from prisons and reformatories ex ceeded the expense.* Moreover, these figures do not include the coun ty gangs where the lease system is to-day most prevalent and the net income laigest. INCOME AND EXPENSE OF STATE PRISONS AND REFORMATORIES, 181)0. Earnings. 71,252 Expense. l,HSO,d5-2 WI0.4S2 l.Wl.TWJ Front. $47,974 The effect of the convict-lease system on the Negroes was deplorable. First, it linked crime and slavery indissolubjy in their minds as simply forms of the white man's oppression. Punishment, consequently, lost the most effective of its deterrent effects, and the criminal gained pity instead of disdain. The Negroes lost faith in the integrity of courts and the fairness of juries. Worse than all, the chaingangs became schools of crime which hastened the appearance of the confirmed Negro crimi nal upon the scene. That some crime and vagrancy should follow emancipation was inevitable. A nation cannot systematically degrade labor without in some degree debauching the laborer. But there can 'Bulletin No. 8, Library of State of New York. All figures in this section are from this source. -(-South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, aud Arkansas. 6 NINTH ATLANTA CONFERENCE be no doubt but that the indiscriminate method by which Southern courts dealt with the freedmen after the war increased crime and vaga bondage to an enormous extent. There are no reliable statistics to which one can safely appeal to measure exactly the growth of crime among the emancipated slaves. About seventy per cent, of all pris oners in the South are black; this, however, is in part explained by the fact that accused Negroes are still easily convicted and get long sen tences, while whites still continue to escape the penalty of many crimes even among themselves. And yet, allowing for all this, there can be no reasonable doubt but that there has arisen in the South since the war -a class of black criminals, loafers and ne'er-do-wells who are a menace, to their fellows, both black and white. The appearance of the real Negro criminal stirred the South deeply. The whites, despite their long use of the criminal court for putting- Negroes to work, were used to little more than petty thieving and loaf ing on their part, and not to crimes of boldness, violence, or cunning. When, after periods of stress or financial depression, as in 1892, such crimes increased in frequency, the wrath of a people unschooled in the modern methods of dealing with crime broke all bounds and reached strange depths of barbaric vengeance and torture. Such acts, instead of drawing the best opinion of these states and of the nation toward a consideration of Negro crime and criminals, discouraged and alienated the best classes of Negroes, horrified the civilized world, and made the best white Southerners ashamed. Nevertheless, in the midst of all this, a leaven of better things had been working, and the bad effects of the epidemic of lynching quick ened it. The great difficulty to be overcome in the South was the false theory of work and of punishment of wrong-doers inherited from slavery. The inevitable result of a slave system is for a master class to consider that the slave exists for his benefit alone—that the slave has no rights which the master is bound to respect. Inevitably this idea persisted after emancipation. The black workman existed for the comfort and profit of white people, and the interests of white people were the only ones to be seriously considered. Consequently, for a lessee to work convicts for his profit was a most natural thing. Then, too, these convicts were to be punished, and the slave theory of pun ishment was pain and intimidation. Given these ideas, and the convict- lease system was inevitable. But other ideas were also prevalent in the South; there were in slave times plantations where the well-being of the slaves was considered, and where punishment meant the correc tion of the fault rather than brute discomfort. After the chaos of war and reconstruction passed, there came from the better conscience of the South a growing demand for reform ill the treatment of crime. The worst horrors of the convict-lease system were attacked persist ently in nearly every Southern state. Back in the eighties, George W. Cable, a Southern man, published a strong attack on the system. The following decade Governor Atkinson, of Georgia, instituted a search ing investigation, which startled the state by its revelation of existing NEGRO CHIME 7 conditions. Still more recently Florida, Arkansas and other states have had reports and agitation for reform. The result has been marked improvement in conditions during the last decade. This is shown in part by the statistics of 1895; in that year the prisons and re formatories of the far South cost the states $204,483 more than they earned, while before this they had nearly always yielded an income. This is still the smallest expenditure of any section, and looks strange ly small beside New England's $1,190,564. At the same time, a move ment