Negro families into the city of Pittsburgh are described by
Mr. Charles C. Cooper, head of the Kingsley House, as follows: "The
great number of idle colored men and women in any part of the great
cities is difficult to estimate; there is no method of computing
those who have come into the city after being laid off in surrounding
territory. During some twelve days in January, 1921, 2,100 colored
men, who had come from surrounding districts, and none of whom had
been working in Pittsburgh, applied at the little Providence Rescue
Mission in Pittsburgh for assistance and work. In one week 1,027
applied to the Urban League of this City for work, and 8 received it."
He states, further, that the usual uplift or philanthropic agencies
were overburdened in their efforts to help these unfortunates. Two
prominent Negro churches volunteered their services and rendered
valuable assistance to the regular relief organizations in the matter
of feeding and housing these migrants. The situation, moreover, was
all the more aggravated because of the attitude of the police
department toward these newcomers and the acute housing conditions.
With its usual lack of understanding, it permitted the police officers
to arrest hundreds of these Negroes, many of whom were sent to the
workhouse. On account of the scarcity of dwelling places rents were
very high, and even where money was available for the purpose, the
purchasing of houses was an impossibility. When a large group of these
distressed men were asked if they were going to return to the South on
account of their misfortunes they firmly replied: "Like Hell we
are!"[165]

A small movement of some unemployed Negroes endeavoring to reach their
original homes in the South, however, greatly augmented the number of
homeless Negroes in the city of Louisville, Kentucky, during December,
1920. As this city has never made provision to care for homeless men,
these wanderers at first received a very cold reception. The workhouse
became the lodging-place of a large number of them, because they were
arbitrarily arrested by the police, and on the charge of vagrancy were
sentenced by the court to this institution for a period of ninety
days. Efforts of the State Employment Bureau and the local branch of
the Urban League to find jobs for these men were of no avail.
Finally, through the instrumentality of the Community Council of this
city a meeting of representatives of a number of organizations devised
a