Civic Group Asks Local Residents to Rent to Negroes

Because of the large number of Negro students who have found it difficult to find rooms available in local boarding houses, the Civic Unity Committee of Cambridge is sending a special letter to all apartment holders requesting them to rent living space to these students.

The Graduate Council and Phillips Brooks House are cooperating in the project.

The Council's letter, which will be sent out late this month, will come at the same time as the group is completing a thorough study of Cambridge room-renting practices. The final results of the survey-have not yet been analyzed: but preliminary figures show a number of cases where Negro students have been unable to gain rooms after they were promised them over the telephone.

Rents Exorbitant

One Negro couple applied unsuccessfully to every boarding house on the Phillips Brooks House list. At some house the proprietors had told them over the telephone that rooms were available, but when the students appeared at the house, they found the rents exorbitant.

The PBH listing includes only those houses which agree that they will admit students regardless of their race, creed, or national origin.