in the right direction is clear. The laws are being framed more and more so as to prevent the placing of convicts altogether in private control. They are not, to be sure, always enforced, Georgia having still several hundreds of convicts so controlled. In nearly all the Gulf states the convict-lease system still has a strong hold, still debauches public sentiment and breeds criminals. The next step after the lease system was to put the prisoners under regular state inspection, but to lease their labor to contractors, or to employ it in some remunerative labor for the state. It is this stage that the South is slowly reaching to-day, so far as the criminals are concerned who are dealt with directly by the states. Those whom the state still unfortunately leaves in the hands of county officials are us ually leased to irresponsible parties. Without doubt, work, and work worth the doing—i. e., profitable work—is best for the prisoners. Yet there lurks in this system a dangerous temptation. The correct theory is that the work is for the benefit of the criminal—for his correction, if possible. At the same time, his work should not be allowed to come into unfair competition with that of honest laborers, and it should never be an object of traffic for pure financial gain. Whenever the profit derived from the work becomes the object of employing prison ers, then evil must result. In the South to-day it is natural that in the slow turning from the totally indefensible private lease system, some of its wrong ideas should persist. Prominent among these per sisting ideas is this: that the most successful dealing with criminals is that which costs the state least in actual outlay. This idea still dominates most of the Southern states. Georgia spent $2.38 per capita on her 2,938 prisoners in 1890, while Massachusetts spent $62.96 per cap ita on her 5,227 prisoners. Moreover, by selling the labor of her pris oners to the highest bidders, Georgia not only got all her money back, but made a total clear profit of $6.12 on each prisoner. Massachusetts spent about $100,000 more than was returned to her by prisoners' labor. Now it is extremely difficult, under such circumstances, to prove to a state that Georgia is making a worse business investment than Massa chusetts. It will take another generation to prove to the South that an apparently profitable traffic in crime is very dangerous business for a state; that prevention of crime and the reformation of criminals is the one legitimate object of all dealing with depraved natures, and that apparent profit arising from other methods is in the end worse than dead loss. Bad public schools and profit from crime explain much of the Southern social problem. 8 NINTH ATLANTA CONFERENCE Moreover, in the desire to make the labor of criminals pay, little heed is taken of the competition of convict and free laborers, unless the free laborers are white and have a vote. Black laborers are con tinually displaced in such industries as brick-making, mining, road- building, grading, quarrying, and the like, by convicts hired at $3, or thereabouts, a month. The second mischievous idea that survives from slavery and the convict-lease system is the lack of all intelligent discrimination in dealing with prisoners. The most conspicuous and fatal example of this is the indiscriminate herding of juvenile and adult criminals. Ct need hardly be said that such methods manufacture criminals more quickly than all other methods can reform them. In 1890, of all the Southern states, only Texas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Maryland, and West Virginia made any state appropriations for juvenile reforma tories. In 1895 Delaware was added to these, but Kentucky was missing. We have, therefore, expended for juvenile reformatories: 1890. 1895. New England............ .................$10 And this in face of the fact that the South had in 1890 over four thousand prisoners under twenty years of age. In some of the Southern states—notably, Virginia—there are private associations for juvenile reform, acting in co-operation with the state. These have, in some cases, recently received state aid. In other states, like Georgia, there is permissive legislation for the establishment of local reformatories. Tattle has resulted as yet from this legislation, but it is promising. This section has sought to trace roughly the attitude of the South toward crime. There is in that attitude much to condemn, but also something to praise. The tendencies are to-day certainly in the right direction, but there is a long battle to be fought with prejudice and inertia before the South will realize that a black criminal is a human being, to be punished firmly but humanely, with the sole object of making him a safe member of society, and that a white criminal at large is a menace and a danger. The greatest difficulty to-day in the way of reform is this race question. The movement for juvenile re formatories in Georgia would have succeeded some years ago, in all probability, had