Social Stratification in the Negro Population: A Study of Social Classes in South Boston, Virginia

Abstract

From time to time there have appeared in the literature on the Negro studies of the class structure within the Negro population. In its historical perspective E. Franklin Frazier, in The Negro Family in the United States, and Negro Youth at the Crossways, has done a remarkable job in tracing the development of the class system in Negro society, defining the situation out of which the structure arose, stating the factors which have determined social status, and describing the characteristics of those classes, especially as they are found in the urban community. Charles S. Johnson has given a very excellent treatment to the problem in his study, Growing up in the Black Belt, and elsewhere.1 While in each case the writer was not primarily concerned with the social stratification in the Negro population as such, their investigations have been particularly valuable in pointing up the problem for investigation. The present study is an empirical investigation of the Negro population in a small Southern town to discover (1) the stratification of the community, to determine whether or not there are within the Negro population the clearly defined upper, middle, and lower classes about which much has been written; and (2) to discover the factors that created the stratification, that maintain it, and that are bring-