Resilient or Fragile? The Black Metropolis Versus the Great Depression

Abstract

Past research suggests that ethnic minority economies can be surprisingly resilient, possessing internal strengths that mitigate negative effects of macroeconomic downturns. Applying this argument, the present study investigates urban black communities during the Great Depression, analyzing measures of the resilience of blacks’ employment in occupations reflecting key professional, entrepreneurial, and cultural media institutions of the Black Metropolis. Census data for New York, Chicago, and Washington, DC, indicate that blacks’ employment was resilient in only a few pursuits, most of which were professions that depended on a segregated black clientele. The findings challenge assumptions about the importance of urban centers, protected markets, and occupational niches for the resilience of ethnic minority economies.