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University Publications, No. 17 

THE 

NEGRO AMERICAN 

ARTISAN 

A Social Study made by Atlanta Uni= 
versity, under the patronage of the 
Trustees of the John F. Slater Fund 

Price, 75 Cents 

The Atlanta University Press 

ATLANTA, GA. 

1912 

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my part, then, I am a mem- 
ber of the human race, and this 
is a race which is, as a whole, con 
siderably lower than the angels, so 
that the whole of it very badly needs 
race-elevation. In this need of my 
race I personally and very deeply 
share. And it is in this spirit only 
that I am able to approach our prob 
lem. 

—Josiah Royce. 

The Atlanta University Publications, No. 1 7 

THE 

NEGRO AMERICAN 

ARTISAN 

Report of a Social Study made by Atlanta University 
under the patronage of the Truslees of the John F. 
Slater Fund; with the Proceedings of the 17th Annual 
Conference for the Study of the Negro Problems, held 
at Atlanta University, on Monday, May 27th, 1912 

Edited hy 

W. E. Burghardt Du Bois, Ph.D. 

DireBor of Publicity and Research, National Association for 
the Advancement of Colored People 

Augustus Grancille Dill, A.M. 

Associate Professor of Sociology in Atlanta University 

The Atlanta University Press 

ATLANTA, GA. 

1912 

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IT IS something more than mere 
prediction to suggest that along 
the lines of liberal surroundings, ed 
ucation, and culture lies the ultimate 
solution of the labor problem. 

—Thomas Nixon Carver. 

COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY ATLANTA UNIVERSITY 

The Negro American Artisan 

Contents 

PROGRAM OF THE SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE . 
PREFACE ......... 

RESOLUTIONS . ... 

BIBLIOGRAPHY . ...... 

1. SCOPE OF THE INQUIRY . . ........... 

2. THE ABHICAN ARTISAN ................ 

3. THE ANTE-BELLUM NEGRO AMERICAN ARTISAN 

4. THE ECONOMICS OF EMANCIPATION . 

5. THE OCCUPATIONS OF NEGROES .......... 

6. ALABAMA ... ... ............... 

1. ARIZONA, COLORADO, NEVADA, NEW MEXICO AND UTAH 

8. ARKANSAS . ... 

9. CALIBX>RNIA . .................... 

10. CONNECTICUT AND MASSACHUSETTS .... 

11. DELAWARE, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA AND MARYLAND . 

12. FLORIDA . 

13. GEORGIA. ....... ... ... 

14. ILLINOIS, INDIANA, MICHIGAN, MINNESOTA, WISCONSIN 

15. IOWA AND KANSAS 

16. KENTUCKY. ................... 

17. LOUISIANA ..................... 

18. MAINE, NEW HAMPSHIRE, RHODE ISLAND, VERMONT 

19. MISSISSIPPI . ... 

20. MISSOURI . . ... .... ... 

21. NEW YORK, NEW JERSEY AND PENNSYLVANIA . 

22. NORTH CAROLINA . 

23. OHIO. . . .......... ...... 

24. OKLAHOMA. ................... 

25. OREGON AND THE NORTHWEST ........ 

26. SOUTH CAROLINA ......... 

27. TENNESSEE . . 

28. TEXAS . 

29. VIRGINIA. . ........ 

30. WEST VIRGINIA ........... . 

31. THE NEGRO AND ORGANIZED LABOR ..... . . 

32. SOME RESULTS OB^ THE ATTITUDE OB^ UNIONS . . . 

33. THE TRAINING OB^ NEGRO AMERICAN ARTISANS . . . . 

34. THE ECONOMIC FUTURE OB^ THE NEGRO AMERICAN 
INDEX 

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41 

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50 

50 

51 

52 

52 

53 

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59 

61 

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63 

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74 

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The Seventeenth Annual Conference 

'The Negro Artisan" 

PROGRAM 

First Session, 10:00 a. m. 

President Ware presiding. 

Subject: "The Training of Artisans." 

"Methods of the Present Investigation." Mr. A. G. Dill, of Atlanta 

University. 

Address: Mr. Chester A. Coles, of Atlanta, Ga. 
Address: Mrs. Florence Kelley, of New York City. 
Second Session, 1I:3O a. m. 

Subject: "Health and Efficiency." (Separate meetings for men and 

women.) 

Address to men: Dr. Stephen A. Peters. 
Address to women: Dr. Shelby Boynton. 

Third Session, 3:00 p. m. 

The Fifteenth Annual Mothers' Meeting. (In charge of Gate City Free 

Kindergarten Association). Mrs. I. E. Wynn presiding. 
Subject: "The Kindergarten and the Artisan." 

