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In this paper, I will examine the history of African Americans residing in the City of Buffalo from 1865 to 1918. There is much that remains unknown, partly because their population figures were smaller and were marginalized compared to that of the white population. Yet, due to the work of historian Lillian S. Williams, who wrote Strangers in the Land of Paradise: The Creation of an African American Community, Buffalo, New York, 1900-1940 and historian Ralph Watkins, with his dissertation “Black Buffalo 1920-1927,” much more information has been collected than was readily available previously, initiating a strong budding historical record, allowing me to state with confidence that in the period from 1865 to 1918, African Americans not only adjusted to the Buffalo area but also acted proactively in fostering community development.[1] However, more historical work still needs to be done.
In 1865, at the beginning of the Reconstruction era, census enumerators recorded 711 African Americans residing in the City of Buffalo, 349 male, and 362 female.[2] At that time, the New York State Census Bureau labeled them as ‘colored persons.’ They resided throughout the city, with the majority living in Wards 4, 5, and 6. As conveyed in Table I below, 213 African American persons resided in Ward 4 (30%), 147 in Ward 5 (21%), and 122 in Ward 6 (17.2%):
In terms of the types of employment that African Americans held, the 1865 New York State Censuses did not record the occupations of Buffalo residents but the Federal Census of 1860 did, which gives us an indication of what African American people may have been doing by 1865 since the occupations they undertook in 1860 probably were not significantly different from the jobs they performed in 1865. James D. Bilotta, author of A Quantitative Approach to Buffalo’s Black Population of 1860, found that 329 African Americans revealed their occupations to federal census takers.[3] The aggregate data underlines that they worked mainly in labor-service types of occupations, such as cooks, waiters, laborers, washerwomen, servants, and barbers.[4] Women made up 23% of the workforce, largely being employed as washerwomen and servants.[5] In contrast, men made up 77% of this labor force, mainly employed as sailors, cooks, waiters, whitewashers, and porters.[6]
African Americans, like other Buffalo residents, often sought work to support their families. After examining the New York State Manuscript Censuses for 1855 and 1877, historians Herbert Gutman and Laurence Glasco argued that few changes had occurred in Buffalo’s African American family structure.[7] African Americans usually resided in nuclear families, with a husband and wife and one or two children. Other groups, such as Germans and Irish, lived in a similar family arrangement, with an average of about two children. Single African American women raising children alone was not the norm, representing eleven percent of families in 1855 and seventeen percent in 1875.[8] Thus, for 1865, it can be inferred that 711 African Americans residing in Buffalo generally lived in family units like other Buffalonians.
The church, like the family, was another institution that helped stabilize and progress African American life in Buffalo. Initially, during the early 1830s, African Americans organized two churches of their own, the Colored Methodist Society—the forerunner of the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, located at the intersection of Vine and Washington Streets, and the Michigan Avenue Baptist Church, between Broadway and William Street.[9] The church was not only a place of worship, but also a place of ingathering for community members, as well as an arena for celebration and the development of political strategy. The gathering at the Michigan Avenue Baptist Church in celebration of the ratifying of the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is a case in point. The Buffalo Commercial Advertiser reported:
Buffalo’s African American community revered education along with church activity, seeing it as a means to improve their lot. Yet, due to segregation, the only school they could attend in 1865 was the Free African School. Thus, although by 1865 African Americans resided in all of Buffalo’s thirteen wards, they were not allowed to attend the local schools in their own neighborhoods, and because transportation was a problem, many could not attend the Free African School on a regular basis. According to historian Arthur White, only ten percent of Buffalo’s African American population lived in the ward containing the Free African School in 1865.[11] This, of course, resulted in low enrollment.
In his study, Bilotta accentuated another viewpoint concerning African American education in Buffalo: “Buffalo blacks were somewhat more fortunate than black communities in many other northern cities, in that by 1840 the Buffalo public school fund supported an ‘African School’ for the education of black children. Although the Buffalo African School was segregated, it was more than blacks received in many other municipalities of the decade.”[12] Therefore, from Bilotta’s perspective, some funded education, regardless of the context in which it was received, was better than none at all.
