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1288 An American Dilemma
In Negro families with less than $500 in income, $9 worth of clothing was
bought for the husband, an equal amount was spent on the wife, and $6 was left over
for children and other family members; when there were more than four persons in
the family, husband and wife could each spend but $5 on themselves. In the income
group $500-$999, the husband’s share in the clothing budget was $24, the wife’s
share was $27 and that of children and other family members was $21. (Sterner and
Associates, of, cit,, p. 140.) The following description gives some idea about what
such sums meant in concrete terms:
“The figures for the husbands in low-income families were far below the annual
clothing requirements suggested in the WPA budget for an emergency standard of
living. [Margaret Loomis Stecker, Quantity Budgets for Basic Maintenance and Enter-
gency Standards of Livings Research Bulletin, Series I, No. 21 (1936), p. 15.] For
example, while an annual replacement of one cotton work shirt and one other shirt
with attached collar and purchase of a wool work shirt every other year is suggested, it
appears that one-third of the Negro men at the lowest income level and almost one-fifth
of the white and Negro men at the next level bought no shirts at all during the year.
Likewise, in contrast to the annual purchase of two pairs of work shoes and one pair of
oxfords suggested in the emergency budget, work shoes were purchased barely every
other year, on the average; two-thirds of the Negro men in families with incomes
below $500 bought no street shoes, and approximately one-third of the white and
Negro men at the next income level failed to purchase any during the year of the
study.” (Sterner and Associates, of, cit,y pp. 140-141.)
Interdepartmental Committee to Coordinate Health and Welfare Activities,
Proceedings of the "National Health Conference, July, 1938, “Report of the Technical
Committee on Medical Care” (1938), p. 57. Quoted in Sterner and Associates, of, cit,,
p. 153.
Sterner and Associates, of, cit., Appendix Table 32.
Negro sharecroppers with incomes under $500 spent, for the entire family, an
annual average of $1 for reading matter, less than 50^ for movies and other admissions,
$1 for games and sports equipment, $1 for other recreation, and $12 for tobacco.
Atlanta Negroes in the income group $500-999 spent for these same items $9, $5, $I,
$7 and $17. The corresponding figures for white Atlanta families in the income
bracket $l,500-$2,249 were $17, $22, $5, $22 and $44. {Ibid„y pp. 154-159 and
Appendix Table 36.)
In cities, villages, and farm areas of the South, Negroes consumed larger quantities
of fish and other seafoods, but smaller quantities of milk, eggs, potatoes, other vegetables,
and fruits, than did white families of similar means. In order to cut down on their
expenditures they bought less baked goods, but more Hour and cereals than was usual
in white households. Largely for the same reason, they consumed less processed foods
than did white families of the same economic classes. These are among the most usual
differences, but there were others which appeared more or less consistently; some of
them were mainly “cultural.”*
• U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Study of Consumer Purchases,
Urban Tec^ical Series, Family Exfenditures in Selected Cities, Bulletin No. 64.8, Vol. 2,
Food (1940), Tabular Summary, Table 5; U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of
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