1. Address: Mrs. Florence Kelley, New York City. 

2. Report of the Treasurer: Mrs. Lizzie Burch. 

3. Collection. 

4. Kindergarten songs, games and exercises by. one hundred and fifty 
children of the five free kindergartens: 
East Cain Street—Mrs. Ola Perry Cooke. 
Bradley Street—Mrs. Hattie Sims Fountain. 
White's Alley—Mrs. Idella F. Hardin. 
Alien's Alley—Miss Willie Kelley. 
Leonard Street Orphanage—Miss Rosa Martin. 

Fourth Session, 8:OO p. m. 

President Ware presiding. 

•Subject: "The Artisan and the Artisan's Problems." 

Address: Mrs. Florence Kelley, New York City. 

Music. 

Address: Mr. Alexander D. Hamilton, Atlanta, Ga. 

Discussion. 

Preface 

There is only one sure basis of social reform and that is 
Truth—a careful, detailed knowledge of the essential facts of 
each social problem. Without this there is no logical starting 
place for reform and uplift. Social difficulties may be clear 
and we may inveigh against them, but the causes proximate 
and remote are seldom clear to the casual observer and usually 
are quite hidden from the man who suffers from, or is sensi 
tive to, the results of the snarl. 

To no set of problems are these truths more applicable than 
to the so-called Negro problems. Perhaps the most immediate 
of these problems is the problem of work. To many superfi 
cial men the problem is simple: The Negro is lazy; make him 
work. Hence peonage, vagrancy laws and the like. To other 
men, broader minded, but unacquainted with the facts, the 
matter, while not simple, is clear: Negroes have a childish 
ambition to do work for which they are not fitted. Let us 
train them to do work for which they are fitted. 

This study is an attempt to get at the facts underlying 
such widespread thot as this by making a study of the trained 
Negro laborer, his education, opportunity, wages and work. 
The first attempt at this was made in 1902 and the results 
appeared in No. 7 of the Atlanta University Publications. 
The present study seeks to go over virtually the same ground 
after an interval of ten years. 

The study is, therefore, a further carrying out of the plan 

of social study of the Negro American, by means of an 

annual series of decennially recurring subjects covering, so 

^- far as is practicable, every phase of human life. This plan 

^1 originated at Atlanta University in 1896. The object of 

^1 these studies is primarily scientific—a careful research for 

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6 The Negro American Artisan 

truth; conducted as thoroly, broadly and honestly as the 
material resources and mental equipment at command will 
allow. It must be remembered that mathematical accuracy 
in these studies is impossible; the sources of information are 
of varying degrees of accuracy and the pictures are wofully 
incomplete. There is necessarily much repetition in the suc 
cessive studies, and some contradiction of previous reports by 
later ones as new material comes to hand. All we claim is 
that the work is as thoro as circumstances permit and that 
with all its obvious limitations it is well worth the doing. 
Our object is not simply to serve science. We wish not only 
to make the truth clear but to present it in such shape as will 
encourage and help social reform. In this work we have 
received unusual encouragement from the scientific world, 
and the publisht results of these studies are used in America, 
Europe, Asia and Africa. Very few books on the Negro 
problem, or any phase of it, have been publisht in the last 
decade which have not acknowledged their indebtedness to 
our work. 

We believe that this pioneer work in a wide and im 
portant social field deserves adequate support. The Trustees 
of the John F. Slater Fund have given us generous aid in the 
last five years, which aid has been supplemented by the gen 
eral funds of the University. These latter funds are limited, 
however, and needed in many other directions. What we 
earnestly ask is an endowment for this research work. A 
fund yielding $5,000 a year might under proper supervision 
yield incalculable good and help the nation and the modern 
world to a righteous solution of its problems of racial contact. 

I 

Resolutions 

The following resolutions are the expression of the mem 
bers, delegates and attendants upon the sessions of the seven 
teenth annual Conference: 

The Seventeenth Annual Atlanta Conference has considered the 
subject of the Negro artisan in a manner similar to the study of ten years 
ago. We have come to the following conclusions: 

1. Negro American skilled labor is undoubtedly gaining ground both 
North and South. 

2. This advance however is in the face of organized opposition and 
prejudice. The organized opposition is illustrated by the determined 
effort of the white locomotive firemen to displace Negro firemen, not for 
inefficiency or any cause but race and color. Race prejudice is shown by 
both employers and laborers in every line of skilled labor where the Negro 
is seeking admission. On the other hand, in the Miners' Union and in 
some building trades where the colored man has an assured footing, he is 
well treated and is achieving economic independence. 

3. What, then, should be the black man's attitude toward white 
laborers and the labor movement? Some people advise enmity and antag 
onism. This is a mistake. The salvation of all laborers, white and black, 
lies in the great movement of social uplift known as the labor movement 
which has increased wages and decreased hours of labor for black as well 
as white. When the white laborer is educated to understand economic 
conditions he will outgrow his pitiable race prejudice and -recognize that 
black men and white men in the labor world have a common cause. Let 
black men fight prejudice and exclusion in the labor world and fight it 
hard; but do not fight the labor movement. 