When compared to 1865, the period of 1870 to 1880 shows some differences as well as similarities. United States census data for 1870 show that there were 696 African Americans residing in Buffalo, compared to 80,320 whites.[13] For 1875, Gutman and Glasco estimated that there were about 700 African Americans living in Buffalo.[14]The majority of African Americans still resided in Wards 4, 5 and 6. The New York State Censuses of 1875 demonstrate the beginnings of residential segregation.[15] Clusters of African American dwellings were present in the three wards where most African Americans resided. Residential hotels and rooming houses that welcomed African Americans in 1855 began to exclude them by 1875.[16] For example, in 1855 there were 22 African Americans living in hotels, compared to three in 1875.[17] At the same time, the number of African Americans living in large rooming houses declined from 78 to 28.[18]
Occupationally, African Americans still mainly performed service and labor types of jobs. From Gutman and Glasco’s analyses of the New York State Manuscript Census of 1875, census enumerators listed the occupations of 217 African American workers, which was about 31% of Buffalo’s recorded African American population.[19] 75 (35%) were service workers, such as maids, waiters, servants, cooks and chauffeurs; 30 (14%) were listed as skilled workers, such as barbers, painters and carpenters; 43 (20%) were semi-skilled workers, such as laundry workers, sailors and seamstress; 63 (29%) were listed as unskilled workers, such as laborers, whitewashers and dockworkers; and 6 (3%) were classified as professional workers, such as musicians, physicians and ministers. 138 (64%) of these workers engaged in service and unskilled types of tasks.[20]
Steady employment made it easier for couples to start families. In 1875, New York State census enumerators recorded 160 African American families in Buffalo.[21] They recorded that the household heads were predominately male. E. Franklin Frazier’s argument that slavery destroyed the African American family and that it was a matriarchy does not fit Buffalo’s 1875 African American population.[22] As conveyed below in Table II, 40% of African American families consisted of two individuals, a husband and wife; 22.5% consisted of a husband, wife and one child; and 13.7% of African American families had two children. On average, African Americans families with children usually just had one. For Irish and German families, most also had just one child, 24% and 22.3% respectively.[23]
In this paper, I will examine the history of African Americans residing in the City of Buffalo from 1865 to 1918. There is much that remains unknown, partly because their population figures were smaller and were marginalized compared to that of the white population. Yet, due to the work of historian Lillian S. Williams, who wrote Strangers in the Land of Paradise: The Creation of an African American Community, Buffalo, New York, 1900-1940 and historian Ralph Watkins, with his dissertation “Black Buffalo 1920-1927,” much more information has been collected than was readily available previously, initiating a strong budding historical record, allowing me to state with confidence that in the period from 1865 to 1918, African Americans not only adjusted to the Buffalo area but also acted proactively in fostering community development.[1] However, more historical work still needs to be done.
In 1865, at the beginning of the Reconstruction era, census enumerators recorded 711 African Americans residing in the City of Buffalo, 349 male, and 362 female.[2] At that time, the New York State Census Bureau labeled them as ‘colored persons.’ They resided throughout the city, with the majority living in Wards 4, 5, and 6. As conveyed in Table I below, 213 African American persons resided in Ward 4 (30%), 147 in Ward 5 (21%), and 122 in Ward 6 (17.2%):
Table I: 1865 City of Buffalo Wards
Distribution of African Americans[1]
Wards Males Females
1 1 3
2 13 18
3 16 14
4 99 114
5 69 78
6 59 63
7 10 9
8 31 28
9 13 10
10 2 7
11 4 5
12 21 5
13 11 8
Total 349 362
In terms of the types of employment that African Americans held, the 1865 New York State Censuses did not record the occupations of Buffalo residents but the Federal Census of 1860 did, which gives us an indication of what African American people may have been doing by 1865 since the occupations they undertook in 1860 probably were not significantly different from the jobs they performed in 1865. James D. Bilotta, author of A Quantitative Approach to Buffalo’s Black Population of 1860, found that 329 African Americans revealed their occupations to federal census takers.[3] The aggregate data underlines that they worked mainly in labor-service types of occupations, such as cooks, waiters, laborers, washerwomen, servants, and barbers.[4] Women made up 23% of the workforce, largely being employed as washerwomen and servants.[5] In contrast, men made up 77% of this labor force, mainly employed as sailors, cooks, waiters, whitewashers, and porters.[6]
African Americans, like other Buffalo residents, often sought work to support their families. After examining the New York State Manuscript Censuses for 1855 and 1877, historians Herbert Gutman and Laurence Glasco argued that few changes had occurred in Buffalo’s African American family structure.[7] African Americans usually resided in nuclear families, with a husband and wife and one or two children. Other groups, such as Germans and Irish, lived in a similar family arrangement, with an average of about two children. Single African American women raising children alone was not the norm, representing eleven percent of families in 1855 and seventeen percent in 1875.[8] Thus, for 1865, it can be inferred that 711 African Americans residing in Buffalo generally lived in family units like other Buffalonians.
