The Negro at Work in New York City: A Study in Economic ProgressHaynes, George Edmund
History
The Negro at Work in New York City: A Study in Economic Progress
Haynes, George Edmund
African American businesspeople; African Americans -- Employment -- New York (State) -- New York; African Americans -- History
increases, the proportion of lodgers increasing with the size of the
economic family.
Now this showing is not the effect of lodging-houses run as business
enterprises, except probably in the families ten members or more,
which constitute only 1.6 per cent of the total 2,500 families. This
condition is most probably due in part to the fact--which both Census
returns and personal observation indicated but could not fully
determine--that many of the lodgers consisted of married couples,
sometimes with one or two children, and of parts of broken families.
Furthermore, the high rents[48] which Negroes have to pay, the limited
area in which the opposition of whites allows them to live, together
with the small income power due to the occupational field being
largely restricted to domestic and personal service, play a large part
in forcing families and parts of families to live thus crowded
together. This last point about income will be referred to again in
Chapter IV on Occupations and in Chapter V on Wages. It is a cause for
serious concern that only 54.1 per cent of the families had no
lodgers, and this percentage here will probably hold for the entire
Negro population of the City. If we exclude the 119 individuals living
alone, the families having no lodgers fall to 51.8 per cent.
This last phase of the lodger condition is emphasized if presented in
another way which shows the number of families having a specified
number of members, exclusive of lodgers. For the same 2,500 families,
it brings out from another point of view the relation of the family to
the lodgers. There is presented both the number and percent of
families that had a specified number of lodgers, and also, the number
and percent of families that had a specified number of members
exclusive of lodgers. For example, 178 families had three lodgers
each, which was 7.1 per cent of the total 2,500 families. And of these
48 families had only one other member; 57 had two other members; 36
had three other; 23 four other; 9 five other; 3 six other, and 1 seven
other. Out of 1,353 families that did not accommodate lodgers, 898
families, 67.8 per cent, had three members or less. Of 1,147 families
that did accommodate lodgers, 606, 52.8 per cent, had more lodgers
than natural members. And if we take the totals, 392, 15.7 per cent,
of the families had besides lodgers only one natural member; 909, 36.4
per cent, of the families had in addition to lodgers two members only,
and 508, 20.3 per cent, had besides lodgers three members only; 329
families, 13.2 per cent of the total, had four natural members; 325,
12.9 per cent, had five to seven natural members, and 38, 1.5 per
cent, had eight or more natural members. This makes it clear that
1,809 of the 2,500 families had three natural members or less, if
lodgers are not counted. To take a statement in a percentage that
probably will be applicable to the whole City, one may say that, even
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account