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III.

UNEMPLOYMENT*

There are approximately 1,500,000 unemployed Negro workers in the United States.

Displacement

During the current depression, the national employment scheme has been affected by the incursion of white workers to fields of employment formerly occupied almost exclusively by Negroes. In restaurants and hotels Negro men waiters have been partially displaced by white men or by white or Negro girls. White patrons have almost entirely abandoned colored barber shops in the South. In the same section where they formerly monopolized the building trades, Negro carpenters, plasterers and masons are steadily declining in number. Then there is a recent and persistent pressure by which Negro locomotive firemen are being replaced by white men.

Political disfranchisement throughout the South leaves the Negro open to local governmental exploitation. This is evidenced in sporadic attempts of white groups, such as barbers, to drive Negroes out by municipal ordinance, the licensing of electricians, plumbers and other skilled tradesmen and the barring of Negroes from public employment on such work as construction, street cleaning and garbage removal.

Instances of job displacement are numerous and nation-wide. They are for the most part a result of economic factors beyond the control of Negroes. However, the loss of a job on the part of the Negro does not necessarily indicate that the job was discontinued. In many instances it was given over to a white person who sought it for himself and received it as a result of pressure, intimidation or popular belief that whites should be given any jobs they want even though they might displace others who have occupied them for a long while.

The following summary of unemployment and its social costs to Negroes in 1932-1933 is taken from THE FORGOTTEN TENTH.

* A full discussion of this subject will be found in THE FORGOTTEN TENTH - An Analysis of Unemployment Among Negroes in the United States and Its Social Costs: 1932-1933. This is a current publication of the National Urban League.

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Briefly, The Total Situation

The effects of this continued era of unemployment were much more marked during 1932 than in any previous year.

The displacement of Negro workers by white workers - a logical circumstance in the system under which Negroes live and work - was accomplished in many communities by organized propaganda. The efforts to remove Negroes from jobs were brought from under cover into open light and the sponsors of such efforts made no attempt to disguise their motives.

There was a tremendous increase in the volume of relief to Negroes. Yet all indications point to the fact that many needy Negro families did not receive organized relief. Despite this fact, there is a pronounced emphasis upon the granting of relief in work, kind or money, on the basis of race and on proportion in the total population. This has resulted rather generally in a smaller amount of relief per family for Negroes than for whites.

Public and private relief-giving agencies were severely handicapped in their approach to Negro families because of their inability to handle the mass case load presented by the unemployment situation. In some communities even this emergency form of case work was a great improvement over the type of service formerly available to Negroes. This improvement was due in part, at least, to (1) the utilization of Negro case workers and (2) the inclusion of representatives of the Negro community on relief committees.

In the majority of communities work-relief offered Negroes is distinctly colored by racial discrimination. This is accomplished through paying lower wages to Negroes than to whites or through offering them fewer days work. The effect of such an arrangement has been most unsatisfactory, and has aroused the disapproval of a number of socially-minded individuals and organizations. This situation is no less true of communities using federal funds for work-relief.

Care for transient and homeless Negroes has been receiving more attention. In a number of communities of the South special Negro committees have been organized by Negroes for this particular type of aid. However, there is an urgent need for a very constructive program which will provide adequate housing facilities for the care of homeless Negro men and Negro women. This need is prevalent in the North and in the South to a much greater degree than ever before.

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