The church, like the family, was another institution that helped stabilize and progress African American life in Buffalo. Initially, during the early 1830s, African Americans organized two churches of their own, the Colored Methodist Society—the forerunner of the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, located at the intersection of Vine and Washington Streets, and the Michigan Avenue Baptist Church, between Broadway and William Street.[9] The church was not only a place of worship, but also a place of ingathering for community members, as well as an arena for celebration and the development of political strategy. The gathering at the Michigan Avenue Baptist Church in celebration of the ratifying of the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is a case in point. The Buffalo Commercial Advertiser reported:
The demonstration by the colored citizens of Buffalo in honor of the ratification of the XVth amendment, yesterday, 4-14-1870—Thursday, was a highly creditable affair in all respects. A salute of 38 guns was fired near the corner of Michigan and Batavia Streets at nine o’clock in the morning and shortly after the people commenced gathering at the Michigan Street Baptist Church, the edifice soon being completely filled. A sermon appropriate to the occasion was preached by Rev. A. S. Brokenburgh, from Exodus XV; XI. [10]
Buffalo’s African American community revered education along with church activity, seeing it as a means to improve their lot. Yet, due to segregation, the only school they could attend in 1865 was the Free African School. Thus, although by 1865 African Americans resided in all of Buffalo’s thirteen wards, they were not allowed to attend the local schools in their own neighborhoods, and because transportation was a problem, many could not attend the Free African School on a regular basis. According to historian Arthur White, only ten percent of Buffalo’s African American population lived in the ward containing the Free African School in 1865.[11] This, of course, resulted in low enrollment.
In his study, Bilotta accentuated another viewpoint concerning African American education in Buffalo: “Buffalo blacks were somewhat more fortunate than black communities in many other northern cities, in that by 1840 the Buffalo public school fund supported an ‘African School’ for the education of black children. Although the Buffalo African School was segregated, it was more than blacks received in many other municipalities of the decade.”[12] Therefore, from Bilotta’s perspective, some funded education, regardless of the context in which it was received, was better than none at all.
When compared to 1865, the period of 1870 to 1880 shows some differences as well as similarities. United States census data for 1870 show that there were 696 African Americans residing in Buffalo, compared to 80,320 whites.[13] For 1875, Gutman and Glasco estimated that there were about 700 African Americans living in Buffalo.[14]The majority of African Americans still resided in Wards 4, 5 and 6. The New York State Censuses of 1875 demonstrate the beginnings of residential segregation.[15] Clusters of African American dwellings were present in the three wards where most African Americans resided. Residential hotels and rooming houses that welcomed African Americans in 1855 began to exclude them by 1875.[16] For example, in 1855 there were 22 African Americans living in hotels, compared to three in 1875.[17] At the same time, the number of African Americans living in large rooming houses declined from 78 to 28.[18]
Occupationally, African Americans still mainly performed service and labor types of jobs. From Gutman and Glasco’s analyses of the New York State Manuscript Census of 1875, census enumerators listed the occupations of 217 African American workers, which was about 31% of Buffalo’s recorded African American population.[19] 75 (35%) were service workers, such as maids, waiters, servants, cooks and chauffeurs; 30 (14%) were listed as skilled workers, such as barbers, painters and carpenters; 43 (20%) were semi-skilled workers, such as laundry workers, sailors and seamstress; 63 (29%) were listed as unskilled workers, such as laborers, whitewashers and dockworkers; and 6 (3%) were classified as professional workers, such as musicians, physicians and ministers. 138 (64%) of these workers engaged in service and unskilled types of tasks.[20]
Steady employment made it easier for couples to start families. In 1875, New York State census enumerators recorded 160 African American families in Buffalo.[21] They recorded that the household heads were predominately male. E. Franklin Frazier’s argument that slavery destroyed the African American family and that it was a matriarchy does not fit Buffalo’s 1875 African American population.[22] As conveyed below in Table II, 40% of African American families consisted of two individuals, a husband and wife; 22.5% consisted of a husband, wife and one child; and 13.7% of African American families had two children. On average, African Americans families with children usually just had one. For Irish and German families, most also had just one child, 24% and 22.3% respectively.[23]
Table II: Family Size of Buffalonians, 1855 & 1875
African Americans
Number Irish Germans 1855 1875
2
|
19.8
|
20.0
|
23.6
|
40.5
|
3
|
24.0
|
22.3
|
21.7
|
22.5
|
4
|
19.9
|
20.4
|
17.7
|
13.7
|
5
|
15.7
|
14.3
|
17.0
|
7.5
|
6
|
10.1
|
11.2
|
10.5
|
5.0
|
7
|
6.4
|
5.8
|
5.3
|
4.4
|
8
|
2.6
|
3.0
|
2.0
|
3.7
|
9
|
0.9
|
1.8
|
1.3
|
1.9
|
10
|
0.5
|
0.5
|
0.6
|
0.6
|
11
|
0.1
|
0.2
|
-
|
-
|
12
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
N=
|
1,066
|
1,649
|
152
|
160
|
