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Cook's Point economic survey report, 1963
1963-10 Racial Justice in Iowa Page 6
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LABOR Volume 25, No. 13 October, 1963 Racial Injustice in Iowa Let it not be though that there was no housing shortage in Davenport at the time of the threatened eviction of the Cook's Point families. It so happened that we presented evidence at previous hearings in connection with rent de-control. Despite the organized property owners of Davenport and their testimony presented by Attorney Henry Newman to the contrary, we were able to present conclusive evidence of the shortage of both homes for sale and for rent. In fact there was a very serious problem for whites in search of a home those years. The prospects for housing the displaced Mexicans of Cook's Point were simply hopeless. Those who faced up to this problem realized that relatives and friends of the displaced would be simply forced to open their already crowded homes to these people. Unless the light of publicity could be brought to bear upon the situation, the Mexicans would simply submissively endure even worse conditions than those to which they were accustomed at the Point. And the consciences of Davenport's elite would not be unduly disturbed by this social injustice carefully hidden under the rug. Obviously the Mexicans themselves were incapable of effective protest at the time. The League for Social Justice's survey revealed that there were 27 families left at the Point, 21 of which had no property. Moreover they had no means financially of acquiring property and were thus desperately in need of low-rent housing. 75 percent of the families all "faced ... a common problem: how to find low-cost rental housing in housing-scarce Davenport by June 1". Space precludes a description of these families, but a few observations about some of the families should be useful. One mother of eleven children, her husband and her brother-in-law lived in a three room dwelling. The husband, who worked in the Blackhawk Foundry and could have paid rental, was unable to find quarters for his family and lacked funds to purchase a home. His wife commented: " I do not know what to do. There's no place that will take children. We want to keep our family together". Another father, a welder but in poor health and out of work, worried about a home for his wife and four children. " We haven't got a penny. We will have to rent but with four children where?". Another section had lived in a three room sack with his wife and nine children. He was correct in protesting that he could pay no more rent. Another widow tried to keep her five children together but said: " I don't know what I am going to do after June 1". A couple of families had bought property in Silvis and others had purchased sites on the Blue Grass road, but needed time to build. One mother owned a home in Davenport then occupied by her two sons and their families. Another mother who had four children living with her on the Point hesitated to occupy her Davenport home because this would entail ejecting her son and his family from their desperately needed abode. When Alderman John Fell remarked two years earlier that the Cook's Point residents owned property in Davenport he was not entirely wrong. Rev. William T. O'Connor
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LABOR Volume 25, No. 13 October, 1963 Racial Injustice in Iowa Let it not be though that there was no housing shortage in Davenport at the time of the threatened eviction of the Cook's Point families. It so happened that we presented evidence at previous hearings in connection with rent de-control. Despite the organized property owners of Davenport and their testimony presented by Attorney Henry Newman to the contrary, we were able to present conclusive evidence of the shortage of both homes for sale and for rent. In fact there was a very serious problem for whites in search of a home those years. The prospects for housing the displaced Mexicans of Cook's Point were simply hopeless. Those who faced up to this problem realized that relatives and friends of the displaced would be simply forced to open their already crowded homes to these people. Unless the light of publicity could be brought to bear upon the situation, the Mexicans would simply submissively endure even worse conditions than those to which they were accustomed at the Point. And the consciences of Davenport's elite would not be unduly disturbed by this social injustice carefully hidden under the rug. Obviously the Mexicans themselves were incapable of effective protest at the time. The League for Social Justice's survey revealed that there were 27 families left at the Point, 21 of which had no property. Moreover they had no means financially of acquiring property and were thus desperately in need of low-rent housing. 75 percent of the families all "faced ... a common problem: how to find low-cost rental housing in housing-scarce Davenport by June 1". Space precludes a description of these families, but a few observations about some of the families should be useful. One mother of eleven children, her husband and her brother-in-law lived in a three room dwelling. The husband, who worked in the Blackhawk Foundry and could have paid rental, was unable to find quarters for his family and lacked funds to purchase a home. His wife commented: " I do not know what to do. There's no place that will take children. We want to keep our family together". Another father, a welder but in poor health and out of work, worried about a home for his wife and four children. " We haven't got a penny. We will have to rent but with four children where?". Another section had lived in a three room sack with his wife and nine children. He was correct in protesting that he could pay no more rent. Another widow tried to keep her five children together but said: " I don't know what I am going to do after June 1". A couple of families had bought property in Silvis and others had purchased sites on the Blue Grass road, but needed time to build. One mother owned a home in Davenport then occupied by her two sons and their families. Another mother who had four children living with her on the Point hesitated to occupy her Davenport home because this would entail ejecting her son and his family from their desperately needed abode. When Alderman John Fell remarked two years earlier that the Cook's Point residents owned property in Davenport he was not entirely wrong. Rev. William T. O'Connor
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