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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - IV. Economics - 14. The Negro in Business, the Professions, Public Service and Other White Collar Occupations - 1. Overview - 2. The Negro in Business
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Chapter 14. The Negro in Business 307
The subsequent detailed account of the various groups of occupations
will show that, by and large, the prospects for Negro workers of higher
than wage earner status are even more limited than can be learned from
the summary data we have just examined.*"
2. The Negro in Business
In 1939 there were not quite 30,000 Negro retail stores, including eating
and drinking places, giving employment to an almost equal number of
proprietors, and less than 14,000 hired employees, or—apart from i,000
unpaid family members—a total of 43,000 persons. Thus, Negro retail
trade, in terms of employment, is not totally insignificant. Compared with
the size of white retail trade, however, it is negligible. The total sales in
1939 were a little more than $71,000,000, which was less than two-tenths
of one per cent of the national total. The annual payroll amounted to a
little over $400 for each full-time employee.® There were no signs of
improvement in the relative position of Negro retail trade. The proportion
of Negroes among all retail dealers was, if anything, smaller in 1930 than
in 1910 (Table i). The same trend downward is visible during the period
of 1929-1939. Total sales declined by 28 per cent in Negro-owned stores
and restaurants from 1929 to 1939, whereas the corresponding figure for
retail trade in the entire United States was 13 per cent.^
The Negro population has much less than one-tenth of the total con-
sumer income in the United States. Certain estimates made of Negro and
white family income allow us to guess that the Negro’s share in the national
income does not exceed 4 per cent, and is probably around 3 per cent.** As
savings constitute generally a larger part of higher incomes, the Negro’s
share in total consumption is probably somewhat greater than his share of
the national income, though not much. But even when the relatively low
level of Negro purchasing power is taken into account, Negro-owned stores
and restaurants probably do not have more than 5 or 10 per cent of the
total Negro trade. The rest goes to white businesses.
It goes without saying that the small size of the average Negro store
increases costs, and thereby causes a competitive disadvantage. Prices tend
to be higher than in the white-operated stores, or the margin of profit
smaller. It is difficult for the Negro dealer to have a large variety of goods.
Reid cites an inquiry made by the Negro Business League in New York’s
Harlem in 1932, according to which a sample of Negro housewives blamed
‘The facts for the subsequent analysis will be taken, in large part, from an unpublished
research memorandum prepared for this study (1940), ^^The Negro in the American
Economic System,” by Ira DeA. Reid in conjunction with Norgren’s investigations cited
in the previous chapter. It deals with the Negro in business, banking, retail trade, profes-
sions and white collar occupations.
**
See Chapter 1
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