not the argument been used: it is chiefly for the bene fit of Negroes. Until the public opinion of the ruling masses of the South can see that the prevention of crime among Negroes is just as necessary, just as profitable, for the whites themselves, as prevention among whites, all true betterment in courts and prisons will be hinder ed. Above all, \ve must remember that crime is not normal; that the appearance of crime among Southern Negroes is a symptom of wrong social conditions—of a stress of life greater than a large part of the community can bear. The Negro is not naturally criminal; he is usually patient and law-abiding. If slavery, the convict-lease system, the traffic in criminal labor, the lack of juvenile reformatories, to- NEGRO CRIME 9 gether with the unfortunate discrimination and prejudice in other walks of life, have led to that sort of social protest and revolt which we call crime, then we must look for remedy in the sane reform of these wrong social conditions, and not in intimidation, savagery, or the legalized slavery of men. 3. Crime and the Census. Before a remedy of any kind can be applied to crime, we must know something of the extent of the evil. How far is crime prevalent among Negroes, aud what sorts of crime are most common? The extreme Southern view of the situation is illustrated by the statement of Governor James K. Vardaman of Mississippi :* 1. The Negro element is the most criminal in our population. 2. The Negro is much more criminal as a free man than he wae as a slave. 3. The Negro is increasing in criminality with fearful rapidity, being one third more criminal in 1890 than 1880. 4. The Negroes who can read and write are more criminal than the illiterate, which is true of no other element of our population. 5. The Negro is nearly three times as criminal in the Northeast, where he has not been a slave for a hundred years, and three and a half times as criminal in the Northwest, where he has never been a slave, as in the South, where he was a slave until 1865. 6. The Negro is three times as criminal as a native white, and once and a half as criminal as the foreign white, consisting in many cases of the scum of Europe. 7. More than seven-tenths of the Negro criminals are under thirty years of age. The conservative Northern view may be represented by the words of Professor Walter F. Willcox in answer to the above assertions :t "1. The Negro element is the most criminal in mir population." The main evidence, almost the only evidence, regarding the criminality of different classes is derived from census statistics. The most recent figures on the subject are those of 1890, an inquiry into the subject by the Census Office for the year 1904 being now in progress. The following figures show the number of prisoners in the United States in 1890 of the specified race to each 10,000 total population of that race: Race White........................................... 10 Negro ........................................... 83 Mongolian .... ................................ 88 Indian .................. ....................... 55 The preceding figures indicate that the criminality of the Negro race is much higher than that of the whites, but lower than that of the Indians and Mongoli ans. The Chinese and Japanese in the United States are nearly all men, from which class prisoners mainly come. For this reason such a comparison between Negroes and Mongolians is misleading, and probably more accurate comparisons would show the criminality of the Negroes to be higher than that of the Mongo lians. But I see no reason for doubting the obvious inference from the figures that it is lower than that of the Indians, and therefore I do not believe the first conclusion. "2. The Negro is much more criminal as a free man than lie was as a slave." Crimes committed by the Negro under the slavery system were usually punished •Leslie 'i Weekly, Feb. 4,1804. -j-IMd, Feb. 11,1004. 10 NINTH ATLANTA CONFERENCE by the master without recourse to the courts. Now there is no master, and the courts must punish the Negro criminal, if he is not in most, cases to go free. Court records, if tabulated in statistical form, as they are not, would doubtless show a greater amount of recorded crime. But I do not think such statistics would prove the conclusion that be is by nature or by habit more criminal than as a slave, nor do I see how it can be established by other evidence than that de rived from personal opinion. My experience does not warrant me in drawing any conclusion on this point. "3. The Negro is increasing in criminality with fearful rapidity, being one-third more criminal in 1890 than in 1880." The evidence on this point also comes from the census. In 1880 there were twenty-five Negro, Indian and Mongolian prison ers to every 10,000 persons of those races. In 1890 there were thirty-three. The Negroes are many times as numerous as the other races combined, and therefore the foregoing figures are substantially true for the Negroes alone. How far this increase