The 1870s brought changes to the manner in which African American children were educated. In April 1873, the city officials acted against de facto school segregation. They revised their charter and opened all the public schools to children of color.[24] The efforts that culminated in the desegregation of the Buffalo schools began with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1866. This act guaranteed to African Americans United States citizenship and “equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for security of person and property, as enjoyed by white citizens.”[25] Henry Moxley, after waiting a year for the city to integrate schools, petitioned to have his children admitted to the school in the district he resided in. He rallied the African American community around his cause, making it their fight as well. He got a lawyer and fought their case in local court. He lost. He fought their case in the State Court of Appeals and lost again. Due to a lack of continued community support, he did not take the case to the Supreme Court. In the early 1870s, common councilmen continued Moxley’s fight by ruling against school segregation 17 to 7. Eventually, the Free African School closed; in 1880, with seventy-five African Americans attending sixteen of Buffalo’s public schools and only thirty-five continuing at the Free African School, the Superintendent asked that its operation cease.[26]
Comparing African American Philadelphians to those in Buffalo, Philadelphia had a significantly larger African American population. According to W. E. B. Du Bois, in the years 1860, 1870 and 1880, Philadelphia’s African American population was 22,185, 22,147, and 31,699, respectively.[27] “[Yet] not until 1881 was a law passed declaring it unlawful for any school director, superintendent or teacher to make any distinction whatever on account of, or by reason of, the race or color of any pupil or scholar who may be in attendance upon, or seeking admission to, any public or common school maintained wholly or in part under the school laws of [the Philadelphia] common wealth.”[28] Comparing Buffalo’s school integration to that of Detroit, which had African American population figures of 1,402 in 1860, 2,235 in 1870 and 2,821 in 1880, Detroit officials integrated their public schools by 1871.[29]
By 1890, according to Table III above, nineteen years after 1871, migration patterns had resulted in increases in Buffalo’s African American population, with United States census data for 1890 indicating that there were 1,118 African Americans residing in Buffalo. Compared to Buffalo’s African American population figures of 1870, 1890’s show an increase of about 418. The population of whites that resided in Buffalo in 1890 was 254,495. Compared to their 1870 figures, the white population of Buffalo had increased by 137,477. The total population of Buffalo in 1890 was 255,664 inhabitants. African Americans made up about 0.44% of Buffalo’s population, and they predominately resided in the same wards that they had during the 1870s.
Comparing African American Philadelphians to those in Buffalo, Philadelphia had a significantly larger African American population. According to W. E. B. Du Bois, in the years 1860, 1870 and 1880, Philadelphia’s African American population was 22,185, 22,147, and 31,699, respectively.[27] “[Yet] not until 1881 was a law passed declaring it unlawful for any school director, superintendent or teacher to make any distinction whatever on account of, or by reason of, the race or color of any pupil or scholar who may be in attendance upon, or seeking admission to, any public or common school maintained wholly or in part under the school laws of [the Philadelphia] common wealth.”[28] Comparing Buffalo’s school integration to that of Detroit, which had African American population figures of 1,402 in 1860, 2,235 in 1870 and 2,821 in 1880, Detroit officials integrated their public schools by 1871.[29]
Table III: Black, White and Total Population of the City of Buffalo, New York
Year Black % White Total
1860
|
809
|
1.0
|
80,320
|
81,129
|
1870
|
696
|
0.6
|
117,018
|
117,714
|
1880
|
857
|
0.6
|
154,268
|
155,134
|
1890
|
1,118
|
0.4
|
254,495
|
255,664
|
1900
|
1,698
|
0.5
|
350,586
|
352,387
|
1910
|
1,773
|
0.4
|
421,809
|
423,715
|
1920
|
4,511
|
0.9
|
502,042
|
506,775
|
By 1890, according to Table III above, nineteen years after 1871, migration patterns had resulted in increases in Buffalo’s African American population, with United States census data for 1890 indicating that there were 1,118 African Americans residing in Buffalo. Compared to Buffalo’s African American population figures of 1870, 1890’s show an increase of about 418. The population of whites that resided in Buffalo in 1890 was 254,495. Compared to their 1870 figures, the white population of Buffalo had increased by 137,477. The total population of Buffalo in 1890 was 255,664 inhabitants. African Americans made up about 0.44% of Buffalo’s population, and they predominately resided in the same wards that they had during the 1870s.
Occupationally, Buffalo’s African Americans engaged predominately in labor-service types of tasks in the 1890s, with a number of them working in skilled and professional positions.[31] Historian Lillian Williams found that the number of African Americans working in skilled and professional positions had gone back up to its 1854 level, 54.[32] Educationally, by 1890, the illiteracy rate for Buffalo’s school-age African American children 10 years of age or over was 13.6 percent. For native whites it was 0.7 percent, while for foreign-born whites it was 11.4 percent. For all groups of Buffonians generally, it was 5.4 percent.[33] The high illiteracy rate of African American children 10 years of age or over most significantly declined in 1900, as depicted in Table IV below[34]:
Table IV: Illiteracy Rate of Buffalonians 10 Years of Age and Over
1890 1900 1910
Black
|
13.6
|
5.4
|
4.1
|
American-born White
|
0.7
|
0.5
|
0.4
|
Foreign-born White
|
11.4
|
12.0
|
10.3
|
All Demographics
|
5.4
|
4.8
|
3.7
|
It’s not clear why the illiteracy rate for African American children 10 years of age or over was so high in 1890 compared to 1900. The argument that a number of children arrived from the South, where the quality of education along with educational access was low and limited, is nullified because significantly more African Americans migrated to Buffalo in 1900 compared to 1890, as Table III conveys.
