her agencies in improving them. The committee met
frequently through the summer with the housing committee of the Civic
Club, in an endeavor to ascertain the facts bearing upon the present
situation. It had before it leading colored citizens, ministers,
business men and industrial workers, some of whom have lived here
for years and others who have recently arrived from the South. It was
discovered that there was, at that time, plenty of work and at good
wages, but the universal complaint was the lack of homes suitable for
proper living and the extortionate prices asked for rents. Negroes
in Hartford were suffering from the cupidity of landlords. They were
obliged to live in poor tenements and under unhealthful conditions
because accommodations of another class were withheld from them.
For such inferior accommodations they were charged outrageous rents,
because selfish property owners knowing that negroes must live charged
all the traffic would bear. Partial relief was obtained from the
immediate need by the purchase of buildings already erected, and homes
for them were later built. It appeared that for the first time in many
years Hartford had a race problem on its hands.

[Footnote 140: The _Philadelphia North American_, February 2, 1917.]

[Footnote 141: Resolutions of the Interdenominational Union.]

[Footnote 142: _Philadelphia Inquirer_, March 2, 1917.]

[Footnote 143: _The Living Church_, December 22, 1917.]

[Footnote 144: Cotton Pickers in Northern Cities, _The Survey_,
February 17, 1917.]

[Footnote 145: _The Courier_ (Camden, N.J.), April 30, 1918.]

[Footnote 146: _The Hartford Courant_, September 19, 1917.]

[Footnote 147: The _Hartford Post_, October 9, 1917.]

CHAPTER XIII

REMEDIES FOR RELIEF BY NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

The sudden influx of thousands of negro workers to northern industrial
centers created and intensified problems. More comprehensive and
definite plans for aiding the migrants were, therefore, worked out and
more effective methods of help instituted during 1917. A conference
on negro migration was held in New York City under the auspices of
the National League on Urban Conditions among Negroes, January 29-31,
1918. Among those attending the conference were representatives of
capital, of labor, of housing conditions, the Immigration Bureau of
Social Uplift Work for Negroes and others. The subjects considered
were causes and consequences of the migration, present conditions