We call attention to the advantages derived by the working class 
from co-operation in every form in which it has been practiced—in the 
building of homes, in buying the necessaries of life, in the selling of farm 
products and in bargaining for wages. We note the gain made thru 
teachers' associations and mothers' clubs, medical associations and far 
mers' unions and building and loan associations. We recommend to the 
Negro American in general and to the Negro artisan in particular the 
study of the principle of association as it has been applied in other coun 
tries as well as our own. 

4. Manual training and industrial and technical education are great 
needs of the colored people; but the movement in this line today, excellent 

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The Negro American Artisan 

as it is, is in some respects deficient. There are points to be remembered 
in this connection: 

(1) Industrial training cannot be made a substitute for intelligence. 

The effort to abolish illiteracy receives great encouragement from the 
figures of the thirteenth census which shows that from 1870 to 1910 illit 
eracy among Negro Americans had been reduced from eighty per cent to 
thirty per cent, while the Negro population had more than doubled. 

Illiteracy, however, is still so extensive that we call upon the govern 
ment of city, state and nation to work together to provide sufficient schools 
for the elementary education of all persons below the age of twenty-one 
years. Of equal importance with universal elementary education is the 
need of higher and technical education in preparation for the professions 
and industries, including the great and fundamental industry of home- 
making. For this education, also, the active participation of city, state 
and nation is urgently needed. 

(2) Technical training for trades which are not in economic demand 
is not a good investment. 

There is an attempt in many quarters to restrict the training of 
Negroes in general intelligence—even in reading, writing and arithmetic - 
to the narrowest possible limits and to substitute industrial training. This 
will not make intelligent working men but will encourage ignorance. It 
is not good business to train a race simply in the poorly paid, the declining 
and the undesirable vocations. This will increase poverty and discontent. 

5. Finally, this Conference notes with pride and satisfaction the 
increase of property-holding among Negro Americans, which fact so 
effectually sets at naught the familiar charge of laziness and inefficiency. 

(Signed) W. E. B. Du Bois, New York, N. Y. 
FLORENCE KELLEY, New York, N. Y. 
A. G. DILL, Atlanta, Ga. 

A Select Bibliography of the Negro American Artisan 

Part I 

Arranged alphabetically by authors 

A Brief Sketch of the schools for black people and their descendants, 

established by the Society of Friends, etc. Phila., 1857. 32 pp. 
Agricola (pseudonym). An impartial view of the real state of the black 

population in the U. S., etc. Phila., 1824. 26 pp. 
Alien, W. G. The American prejudice against color. London. 107 pp. 

1853. 

Alvord, J. W. Letters from the South relating to the condition of the 
Freedmen, addressed to Gen. Major O. O. Howard. Washington, 
1870. 42 pp. 

America's Race Problems. N. Y., 1901. 187pp. 
Atlanta University Publications: No. 2: Social and physical condition of 

Negroes in cities. 1897. 72, 14 pp. 

No. 3. Some efforts of American Negroes for their own social better 
ment. 1898. (2) 66 pp. 
No. 4. The Negro in Business. 1899. (3) 77pp. 

The College-bred Negro. 1900. (2), 115 (3) pp. 
The Negro Common School, etc. 1901. ii, (2), 120 pp. 
The Negro Artisan. 1902. 192 pp. 

Notes on Negro Crime, Particularly in Georgia. 1904. 68 pp. 
Economic Co-operation among Negro Americans. 184 pp. 

No. 5. 
No. 6. 
No. 7. 
No. 9. 
No. 12. 
1907. 
No. 13. 
No. 14. 

The Negro American Family. 152 pp. 1908. 
Efforts for Social Betterment among Negro Americans. 136 
pp. 1909. 

No. 15. The College-bred Negro American. 104 pp. 1910. 
No. 16. The Common School and the Negro American. 140pp. 1911. 
Bacon, Benjamin C. Statistics of the colored people of Philadelphia, 
taken by and published by order of the Board of Education of the 
Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of the Abolition of Slavery. 
Philadelphia, 1856. Second ed. Phila., 1859. 24 pp. 
Baker, Ray Stannard. Following the Color-line. New York, 1908. 
Banks, Chas. Negro Town and Colony. Mound Bayou, Miss. 10 pp. 
Barringer, Dr. Paul. The American Negro: his past and future. Raleigh, 

1900. 23 pp. 
Bassett, John S. Slavery and Servitude in the Colony of South Carolina. 

Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, 1896. 

Slavery and Servitude in the Colony of North Carolina. Bait., 1896. 
™ 86 pp. Series 14. No. 4, 5. Authorities cited, p. 3. 
^•^^ History of Slavery in North Carolina. Johns Hopkins University 
^^^H Studies. Bait, 1899. Ill pp. Studies in historical and political 
^^^H science. Authorities, pp. 110-111. Series 17, No. 7, 8. 

