In the depression and into the 1940’s various Work Progress Administration (WPA) projects were activated by the federal government to put people to work. There were new roads built, state park improvements, sewing rooms, etc. One of those projects was an authorship in which local authors documented local housing, recreation, businesses, churches, etc. One of those projects was the Illinois Writers Project based out of Chicago. I ran across a series of articles written in 1941 specifically about the black community of Marion under the general heading of “The Negro in Illinois.” I present these articles just as written in 1941.

Housing, Beulah M. DeVard, November 10, 1941

In the rear of 908 S. Holland St., Marion, Ill. live Mrs. Mercy Moore, her three children, two boys and a girl whose ages range from about eight to twelve, and her mother Mrs. Joan Marie Garrison has grown sons also but they make their home someplace else most of the time.

The place where these people live is a small one room shack of about twelve by fourteen feet. It is loosely constructed of old lumber. The north side is covered by roofing paper, the east side is partly covered with pieces of old linoleum while the south and west sides have the bare unpainted wood full of cracks and crevices. There are two doors, one front and back. One of the two small windows is covered making the lighting poor. The stove pipe projects through a hole near the roof in the west wall. They have a good sanitary toilet of the kind made by the WPA three or four years ago, but slop water is thrown out the front door.

In front of them and facing Holland St. is the frame work for a five-room bungalow started two or three years ago but never finished for lack of funds. Last year a group of charitable minded colored men volunteered to board up one room so they could have a better place to stay. They worked one day and quit because Mrs. Garrison’s grown sons did not come to help them.

A recent inspection of the building show that the two women and a man have again taken up the tack of fixing at least two rooms of the house.

Consultants: Mercy Moore, Henry Ellis, William Barnett, W.B. Griffin

Housing, by Beulah DeVard

Some fifty years ago, the raising of tobacco was an important industry in this part of the state. Two large tobacco barns were located in Marion. Goodall & Campbell owned one in the north-east part of town and Westbrooks & Son owned one located in the south-west part of town, now known as Gents Addition. Negroes were given the job of stemming the tobacco, etc.

Some ten years later as the mining industry gained importance the colored people left the tobacco barns to work in the coal mines when permitted to do so because they were paid better wage. This attracted their colored brethren from the South. They came in considerable numbers during the World War also.

As there were no restricted areas, they virtually settled all over town. When Gents addition was opened in 1902, it was settled with white people. As the colored people moved in next to their work the real estate value was lessened and the whites chose other locations. A ninety-day sale was declared and the colored population bought much of the property because it was cheap and near their work. Today most of the colored people still live in this area although there are some whites. The homes of the better class families and those of moderate means border this area of about five blocks wide and eleven long. The houses are far enough apart to permit the use of a good-sized yard and garden plot. There has been no housing programs. While there are some houses of modern bungalow style most of them are not, but are old, rather small and in need of paint and general repair. A few have new porches and other minor repairs. While some have a few flowers or shrubbery planted in their yard and the grass is neatly mowed, others have apparently let the weeds and grass grow unnoticed.

Since about 90% of the negroes own their own homes. they fared as well as the poor white people during the depression years with but few evictions. Some of the white landlords allowed their tenants to work for them in order to reduce their debts.

The high price of the real estate together with restrictions regarding the type and size of building to be created is enough to keep Negroes and other low-income groups out of the best residential districts.

There are a few “well-to-do” Negroes who still live in other parts of town, but there is usually not more than one or two families for several blocks and they have lived there so long that the white people have come to accept their presence as a matter of fact. These “well-to-do” families usually go back to the colored settlement to attend church and other social activities.

There is one saloon located in the Negro area but it cannot be considered the center of vice resorts. The church element seems to be uppermost. Where immorality is found it exist within its own group. Although the colored man’s home may be humble, he drives a modern stream lined car if he owns one at all. This especially true during the past year. He goes places too. If he goes fishing or to Sunday School Convention he believes in driving fast and having a good time.

(Source: Downloaded from the Chicago Public Library)