a
dis tin uished agriculturi t from Tu ke e Institute
wa pre en ted to th cret ry of the egro Br nch Y. .C. . t Gary,
Indi na. The ecret ry, recently migr ted from Te , 100 ed up at
his tall, broad shouldered vi itor, c no ledged the introduction, and
added f c tiously, "Alabam , eh, where there are the meanest white
folks in the odd."
"Th rneane t hite folk nd the meane t egroes," as the
agriculturist's unperturbed rejoinder. "Throughout the St tes I have
found that th egro community is in every instance parallel re­
tl ction of the local white community. The variation is in degree only.
he essential ocial pattern is the same."
Briefly this simple incident points the untenability of the thesis
po ed r ther generally by Negro tudents and students of the Negro
in treating the Ne 0 a an isolated phenomenon rather than an
integral unit of the community and national life. Any premise that
ets apart certain attitudes, reactions and behavior patterns as par­
ticularly nd peculi r to anyone r cial or cultural group, be it Negro,
Aryan or Je ish, is sociologically and anthropologically un ound. There
are no particular egro emotion , reactions, or rhythms patterned by
race exclusively. Unemployed Negroes and their families do not suffer
a particularized hunger and exposure, nor do they re t to it in a
particular Negro f hion.
Unemployment has become, except for the Soviet Union, uni­
versal in extent. For the past seven years a very considerable gment
of the American population has been sustained by public funds ad­
minlstered as Direct Relief, or as Wor Relief Projects. In December
193 there were, according to the conservative estimates of the
meri Fa' n of Labor, 11,401,000 employ bl ns in
the United States separated from gainful employment.' Mass un­
employment of Negroes became acute by 1927 and by 1929 there
were 300,000 employable Negroes separated from employment. A
number which has continued to rise. The percentage of Negroes in
this category usually exceeds the white by . from 30 per cent to 60
per cent. There. is ainu disproportion in the relief population.
• 4
18. per ee of all r . 17. per t of III
In America bein maintained by Public Relief funds.. At present
the Negro . ef population is 3,864,000.
And wh . is the source of this desperate disproportion between the
Negro population and the Negro Relief population in relation to the
total American population aud the total American Relief population?
n is aencrally recopized that the Negro, as a margipal and • aUnority
aroup, aders InteQser employment hazards through discrimination in
wages, in' ork allotment and in the disbursement of Relief. There is a
prevail ina sentiment that Negroes should not be hired as long a there
are white men without jobs. There are in addition other basic factors:
the introduction of machinery into unskilled functions formerly pre­
dominantly performed by Negroes has displaced a mass of Negro
workers; the reduction of production in the automotive and steel
industries in which large numbers of Negroes were employed, bas
displaced other thousands; cessation of activity in building construc­
tion which previously absorbed a great bloc of Negro skilled and
unskilled labor; the reduction of incomes o( families employing num­
befl of servants and the widespread use of electrical household ma­
chinery haa thrown domestic servants on the labor market. The dis­
appearance of small business into which category all Negro business
fell, has not only created unemployment b�t destroyed and blasted the
hope of a separate "Negro economy." The destitution of the southern
farm population affects some 2,000,000 Negro farmers, largely share
croppers and tenant farmers. And the government's removal of acreage
from cotton cultivation has increased the' destitution and intensified
the insecurity of this group.
Even in the more liberal urban centers there is discrimination and
segregation in the assignment of Negroes to certain work projects
and to camps. Chicago uses the Batavia Camp, exclusively for white
men. There are exclusive ''white'' projects.
Now after seven. years, Unemployment and Unemployment Relief
can no lonaer be classified as emeraencies. Yet Federal and local
JOvernments continue establishing temporary procedures, made work,
and work ptoarams of few months' life span only. Such procedure is
mere wishful thinking For as distasteful as are· unemployment and
relief to the American temperament and to the American .,hilosophy
of individual thrift and industrY and mdividual success the permanency
of unemployment and the problem of caring for- the unemployed
population are now recognized and accepted by the American pu�lic.
If indeed then, the Negro, in the face of these preponderant odd ,
has recognized the potential permanence of sustained unemployment
and ha adjusted his attitudes to the enigma of want and suffering in
the mid t of an abundance ruthlessly destroyed under government
authority, then he has displayed an astuteness that exceed and antici­
pates that of the finance capitalists and the political administrators
who continue tampering and pottering with half measures. For there
is doubtful virtue in the Fsture of pacing the sidewalks in a fUtile
search for jobs that do not exist. .
. Despite this it is notable that men and women on relief beg for
and accept jobs, project and work relief assignments-cven when the
wage offered i the mere equivalent of their relief budgets. It restore
some of their self respect to handle cash and to purchase direct and
be able to hop about without the stigma and discrimination at­
tendant upon buying on disbursing orders.
1 In January 1935 there ere 13,058,215 unemployed, accordinl to A. P. of L
figures These figures are of neee ity conservative since in the United States there
are no' central Labor Exchanles or Federal machinery for a continual and accurate
check of unemployment flaum.
J These ftlUJ'el are taken from ¥lDc:ldence Upon tho Nearo" by CharI JohnlOD,
, Th, Amtrlcan lournal 01 Soclolon, May 1935. Relie( statistics of 1933 d u tho
perc:entaao b for computation.
a See: Th, COmptul, Febnwy, 1936, p. 10.
The Columbia Community Cent on Co umbia Nt In Detro
founded n 111. by the �n L.e e _ part of Ita on-goIng •
.ffort lit r.1 vlntI economic and eoclal ay on AfrI . eric
tamll • migrating 0 the city from the Soutli .• becam. a .ocl I hub and
eproc Inge c nt r. Large group8 would congregllt. dallyt r d, play
caret. or check .... , II nom Ic or )u8t .oclalla.