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The Negro American Artisan 

Blair, Lewis H. The prosperity of the South dependent upon the eleva- 

vation of the Negro. Richmond, Va., 1889. 147 pp. 
Boas, Franz. Commencement Address at Atlanta University, May, 1906. 

Atlanta University Leaflet, No. 19. 15 pp. 

Brackett, Jeffrey Richardson. The Negro in Maryland. A study of the 
institution of slavery. Bait, 1889. (5) 268 pp. (Johns Hopkins 
University Studies, extra vol. 6). 

The status of the slave, 1775-1789. (Essay V. in Jameson's Essays 
in the constitutional history of the United States, 1775-1789). Bos 
ton, 1889. Pp. 263-311. 

Notes on the progress of the colored people of Maryland since the 
war; a supplement to the "Negro in Maryland: a study of the in 
stitution of slavery." Johns Hopkins Press, Bait., 1890. Pp. 96. 
Brousseau, Kate. L'education des Negres aux Etats-unis. Paris, 19U4. 

396, (1) pp. 

Brown, Frederick John. The northward movement of the colored popu 
lation. A statistical study. Bait., 1897. 50 pp. 
Brown, H. M. A plea for industrial education among the colored people. 

New York, 1884. 30 pp. 
Bruce, P. A. Economic History of Virginia in the 17th century. New 

York, 2 vol. 1896. 

The plantation Negro as a freeman. New York, 1889. 262 pp. 
Bruce, Roscoe Conkling. Service by the educated Negro. Tuskegee, 1903. 

17pp. 

Bruce, W. Cabell. The Negro problem. Bait, 1891. 33 pp. 
Buckingham, J. S. Slave States of America. London, 1842. 
Bueeher, Carl. Industrial Evolution. Translated by S. M. Wickett, New- 
York, 1904. 393 pp. 
Bumstead, Horace. Higher education of the Negro, its practical value. 

Atlanta, 1870. 15 pp. 
Cable, George Washington. The Negro Question. New York, 1888, 32 

pp. New York, 1890. 173 pp. 
Campbell, Robert F. Some aspects of the race problem in the South. 

Pamphlet, 1899. Asheville, N. C. 31 pp. 

Chandler, J. W. This is a white working man's government Washing 
ton, 1866. 14 pp. U. t. p. 
Cincinnati Convention of Colored Freedmen of Ohio, Proceedings, Jan. 14- 

19, 1852. Cincinnati, 1852. 

Colored People's Blue Book and Business Directory of Chicago, 111. 1905. 
Commons, John R. et al. Documentary History of American Industrial 

Society. 10 Vols. Cleveland, 1910. 
Condition of the people of color in Ohio. With interesting anecdotes. 

Boston, 1839. 42 pp. 
Cooley, H. S. Slavery in New Jersey. Johns Hopkins University Studies. 

Bait,. 1896. 60 pp. Series 14. Bibliography, pp. 59, 60. 
Crisis, The. Organ of the National Association for the Advancement of 
Colored People. New York, 1910 et seq. 

Bibliography 

11 

Curry, J. L. M. Education of Negroes since 1860. Bait, 1894. 32 pp. 

J. F. Slater Fund Papers. 

Difficulties, complications and limitations connected with the educa 
tion of the Negro. (Trustees of the John F. Slater Fund. Occa 
sional papers, No. 5.) Bait., 1895. Pp. 23. 

De Bow, J. D. B. Industrial resources of the southern and western 
states. New Orleans, 1852-1853. 

Denniker, J. The Races of Man. New York, 1904. 611 pp. 

Douglass, H. Paul. Christian Reconstruction in the South. Boston, 1909. 

407 pp. 

Dowd, Jerome. The Negro Races. New York, 1907. 491pp. 
Du Bois, W. E. B. The Negro in the black belt: Some Social Sketches. 

In the Bulletin of the Department of Labor, No. 22. 
The Philadelphia Negro. Phila., 1896. 520pp. 
The Negroes of Farmville, Va. U. S. Dept of Labor Bulletin, Jan., 

1898. Vol. Ill, No. 14. Pp. 1-38. Washington. 
The Study of the Negro Problems. Annals of the American Academy 

of Political Science. Phila., 1898. 29 pp. 
The Negro land-holders of Ga. U. S. Dept of Labor Bulletin, No. 

35, 1901. Pp. 647-777. Washington. 

The relation of the Negroes and Whites in the South. Phila., 1901. 
Souls of Black Folk. Chicago, 1903. 264 (1) pp. 
The Quest of the Silver Fleece. Chicago, 1911. 434 pp. 
Education and Employment Statistics of the colored people of Philadel 
phia. (In Library of Penn. Historical Association). 
Eggleston, Edward. The Ultimate Solution of the American Negro 

Problem. 

