What is the Black Belt? –DIVISION- Blacks were sectioned off in one part of Chicago, away from whites. The two races were divided by the "line", otherwise known as Cottage Grove Avenue with blacks inhabiting the South side. This region, being the only place where blacks were legally allowed to own property, and the only place white real estate agents permitted blacks to live in, became known as the Black Belt. –"They keep us bottled up here like wild animals...black people could not go outside of the Black Belt...No white real estate man would rent a flat to a black man other than in the sections where it had been decided that black people might live."- Bigger, p.249 –BUSINESS- While the neighborhood is inhabited by blacks, businesses are dominated by those who aren't. –"Almost all businesses in the Black Belt were owned by Jews, Italians, and Greeks. Most Negro businesses were funeral parlors; white undertakers refused...black bodies."- Bigger, p.249 This shows that economically, blacks were struggling despite living in neighborhoods where they are the dominant race/ethnicity. Also what little business blacks possessed, it was not fully theirs.

HOUSING- Life in homes in the Black Belt had been overcrowded. Many families consisting of three or more members usually lived in a small, one room apartment which may have been barely affordable. Apartments were clustered together, and there was a fight to prevent the invasion of rats, roaches, etc. DIVISION- In the 1940s the Supreme Court ruled that "restrictive covenants based on race were unconstitutional." Thus, the Black Belt, while still a predominantly black neighborhood, was not the only place where blacks could live and the Supreme Court's rule had given blacks the freedom to expand. However, racial tension among blacks and whites still remained and also took the form of riots and police brutality. HOUSING- Many projects have been implemented to renovate or remove the projects of the Black Belt and replace them with "mixed- income housing". Houses were then sold at different prices.

Black Belt Conditions Located in the large city of Chicago, Illinois, part of the northern half of the United States. A long, but narrow, strip of land in the South Side of Chicago. Many made their homes between 23rd and 50th streets, Cottage Grove Avenue and State Street. Majority of the inhabitants that had migrated there, came from the South. Mostly populated by African Americans. Conditions included poverty, a great deal of crime, poor education programs, large amount of unemployed people, insubstantial health care, and inadequate housing. It can be said that the Black Belt was built out of necessity. This is because blacks were not allowed to own property in other neighborhoods, they were not considered for well-paying jobs, and many whites would not let blacks into stores they owned. "We lived in a segregated neighborhood," said Abner Williams, a Chicagoan who is 85. "But you didn't think much about that because everything you needed was right there, from fresh meats to tailors."

Living, Building, and Sanitation Conditions From the turn of the twentieth century until after World War II, the “Black Belt” was a name for the predominately African American community on the south side of Chicago. The Black Belt was a chain of neighborhoods divided into zones relevant to economic status. The poorest blacks resided in the northernmost, oldest section of the area, while the more privileged lived in the southernmost section. The black belt was an area of aging, rundown housing that stretched thirty blocks along State Street and was rarely more than a few blocks wide. Despite a few decent homes in the Negro sections, the area was a slum. Both low life and middle class citizens were concentrated in a small area. They were isolated in impoverished conditions. Many apartments did not have proper plumbing, and held only one bathroom for each floor. Buildings were overcrowded, sometimes with 7 people living in one household. Building inspections and garbage collection failed to meet the mandatory requirements for healthy sanitation, increasing the risk of disease and death rate. There was also a great deal of crime in these neighborhoods, and high rates of robberies and homicide, which police would often ignore. In addition, some women were so poor, that they resorted to prostitution to survive.

Black Belt and Native Son The black belt in native son defines Bigger and his people. Their isolation and lack of available and permissible jobs and education makes it impossible for them to excel in any way and outrun boundaries that have been set for them by white people. The black belt also kept its people in a state of extreme poverty. Their rent was much more expensive than in the white parts of town, and as Bigger points out something as simple as bread could be a cent more expensive, which was a lot in that time. By keeping them in that state of poverty the white people basically had the blacks under their fist at all times, since they couldn’t afford to rebel in any way or stop working for whites who wanted them at low salaries. · In a way, the black belt is what caused the murders that Bigger was sent to death for. He was so constantly oppressed by white people and so taught by the segregation that he could not coexist with them that he feared and distrusted them. He was taught to distrust them so much that he couldn’t believe that Mary Dalton was trying to help him and hated her for trying to. This hate and distrust of Mary and Mrs. Dalton forced him to panic and kill her. The same distrust spread generally to mankind when he killed Bessie rather than trusting her to keep his secret.

Bibliography 1. Farwell, Jennifer. "Bronzeville and Beyond." The Magazine of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Convio, Web.. 2. Manning, Christopher. "African Americans." Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago: Chicago Historical Society, The Newberry Library. Web Quantanilla, Ray. "Memories of the 'Black Belt'" The Chicago Reporter. Community Renewal Society, Web "Chicago: Destination for the Great Migration." The African- American Mosaic. The Library of Congress, Web.. 5. Best, Wallace. "Black Belt." Encyclopedia of Chicago. The Newberry Library, Web Wright, Richard. Native Son. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1940.

A Little More Info… Working in a grocery store was a common job for adults in the black belt. Although it did not pay much, jobs such as these were desirable to support a family. Black Belt describes the larger area of the South with historic ties to slave plantation agriculture and the cash crops of cotton, rice, sugar, and tobacco.