is due to a change in the characteristics of the race, and how far to an increase in the number of crimes punished by the law, or to the efficacy of the ju dicial system in ferreting out and punishing crime, it seems impossible to say. I believe there has been an increase in Negro criminality, but that the foregoing figures do not afford an accurate measure of its amount. "4. The Negroes who can read And write are more criminal than the illiterate, which is true of no other element of our population." In 1890, among every 10,000 Negroes at least ten years of age who could read and write, there were forty-one prisoners, while among every 10,000 illiterate Negroes of the same ages there were forty-nine prisoners. The conclusion is thus shown to be incorrect. For reasons which I have not space here to state, I believe that the true difference in favor of the educated Negroes is greater than the foregoing figures indicate. "5. The Negro is nearly three times as criminal in the Northeast, where he has not been a slave for a hundred years, and three and a half times as criminal in the North west, where he has never been a slave, as in the South, where he was a slave until 1865.'' The evidence for this statement, is also derived from the census. In the Southern States in 1890 there were twenty-nine Negro prisoners to every 10,000 Negroes, in (he Northeast there were seventy-five, and in the far Western States ninety-five. Governor Vardaman explains this difference as a lingering effect of slavery. It certainly wTas not due to that. The proof is found in the fact that, similar differ ences exist among whites. In his State of Mississippi, for example, there were fourteen Negro prisoners to 10,000 Negroes, and in my State of New York there were 100, but in Mississippi there were two white prisoners to every 10,000 whites, and in New York tlicre were eighteen. Are we to explain the low percentage of criminals among Southern whites as also a lingering effect of Negro slavery? No; the fact is that crime and criminals are more prevalent in closely settled communities, where any sort of disorder is more likely to lead directly to the pris on. Negro criminals are more numerous at, the North and the West, partly be cause there are fewer Negro children and more adult, men in those sections, but mainly because Negroes at the North live especially in the cities, while at the South they live mainly in the country. "6. Tlie Negro is three times as criminal as a native white, and o-nce and a half as criminal as the foreign wJnte, consisting in many cases of the scum of Europe." Negro criminality is undoubtedly far greater than white, and I have little doubt that the foregoing statement is substantially, though not numerically, correct. Per haps a fairer comparison than that between all Negroes and all foreign-born whites would be between the Negroes and the foreign-born living in the North. In the North Atlantic division, wliere recent immigrants are most numerous, the Negro prisoners relative to population are three times as numerous as foreign-born NEGRO CRIME 11 white prisoners, and in the North Central division they are more than six times as numerous. "7. More than seven-tenths of the Negro criminals are under thirty years of age." This statement is substantially correct. But it should be noticed that more than half of the white prisoners are also under thirty years of age, and that the average length of life of the Negroes is several years less than that of the whites, and therefore the proportion of them in the higher ages is small. The figures, howev er, do indicate a disproportionate and probably an increasing amount of juvenile crime among the Negroes. The evidence relied upon in judging crime among1 Negroes is chiefly the United States Census Reports of 1870, 1880 and 1890. These reports are briefly summarized in the following pages: White Ratio per million....................... .„ ..„_ _,- 1S70 24,845 740 JSSO 41,861 SM4 1890 57,;;io Colored (Negro, Indian, etc.) ( Negroes . . ........ ( Indian.. .... ...... 8,o;y> 1,<81 1«,74« 2,480 25,019 3,275 ;;,250 3f!3o 5,470 How shall these figures be interpreted ? First, it is certain that they cannot be given their full value because of the method of collection. The census of 1890 says: * The increase in the number of prisoners during the last 40 years has been more apparent than real, owing to the very imperfect enumeration of the prison popu lation prior to 1880. Whatever it has been, it is not what, it might he supposed to be, if we had no other means of judging of it than by the figures contained in the census volumes. The census method of measuring crime by counting the prison pop ulation on a certain day every ten years has been shown by Dr. Roland P. Falkner to lead to unwarranted conclusions. He says: t If the amount of crime means the ratio between the offenses committed in a given year and the population at that time, the census volume fails to give us a correct idea of crime in the United States: 1. Because it furnishes no basis for a calculation of the increase of crime. 