Even in the country something of
this segregation is manifest in the smaller areas, and of course
in the larger phenomena of the Black Belt.
All this segregation by color is largely independent of that
natural clustering by social grades common to all communi-
ties. A Negro slum may be in dangerous proximity to a white
residence quarter, while it is quite common to find a white
slum planted in the heart of a respectable Negro district. One
thing, however, seldom occurs: the best of the whites and the
best of the Negroes almost never live in anything like close
proximity. It thus happens that in nearly every Southern town
and city, both whites and blacks see commonly the worst of
each other. This is a vast change from the situation in the
past, when, through the close contact of master and house-
servant in the patriarchal big house, one found the best of both
races in close contact and sympathy, while at the same time
the squalor and dull round of toil among the field-hands was
removed from the sight and hearing of the family. One can
easily see how a person who saw slavery thus from his
father's parlors, and sees freedom on the streets of a great
city, fails to grasp or comprehend the whole of the new
picture.
Pages:
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226