Ely, R. T. The Labor Movement in America. 1890. 
Finger, S. M. Educational and religious interests of the colored people 
of the South. U. S. Bureau of Education circular of information, 
No. 2, 1886. Pp. 123-133. 

Fortune, T. Thomas. Black and White. New York, 1884. Pp.311. 
Freedmen's Bureau. Annual Reports of the Bureau for Refugees, Freed 
men and Abandoned Lands. 1866-1872. 

French, Mrs. A. M. Slavery in South Carolina. New York, 1862. 312 pp. 
Gannett, Henry. Occupations of the Negroes. (Trustees of the John F. 

Slater Fund. Occasional papers, No. 6). Bait, 1895. Pp.16. 
Statistics of the Negroes in the U. S. Bait, 1894. 28pp. 
Garnet, Henry Highland. The past and present condition and the destiny 

of the colored race. Troy, 1848. 29 pp. 

Goodwin, M. B. History of schools for the colored population in the District 
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Hammond, Isaac W. Slavery in New Hampshire. Concord, 1883. 
Hampton Negro Conference. Reports, 1897-1911. 

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The Negro American Artisan 

Bibliography 

13 

Hand, Daniel. A sketch of the life of, and of his benefaction to the 
American Missionary Association for the education of the colored 
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Harris, William T. Education of the Negro. An address made to* the 
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Hart, Albert B. Southern South. New York, 1910. 445 pp. 

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Haynes, George Edmund. The Negro at work in New York City. New 
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Helper, Hinton Rowan. The impending crisis of the South: how to meet 
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Ingle, Edward. The Negro in the District of Columbia. Johns Hopkins 
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Johnston, Sir Harry. Negro in the New World. New York, 1910. 499pp. 

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Kirk, Edward Morris. Educated labor, etc. N. Y., 1868. 11 pp. 

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The Negro American Artisan 

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Bait., 1891-1897 (Nos. 1-6 partly, reprinted in Report Bureau of Edu 
cation, 1894-95, chap. 32). 

United States Census Bureau. Censuses of 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1890, 
1900. 

United States Department (Bureau) of Labor Bulletin: No. 10. Condi 
tions of the Negro in various cities. No. 14. The Negroes of 
Farmville, Va., a social study, by W. E. B. Du Bois, Ph.D. No. 
22. The Negro in the black belt: Some social sketches by W. E. B. 
Du Bois, Ph.D. No. 32. The Negroes of Sandy Spring, Md., a 
social study by W. T. Thomas, Ph.D. No. 38. The Negroes of 
Cinclaire Central Factory and Calumet Plantation, La., by J. Bradd- 
i'ord Laws. No. 48. The Negroes of Xenia, Ohio, by R. R. Wright, 
Jr., 1892. 31 pp. 

Bibliography 

15 

United States Bureau of Education. Education of colored race. Negroes 
in America. Wash., 1896. (In report of commissioner for 1893-94. 
Vol. I, pp. 1038-1061). 

United States Bureau of Education. Annual Reports, 1887-1911. 
United States Bureau of Education. Education of the colored race. 

Wash., 1901. Reports, 1899-1900. 
United States Bureau of Education. Education of the colored race. 

Wash., 1902. Reports, 1900-1901. 
United States Census. Reference to the Negro American: 

Volume on cotton production and land and labor. Volume on popula 
tion, part II: Ages, illiteracy, occupations. 
Special reports: Volume on occupations. 
Statistical Atlas Bulletins. 
No. 8. Negroes in the United States, by W. P. Willcox and W. E. B. 

Du Bois. Wash., 1904. 333 pp. 
United States: Report of the Industrial Commission, 1901,1902. 19 vols. 

Wash. 
For references to Negroes, see particularly: 

7. On the Relation and Condition of Capital and Labor in Manufac 
tures and General Business. 1071 pp. 

8. On the Chicago Labor Disputes of 1900. 612 pp. 
12. On the Relations and Conditions of Capital and Labor in the 

Mining Industry. 747 pp. 

14. On the Relations and Conditions of Capital and Labor in Manu 
factures and General Business. 809 pp. 
Vance, W. R. Slavery in Kentucky. 1896. 

Vass, S. N. The Progress of the Negro Race. Raleigh, 1906. 31 pp. 
Washington, B. T. Address delivered at the opening of the Atlanta Ex 
position, Sept. 18, 1895. In Atlanta Canstitiition, Sept. 19, L895. 
Future of the American Negro. Boston, 1899. 244 pp. 
Education of the Negro. Albany, 1900. 44 pp. 
Negro Education not a Failure. Tuskegee, Ala., 1904. 13 pp. 
Working with the Hands. New York, 1904. 246 pp. 
The Story of the Negro. New York, 1909. 

