er
of Tuskegee boys was 32. Robinson also brought men from Metropolis,
Illinois, and from Kankakee. He made a trip through Alabama and
brought up 15 or 16. Most of these were laborers. Seven laborers came
as a result of correspondence with a physician from Des Moines, Iowa.
From Christiansburg, Virginia, the only negro blacksmith came. The
Urban League also sent up some men from Chicago. The company was so
pleased with the men's service that they called upon the Urban
League for more men and placed in its hands a fund for their railroad
expenses.[114]

Negroes were promoted from time to time and were used in every
department of the shop. One of the men was an inspector. Two new
machines turning out work faster than any other machine were turned
over to the negroes. All of them were given steady work without
being forced to lay off, and their wages were increased. Street car
companies and officials in Rockford have congratulated the men
upon their conduct. Two of the men who came up from the South were
purchasing property.

When the increase in negro population became noticeable, a good deal
of discrimination appeared in public places. The mayor of the
city, therefore, called a conference of the Chamber of Commerce,
of representatives from Camp Grant, hotels, skating rinks and other
public places and read the civil rights law to them. He gave them to
understand that Rockford would not stand for discrimination between
races. When some of the conferees thought they would like to have
separate tables in the restaurants the mayor opposed them and
insisted that there should be no such treatment. One restaurant, which
displayed a sign, "We do not cater to colored trade," was given orders
by the Chief of Police to take it down in fifteen minutes, when his
deputy would arrive with instructions to carry out the law in case the
sign was not removed.

Waukegan, a town thirty miles northwest of Chicago, with a total
population of about 22,000 has approximately 400 negroes, where two
years ago there were about 275. The Wilder Tanning Company and the
American Steel and Wire Company employed the largest number of these
negroes. These firms worked about 60 and 80 respectively. Smaller
numbers were employed by the Gas Company, the Calk Mill, the Cyclone
Fence Company, the Northwestern Railroad freight house and a bed
spring factory and several were working at the Great Lakes Naval
Training Station. A few found employment as porters