14° Negro Migration 



Thus it appears that the two-and three-room houses 

 are the most usual and that 1,134 or 93 per cent of the 1,224 

 families live in houses of fewer than five rooms. A more 

 detailed examination of the premises surrounding these 

 houses showed that the inmates of 1,008 of them use out- 

 side privies in some form. Most of them have a small earth 

 closet close to the house. A ^ ew have no p rivy at all on the 

 prpmicpc, ..3^ 11 S ? t h at of a nei gh bor, In such cases the 

 landlords build no fence between the houses and provide 

 one joint privy for four or five houses. In one instance the 

 inmates of five houses were using one small box-like house, 

 six by four feet, and in another four large double houses 

 were using one privy of the same dimensions. 



The soil is further polluted by the continued dumping 

 of waste water and scraps in the back y ards. No Negro 

 re nted house has a^si n k. The_ water is emptied on the 

 ground. Among these privies and waste-water dumps are 

 the 519 wpIIc frnm <af\j\fh t he Negro es~"bT the city get most 

 of their water. Under such conditions the water must be 

 unhealthy and typhoid breeding. The city bacteriologist has 

 tested 47 wells in the years 1913-1914 and reported that 

 most of them should be condemned. 



Such conditions are common throughout the Negro set- 

 tlements in many towns. Mu nicipalities n eglect these dis- 

 tricts in paving - , sewerage and water connections. Notwith- 

 standing the undesirability of the houses and premises, the 

 rents are comparatively high. From the same study of 

 Athens ( p. 13-16) we note the following condition : 



The average rent (1913) in the two best settlements of 

 the town was $1.77 per month or $6.00 per house averaging 

 3.4 rooms, from 15 to 20 per cent return on the amount 

 invested in the property. T here is so me evidence also that 

 the rest of t hese hou ses is regulated to the price that the 

 market will bear A Negro will rent a house and pay $6.50 

 per month for it while his neighbor is paying $6.00 per 

 month for a house which is as like it as one pea to another. 



