Volume 49 — THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY

A Study in Economic Progress

BY

GEORGE EDMUND HAYNES, Ph.D.

Sometime Fellow of the Bureau of Social Research, New York School of Philanthropy; Professor of Social Science in Fisk University

New York COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LONGMANS, GREEN & CO., AGENTS London: P.S. King & Son 1912

Copyright, 1912 BY GEORGE EDMUND HAYNES

PREFACEToC

This study was begun as one of the several researches of the Bureau of Social Research of the New York School of Philanthropy, largely at the suggestion of Dr. Samuel McCune Lindsay, the director, to whose interest, advice and sympathy its completion is largely due. Sincere thanks are due the Bureau for making the investigation possible.

The material was gathered between January, 1909, and January, 1910, except about four weeks in August, 1909, during the time that I was pursuing studies at the School of Philanthropy and at Columbia University.

The investigation necessarily involved many questions concerning the personal affairs of many Negroes of New York and it is a pleasant duty to acknowledge the unvarying cheerfulness with which they rendered assistance in securing the facts.

I wish to acknowledge especially the help of Dr. William L. Bulkley in making possible many of the interviews with wage-earners, of Dr. Roswell C. McCrea for criticism and encouragement in preparation of the monograph, and of Dr. E.E. Pratt, sometime fellow of the Bureau of Social Research; Miss Dora Sandowsky for her careful and painstaking tabulation of most of the figures. They should not be charged, however, with responsibility for any of the errors that may be detected by the trained eye.

The study as now published is incomplete. Part I, the Negro as a Wage-earner and Part II, the Negro in Business, were to be supplemented by Part III, the Negro in the Professions. But the time absorbed in gathering the material for the first two parts prevented the securing of a sufficient amount of personally ascertained data for the third; it seemed best to concentrate on the first two for the sake of thoroughness.

The summaries following the data on the several points and at the end of each chapter, and the conclusion at the end of the volume contain some repetitions which may be open to criticism, but they have been retained with the hope of making the monograph useful to those who wish to know the conclusions from the succession of figure upon figure and percentage upon percentage, without necessarily going through these details. At the same time, anyone who may wish to weigh the inferences in the light of the facts has the details before him.

Conditions among Negroes in Philadelphia have been adequately studied in the work of Dr. W.E.B. DuBois and Dr. R.R. Wright, Jr. It is to be hoped that some time soon the need of similar inquiries in other cities—East, West, North and South—may be realized and that provision may be made in this way for the guidance of the growing impulses of those who wish to better conditions in urban centers.

I am aware that there are good reasons for criticism of these pages. But what has been done was done in the search for the truth, that the enthusiasm of reform may be linked with the reliability of knowledge in the efforts to better the future conditions of the city and the Negro.

George Edmund Haynes.

Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn., April 1, 1912.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I

PAGE

Preface 7-8

THE NEGRO AS A WAGE EARNER

CHAPTER I

The City and the Negro—The Problem 13

CHAPTER II

The Negro Population of New York City 45

CHAPTER III

General Condition of Wage-Earners

1. Sex and Age of Negro Wage-Earners 54

2. Nativity of Negro Wage-Earners 57

3. Marital Condition of Wage-Earners 60

4. Families and Lodgers 61

CHAPTER IV

Occupations of Wage-Earners

1. A Historical View of Occupations 66

2. Occupations in 1890 and 1900 69

3. Occupations in 1905 72

CHAPTER V

Wages and Efficiency of Wage-Earners

1. Wages in Domestic and Personal Service 78

2. Wages in Other Occupations 82

3. Efficiency of Wage-Earners 83

PART II

THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS IN NEW YORK CITY

CHAPTER I

The Character of Negro Business Enterprises

1. The Business Promise 93

2. A History of the Negro in Business 94

3. The Nature of the Establishments in 1909 98

4. Ownership of Establishments 100

5. Size of Business Enterprises 104

CHAPTER II

The Volume of Business

1. Valuation of Tools and Fixtures 109

2. The Amount of Merchandise on Hand 111

3. Gross Receipts in 1907 and 1908 113

CHAPTER III

Dealing with the Community

1. Age of Establishments 117

2. Permanence of Location 118

3. Business Methods 120

4. Credit Relationships 122

5. The Purchasing Public 123

CHAPTER IV

Some Sample Enterprises

1. Individuals and Partnerships 127

2. The Negro Corporation 137

Conclusion 143

Appendices, A, B, C 149

Select Bibliography 154

Index 157