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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - IV. Economics - 13. Seeking Jobs Outside Agriculture - 6. A Closer View on Northern Trends
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Chapter 13. Seeking Jobs Outside Agriculture 295
remained confined to certain jobs—either those where he had earlier
acquired something of a traditional position or where he managed to gain
a foothold during the extraordinary labor market crisis of the First World
War.*
This should be emphasized: large emfloyment gains for Negroes in the
North—exceft for the present war boom—occurred only during the short
’period from the First World War until the end of the ^twenties. During
the ’thirties (Table 2), the upward trend in number of Negro workers was
broken even more definitely than was the case in the urban South—and this
In spite of the fact that the Negro population in the large Northern centers
of Negro concentration increased by as much as 23 per cent between 1930
and 1940. The white population in the urban North, on the other hand,
was almost stationary, as was the white labor force. Thus, while the pro-
portion of Negroes in the total population continued to increase, there was
scarcely any change at all in the relative number of Negro male workers.
Further, as we shall point out later in this chapter, the unemployment
among these Negro workers was much greater in the North than in the
South.
All this Is explainable on several grounds. The depression hit the North
worse than the South. Nevertheless, Negroes continued to go North to
such an extent that the relative increase in the Negro urban population was
even greater in the North than in the South. As pointed out in Chapter 8,
this cannot mean anything but that, once the isolation had been broken and
the northward migration had become a pattern, Negroes continued to go
North whether or not there were any employment openings for them there.
In addition to the general difference in social conditions—^less segregation,
greater legal security, superior educational and hospital facilities, higher
earnings if any jobs are to be hadi and so on—^the North offers much more
public relief to Negroes in economic distress than does the South.’* This fact
has undoubtedly been behind much of the Negro migration to the North
during the ’thirties.^ Also, as in the South, public relief has contributed to
the decline in the proportion of Negro youth and%Negro aged persons
who offer their services on the Northern labor market.*’
Thus, it was not all due to any greater negligence about the Negro in the
North that—as far as employment was concerned—he fared even worse
* This fact, of course, is one of the main reasons why most of the outstanding Negro
leaders are not inclined, during the present War, to postpone the fight for Negro rights
until after the War is over. (For a representative expression of their attitude, see “Press
Service of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.” [July 17,
» 94*].)
See Chapter 1 5.
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