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Chapter i6. Income, Consumption and Housing 365
The corresponding median income for ^’normal” white families was $1,220.
About 17 per cent of all the "normal” Negro families in villages had
incomes under $250, but were, nevertheless, not on relief. Only 4 per cent
of the Negro households had incomes of $1,000 or more.^ It goes without
saying that the income level would have appeared still lower if broken
families had been included in the estimates.®
Small cities in the South showed similar conditions, except that the
income level for Negro families was somewhat higher.^ It was still higher
in the middle-sized and large cities of the South (Table i). Nevertheless,
half the "normal” Negro families in Atlanta had less than $632, and half
the broken Negro families had less than $332. White families had more
TABLE I
Median Incomes of Negro and Native White Families in Selected Cities: 1935-1936
Normal Families Broken Families
New York Chicago Columbus AtlantaColumbia Mobile Atlanta Columbia [Mobile
Race N. Y. 111. Ohio Ga. S. C. Ala. Ga. S. C. Ala.
Negro families I980 •
>726 #831 $631 >576 >481 >332 >254 fooj
White families 1930 1687 1622 1876 1876 1419 940 1403 784
Sources: U.S. Department of Labor. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Study of Consumer Purchases, Urban
Series, Family Income in Chicago, 1935-36, Bulletin No. 642, Vol. 1, Family Income (1939), p. 162; Family
Income and Expenditure in New York City, 1935-36, Bulletin No. <^3, Vol. i. Family Income (1941). P- 19;
Family Income in Nine Cities of the East Central Region, 1035-36, Bulletin No. 644, Vol. i, Family Income
(1939). PP- 33 and 443; Family Income in the Southeastern Region, 1935-36, Bulletin No. 647, Vol. z, Family
Income (i939)f M?- 46-48.
•New York City, so-called "native area" only.
than twice and, in some cities, more than three times as much. Northern
cities showed a substantially higher income level for Negroes. In New York
City the median income for normal Negro families was $980 and in
Chicago it was $726. Moreover, the differential between whites and Negroes
was less pronounced than in the South. The reason for this is that—con-
trary to common belief the white urban ’population in the North does not
have any significantly higher median incomes than has the white urban
population in the South,
These conclusions are based not only on the small group of cities
sampled in the Study of Consumer Purchases. The National Health Survey
for 1935-1936, containing information on income of Negro and white
families in 16 Northern and 18 Southern cities, confirms both that race
differences in income are much more marked in the urban South than in
the urban North, and that median incomes for white urban families are
about the same in the South as in the North.® The explanation is simple.
The urban white population in the South has an "incomplete lower class,”
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