Ten years later, in 1900, the demography of Buffalo’s African American population had changed, with 1,698 African Americans residing in the city of Buffalo, 899 male, and 799 female.[35] This was 580 more people than had been recorded in 1890. Census enumerators recorded 350,589 whites residing in Buffalo, an increase of 96,091 individuals. African Americans made up about 0.48 percent of the overall population. Compared to 1890, this was an increase of 0.04 percent.
At the turn of the century, African American men still usually headed their families. In 1905, New York State census enumerators recorded 17 percent of households being headed by women.[36] As aforesaid, this is contrary to the thesis argued by sociologist E. Franklin Frazier. The African American family in Buffalo was present and largely nuclear throughout the period of 1865 to 1918.[37]
In contrast, the illiteracy rate for Buffalo’s African American school-age children had declined when compared to the 1890 figures.[38] In 1900 it was 5.4 percent, a decrease of 8.2 percent. Over time, more African Americans had learned to read and write. For native whites the illiteracy rate was 0.5 percent, and for foreign-born whites it was 12 percent. For all Buffalonians, as conveyed above in Table IV, it was 4.8 percent. The U. S. census data revealed that the longer African Americans resided in Buffalo, the more their illiteracy rate began to decline. Buffalo’s white native population followed this trend as well.
Occupationally, at the turn of the century, the prospects of the economy looked bright for Buffalonians in general, including African Americans. Buffalo had developed from a commercial center to a budding industrial center. “[It] remained a major transportation hub, second only to Chicago, its cattle industry rivaled that of Kansas City and Chicago, and it was the world’s leading flour-milling center.”[39] The steel mills and the canneries were also major economic forces in the city.[40] This economic setting should have fostered advancements in the occupational status of Buffalo’s African American population; yet it did not. Race and class impacted the economic status of African Americans, as most of them were still relegated to service type occupations.
Most had jobs outside the key industries. For 648 African American men who responded to New York State census enumerators, the majority were listed as semi-skilled (311) and skilled (44) workers, such as bartenders, firemen, chauffeurs, masons, carpenters, painters, paperhangers, tailors, dry cleaners, shoemakers and molders. The labor skills of the remaining African American males were listed as a laborer (48), non-manual (40), professional (32) or other (173), as depicted below in Table V:[41]
Table V: Level of Skill of Buffalo African American Males, 1905
Percentage of Percentage of
Skill Number Male Workers All Males
Labor
|
48
|
10.0
|
7.0
|
Semi-Skilled
|
311
|
65.0
|
48.0
|
Skilled
|
44
|
9.0
|
7.0
|
Non-Manual
|
40
|
8.0
|
6.0
|
Professional
|
32
|
7.0
|
5.0
|
School
|
68
|
10.5
| |
Undetermined
|
51
|
8.0
| |
None
|
52
|
8.0
| |
Orphan
|
2
|
0.3
| |
Total
|
648
|
For African American women, their range of occupations was even more restrictive, but the majority (66%) found it necessary to work.[42] Williams argues that the restriction was not only due to racism but to sexism as well. For 1905, African American women were listed as engaging in service and semi-skilled types of occupations, such as hairdresser, waitress, hotel cook, caterer, laundress, servant, maid, seamstress and laborer.[43] A significant portion of them also worked as chambermaids and domestics in private homes and hospitals. Hence, from 1900 to 1905, although African Americans were employed, particularly men, their presence was marginal in the local economy, as few had obtained industrial jobs.
By 1910, Buffalo’s African American population had increased by 75 individuals, going from 1,698 persons in 1900 to 1,773 persons in 1910.[44] 933 were male and 840 were female. Buffalo’s white population had increased by 71,223, going from 350,586 persons in 1900 to 421,809 in 1910. The African American population in 1910 made up about 0.42 percent of Buffalo’s total population. Compared to 1900, this was a decrease of 0.02. Although the African American population of Buffalo increased, the white population also increased to an extent that offset, and even minimized, the increase in the African American population, as waves of European immigrants continued to arrive in Buffalo up to the dawn of World War I.
The illiteracy rate continued to go down,[45] decreasing to 4.1 percent, a reduction of 1.3 percent from 1900. Therefore, unsurprisingly, as African Americans in Buffalo became more urbanized, their reading and writing skills increased. The native white population’s illiteracy rate was 0.4 percent, and that of foreign-born whites was 10.3 percent. The foreign-born rate had dropped 1.7 percent between 1900 and 1910, and the illiteracy rate for all Buffalonians was 3.7 percent, a decrease of 1.1 percent. The illiteracy rate for African Americans was only 0.4 percent away from the average for all groups in Buffalo. Thus, all Buffalonians were becoming more literate as a result of urbanization.
