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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - IV. Economics - 16. Income, Consumption and Housing - 6. Housing Conditions
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376 An American Dilemma
stantly irritating the adults or being irritated by them. Over-crowding may
keep them out of their homes more than is good for them—in fact so much
that family controls become weak. The result is that some of the children
become juvenile delinquents. This danger may become even more pro-
nounced if there are insufficient recreational facilities in the neighborhood,
something which is often characteristic of Negro areas.® Children in crowded
homes usually have great difficulties in doing their home work 5
their
achievements in school may suffer in consequence. The presence of boarders
in the homes, or the ^^doubling up” of families in a single residence unit,
which is much more frequent in Negro than in white families, usually
means that there cannot be much privacy 5
often it means a constant threat to
family morals. Crowding, In general, has similar effects. In addition to the
moral and mental health risks, there are all the obvious physical health
hazards.
In fact, the correlation between poor housing, on the one hand, and
tuberculosis, venereal diseases, prostitution, juvenile delinquency, and crime,
on the other hand, has been demonstrated so often by American experts
that we do not have to add anything to the evidence.®® This point should
be kept in mind in any evaluation of Negro family life, of Negro crime and
of Negro sickness.
Nothing is so obvious about the Negroes’ level of living as the fact that
most of them suffer from poor housing conditions. It is a matter of such
common knowledge that it does not need much emphasis. We shall, there-
fore, only sample the great amount of available data.
Let us consider, first, the conditions in rural areas. The South, generally,
has the poorest housing conditions in the country.®^ The Negro in every
respect is worse off than is the white farmer. Half the white, and four out
of five of the Negro farm homes, were made of unpainted wood. The pro-
portion of houses having foundations, floors, roofs, in poor condition,
although high for white farmers, was still higher for Negro farm families.
One-half of the Negro farm homes in 1 1 Southern states had foundations
in poor condition, and about an equal number had roofs and interior walls
and ceilings in poor condition. More than three-fourths of the Negro farm
houses were unscreened, and only 3 per cent of all Negro homes—^as
against 24 per cent of the wffiite homes—had screens which were in good
condition. The Consumer Purchases Study, although low income families
are under-represented in its sample, shows that 10 per cent of the Negro
farm families and over 2 per cent of the white farm families were without
any toilet or privy of any kind. It is probable, however, that the situation
has improved in this respect, since federal agencies have, during recent
years, built a great number of farm privies in the South.®®
The rural South has the largest number of persons per residential house-
®See Chapter 15, Section 5.
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