Washington, B. T., and Du Bois, W. E. B. The Negro and the South. 
Weatherford, W. D. Negro Life in the South. New York, 1910. 
Webster, Noah, Jr. Effects of Slavery on Morals and Industry. Hart 
ford, 1793. 
Weeden, William B. Economic and Social History of New England, 1620- 

1789. Boston, 1890. 
West, Gerald M. The Status of the Negro in Virginia during the Colonial 

Period. New York, 1897. 76 pp. 

Williams, George W. History of the Negro Race in America. New York 
and London, 1882. 

 V 

•5" 

\ 

\ 

\ 

16 

The Negro American Artisan 

19:353. 

of Southern economic history. 

K. B. 

37:52. 

Work, Monroe N. Negro Year Book. Tuskegee, Ala., 1912. 215 pp. 
Wright, Carroll D. The Industrial Evolution of the United States. 

Chatauqua, 1897. 362 pp. 
Wright, R. R., Jr. The Negro in Pennsylvania. Phila.,1912. 250pp. 

Part II. Periodical Literature 

A. M. E. Church Review: The Negro as an inventor. R. R. Wright. 

2:397. 

American: Trade school or Negroes. 
American Historical Review: Problem 

A. H. Stone. 13:779-97. 
American Journal of Political Economy: 

Education of Negroes. A. A. Gundy. 1:295. 

Solution of Negro problem. W. A. Curtis. 3:352. 
American Journal of Political Science: Philadelphia Negroes. 

Davis. 8:284. 
American J ournal of Social Science: 

Negro exodus (1879). 11:1, 22. 

Higher education of Negroes. H. L. Wayland. 34:68. 

Present problem of the education of Negroes. W. H. Baldwin. 

Education of Negroes. C. D. Warner. 38:1. 

Education of Negroes. K. Miller. 39:117. 
American Journal of Sociology: 

The Negro Artisan. W. E. B. Du Bois. 8:854-6. 

Industrial reorganization in Alabama after the Civil War. W. L. 

Fleming. 10:473-500. 
American Magazine of Civics: Education of Negroes. J. L. M. Curry. 

8:168. 

American Missionary: 56 vol. 1856-1912. 
American Statistical Association, Publications of 

M. M. Dawson. 5:142. 
Andover Review: 

Negroes at school. Horace Bumstead. 4:550. 

Education of Negroes. A. Salisbury. 6:256. 

Industrial education of Negroes. 14:254. 
Annals of the American Academy of Political Science: 

Philadelphia Negro. W. E. B. Du Bois. 5:100-2. 

Study of Negro problems. W. E. B. Du Bois. 11:1. 

Race problem. 15:807-10. 

Relation of the Whites to the Negroes in the South. W. E. B. Du Bois. 
18:121-40. 

Evolution of Negro labor. C. Kelsey. 21:55-76. 

Negro education in the South. W. B. Hill. 22:320-9. 

Negroes in the trade unions in New York. M. W. Ovington. 27:551-8. 

American Negroes. 

Bibliography 

17 

Training of the Negro laborer in the North. H. M. Browne. 27:579-89. 

Industrial conditions of the Negro in New York City. W. L. Bulkley. 
27:590-6. 

Relation of industrial education to national progress. B. T. Wash 
ington. 33:1-12. 

Negro mine labor, central Appalachian coal field. G. T. Surface. 
33:338-52. 

Negro labor and the boll weevil. A. H. Stone. 33:391-8. 

Economic needs of the South. W. H. Glason. 35:167-71. 

Labor supply and labor problems of the South. E. M. Banks. 

35:143-9. 
Arena: 

The race problem of Negroes. W. C. P. Breckinridge. 2:39. 

The race problem of Negroes. Wade Hampton. 2:132. 

Progress of the Negro. G. W. Forbes. 2:134-41. 

The race problem of Negroes. J. T. Morgan. 2:385. 

The race problem of Negroes. W. S. Scarborough. 2:560. 

Negroes in the United States. N. S. Shaler. 2:660. 

Educational possibilities of Negroes. B. T. Washington. 21:455. 
Atlantic: 

The Freedmen of Port Royal. Edward L. Pierce. 12:291. 

Problems of Negroes. N. S. Shaler. 54:696. 

Negroes: What they are doing for themselves. S. J. Barrows. 
67:805. 

Education of Negroes. W. T. Harris. 69:721. 

Awakening of the Negro. 78:322. 

Strivings of the Negro people. W. E. B. Du Bois. 80:194. 

Training of Black Men. W. E. B. Du Bois. 90:289-97. 

Fruits of industrial training. B. T. Washington. 92:453-62. 
Bankers' Magazine: Economical aspects of the Negro. 33:933. 
Cassier's Magazine: American Negro Artisan. T. J. Galloway. 25:435-45. 
Catholic World: 

Education of Negroes. J. R. Slattery. 56:28. 

Present and future conditions of Negroes in the United States. J. 
R. Slattery. 58:219. 