Moreover, of African American children aged 6 to 9, 57 were recorded as being in school, and 10 were not.[46]For children aged 10 to 14, 100 were in school and 9 were not. And for youths aged 15 to 20, 34 were in school and 92 were not. In comparing these statistics to whites, for white children aged 6 to 9, 24,448 were in school and 5,750 were not. For those aged 10 to 14, 36,203 were in school and 2,822 were not. And for white youths aged 15 to 20, 12,564 were in school and 38,263 were not. These statistics show that the City of Buffalo promoted education and tried to ensure that its citizenry had basic educational skills.
After 1910, the City of Buffalo began to experience high levels of in-migration. U. S. census data indicate that in 1910, Buffalo’s population included 1,773 African Americans. By 1920, two years after the timeframe of this paper, this figure had more than doubled, to 4,511 individuals.[47] This was a 154.4 percent population growth increase. Buffalo’s white population had not increased at this rate. There were 421,809 whites in Buffalo in 1910. By 1920, it had increased to 502,042, which was a difference of 80,233 individuals, or a percentage increase of 19.0. This significant increase in Buffalo’s African American population would amplify residential segregation.
In 1865, African Americans lived throughout the City of Buffalo; by 1905 and beyond, changes occurred. In the first quarter of the 20th Century, primarily African American neighborhoods stood in pre-Civil War areas east of Main Street, along William Street, Broadway and Michigan Avenue.[48] In 1905, two-thirds of the city’s African Americans lived in wards 6 and 7; ten years later, in 1915, about three quarters of the city’s African Americans lived in this area and five years later, in 1920, 68.8 percent of the city’s 4,511 African Americans lived there.[49] Moreover, although the pressure for more living space resulted in some movement of African Americans into other wards, the general tendency of the larger white community was to make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for African Americans to get housing outside the 6th and 7th Wards.[50] In addition, the mortgage market was effectively closed except to those African Americans who could get a prominent white person to assist them in this endeavor.[51]
In comparing Buffalo to other northern urban centers for the period from 1900 to 1920, de facto segregation had taken place or was still occurring. The City of Chicago also displayed this pattern.[52] Once the African American and white sides of town were defined, both groups were expected to adhere to these boundaries, often called the “color line.” African Americans that did not adhere to these boundaries could expect some type of retribution. The spark that set off the Chicago Riot of 1919 is a case in point. An African American youth was swimming at a segregated beach. He swam on a side of the beach designated for whites. He was warned by white patrons to get back on the side of the beach for African Americans. They then began throwing rocks at him. The young man drowned. This ignited fights on the beach, which further sparked a race riot that lasted for six days. It was one of the worst race riots in United States history; 23 African Americans and 15 whites were killed, and 342 African Americans and 178 whites were injured.[53]About $250,000 worth of property was destroyed, which left over a thousand people homeless.[54]
The City of Buffalo did not experience anything in the period from 1900 to 1918 of the magnitude that Chicago did. Yet, there were clear signs of racial tensions and a color line. Although records indicate that in 1865, there were African Americans residing in most wards of the city, they were virtually nonexistent in Ward 1, the site of the Erie Canal, which was most heavily populated by citizens of Irish descent. By the 1920s, the Irish had staked out the First Ward as their territory and were extremely sensitive about other ethnic groups living among them.[55] An African American person merely walking through the First Ward was subject to much scrutiny, name-calling, and potential physical abuse.[56] This antagonism toward African Americans could have stemmed from the fact that African Americans were used as strikebreakers. Mark Goldman, author of High Hopes: The Rise and Decline of Buffalo, New York, states that:
Blacks and whites did meet, however – particularly on the city’s waterfront, where black and Irish day laborers worked together. More often, however, they met at strikes, where blacks were often used as strikebreakers. Indeed, by the middle of the 1850s racial riots between Irish and black waterfront laborers had become so common that the rest of the community had come to accept these occurrences as a result of the mutual jealously and dislike as by the fact that virtually every one of the fairly regular work stoppages of Irish dockworkers was broken by black strikebreakers.[57]
Watkins further details other instances of discrimination involving African Americans that occurred regularly over the years, such as the police arresting African Americans for petty offenses, theater owners segregating them in movie houses, YMCA officials limiting their participation in YMCA activities, and beach authorities limiting their use of Erie Beach.[59] Yet and still, the presence of African Americans in Buffalo did not elicit mass forms of white violence as seen in cities such as Chicago, Tulsa, Longview, East St. Louis and Atlanta. The reason is that Buffalo did not experience the tremendous influx of African Americans that other cities received. For example, in 1910, Chicago had 44,103 African American residences; by 1920, it had increased to 109,458; and by 1930, it had increased to 233,903.[60] New York City’s African American population growth followed a similar pattern.[61]
Hubert Blalock, Jr., a noted sociologist and author of Toward a Theory of Minority Group Relations, supports this idea. He argues two propositions that help explain American race riots. In the case of minority mobilization and an increase in minority numbers in an urban setting, he states:
When Negroes are very numerous, relative to whites, the latter are apt to be so highly mobilized that even slight challenges to the status quo are met with extreme reactions in the form of violence or strong economic sanctions.[62]
And the converse, which applies to the African Americans who resided in Buffalo:
These suppositions are key components of the above theory on African American migration patterns, which ultimately relate to relations between ethnic groups.
