Depressed Negro

That the Negro, North and South, has been harder hit by the Depression than the white man was the gist of a report handed last week to the Department of Labor by the National Urban League. Upon investigation the League found that whites, dropping down the economic scale, have taken jobs normally held by Negroes. Black migration to cities has made a bad situation worse. Declared the League report: "The economic structure of the entire Negro race is in an alarming state of disrepair."

Most newsworthy of the League's findings were figures indicating a marked disproportion between urban Negro population and unemployment. Negroes, composing 17% of Baltimore's residents, account for 31% of that city's joblessness. In Charleston, S. C., half black, seven Negroes are out of work to every three white men. Negro population and unemployment percentages in other cities: Chicago, 4% and 16%; Memphis, 38% and 75%; Philadelphia, 7% and 25%; Pittsburgh, 8% and 38%.

Against these figures must be set two large facts: 1) most Negro employment is in domestic service or unskilled labor, occupations first to feel the effects of hard times; 2) as a race Negroes relatively work more than whites (of all white males 75% are gainfully employed in normal times whereas 81% of black males have paying jobs). Two Negro women work to every white woman. Result: Negro unemployment statistics have a way of glaring out against population figures. The blacks of Charleston constitute 50% of its population but presumably they do 70% of the city's work--which is precisely their percentage in Charleston's total joblessness.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.