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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - Footnotes - Chapter 44
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1436 An American Dilemma
Leaves Home,” in Uncle Tom^s Children (1938), and Zora Neale Hurston, Their
Eyes Were Watching God (1937), especially pp. 98-109 and 200-202.
James Weldon Johnson tells of this recreation in a small Southern town: “We
always went to the railroad station on Saturdays to see the four trains come in and go
out. ... I never saw anybody that I knew getting off, but there was a faint excitement
in watching the traffic. At any rate, I got an understanding of why country people love
to meet passing trains.” {Along This Way [1934], p. 114.)
Much of all the recreational life in the rural community is carried on in and around
the church, which is the natural meeting place in the community (see Chapter 43,
Section 3)5 in some areas the church tries to provide healthful organized recreation for
the young people in the form of social and athletic clubs (see Charles S. Johnson,
Growing Uf in the Black Belty pp. 175 ff.).
In Charles S. Johnson’s study of 916 families in the rural Deep South, only 17.4
per cent of the families had radios {ibid.^ p. 55). Some of the younger children had
never heard a radio {ibid,y p. 183). The census figures indicate that only .003 per cent
of the Negro families in the rural Deep South had radios as compared to 1 1
.9 per cent
of the white families. {Fifteenth Census of the United States: 1^30, Population, Vol.
VI, State Tables 16 and 4.)
In Charles S. Johnson’s study 27.6 per cent of the homes had victrolas {Growing
Up in the Black Belt, p. 56). Unfortunately, certain companies producing records have
issued a special series for Negroes, “race records,” many of which are vicious and obscene,
and these were widely sold in the rural areas. (Donald R, Young, American Minority
Peoples [1932], pp. 306-307, and Forrester B. Washington, “Recreational Facilities for
Negroes,” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
[November, 1928], p. 279.)
For a discussion of how rural patterns of recreation are considered normal in the
county and delinquent in the city, see Charles S. Johnson, Growing Up in the Black
Belt, pp. 186-187.
Black Manhattan (1930), pp. 162-163.
For a discussion of amateur theatricals among Negroes, see Sterling A. Brown,
“The Negro in American Culture: Section D—The Negro on the Stage,” unpublished
manuscript prepared for this study (1940), pp. 148 flf.
In the past all-day excursions, especially where facilities were available along the
Mississippi and Ohio Rivers and along the sea coast, were popular with rural Negroes;
they even developed their own excursion steamers. (Washington, op, cit,, p. 279.) This
form of recreation seems to have disappeared.
Young, op. cit,, p. 296.
“In a recent survey of the Negroes of Richmond, Virginia, 698 men and 889
women were asked what they did for amusement. ‘Going to church’ was placed first
by 198 men and 331 women; ‘movies and theaters’ by 134 men and 254 women; 91
men and 176 women ‘played with their children’ or ‘enjoyed their homes and friends.’
Reading was reported by loi men and 88 women. And 91 men and 93 women
had no amusements or recreations whatever. ‘Smoking, hunting and fishing’ were
extremely popular with men. Society or lodge meetings, sewing and fancy work,
were favorites of the women. Music, singing, and playing of musical instruments were
named repeatedly by both men and women. Almost everything in life was mentioned
by a sprinkling of both as an amusement: ‘walking,’ ‘drinking,’ ‘eating,’ ‘sleeping,’
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