Half a Man: The Status of the Negro in New York

by Mary White Ovington

	Total number of males in each occupation.	Number of Negroes in each occupation.	Number of Negroes to each 1000 workers in occupation.
Agents—commercial travellers	27,456	67	2
Bankers, brokers, and officials of banks and companies	11,472	7	0
Bookkeepers—accountants	22,613	33	1
Clerks, copyists (including shipping clerks, letter and mail carriers)	80,564	423	5
Merchants (wholesale and retail)	72,684	162	2
Salesmen	45,740	94	2
Typewriters	3,225	36	11
Boatmen and sailors	8,188	145	18
Foremen and overseers	3,111	18	6
Draymen, hackmen, teamsters	51,063	1439	28
Hostlers	5,891	633	107
Livery stable keepers	967	9	9
Steam railway employees	11,831	70	6
Street railway employees	7,375	11	1
Telegraph and telephone operators	2,430	6	2
Hucksters and peddlers	12,635	69	5
Messengers, errand and office boys	13,451	335	25
Porters and helpers (in stores, etc.)	11,322	2143	188
Undertakers	1,572	15	9
Total, including some occupations not specified	405,675	5798	14

This, however, does not apply to government positions, and a large number of the 423 colored clerks in 1900 were probably in United States and municipal service. The latter we shall consider later as we study the Negro and the municipality. Of the former, in 1909 there were about 176 in the New York post-offices.[5] Ambitious boys work industriously at civil service examinations, and a British West Indian will even become an American citizen for the chance of a congenial occupation. The clerkship, that to a white man is only a stepping-stone, to a Negro is a highly coveted position.

I have made two divisions of this census list; the first includes those occupations requiring intellectual skill and carrying with them some social position, the second, those demanding only manual work. It is in the second that the colored man finds a place, and as a porter he numbers 2143, and reaches almost as high a percentage as the waiter and servant. Porters' positions are paid from five to fifteen dollars a week, the man receiving the latter wage performing also the duties of shipping clerk. There is some opportunity for advance, always within the basement, and there are regular hours and a fairly steady job.

The heading of draymen, hackmen, and teamsters, with 28 colored in every thousand, shows that the Negro has not lost his place as a driver. The chauffeur does not appear in the census, but the Negro is steadily increasing in numbers in this occupation, and conducts three garages of his own.

The last census division to be considered in this chapter is that of Manufacturing and Mechanical Pursuits.

	Total number of males in each occupation.	Number of Negroes in each occupation.	Number of Negroes to each 1000 workers in occupation.
Engineers, firemen (not locomotive)	16,579	227	14
Masons (brick and stone)	12,913	94	7
Painters, glaziers, and varnishers	27,135	177	6
Plasterers	4,019	51	12
Blacksmiths	7,289	29	4
Butchers	12,643	31	2
Carpenters and joiners	29,904	94	3
Iron and steel workers	10,372	40	4
Paper hangers	962	18	19
Photographers	1,590	22	14
Plumbers, gas and steam fitters	16,614	31	2
Printers, lithographers, and pressmen	21,521	53	2
Tailors	56,094	69	1
Tobacco and cigar factory operators	11,689	189	16
Fishermen and oystermen	1,439	65	45
Miners and quarrymen	326	21	64
Machinists	17,241	47	3
Total, including some occupations not specified	419,594	1774	4

Bakers, boot and shoe makers, gold and silver workers, brass workers, tin plate and tin ware makers, box makers, cabinet makers, marble and stone cutters, book-binders, clock and watch makers, confectioners, engravers, glass workers, hat and cap makers, and others—not more than nineteen in any one occupation, nor a higher per cent than four in a thousand.