Point 4: Migrants did experience some equality as afforded by intregation in select areas.

Interviews of migrants by Charles Johnson after the 1919 riot expressed the freedom blacks enjoyed in Chicago especially concerning experiences of integration.

"The mixed schools in the North are especially appreciated because no discrimination can creep in. The general lack of segregation on street cars, in parks, and in similar public places also pleases them."

"She feels a greater freedom here because of the right to vote, the better treatment accorded by white people, the lack of “Jim Crow” laws."

"They enjoy the“freedom of speech and action” allowed in Chicago, the privilege of voting, the freedom from segregation, and the absence of Jim Crow laws."

The experience of integration in public places fostered feelings of "self-respect, dignity, and pride" in migrants.  The lack of segregtion on streetcars and in some public places allowed racial intermingling without degradation (167 Grossman).  Jim Crow laws were absent as well as the burden of their degrading visual manifestations.  Without the everyday reminder of segregation "a man could feel more like a man" (167 Grossman).  Most encouraging was the fact that every school with black children also had whites.  "There were all-white schools in the city; but a migrant could proudly write home that "I have children in school every day with the white children."  (248 Grossman)

Point 5

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