2. Because in depicting the geographical distribution of crime, it, favors one locality at the expense of another. 3. Because it exaggerates the number of the male sex in the aggregate of crime. 4. Because it assigns to the Negroes a larger, and to the foreign-born white a smaller, share in the total of crime than belongs to each. 5. Because it distorts the picture of the relative frequency of different classes of crimes. Mr. Falkner says further: t *llth Census, Crime, etc., Pt. I, p. 120. fCrime and the Ceiifciis, p. C6. tlhid, p. (2. 12 NINTH ATLANTA CONFERENCE The census can here do justice to the different elements only on the supposi tion of a uniform distribution of sentences. If one class receive longer sentences than another, or commit classes of crimes for which longer sentences are given, it will appear unduly magnified in the census report. The following table summarizes the facts of the census report, regarding sentences where a definite term has been imposed by the courts: Sentences of the Prison Population in 1890. by Elements of the Population GROUPS Total ........................... Negroes ........ .. ............ Average sentence, years 3.88 8.07 2. «7 4.84 Prisoners with Aef. sentences 65.IR! «>9 |V7ft 12,434 18,322 Sentences of under one year 18,588 <),141 . 6,425 8,737 Per cent of sentences under I year S9.13 82.74 43.6=1 20.3!) The variation in average sentences is quite considerable. The sliort term of fenders really constitute the bulk of the total commitments of a year, but as we have seen do not exercise the greatest influence upon the census totals. If the short term sentences fall below the average, as in the case of the Negroes, that el ement receives undue prominence in the census. If they rise above the average, as in the case of the foreign-born, that element has not its appropriate quota in the census figures. From the sentences and prisoners as reported in the census of 1890, Mr. Palkner then proceeds to calculate the probable number of com mitments and makes the following table: * Prison Population in 1890 and Estimate of Commitments, by Elements of the Population GROUPS SENTENCED Foreign-born white . . Negroes .... .......... COMMITTED Foreign-born white . . Negroes ................ Prisoners Sentenced or Com mitted. 1 year and over 22,»i5 7,000 i4,r*B B,gSi 2,«>0 5,445 Under 1 year 9,141 5,J25 3,737 »fi,470 511,374 85,fti(> Total 32,076 12,434 18,322 105,7!%) (12,2(54 40,481 Percentages I year and over 50.84 15.51 32.55 52.32 16.2!) 80.6!) Under 1 your 49.81 ill. 2(i 20. 1C 4!).7(> 80. «1 18.00 Total 50.41 19. 5S 28.78 4!).8« 29.42 1!).12 If we compare the percentages for the prison population, we see that the long sentences have the greatest weight in determining the average for all. In the probable commitments the contrary is the case. Our calculations do not affect the proportion of native white, but they reverse the positions of the Negro and the foreign-born white. Thus this estimate reduces the responsibility of the Negro for crime in this land from 30% to 19%. •Crime and the Census, p. f>8. NEGRO CRIME 13 4. Extent of Negro Crime. It seems fair to conclude that the Ne groes of the United States, forming about one-eighth of the population, were responsible in 1890 for nearly one-fifth of the crime. Detailed figures from the censuses are as follows: Colored* Prisoners, 1870 United States......... ..................8,056 North Atlantic States............ ... .I,IfiO South " " .................3,3B1 North Central............................888 South " ..........................2,2 117 1,072 !),510 2 315 !,(>!() Colored, male 16,381 116 «,(•>!)! 8,027 258 1,470 Colored, feinaie 2<>3 227 483 '}(> 140 Prisoners by Sex and Geographical Divisions 1800 Western ......... ..... Males 22,305 1,703 K IV-i 246 females 1,(I72 244 12 Total 21,277 10,381 268 By Prisons Prisons In state prisons and penitentiaries ...... Totai .......................... .......... •Includes Indians and Chinese. Number 14,2C,7 S..ID7 1,0(18 1,327 77 24,277 Percrntaqes 58.77 5. -IB 8.22 0.32 IHO.OO % 14 NINTH ATLANTA CONFERENCE Ratios of Prisoners to 1,000,000 of Negro Population No. Atlantic Div...................... 7,547 So. " " .......................2,716 No. Central " ....................... 6,851 So. ' " " .......................2,984 Western " ....................... 0,527 United States. Out of every 10,000 Negro prisoners: 5 1,822 5,078 1,875 741 :)_'7 117 28 5 2 nnder 10-10 20-29 30-89 40-40 50-59 60-00 70-79 80-89 10 years of age Out of every 10,000 Negroes: 15-19 ye 20-24 25-20 80-84 85-44 45-54 55-64 65 and over ' ars of age. . it (« ...44ar ...88 " ...88 " ...C8 " ...41 " ...25 " ...17 " ... 8 " 44 are prisoners, and 11 in reformatories The average age of Negro prisoners is: Male ..................27.73 years Female ...............26.08 " Total..................27.00 " Negroes were incarcerated for the following offenses: Kind of Offenses 1. 2. 3. 