Negroes in Baltimore. J. R. Slattery. 66:519. 
Century: 

Signs of progress among Negroes. B. T. Washington. 37:472. 

Industrial color line in the North. J. S. Stemons. 60:477. 
Charities: 

The Negro in the cities of the North. 15:1. 

Kowaliga, a community with a purpose. W. E. Benson. 15:22-<±. 

Industrial conditions among Negro men in Boston. J.Daniels. 15:35-9. 

Negro in times of industrial unrest. R. R. Wright, Jr. 15:69-73. 
Manual training for Negro children. D. E. Gordon. 15:84. 
Christian Examiner: Freedman and free labor at the South. 76:344. 

 Jl 

' 

18 

The Negro American Artisan 

Conservative Review: Social condition of the Negroes before the war 

3:211. 
Contemporary: 

The race problem of Negroes. G. W. Cable. 53:443. 

American Negro of today. P. A. Bruce. 77:284. 
Cosmopolitan: Problems in education. B. T. Washington. 33:506. 
Crisis, The. Organ of the National Association for the Advancement of 

Colored People. 1910 et seq. 
Current Literature: Economic work of the Negro. B. T. Washington 

32:85. 
DeBow's Review: 

Importation of African laborers. 24:421. 

The South demands more Negro labor. E. Deloney. 25:491. 
Education: 

Industrial education of Negroes. W. P. Johnston. 5:636. 

Education of Negroes. C. G. Andrews. 6:221. 
Educational Review: 

New education in the South. P. B. Barringer. 21:233. 

Education of the Negro in its historical aspects. D. L. Kiehle. 27:299. 

Social and industrial capacities of Negroes of the South. 45:383. 

Negro apprenticeship system. J. Spedding. 66:477. 
Forum: 

Progress of the Negroes of the South. A. D. Mayo. 10:335. 

The Negro and Education. K. Miller. 30:693. 
Gunton's Magazine: 

Coleman cotton mill. Sept., 1902. 

Colored men as cotton manufacturers. J. Dowd. 23:254-6. 
. Negro as an artisan. 24:452. 

^ - Georgia State Industrial College for Negroes. L. B. Ellis. 25:218-26. 
Harper's Weekly: 

Georgia race strike. 53:5. 

Georgia strike arbitration. July 3, 1909. 
Independent: 

Industrial education for the African. J. E. Rankin. April 2,1891. 43:3. 

Condition of the Negro: What he is doing for himself and what is 
being done for him. Testimony from both races. (A symposium). 
43:477. 

Negro manual training experiment in Texas. 47:5552. 

Industrial training. W. E. Hutchison. 58:92-4. 

International Monthly: American Negro and his economic value. B. T. 
Washington. 2:672-86. 

Negro as an industrial factor. 2:672. 
International Review: Negro exodus (1879). 7:373. 
Lippincott: Industrial question. 59:266. 
Manufacturers'Record: Colored help for textile mills. (Baltimore Md ) 

Sept. 22, 1893. 
Methodist Quarterly: Negro exodus (1879). 39:722. 

Bibliography 

19 

Missionary Review: 

What industrial training is doing for the Negro. H. B. Frissell. 

27:574-8. 
What intellectual training is doing for the Negro. W. E. B. Du Bois. 

27:578-82. 
Nation: 

Negro exodus (1879). 28:242, 386. 
Negro labor in Southern manufactures. 53:208. 
Negro and the trade unions. 76:186. 
Rural industrial school. 88:401-2. 
N. Ecclesiastical Review: Freedmen and Southern labor problems. 

3:257. 

New World: Education of Negroes. 9:625. 
New York Times: The black North. (Studies of Negroes in Northern 

cities). 1901. 

North American Review: Negro as a mechanic. 156:472. 
Our Day: Industrial education of Negroes. B.T.Washington. 16:79. 
Outlook: 

Negroes an industrial factor. C. B. Spahr. 62:31. 

Negro cotton mill. 67:468. 

Savings of black Georgia. W. E. B. Du Bois. 69:128-30. 

Negro in business. J. T. Montgomery. 69:733-4. 

Aims of Negro education. H. B. Frissell. 74:937-9. 

Training of Negroes for social power. W. E. B. Du Bois. 75:409-14. 

Negro enterprise. B. T. Washington. 77:115-8. 

Helping the Negro to help himself. C. C. Smith. 78:727-30. 

Economic future of the Negro. 82:102-3. 

New phase of industrial education. Kowaliga. J. C. Barrows. 

83:896-8. 

Work and education. 88:526-7. 

Forced labor in America and the Alabama contract law. 90:846-8. 
Definite progress among Negroes. 92:770-1. 
Georgia Railroad strike. 92:310-2. 
Political Science Quarterly: 
Negro artisan. 9:699-701. 
Slave labor problem in the Charleston district. U. B. Phillips. 

