University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 1-1-1990 The limitations of racial democracy : the politics of the Chicago Urban League, 1916-1940. Preston H. Smith University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1 Recommended Citation Smith, Preston H., "The limitations of racial democracy : the politics of the Chicago Urban League, 1916-1940." (1990). Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014. 1805. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1/1805 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. UM ASS/ AMHERST Ill IIIHill 31EQbbD13fllDlb5 MMIHKIB THE LIMITATIONS OF THE RACIAL DFMOrp apv POLITICS OF THE CfflCAGO Sffi^ijE, 1916-1940 A Dissertation Presented by PRESTON HOWARD SMITH, II Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May 1990 Department of Political Science Copyright by Preston Howard Smith, II 1990 AH Rights Reserved THE LIMITATIONS OF THE RACIAL DFMDPR apv- POLITICS OF THE CHgAGO URBAN L^GUE, A Dissertation Presented by PRESTON HOWARD SMITH, II Approved as to style and content by: Jear^l Elshtain, Chairperson of Committee Nicholas Xenos, Member Adolph L. Reed, Jr., Member George T. Sulzner, Department Head Department of Political Science ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I like to thank my dissertation committee, Nicholas Xenos, Adolph L Reed Jr and especially the chairperson, Jean B. Elshtain for their insight and patience. Adolph was particularly helpful with the writing of the early drafts. Robin D.G. Kelley and Eric Halpern read chapters of the dissertation and gave me useful comments. Spencer Crew was very helpful in thinking through some of the inconsistencies in my argument. I would especially like to thank Michael D. Ford for his help at crucial points in the conceptualization and writing of the dissertation. I also like to thank Michael S. Harper for his encouragement. This dissertation would not have the form it has without the expert assistance of Ms. Beverly Skillings, who word processed the final draft. Of course, none of this work would have been possible without Teena who endured many trying moments during the process. My children, Eris and Kendall provided me with welcomed relief and reality checks while I worked away on my "book." My parents, Mariam and Preston, were very supportive by providing a haven for my family when I needed the house to myself, and trying by to keep questions about my progress to a minimum. I like to dedicate this dissertation -- to my grandparents Joseph M. and Madalyn S. Smith, Ernest Lillie W. and M. Graham -and to the many black families who came to Chicago looking for a better life. iv ABSTRACT THE LIMITATIONS OF RACIAL DEMOCRACY: THE POLITICS OF THE CHICAGO URBAN LEAGUE, 1916-1940 MAY 1990 PRESTON HOWARD SMITH, II, B.A., HOWARD UNIVERSITY Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS Directed by: Professor Jean B. Elshtain This study is an examination of the social basis of the Chicago Urban League's politics from its origins to the eve of World War II. The Urban League's origins in Chicago as well as other large Midwestern and Northeastern cities began in the context of the dramatic migration of blacks during World War I. The League is an interracial organization with a black professional staff serving a black clientele. The League sought to mitigate against the hardships caused by the dislocations of internal migration and settlement of black Southerners, i.e., intermittent employment, substandard housing, inadequate and discriminatory relief, etc. The organization did not see itself as a relief dispensing agency for Chicago's Afro-American citizens, but more a coordinating agent that administered (directly or by referral) the basic needs of the newly arrived migrant. While it is hard to argue against the ministration of black material needs, the process of coordination implied a socialization that needs more explicit examination. The basic thesis of the study is that the Urban League actively sought to "remake" the migrant in the organization's effort to engineer race relations in Chicago. In Chapter One, I provide a social and intellectual backdrop to origins of the Chicago branch of the National Urban League during the Great Migration and the nascent growth of an adminstrative state and corporate economy. The League's officials overstated the helplessness of Southern black migrants in order to legitimize its role as interpreter of interpreter of their needs. Black rank and file needs were defined as requiring the acquisition of practical and social skills for full citizenship in the liberal and competitive North. In Chapter Two, I discuss the Chicago Urban League's policy on strikebreaking and unionization as an attempt to evaluate their congruence with black workers' interests. What I find is a complex and uneven record with regard to supporting black labor activity during this time period. I found, in fact, that the organizations' efforts to socialize black newcomers both at the workplace and at home was more a testimony to a division of interests. The League sought to organize neighborhoods and communities, and spoke in terms of a unitary black community, masking ambiguous but nonetheless real social divisions. In Chapter Three, I examine the rationale and methods of race relations engineering, i.e., the management of interracial "contacts" and social boundaries by a interracial elite. attempt The at engineering was a not necessarily a success, but its attempt was anti- democratic in conception and practice. The League as black gatekeepers to the American dream placed particularistic requirements on blacks attempting to gain entry into the mainstream. Therapeutic intervention through social work provided the method to black's peculiar form of Americanization. The omnipresent notion of "adjustment" suggested the manipulation of social policy by black and white social technicians in the name of serving black migrants. In conclusion, I argue that racial democracy narrowly conceived as racial parity limited the Urban League's social horizons and ignored the real structure of racial inequality in the United States. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i v ABSTRACT v Chapter INTRODUCTION { I. "THE GREAT MIGRATION" AND THE SOCIAL ORIGINS OF THE CHICAGO URBAN LEAGUE 5 "The Great Migration" and its Demographic Impact on Chicago ....Z.....5 Social Profile of Migrants 12 The Impact of the Great Migration on Chicago Black Community..........29 Social Origins of the Chicago Urban League 46 H. LABOR, WELFARE CAPITALISM, AND THE SOCIALIZATION OF THE BLACK WORKER. IN CHICAGO 57 The New Black Elite and the Chicago Urban League 58 The Role of the Chicago Urban League in the Proletarianization of Black Workers 65 Unionization, Strikebreaking, and Managing Race Relations at the Workplace 93 HI. RACE RELATIONS, SOCIAL WELFARE, AND THE POLITICS OF BLACK URBAN REFORM 109 Race Relations in Chicago 110 Social Welfare 121 Garveyism, Communism, and Machine Politics 145 IV. CONCLUSION 161 REFERENCES 164 vii INTRODUCTION During the late 1960s an important segment of Afro- American society gave voice to a profound disillusionment with American society. Calls for Black Power were frequently mingled with rejection of the "American way life" of on the grounds of its structural inequality in addition to its racial exclusivity. The emerging conventional wisdom at that time was that blacks were not sure that they wanted to integrate into the American mainstream because of the nature of its institutions. Looking back, this moment in Afro- American history seems all too brief. It has been overshadowed by the scramble for "inclusion," "our share," and "racial parity." I contend that racial democracy has meant simply giving blacks their proportionate share of the American pie. The belief that racial parity is possible was held so dearly, that the possibility that American society could not accommodate this wish was not entertained. The Urban League represents an almost century-long effort at advancing the race. The League originated during the Progressive Era characterized as a "seedtime for racial reform" culminating into the civil rights movement (Weiss 1974). It had all the characteristics of a modem bureaucratic organization, specifically, trained professionals who directed the reform efforts, and had an emphasis on social investigation as a precondition to reform. Because of the League's longevity and modern organizational structure, a study of the League's politics would give us some clues about the origins of a dominant approach to black urban problems. There are two premises that were the basis of the Urban League's orientation: (1) the main problem confronting Afro-Americans was their exclusion, based on race, from participating and receiving the benefits of American society; (2) in order to gain entrance into the American mainstream the League had to convince white gatekeepers that blacks were just like them, only they had a different skin color. This claim had to be substantiated, so the League attempted to remake ordinary blacks, especially those who were migrating from the rural South, into acceptable middle-class