5. Against society, (I. e., perjury, adultery, gam bling, drunkenness, disorder, concealed weap- Against the person, (murder, rape, assaults, etc.) . Miscellaneous, (double crimes, infractions of municipal ordinances, witnesses, unknownl .... Both sexes 100.00 % 0.70 % 16.51 % 25.95 % 46.65 % 10.16 % Males 100 00 % 0.77 % 14.13 % 26.72 % 48.28 % 10.10 % Females 100.00 % 0.08 % 40.64 % 18.22 % 30.83 % 10.73 % NEGEO CRIME The actual number of offenses for whites and Negroes is: 15 OFFENSES Incest ..................... ........................ Gambling .......................................... Carrying concealed weapons. ................... Whites 9flO 70H « *ut) 3,210 4,88(i 14,810 1,152 »(>,520 5(1,273 2,879 43,273 179,148 77 k>l fc) 45!,858 y | T 0717 70,407 Negroes 1,5(55 4,4(V7 B.5M1 10,545 10,353 14,2!« 14,717 277,029 1I4.S07 Itidians 40,373 278,503 0,317 0,317 8,105 52,795 0,317 15,528 285,714 273,292 214,288 Average Aees of Prisoners by Groups of Crimes Offenses against government. OfTenses against property. ..... Offenses 011 high seas ........... Miscellaneous. .................. Aggregate number 80.65 31.44 00 OPT 32.88 28.85 S8.00 30.02 Negroes 27.60 30.78 29.01 2«.60 7.84 Crime and Illiteracy NEGROES Illiterate*. ................................ Neither read nor write .................. Percentage of total population Total 42.01 57.09 ci.81 50.28 Males 45.63 51.37 0.73 47. 04 Females 40.23 59.77 6.87 52.90 Percentage of prison population. Total 88.88 61.12 6.90 54.13 Males 89.11 60. HO 6.58 54.31 Females 80.26 03.74 11.71 62.08 From the figures of 1890 it seems fair to conclude: 1. That eight-tenths of the Negro prisoners are in the South where nine-tenths of the Negroes dwell. This is further emphasized by the fact that Negroes in the North furnish 60 to 75 prisoners for every 10,000 of population, while those in the South furnish about 30. This discrep ancy is largely explained by the difference in urban and rural popula tions, and the migration northward. * According to the usage of the census of 1890 the term " Illiterate " includes both those who can read and not write and those who neither read nor write. Of. 16 NINTH ATLANTA CONFERENCE 2. While 60% of the prisoners are in State Prisons and Penitentia ries, this excess of dangerous criminals is apparent and not real and is duo to the census method of computing crime. 3. Half of the Negro prisoners are between the ages of 20 and 30 years, a fifth, 10-19 years, and another fifth, 30 40 years. This shows a lower criminal age than among whites. 4. Nearly half of the Negro prisoners are confined for crimes against property. If commitments were tabulated, undoubtedly pilfering would be found to be pre-eminently the Negro crime. This is due to imperfect ideas of property ownership inseparable from a system of slavery. 6. One-fourth of the Negro prisoners are confined for crimes against the person. This consists of fighting and quarreling, ending at times in homicide, and also the crime of rape. Fighting is to be expected of ignorant people and people living under unsettled conditions. Of 1,392 persons confined for rape in 1890, 578 were Negroes. These figures exaggerate the apparent guilt of Negroes because the Negroes received an average sentence of 14.04 years for rape while whites received an average sentence of 12.72 years, and probably a still larger dispropor tion in life sentences existed. Negroes too are more easily convicted of this crime to-day, because of public opinion. Notwithstanding all these considerations there is no doubt of a large prevalence of sexual crime among Negroes. This is due to the sexual immorality of slavery, the present defenselessness of a proscribed caste, and the excesses of the undeveloped classes among Negroes. 6. One-sixth of the criminals in jail were charged with crimes against society—gambling, drunkenness, adultery, etc. 7. The age statistics show that among both whites and blacks the younger criminals steal; among Negroes, crimes against society and the person claim the next older set, while crimes against the govern ment and the person come next among whites. 8. The illiterate Negroes furnish more of the criminals than those who read and write. The difference in education between the great number who can just barely read and write and the wholly illiterate is not great, so that this does not really illustrate the full degree in which ignorance causes Negro crime. There has been so much dispute and misapprehension on this point that additional testimony is valuable. Mr. Clarence Poe says: * Bat do the general, nation-wide results indicate that education is helpful ? It has often been claimed that they do not. And in proof we have the oft repeated charge that the percentage of literacy among Negro criminals in 1890 was higher than that for the total Negro population—in other words, that the literate Negroes furnish a larger proportion of prisoners than the illiterate. This statement was made in an address before the National Prison Association in 1897. It was print ed in one