The Negro in Chicago: A Study of Race Relations and a Race Riot

by Chicago Commission on Race Relations

IV. HOW NEGRO FAMILIES LIVE

How Negroes earn their living in Chicago, what occupational changes those from the South have undergone since arrival, how their present occupations differ from those in their former homes—information on all these points was gained from the family histories. Almost without exception, the Negroes interviewed declared that their economic situation had improved in Chicago. In most instances they were able to earn more; some said they were obliged to work harder but felt well recompensed because of their improved economic condition.

From the occupations of persons included in the study it appears that there is a distinct departure from the domestic and personal service in which Negroes were commonly found a few years ago. Among the 274 families visited, the heads of 225 families were men. Of this number eighteen were idle at the time of the investigation, in the summer of 1920, nine were professional men, nineteen were in business, twenty-two were in some skilled trade or work, 110 were doing unskilled work, and only forty-seven were engaged in personal service. The latter term includes such occupations as doorman in a hotel or club, bellboy, bootblack, cook, waiter, porter, elevator operator, and chauffeurs who lack training as mechanics. These are chiefly functions which bring employees in contact with the public or with white employers in a more or less personal capacity.

Before coming to Chicago, forty-five of the 225 were farmers. Practically all of these entered the field of unskilled occupations here. Only sixty-four of the 225 had been doing unskilled work in their former home. Six more did skilled work in their former homes than were doing such work in Chicago; two more were in personal service; two less were in business; and one more was in a profession.

Of these 225 family heads, 122 migrated to Chicago, chiefly from the South, during the period from 1916 to 1920 inclusive. Three periods in the industrial history of the family head were taken: (1) occupation in the former home; (2) occupation on first arrival in Chicago; and (3) adjustment to new conditions in Chicago and occupation at the time of investigation, during the spring and early summer of 1920.

Many of these migrants had not yet made their adjustment to the new occupations at that time. However, certain tendencies were manifest. For example, in the former home thirty-one were farmers and forty-five were unskilled workers. In the period of adjustment seventy-seven were doing unskilled work. The unskilled occupations had apparently, in the shifting about, absorbed the farmers. The difficulty of continuing in skilled occupations in the North was evidenced. In the South fourteen of the 122 men were engaged in skilled occupations of some sort; in the period of adjustment there were fifteen; but at the time of the investigation there were but twelve.

In the South nineteen of the 122 were in personal-service occupations; during the transition period, eighteen; and at the time of the investigation, sixteen. In the South seven were in business; during the period of transition, three; and at the time of the investigation, five. In the South four were in practice as professional men; during the period of transition only three; while at the time of the investigation there were five, one just beginning to practice.

As to whether any previous occupational training was used or abandoned after coming to the North, it appeared that of the 225 only 91 utilized such training. In 134 cases previous training was not used, but these included many who were farmers in the South.

Of forty-nine who had been engaged in personal-service occupations before coming to Chicago, only twenty still continued in such work. Six were unemployed at the time of the investigation, nineteen were in unskilled work, one was doing skilled work, and three were in business.

Forty-nine women were heads of families as revealed by the 274 family histories. This does not include all the Negro women shown by the histories to be engaged in gainful occupations in Chicago. Often daughters were working. There were thirty instances in which man and wife both worked outside of the home. Before coming to Chicago 129 wives were employed, while in Chicago sixty-seven wives were gainfully employed, including the thirty who were working in addition to their husbands. During the period of transition, it appears, they helped out, since the records show that 132 were then at work. But the tendency plainly is to abandon the practice as soon as the family becomes settled in the new environment.