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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
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Chapter 14. The Negro in Business 305
the Negro market as a monopoly. The monopoly over the Negro market
of teachers, preachers, undertakers, beauticians and others is generally
respected. The Negro storekeeper, on the other hand, is in severe competi-
tion with the white storekeeper, and only a small fraction of the pur-
chasing power of Negro patrons passes his counter. To a lesser extent this
is true also of the Negro doctor. The Negro lawyer has an even worse
competitive position. The Negro journalist does not have to compete with
whites in the Negro press but, to an extent, the Negro press has to compete
with the white press. All Negro businessmen and pi ofessionals have to try
to make as much use as possible of racial solidarity as a selling point. This
means that the entire Negro middle and upper class becomes caught in an
ideological dilemma.® On the one hand, they find that the caste wall
blocks their economic and social opportunities. On the other hand, they
have, at the same time, a vested interest in racial segregation since it gives
them what opportunity they have.
In the rest of this chapter we shall describe the economic position of
upper and middle class Negroes. We shall first present a summary of the
situation and then go on to examine each of the occupations separately.
In 1930 there were only 254,000 Negro workers in white collar and
higher occupations (Table i). This means that only one out of fifteen
Negro workers in nonagricultural pursuits had a status higher than that of
wage earner. In the white nonfarm population as many as two out of every
five workers were in business, managerial, professional, and white collar
jobs.^ The number of Negro workers in such occupations had increased by
more than three-fourths between 1910 and 1930. But the corresponding
increase of white workers had been somewhat greater, so the relative
position of the Negro had not improved. In 1910, 1.8 per cent of all these
professional, managerial and clerical workers were Negroes. In 1930, 1.7
per cent of them were Negroes. Thus, in spite of the fact that the Negro’s
share in these jobs was so extremely low, there was no tendency toward
equalization. There was not even any great increase in the proportion that
professionals, businessmen, and white collar workers constituted of the
total Negro labor force in nonagricultural pursuits. In 1910 this proportion
was 6 per cent. In 1930 it was 7 per cent.
Conditions differed, however, for different categories. The Negro has
had slightly better chances in the professions than in other occupations in
this group. Indeed, in 1930 the number of Negro professional workers was
larger (116,000) than that of clerical workers (83,000), whereas in the
white population there were almost three clerks and kindred workers for
every professional person. That the Negroes have as much as a 4 per cent
representation among the professional workers is due to two main factors:
the segregated Southern school system, and the segregated Negro church
* See Chapter 38.
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