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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 - 2. The Negro in Business
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312 .
An American Dilemma
as an entrepreneur, even when he—^viewed superficially at least—would
seem to have had a comparatively good chance. There are more skilled
Negro workers in this industry than in any other line of work. Contractors,
at Jeast formerly, were recruited from the ranks of the skilled workers.
At the time when, in view of the small size of most construction jobs, most
contractors were not much more than master workmen, many Negroes had
a certain position in this field in the South, but soon after the Civil War
the South started to become industrialized. Many factory buildings and
large apartment houses had to be erected, and they required huge amounts
of capital. Whites formed an increasing proportion of the skilled workers,
and they attempted to monopolize the work on the large projects where the
latest technical methods were used. Only in exceptional cases did they
accept work under Negro contractors. Under such circumstances it was
impossible for Negroes to make any headway. By 1910 there were but
2,900 Negro contractors constituting 1.8 per cent of the total. In 1930 the
number was down to 2,400, or 1.6 per cent.
The fact that the Negro has never been able to establish himself as an
entrepreneur in ordinary manufacturing industries® is less surprising. The
public, of course, is not always aware of the racial identity of those who
produce. For this reason, the Negro, perhaps, would have been able to sell
on the white market had he been allowed to become a manufacturer. But
the obstacles have been too great to overcome. In most manufacturing lines
he has not even been able to become a skilled worker, much less a foreman,
engineer or office worker. The chances of acquiring managerial skills, under
such circumstances, were scant. Lack of adequate training made him infe-
rior. His background in slavery enhanced his feeling of inferiority. The
general belief that his inferiority was due to his race meant that even those
individual Negroes who would have been able to overcome all other diffi-
culties were stopped short. For one thing, it put the would-be Negro
entrepreneur at a tremendous disadvantage in respect to the all-important
problem of credit. One can almost count on the fingers of one hand the
number of types of production where the Negro, as an ordinary working-
man, has been allowed to enter when he was not well entrenched already
during the time of slavery. If whites put up great restrictions against his
activity as a wage earner, how could they be expected to risk their money
on his attempts to become an independent producer? In the South it would
have been against the doctrine of the inequality of the races. In the North
* Outside the building industry there were only a little over 1,300 Negro manufacturers
in 1930. The main groups were the owners of suit, coat, and overall factories, automobile
repair shops, and saw and planing mills. Most of these Negro establishments were probably
small and marginal. Some of the largest individual Negro-owned establishments are those
producing hair and facial preparations. In most other manufacturing lines there were less
than five Negro entrepreneurs. (Edwards, of, cit,y pp. 90-113.)
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