of our foremost magazines, the North American Review, in June, 1900. It was repeated by a governor of Georgia in a public message. A Mississippi ""Clarence H. Poe, a Southern white man, editorof the Raleigh Progressive J^armer, In the Atlantic Monthly, February, 1904, p. 1(52. NEGRO CRTMB 17 preacher has sent it broadcast over the South, and it was doubtless used in the recent campaign in that state. Scores of papers have copied it. Even now a Southern daily which I have just received has a two-column argument against Negro education, based on the alleged census figures. "To school the Negro," says the writer, "is to increase his criminality. Official statistics do not lie, and they tell us that the Negroes who can read and write are more criminal than the illiterate. In New England, where they are best educated, they are four and a half times as criminal as in the Black Belt, where they are most ignorant. The more money for Negro education, the more Negro crime. This is the unmistakable showing of the United States Census." That such statements as these have thus far pone unchallenged should indeed excite our special wonder. It was only the desire to get the exact figures that led me to discover their falsity. The truth is, that of the Negro prisoners in 1890 only 38.88 per cent, were able to read and write, while of the total Negro population 42.90 per cent, were able to read and write. And in every division of tlie country save one (and that with only a handful of Negro criminals) the prisons testified that the literate Negroes were less lawless than the illiterate. To make the matter plain, the following figures have been prepared by the United States Bureau of Education. They show the number of criminals furnished by each 100.000 colored literates, and the number furnished by each 100,000 colored illiterates, according to the Census of 1890: Criminals In each 100,000 Negroes flection Literates North At Inn tic Division ............. .H28. ...... South Atlantic 1)1 vision .......... South Central 1)1 vision. .......... . . North Central Division. Western 1 )1 vision. . . .. . .'.an. ... . -HIT. ... -. ... .S(>7. ... . .6JS. ... fllitrratcs ....1171 .....12(1 ......4UH .....820 .....S18 When we consider that there were only 258 Negro prisoners in all the Western division (out of 24,277 in the Union), the mere accident that, of these few, seven more than the exact proportion came from the literate element loses all signifi cance; the test is on a scale too small for general conclusions. Summing up, it appears that of our total colored population in 1890 each 100,000 illiterates fur nished 489 criminals, and each 100,000 literates only 413 criminals. Even more striking testimony comes from the North Carolina State's Prison situated in the writer's own city. In the two years during which it has kept a record, the pro portion of Negro criminals from the illiterate class has been 40 per cent, larger than from the class which has had school training. Later the same writer adds to this the following data.* Prom Governor Vardaman's own State of Mississippi, where, in 1800,00.9per cent, and in 1900 less than 50 per cent, of the colored population were illiterate, the offi cial who sends the report writes as follows: "There are about 450 Negro convicts in the Mississippi penitentiary; about half are wholly illiterate. Of the other half less than ten per cent, have anything like a fair education." In other words, in this very state, where Negro education is pronounced a failure, the literate Ne groes furnish a smaller proportion of criminals than the illiterate, and not even those literate Negro criminals are really fairly educated. Similar testimony comes from other states. In North Carolina the illiterate Negroes of the state furnished 40 per cent, more criminals, according to number, than the Negroes who could both read and write. In South Carolina, where the census of 1890 gives the Negro literates as constituting 47.2 per cent, of the entire race in the state, the •Editorial in the Outlook, Jan. 30, l(XH, pp. 240-7. 18 NINTH ATLANTA CONFERENCE penitentiary superintendent estimates that only 25 per cent, can both read and write. In Georgia more than 60 per cent, of the Negro convicts are illiterate, while of the total Negro population only 47.6 per cent, are illiterate. In Alabama the illiterates among the Negro criminals are reported as about 70 per cent, while the illiteracy of the total colored population is only 57.4 per cent. This means that in that state the Negroes who cannot read and write furnish about 30 per cent, more criminals, in round numbers, than the Negroes who have had school advantages. It is to be remembered that the figures for illiteracy now are not quite so bad as they were ten years ago; and therefore the figures quoted do not make the facts in confutation of Governor Vardaman's theories appear as strong as they really are. There is no doubt that the common schools for Negroes sorely need improve ment; but even as they are, it is clear that these schools are factors for law, or der and morality. The following diagram illustrates the facts as to illiteracy and crime for Negroes in the United States, 1890: POPULATION Literate, 42.9% LJtfiratc,88.!)