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Chapter 15. The Negro in the Public Economy 347
nurses watching white children. Public funds are used everywhere in the
region for these facilities available to whites only. Often no substitutes at
all, or very inferior ones, are offered the Negroes. Like white people,
Negroes can use their schools as community centers but they are unsatis-
factory for many recreational purposes. More than half of all cities having
special Negro community centers listed in the Negro Year Book for 1937-
1938^^ were in the North and West.^^
Damaging from both cultural and recreational viewpoints are the restric-
tions of public library facilities for Negroes. In 1939 it was found that of
774 public libraries in 13 Southern states only 99, or less than one-seventh,
served Negroes. Of the 99 libraries, 59 were concentrated in four states.^^
For a full appraisal of the Negro’s share in public recreational facilities,
it would be necessary to have access to more material on the quantitative
and qualitative adequacy of such facilities for both Negroes and whites.
There is no doubt about the fact, however, that provisions for Negroes are
much inferior to those for whites. For reasons already suggested, this is a
question of no small importance. The visitor finds Negroes everywhere
aware of the great damage done Negro youth by the lack of recreational
outlets and of the urgency of providing playgrounds for the children. In
almost every community visited during the course of this inquiry, these
were among the first demands on the program of local Negro organ-
izations.®
The Southern whites are unconcerned about how Negroes use their
leisure time, as long as they are kept out of the whites’ parks and beaches.
Recreation involves “social” relationships, and, therefore. Southern whites
are strongly opposed to mixed recreation. Nevertheless, considerable
improvements have been made even in the South in recent years. Again
the federal agencies have been instrumental in giving the Negroes slightly
more of their rights. There have been many P.W.A. and W.P.A. projects
for new playgrounds, community centers, and other facilities,^® and
Negroes have received some share of them. There are community rooms,
playgrounds, nursery schools, and other similar provisions in or around new
housing projects for low income families.^^ The National Youth Admin-
istration, the Agricultural Extension Service, the Farm Security Adminis-
tration, and other new agencies, have assisted both Negroes and whites. Yet,
there is still a long way to go. So far, only a small part of the distance
between “nothing at all” and “full adequacy” has been covered. And, par-
•When visiting Birmingham, Alabama, in the fall of 1938, we were taken around the
town by one of the leaders of the Negro community. “See those tennis courts,” said our guide,
“they are not much good, as you see. The whites don’t care to use them any more. But in
opite of that, we had to beg and beg before we got the privilege to play on them. They
are the only public courts in town that we arc allowed to use. It’s just one of those things
that make one see red.”
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