tial district of the
whites. Few new houses have been built. An increase of rent from $5 to
$10 per month is usually the sequel of the turning over of a house to
negroes.

Community interest in the situation was at first dormant but not
entirely lacking. The migration was well under way before there was
any organization to make an adjustment in this unusual situation.
Interested individuals made sporadic efforts to bring pressure to bear
here and there, but the situation was not really appreciated until the
outbreak in East St. Louis. There is an active branch of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and just recently
there has been established a branch of the National League on
Urban Conditions among Negroes to deal with the peculiarly local
problems.[106]

East St. Louis, another attractive center for the migrants, is unique
among northern industrial cities. It is an industrial offshoot of St.
Louis, which has outstripped its parent in expansion. Its geographical
advantage has made it a formidable rival even with its less developed
civic institutions. Perched on the banks of the Mississippi River,
with twenty-seven railroads radiating from it, within easy reach
of the coal mines, there has been made possible a rapid and uneven
growth. It has doubled its population for three successive decades.
Revolving around this overgrown center are a number of small towns:
Brooklyn, Lovejoy, Belleville, Venice, Granite City and Madison. Its
plant owners live in St. Louis and other cities, and consequently have
little civic interest in East St. Louis. Land is cheaper, taxes
are low. In fact, some of the largest concerns have been accused of
evading them entirely. It has been artificially fed and, in process
of growth, there have been irregularities in the structure of the
community which eventually culminated in the greatest disgrace of the
North, the massacre of about one hundred negroes.

Fifty years ago before the river dividing St. Louis from East St.
Louis was bridged, men rowed over from St. Louis for their cock
fights, dog fights and prize fights. Escaped prisoners found a haven
there. The town was called "The Bloody Isle." The older population
is made up of whites from West Tennessee, Mississippi, Kentucky and
Georgia. The men who have risen to political prominence in the
city are for the most part saloon keepers. As many as 100 saloons
flourished in the town before the riot. The city governmen