Not only was the African American presence marginal in Buffalo from 1865 to 1918, but it also did not pose any threat to white Buffalonians. Socially, African Americans were in residence in all of Buffalo’s wards from 1865 to about 1890. Particularly up until about 1880, their numbers were so small that it was not uncommon to see them dispersed throughout all the wards. Whites “endured” them in their midst. But after 1880, due to larger in-migration rates, the census records convey higher percentage increases of African Americans residing in Buffalo. Despite this, their numbers were still small in comparison to the local white population. Moreover, the census shows that as the percentage of the Buffalonian population that was African American increased, by 1905, African American residents were clustering in Wards 6 and 7. And by 1920, the majority of them resided in those two wards. Educationally, the small number of African American children who attended school up until 1873 attended the African Free School, a segregated school. In 1873, they were allowed to attend the local schools in their wards or districts, but still their numbers were too small to cause alarm to the white population. Finally, their economic status was relegated to a level that was acceptable to whites of all social and economic classes. There was little competition with whites for jobs, especially the industrial jobs that were increasingly being created in Buffalo as a result of industrial growth. African Americans were usually employed outside of this job market; they were mainly clustered in service type jobs such as waiters, waitresses, porters, hairdressers, caters, cooks, chambermaids, barbers, brick masons and so forth. They existed on the fringes of Buffalo culture and society and were expected to conform to an unwritten code of racial behavior that clearly placed them in a subordinate position, and most white residents had extremely limited or absolutely no contact with them.[64]
The above factors support Blalock’s second supposition. While racial tension did exist in Buffalo over the timeframe of this paper, the relatively low numbers of African American Buffalonians, along with their settling (or being compelled to settle) for labor and service occupations, worked against extreme expressions of racial violence. It is true, however, as Watkins alluded to, that race relations worsened with each successive year, as the African American population of Buffalo increased after 1920.[65] An increase in population brought about more competition for jobs and living space. It can be projected that a study done on this issue for the time period from 1919 to 1990 would uncover a similar finding.
The findings in this paper do not even scratch the surface of revealing the true history of African Americans in Buffalo from 1865 to 1918. Part of the reason for this is that ‘concrete data’ was often not recorded on African Americans. The concrete information that is available is found in such places as federal and state government census reports, city directories, police records, and school and city reports, and it is not abundant. Furthermore, research reveals that no one has written a history of the role of African Americans in local politics.
Thus, this paper is an effort at telling the story of Africans in Buffalo from 1865 to 1918. It is significant because it attempts to fill a gap that other historians did not cover or did not cover deeply. Available evidence does support the contention that race relations were fairly open and tolerable until after 1915, which saw the steady influx of African Americans into the Buffalo community. Although signs of racial tensions became more evident with the passing years, Buffalo did not experience the mass forms of overt violence that other cities faced. The major reason for this probably was the fact that Buffalo never received quite as high an influx of African American migrants that other cities did. For this reason, their presence was tolerated during Buffalo’s early formative years, being seen as insignificant, even marginal. But as their numbers increased and the city’s structure began to stabilize, signs of overt intolerance began to emerge.
About the author: Michael Boston is an African and African American Studies faculty at The College at Brockport.
Bibliography
[1] David A. Gerber, The Making of an American Pluralism: Buffalo, N.Y., 1825-60 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1989), 175-76, 342-369, & 408-409.
[2] New York State Census Bureau, 5-23.
[3] James D. Bilotta, “A Quantitative Approach to Buffalo’s Black Population of 1860,” Afro-Americans in New York Life and History (July 1988), 26-29.
[4] Ibid., 28.
[5] Ibid., 26.
[6] Ibid., 26.
[7] Herbert G. Gutman and Laurence A. Glasco, “The Buffalo, New York Negro, 1855-1875: A Study of the Family Structure of Free Negroes and Some of Its Implications,” Unpublished Paper, delivered at the Wisconsin Conference on the History of American Political and Social Behavior, 16-17 May 1968 (Buffalo Historical Society), 5-17.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Henry L. Taylor, Jr., African Americans and the Rise of Buffalo’s Post-Industrial City, 1940 to Present (Buffalo, N.Y.: Buffalo Urban League, Inc., 1990), 11.
