Training of Negro Domestic Workers
Available data shows that opportunities for the special training of Negro domestic workers have been even less than those for white domestic workers. During the latter quarter of the 19th century Mrs. L. J. Coppin, of Philadelphia, maintained a small home for the training of the Negro domestic workers of Philadelphia. In the comparatively few social settlements for Negroes there is meagre opportunity for training in domestic service. The Domestic Efficiency Association of Baltimore, Maryland, an organization of employers, has announced its plans for opening a training school for white and Negro domestic workers. This Association maintained in 1921 and 1922 a training school for Negro domestic help, in which special lessons could be given or general training for one month or more. A rate of $5 a week for board, lodging, and training was charged. If an applicant had no money the Domestic Efficiency Association advanced it on her signing an agreement to secure her position through the Association when ready for it, and to repay the debt out of her wages at the rate of at least $2.50 a week.
The domestic science training given in the public schools may be a small factor in the efficiency of Negro domestic workers, but most of the permanent domestic workers do not go beyond the fifth grade in school and thus do not go far enough to get an appreciable amount of domestic science training. Negro workers who go through the high or normal schools do not enter permanently into domestic service. This statement is based on the data indicated by the permanent occupations of 606 Negro graduates of the Sumner High School, St. Louis, Missouri, of 305 graduates of Miner Normal School, Washington, in the District of Columbia, of 15 graduates of the Gainesville, Georgia, public schools 1917-1919;[12] and on data for students applying at the Washington, in the District of Columbia, and the Indianapolis Employment Agencies. Tables IV and V below set forth these facts.
Occupations of 606 Negro High School Graduates, Sumner High School, St. Louis, Mo., 1895-1911[13]
| Table IV | ||
| Occupation | Number | |
| Those engaged in, or prepared for, teaching | 288 | |
| Entered college | 49 | |
| Clerical work | 43 | |
| Postoffice clerks | 30 | |
| Entered business | 4 | |
| Mechanics | 17 | |
| Women at home or married | 120 | |
| Miscellaneous | 32 | |
| Unknown | 23 |
Although Tables IV and V direct one's attention to the limited fields of employment for Negro high school graduates, especially so since clerical and mechanical work, business and professional service, must be engaged in almost wholly among Negroes, yet few if any of the 911 graduates have entered domestic service. The young women graduates of the Gainesville, Georgia, schools 1917-19, with the exception of three, entered higher institutions of learning.
In Washington, in the District of Columbia, during the academic year 1920-22 there were among the 9,976 applicants for domestic work, 17 male and 159 female students who had attended or were attending high school; 75 female normal school students; 13 male and 126 female college students. Also in Indianapolis, in 1922, 73 female high school students and 12 female college students applied for domestic service. These large numbers of high school, normal school, and college students seek domestic service mainly for after-school hours, Saturdays, Sundays, summer months, and temporarily for earning money to continue their education, or until they can find other employment.
Occupations of 305 Negro Graduates of Miner Normal School, Washington, D. C., 1913-1922
| Table V | ||
| Occupation | Number | |
| Teaching in Washington, D. C.: | ||
| Elementary | 207 | |
| Kindergarten | 50 | |
| Domestic Science | 4 | |
| Domestic Art | 3 | |
| Manual Arts | 1 | |
| Drawing | 1 | |
| Music | 1 | |
| Ungraded | 1 | |
| Teaching in Maryland | 8 | |
| Teaching in Virginia | 2 | |
| Teaching in North Carolina | 1 | |
| Teaching in South Carolina | 1 | |
| Teaching in New York | 1 | |
| Substitute teachers in Washington, D. C. | 2 | |
| Students | 5 | |
| Government Service | 7 | |
| Housekeepers | 5 | |
| Printers | 1 | |
| Private Music Teachers | 1 | |
| Physicians | 1 | |
| Insurance | 1 | |
| Y. W. C. A. | 1 |
Table VI shows the grades on leaving school of 8,147 Negro domestic workers—men and women—of the Washington, D. C., office; and Table VII shows grades on leaving school of 471 Negro domestic workers, not separated by sex, of an Indianapolis Employment Office conducted by Flanner House in that city. Each of these workers was personally interviewed by the agent at each respective office. The reported grade of each on leaving school was placed on an application card which was filed for reference. The application cards were filled out solely on the testimony of the applicants. The agent in the Washington office handling the women did not ordinarily register men except as man and wife applied at the same time, or a woman sent her husband to the agent, or a special employer asked the agent to select male help, or teachers in the Negro schools sent boys and men who were in search of work. Therefore, the number of men from the Washington office for whom grades are given is comparatively small.