% Illiterate, 57.19 Illiterate, 61.1% PRISONERS So much has been said and written on the subject of lynching that it is necessary here simply to add the usually received statistics on the subject, collected by the Chicago Tribune [see page 19]. 5. Crime in Cities (by MONEOK N. WOBK, A. M.). Let us now turn from the bare and partially misleading census figures to a considera tion of other sources of information. The best sources available are the reports of crime in various cities together with a few states. In these places the longest periods of time for which data were available ha\e been taken. Whenever possible, the number of prisoners received in jails, workhouses, and penitentiaries during specified periods of time have been taken. The distinction between arrests and convictions has been maintained. An analysis of crimes and offenses has also been attempted to see if particular crimes or offenses are increasing or de creasing. It is recognized that the liability to make errors has not been eliminated, but it is hoped that the method of presenting the data and of interpretation has been such as to reduce the amount of error to a minimum. Negro crime is considered in three periods: prior to 1866-1867; from 1867 to 1880; and from 1880 to 1903. Although the data for the first two periods are somewhat meager, it enables us, however, to gain some idea of the rate of these two periods. NEGRO CRIME 19 >> A V S £ £ 3 u ! 03 O tH t I 1 1 1 § O Cfc 1 1 M » 1 1 i-! ? ^ S 1-1 & ^ jp -i I (N O oo" CO-* 'Sffi ss gs goo S?3 |S3 S* oo io 2S ss 3* ss &£ r-1 8S ^S «r s? ss es r/J Se &.§ ^S S3 °s, sT i s 1 IO n fe S 1 s g 8 1 1 1 S g ?! 1 ' S ffl 00 cfi S o E-i cfi 4J 0 4^ OJ &, C « : a ^ ,d tA s i s u s it Qi W =3 -s 2 j= 5 u 10 >> a -1 u s A ft & EH s a 4-1 yi H «R •a ^ EH S i-! I-H 1 1 1 I "& A § 1 I-* g OO 1 I 1 CfJ S ^ " !R * I t-T^i-H •*f S^ CC S^-*CQ §gsS L— (MO SSS S5S §i^3 rHOT— 1 CO-* •* SggS ^^^ SSS SSS §S8 ISS§ ises iSofc see ss?^ 33fe CSr—lf? -r"^co O-*Oi r^iCC^i i— i QOC-I Ecaso Cfi , a :a§>E°eB,!3H..o>'c>(]3M 5 .n-J-70'S'cJctHcoojt^, IllSg^SSgggl'S «ls3s:«£i*S£8Sfc : : ;;::.::: : c oS=jS|»'Ogll3» £ C •SSSofggS-^SoJ; gl^m^ss^ L—WCOOi-l •^l^i-'OCOOOlCOOC 00 l?3 irt -* 01 CC L- -* 3-1 0 CC t- Tf =5 I i|jfii£j|*^l SsaajsjaslUJs SS §§5g^ S oo rf£«° Se>MOSM^ 13 a; inot Inelut s £ pt 20 NINTH ATLANTA CONFERENCE No special comparison of the crime rates of whites and Negroes is made. It is recognized that the crime rate of the Negroes is greater than that of the whites. In 1900 the rate of Negro arrests and com mitments was from one and a half to ten times greater than that of the whites. The correct method for a comparison of crime among the whites and Negroes would be to compare the crime rate of the Negroes with the crime rate of the corresponding class or stratum of the whites. This comparison would no doubt show much less difference in the respective crime rates than is shown when the crime rate of the Ne groes as a whole is compared with that of the whites as a whole. Since it is not possible to make this comparison it is probably better, as has been done in this study, to consider Negro crime in its relation to the Negro population, recognizing that the peculiar conditions of the Ne gro, past and present, tend to keep his crime rate high. Police arrests, jail, workhouse, and penitentiary commitments are respectively con sidered. Police Arrests. Data were available for twenty representative North ern and Southern cities. Nine of these follow in detail: Arrests per Thousand of Negro Population NEGRO CRIME 21 CITIES Philadelphia........ St. Louis ............. Negro popu lation 1'JOO 60,666 81 18«2 1808 18M 1895 18»(i 1887 18i)8 1800 1(100 1001 IIKB 1903 Baltimore 67 69 58 57 56 59 59 5li . 52 00 55 6!» 65 Charleston* 42 32 25 21 22 21 20 81 SO 81 80 2!l 21 85 24 20 28 87 40 38 88 84 St. Louix 15 21 14 1C. 14 19 20 «) 18 24 23 27 29 28 29 24 Ohio 5.8 10 9 n 9 11 11 15 12 14 Michigan 10 14 14 12 14 21 29 30 1 Q 27 tlQ ai iJC 80 C|-l 5S 82 OQ *.Tn.il commitments for Charleston Include those sentenced to the chaln-gnng and those sentenced to pay a fine or serve a short term In jail. By consulting the above table of statistics it is seen that in Baltimore during the year 1888 the rate of jail commitments was 57; in 1901 the rate was 65; the highest rate of commitments, 69, was iu 1899. The rate of commitments for Charleston in 1880 was 42; in 1903 the rate was 34; the highest rate of jail commitments was in 1880. In St. Louis the rate 21 NINTH ATLANTA CONFERENCE AOKT5 PEE 1000 OF NF&RO POPULATION I MO I 2." 3 NEW YORK- NEWARK 003CXXCOC 7 8 MOBILF :HARLESTOW + •+- + + NEW ORL ;A\/AMMAH MFMPHI „ ^ •*" i •^ _^ + +-\- / ~~~? w^ 5s * ,-*$ ** 1 g 0--- —— - LANS e— T Q— O-O so ^\ -^r <3*3 >' fctoe* ^ LfTH ""~—-s \ -3-4 ^; ^^ r =--/ f vte *.^j 23^ ^ 3- ^ ^ ^ >