The Economic Position of the American Negro: A Brief Summary

Abstract

One would be bold indeed to draw from a survey such as the foregoing any very definite judgment as to the future course of the economic life of the Negro. Yet the survey indicates clearly the basic forces which are likely to control this development, and hence takes us as far as we may safely go in the realm of prophecy. One point is evident in the preceding papers. Whether we look at the Negro in the cotton fields, in Northern factories, in personal and domestic service, or in other occupations, we cannot but be impressed by the fact that the major influences to which he is subject are precisely the same as those affecting the white man. The price of cotton is not a racial matter, nor the vicissitudes of the general economic cycle. So too, the problems faced by Negro factory workers in attaining a living wage and decent conditions bear strong resemblance to the problems of white workers, and small business men of both races have similar difficulties in obtaining funds and meeting competition. At every point the Negro's economic problem merges into a larger problem affecting men of either race. Yet this basic fact should not blind us to the concomitant fact of racial discrimination. Running through the survey is the constant theme of a class disadvantage to which is added (generally if not universally) a racial disadvantage. Casting up the evidence of the relative importance of these two factors, one is led inevitably to the conclusion that the economic rather than the racial factor is fundamental. Raising the Negro to the white man's present level would mean at best the elimination of narrow margins. But it is obvious that in any broad movement of democratic betterment, steps must be taken to make sure that the Negro participates in this advance. It is in this sense that the racial problem is presented along with the economic. Moreover, the success of a broader program of social advance depends to a vital degree on a proper treatment of this racial problem. The history of American labor relations, in industry and agriculture, gives ample basis for the belief that the advance of labor in general is likely to suffer if there is a racial cleavage in its ranks. Before commenting further upon the implications of the foregoing points, it is well to touch upon the question of possible segregation in the Negro's economic life. One may recognize that the economic position of the Negro race is surrounded by influences which impinge upon other men as well, and at the same time suggest that the Negro may build a separate economic system similar in character to that of the white man's but functioning with substantial autonomy. On that issue two remarks are pertinent. In the first place, the nature of economic forces is such that an attack upon the problems they raise must be a united one if it is to have any chance of success. The