"I cannot conceive what it would mean not to be a Negro," a prominent New York colored man once said to me. "The white people think and feel so little; their life lacks an absorbing interest."
This is the characteristic fact of the life of the well-to-do Negro in New York. He is not permitted to go through the city streets in easy comfort of body or mind. Some personal rebuff, some harsh word in newspaper or magazine, quickens his pulse and rouses him from the lethargy that often overtakes his comfortable white neighbor. Looking into the past of slavery, watching the coming generation, the most careless of heart is forced into serious questioning. A comfortable income and the intelligence to enjoy the culture of a great city do not bring to the Negro any smug self-satisfaction; only a greater responsibility toward the problem that moves through the world with his dark face.
Before turning to our last topic, the Negro and the Municipality, we ought to note two further characteristics of the Negro in New York.
There are certain statistics quoted by every writer upon the Negro, statistics of mortality and crime. We have noted these for the child, but not as yet for the Negroes as a whole. They have been left until this point in our study that we may view them in relation to what we have learned of the Negro's economic condition and his environment.
Looking for criminal statistics first, we find them difficult to obtain in New York. The courts' reports do not classify by color, but we can learn something from the census enumeration of 1904 of the prisoners in the New York County Penitentiary and the New York County Workhouse. These are short term offenders sent up from the city of New York. The enumeration is as follows:
NEW YORK COUNTY PENITENTIARY (BLACKWELL'S ISLAND)
======================================================== | Total | Males | Females | Per cent | Per cent | | | | Total | Females --------+--------+-------+---------+----------+--------- White | 582 | 533 | 49 | 91.8 | 8.4 Colored | 52 | 33 | 19 | 8.2 | 36.5 ========================================================
======================================================== White | 1126 | 870 | 256 | 96.5 | 22.7 Colored | 41 | 12 | 29 | 3.5 | 70.7 ========================================================