Boundaries often are stretched to include Barnett’s Addition
Gent’s Addition: In mid-Marion, yet separated
Even the name connotes separation. Something added on, a portion merely attached to the whole.
And yet, Gent’s Addition is located almost in the center of the city of Marion, a few blocks southwest of the Public Square.
The boundaries stretch from College to Boyton Streets north and south and from Van Buren to Court Streets east and west. But the boundaries often are stretched to include Burnett’s addition, the 700 block of South Liberty Street between Cline and College.
The area was built around 1910 by Charles Gent to provide low-income housing. It still provides low income housing, but it serves only a certain segment of the people on the low income scale, the overwhelming majority of blacks in Marion.
Today Gent’s Addition consists of low lying roads, substandard housing and poorly kept property. More than 50 per cent of its inhabitants are said to be on some form of public assistance.
There may be one other factor that distinguishes it from most of the city of Marion. And the fraction of an inch that first created the separation may have expanded to an invisible wall separating black and white.
Gent’s Addition has been described by various black leaders as an island, a thorn among roses and simply another division of the city.
There are those who will argue that its residents live there solely for financial reasons; but there are also those who drop all formalities and label it a ghetto, using the word in its most pejorative sense.
Though Gent’s Addition represents a circumscribed area, its connotation is not confined within territorial boundaries. Gent’s is more than a neighborhood; it signifies a state of mind shared by most of Marion’s black community and created by the attitudes of both races.
The 1970 census gave the black population at 317. It is estimated that all but about 10 black families live in Gent’s, and no one is quite sure why.
Legally, racial discrimination in housing is prohibited. Housing is supposedly not based on color, but several blacks feel laws mean little in comparison to slammed doors or personal prejudices.
There are places many blacks are not financially able to afford. Likewise, there are blacks living in some of the better parts of the city.
Part of the puzzle seems to be the hesitancy of many blacks even to attempt leaving Gent’s Addition. Some argue that even though there are other places Gent’s residents are able to live; preference to stay within a color created buffer zone usually prevails.
Mayor Robert Butler says sub-standard housing is found in Gent’s, but firmly disagrees with any conception of the area as a separate entity.
“Gent’s Addition is just another part of the community, but it does have the distinction of housing the majority of the black population.”
“Where the failing is, is that people look on Gent’s Addition as a whole, and that’s bad. There are good homes there, along with the bad. The poor housing, however, is not because blacks live there.”
The Mayor argues that housing discrimination does not exist in Marion and offers the example of “blacks living in the best areas of town” as proof. But just as the Mayor says, Gent’s should not be viewed as a whole, concerned blacks will contend exceptions also, are poor proof of the overall situation.
Financial difficulties among blacks seem to dominate the list of problems responsible for both the creation and sustainment of Gent’s. According to the 1970 census, the median income for white families in Marion is $8,232 and in Williamson County $7,687. The median income for black families in Williamson County is $4,804, barely more than $800 above the national poverty level of $3,968 for a non-farm family of four.
The census does not give statistics for blacks in Marion. Its black population does not reach the 400 person minimum to warrant data for specific ethnic groups.
The crux of the problems, seem apparent in another statistical comparison; the median age for the white male in Marion is 32; for the Williamson County black male, 17.8.
This data seems to suggest a handicap within Marion’s black community; the absences of a significant faction of young black adults. The greatest number of blacks in Marion is either very young, or very old. Furthermore, additional statistics reveal a greater percentage of black children than white children in Williamson County are not living with their actual parents. A large portion of children in this category, it seems, are living with either grandparents or female headed homes.
Lack of employment opportunities in the area has resulted in large waves of migration among all young adults, but it seems young blacks have been the most eager to leave.
“The black population in Marion is substantially the same as it was 30 years ago,” Mayor Butler said.
Yet, Marion has grown and improved steadily since World War II. Prosperity has become more widespread, and the standard of living has increased.
A part of the contradiction between the status of Marion as a whole and that of its black population apparently lies in employment. And the major factor, it seems, is not so much unemployment as the type of employment blacks are given.
There are no black teachers, lawyers, policemen, or doctors in Marion. Local retail merchants have not hired a single black employee for a full time clerking position.
The Bank of Egypt and the Bank of Marion each have one black employee, General Telephone Co. is the largest employer of blacks in Marion and the Central Illinois Public Service Co. also hired blacks. Several other institution including the Marion Federal penitentiary, Veteran’s Hospital and Memorial Hospital, employ black workers.
The city has employed blacks at different times. Mayor Butler said out of 65 city employees, as many as five blacks have held positions with the city at one time.
“Now considering that blacks constitute only about 2 per cent of the city’s population, I’d say that was a pretty high percentage of employment. But we’re not the kind of people that look at percentages.”
Reasons given for the underemployment vary, but the most deciding factor, according to many blacks, is discrimination.
Other Ideas
The problem seems to stem as much from the results of past discrimination as it does from actual discrimination today. The stigma that was once attached to being black may have been erased, but its repercussion prevails to create two sided racial separation.
Docility appears to maintain the separation. Few persons white or black seem to have fought to alter the situation substantially. The Ministerial Alliance, Chamber of Commerce, City Council and other civic minded organizations have attempted to lessen racial separation through programs and extended membership. Three churches, including two Holiness churches, and one Catholic Church, are integrated. Segregation of primary pupils ended in 1965 with the closing of Douglass School, an all-black institution located in Gent’s Addition.
Both black and white will agree the racial situation in Marion has improved; but the improvements as one black resident says, seem to mean less when faced with unequal employment.
Mayor Butler denies any evidence of unequal opportunities. “It’s much easier to say you didn’t get a job because of discrimination than to admit that you weren’t qualified.”
But, there seem to be two problems with acquiring qualifications; incentive and means.
Education is increasing among blacks, creating higher goals and extended aims. There are about four or five blacks from Marion currently enrolled in local colleges, and several blacks from the area hold professional positions in other cities.
Yet, training programs for management positions in Marion are unknown to blacks. Job openings are often limited to custodial or manual labor, both of which, however honorable, seem to offer few qualification for higher positions.
Incentive, or the lack of it, forms the basis for the other side of the underemployment problem. Many, it seems, find it easier to accept their position and apply for some form of public assistance. Others try, fail and quit; some transform years of subordination into hostility.
One of the most basic factors n the lack of motivation according to several black leaders is the absence of local example or “image.” A dream is one thing they say, but realizing that the dream is possible is quite another.
The employment situation apparently does a great deal more than sustain Gent’s Addition, for the neighborhood is not created so much by the physical property as by the psychological atmosphere.
A neighborhood confined by direct and self-inflicted subordination cannot improve as long as boundaries exist, says one black minister. It no longer matters who built the walls, or even who is going to tear them down. Barriers are easily penetrated when resistance ceases.
Gent’s Addition will remain in its present condition until the community of Marion, consisting of both black and white citizens, is ready to change. Physical alterations are not enough; the transformations must come in the minds of the community.
See Also:
1973, Gent’s Addition, Part 1 of 6
1973, Gent’s Addition, Part 2 of 6
1973, Gent’s Addition, Part 3 of 6
1973, Gent’s Addition, Part 4 of 6
1973, Gent’s Addition, Part 5 of 6
(Southern Illinoisan article by Sandy Blumenfeld, published August 17, 1973)