Sabl •• and .mall chlldr.., were cared for at the Columbia Cent.r'. baby
clinic which opened und., the Board of Health, which car.d for more
than 20,000 babl .. 'from 111. until 1.31.
Hou ng .hortage.ln DetroIt, 0
by the 0 ..... Dept
Urban L gue reported mor.
ith th
jo r ttitu
light pre e . But
ny . nd 0 job, m
month for full time.
e en the relief bud t
bein open or
often poorly cl d th t "
hom 0 th outdoor jo .
played exhibit eri pin , cracked, fro
hand nd ellen, fr t bitten
Th ly cceptin y' d of or de
circumstan, ent d, no p nomenon. At th e
Associ tion of Sod Wor e ' Dele ate Conference in W hington,
February 14th, . Roslyn Serota, Junior upervi 0 0 the County
Relief Board of Philadelpbi , P ., reported that an imp ti I tudy of
four urban centers diselo th t very mall proportion of job refus
(by the unemployed) is ithout justific tion. Phy leal disability,
inability to perform the job offered, current employment, ub tandard
wages are revealed the common reasons for job refusal. Phil -
delphia has used Job Refusal committee to define bona-fide .wor
offer and _"justifiable" refusal, and to hear complaints.· Before
presuming to indict the unemployed ucb board of impartial hearin
hould be t up in every community dispensing to large units of
the unemployed.
"They were on the whole," complains Mr. Newell Eason, referrin
to Negro families on Relief, " verse to any ugg tion of eU help."
WeU,· Watts, California, is remote from the experience nd knowledge
of the bulk of the Amelican population. But in Chica o-the second
city in the world for Nearo population-the self-help efforts amon
Negroes are bravely defiant.
Last year a congested strip of Chicago' Black Belt comprisin
approximately nine city blocks and containing 1,349 households,
total of 4,422 individual souls was intensively studied and analyzed.
There was the accustomed run of ice cream and water melon venden
and window washers and news hawkers. And in addition, up and down
the walks were fish vendors, carrying long trings of perch hanging
from their backs or pushlna their "catch" in rude carts converted from
discarded baby carriages. The "junk men" had the middle of the
street. These latter have hitched themselv to carts bich they h ve
built out of wheels, usually found on dump heaps, and irregular scraps
of board gotten from some building in the process of demolition.
A conversation with the fish vendor discloseU thi.I: "Three pounds
for two bits, Mi . But sometimes I walk all day to aell three pound •.
They's so many 0' us on the treet, we jus' cuttin' each other's tho'ts.
-_ •.
· d seta th nets and tch 'em, an' I alk up
down an' ·sell 'em. I gets a quarter .ouna ev'y doUar I sells, But
fish don' bite ev'y day, Miss. 'Pends on how de wind blowin. Ef it
ain't blowin' yo' way it jus' weep de fish out toward de middle
0' deLake an dey don' bite. Fish don' bite ev'y day."
Behind the stone facade of the building down the street a colony
of unemployed men and women have drifted in and settled. The
building appears gruesomely debauched. Outside doors have disap­
peared so that it stands open always. W�dow aperture are tuffed
with rap, old clothes, cardboard, wire netting, wooden doors, any­
thing at hand. A side entrance formedy protected by a door is now
barricaded by rusted bed springs, stoves and scraps 'ot iron. Through­
out the floors are rotted and in places broken out On the tairways
windows have become only great gaps where the cold packs in. All
electric wiring has· been tom out,:� gas piping stripped. Variou
styles and size of coal stove are used in the different individual
"quarters." In the absence of flues these are piped through holes cut
through to the outer' walls .of the building. Passing on the outside
when several "quarters" have fites the adjoining vacant lot is a series
of smoke puffs at various heights and levels.
Single Parent Famille
Mr. Eason bemoans the wane of parental author�ty and the loss
of prestige by the father.- He cites the miserabl�example of Mr. S.
clinging to the last vestige of' medieval male dominance by arbitrarily
denying the necessary milk to undernourished Billie even when the
money had been especially provided for this. His sole explanation,
"the visitor has allowed the money but your father refuses to buy
the milkl" That is the strongest Indictment of the contemporary family
pattern. Parental rule by blind, unreasoning might of authority bul­
warked by school, pulpit, pre ad by the mores, and ultimately
conquered by Reliefl . .
For in the past the complete economic dependence of women upon
their husbands, children upon their parents, 8Qd in tum in ickness
and old age, parents upon their children has tended to 'warp every
fine, free impulse in familial reJationships. It has created the naggins
wife wheedling an underpaid husband for the little luxuries of lifo
which his inadequate wage cannot provide. It ha �reated the demand
upon older ister and brother to acrifice their own education to help
support younger sisters and brothers.
And so instead of decrying this overthrow of the tyrant-parent the
sociologist should rather hasten the day when in addition sickness and
invalidity insurance, a comprehensive unemployment insurance act
and adequate assistance for the aged w.ill relieve the burden of poor
relations on other poor relations.
The fact i that profe ionaI social workers have in intimate
daily contact with large segment. of the unemployed populadon for
more than five year now. They have had continual access to the case
records of thousands of these familie . They are thus in possession of
the facts to expose nd explode these hair trigger conclusions brand­
ing the unemployed as malingerers, chiselers and indolent and hopel
parasites. Instead of the too ready indictment of the unemployed
condemnation hould, it ould em, be direCted apinat the political
economy that create these condition of m unemployment and i
attendant malnutrition, disease, overcrowding, immorality, delinquency
and family di integration. .
Upportunity, July, 1936; XIV, 213-15.
.�
• This refm to an article by Prof. Newell D. Eason,ln Opportunity fbr December�
1935. to which Miss Edwards II replylnaln anenl.