[10] Stephen Gredel, “Reminiscences on the Past of the Negroes of Buffalo,” Library Archives, Buffalo Historical Society (A65-10), 5.
[11] Arthur O. White, “The Black Movement Against Jim Crow Education in Buffalo, New York, 1800-1900,” Phylon, 25 (Winter 1969), 378.
[12] D. Bilotta, “A Quantitative Approach to Buffalo’s Black Population of 1860,” 23.
[13] Henry L. Taylor, Jr., African Americans and the Rise of Buffalo’s Post-Industrial City, 1940 to Present, 23.
[14] Herbert G. Gutman and Laurence A. Glasco, “The Buffalo, New York, Negro, 1855-1875: A Study of the Family Structure of Free Negroes and Some of Its Implications,” 11.
[15] Ibid., 11.
[16] Henry L. Taylor, Jr., African Americans and the Rise of Buffalo’s Post-Industrial City, 1940 to Present, 17.
[17] Ibid., 17.
[18] Ibid., 17.
[19] Ibid., 36.
[20] Ibid.
[21] Ibid., 34.
[22] E. Franklin Frazier, The Negro Family in the United States (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1939), 1-50.
[23] Herbert G. Gutman and Laurence A. Glasco, “The Buffalo, New York, Negro, 1855-1875: A Study of the Family Structure of Free Negroes and Some of Its Implications,” 30.
[24] Arthur O. White, “The Black Movement Against Jim Crow Education in Buffalo, New York, 1800-1900,” 391-393.
[25] Ibid., 382.
[26] Ibid., 393.
[27] W. E. B. DuBois, The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study (New York: Schocken Books, 1967), 47
[28] Ibid., 88-89.
[29] David M. Katzman, Before the Ghetto: Black Detroit in the Nineteenth Century (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1973), 62 & 90.
[30] Henry L. Taylor, Jr., African Americans and the Rise of Buffalo’s Post-Industrial City, 1940 to Present, 30.
[31] Lillian S. Williams, “The Development of a Black Community: Buffalo, New York, 1900-1940” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Buffalo, 1979), 28.
[32] Ibid., 28.
[33] Bureau of the Census, Negro Population of the United States 1790-1915 (Department of Commerce, Washington, D.C., 1918), 434.
[34] Ibid., 434.
[35] 156.
[36] Lillian S. Williams, “The Development of a Black Community: Buffalo, New York, 1900-1940,” 87-88.
[37] In this paper, a nuclear family is defined as one in which a husband and wife make up a household or a husband, wife and children exist as a family within a dwelling.
[38] Bureau of the Census, Negro Population of the United States 1790-1915, 434.
[39] Lillian S. Williams, “Black Women and Reform,” Afro-Americans in New York Life and History, 14 (July 1990), 9.
[40] Ibid.
[41] Bureau of the Census, Negro Population of the United States 1790-1915, 434.
[42] Lillian S. Williams, “The Development of a Black Community: Buffalo, New York, 1900-1940,” 155.
[43] Ibid., 156-160.
[44]Bureau of the Census, Negro Population of the United States 1790-1915, 156; Henry L. Taylor, Jr., African Americans and the Rise of Buffalo’s Post-Industrial City, 1940 to Present, 23.
[45] Bureau of the Census, Negro Population of the United States 1790-1915, 434.
[46] Ibid., 401.
[47] Henry L. Taylor, Jr., African Americans and the Rise of Buffalo’s Post-Industrial City, 1940 to Present, 23.
[48] Ibid., 20.
[49] Ibid.
[50] Ena L. Farley, “The African American Presence in the History of Western New York,” Afro-Americans in New York Life and History, 14 (January 1990), 36.
[51] Ibid., 36-37.
[52] St. Clair Drake and Horace R. Cayton, Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City (New York: Harper Torchbook, 1962), 99-173.
[53] Gunnar Myrdal, An American Dilemma (New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1944), 567.
[54] St. Clair Drake and Horace R. Cayton, Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City, 65.
[55] Ralph Watkins, “Black Buffalo 1920-1927” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Buffalo, 1978), 130.
[56] Ibid.
[57] Mark Goldman, High Hopes: The Rise and Decline of Buffalo, New York (Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1983), 92.
[58] Ralph Watkins, “Black Buffalo 1920-1927” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Buffalo, 1978), 130.
[59] Ibid., 45-76.
[60] Clair Drake and Horace R. Cayton, Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City, 8.
[61] Henry L. Taylor, Jr., African Americans and the Rise of Buffalo’s Post-Industrial City, 1940 to Present, 32.
[62] Hubert M. Blalock, Jr., Toward a Theory of Minority-Group Relations (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1967), 177.
[63] Ibid.
[64] Ralph Watkins, “Black Buffalo 1920-1927” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Buffalo, 1978), 46 & 64.
[65] Ibid., 47.
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