22:416-39. 

Local study of the race problem in Georgia. 
Popular Science Monthly: 

Negro artisan. W. E. B. Du Bois. 19:699-701. 
Negro since the Civil War. N. S. Shaler. 57:29-39. 
Public Opinion: Knights of Labor and Negroes. 2:1. 
Review of Reviews: Negro progress on the Tuskegee plan. Albert 

Shaw. 9:436. 

American Negro at Paris. W. E. B. Du Bois. 22:575-7. 
Science: Industrial training and the Negro problem in the United States. 
E. L. Blackshear. 23:606-7. 

R. P. Brooks. 26:193-221. 

 ^ 

20 

The Negro American Artisan 

D. C. Barrows, Jr. 

Scribners: Negroes of the South under free labor. 

21:830. 
Slater Fund: 

Proceedings and occasional papers of. 
No. 3. Education of Negroes since 1860. Curry. 
Proceedings and occasional papers of. No. 6. 
Occupations of Negroes. Gannett. 
South Atlantic Quarterly: Industrial development in Alabama during the 

Civil War. W. L. Flemings. 3:260. 
Southern Workman: 

Industrial training and the race question. E. L. Blackshear. July, 

1906. 
The industrial opportunity for Negroes in Philadelphia. J. B. Leeds. 

July, 1911. 

Some labor tendencies in the South. G. S. Dickerman. Oct., 1907. 
Industrial condition of Negro women in New York. Samuel H. 

Bishop. Sept., 1910. 

The Negro in Chicago. R. R. Wright, Jr. Oct., 1906. 
Value of educating the Negro. B. T. Washington. Oct., 1904. 
^- Local conditions among Negroes in four counties of Georgia. W. T. 

B. Williams. Nov., 1906. 

Negro craftsmen in New York. Helen A. Tucker. Oct., Nov., 1907. 
New York Negro Colony. M. W. Ovington. Nov., 1909. 
Pleas for Negro trade schools in cities. R. C. Bruce. Dec., 1904. 
Relation of industrial education to the economic progress of the South. 

T.J.Jones. Dec., 1908. 
The Negro in Gloucester county, Virginia. W. T. B. Williams. Feb., 

1906. 

Economic progress of the South. T. J. Jones. March, 1909. 
Forty years of Negro progress. R. R. Wright, Jr. March, 1907. 
Place of industrial training in higher Negro education. W. E. Hutch- 

ison. April, 1906. 
Relation of industrial education to the nation's progress. B. T. 

Washington. April, 1908. 

Industrial education in schools of Columbus. C. B. Gibson. May, 1908. 
Spectator: 

Capacity of Negroes. 75:927. 
Progress among Negroes. 63:852. 
Tradesman (Chattanooga, Term.): 
Negro labor. July 15,1889. 
Negro labor. July 20, 1891. 

The Negro skilled laborer in the South. Oct. 15, 1902. 
World's Work: 

Negro as he really is. W. E. B. Du Bois. 2:848-66. 
Successful training of the Negro. B. T. Washington. 6:3731-51. 
Georgia Negroes and their fifty millions of savings. W. E. B. Du Bois. 

18:11550-4. 

The Negro American Artisan 

Section 1. Scope of the Inquiry 

In 1902 Atlanta University made a study of the Negro 
artisan. Ten years later we come back to the same study, 
with a desire to ascertain the present condition of the Negro 
American artisan, to inquire into his training and experience, 
and to set forth in positive, scientific statements the actual 
economic and social conditions of this important group of 
American citizens,—their problems and their prospects. The 
present investigation is based upon the following data in ad 
dition to other miscellaneous sources: 

1. Studies of African life. 

2. Ante-bellum American historical studies. 

3. Local studies. 

4. The Reports of the Census Department of the United 
States. 

5. The catalogs of Negro institutions. 

6. Replies to the following general questionnaire sent to 
interested citizens thruout the United States: 
DEAR FRIEND: 

Atlanta University is making a study of the Negro Artisan. Will 
you kindly answer the following questions and return the blank to us at 
your earliest convenience? 

1. Name of place ...... . State . 

2. Are there many Negro skilled laborers here? 

3. What trades do they follow chiefly? 

4. Is the Negro gaining or losing as a skilled laborer? Why so? 

5. What results can you see of industrial school training? 

6. Are young men entering the trades? 

7. What success are the Negro artisans in your community having? 

8. Will you kindly write on the other side of this paper the names 
and addresses and trades of all the Negro artisans in your city or town? 
Your name and address. 

in factories, who do no skilled work, etc. 

 P&?s 

•7 

v 

^ 

III 

22 

The Negro American Artisan 

7. Replies to the following questionnaire sent to the heads 
of Negro institutions: 

DEAR FRIEND: 

Atlanta University is making a study of the Negro Artisan. Will you 
kindly answer the following questions and return the blank to us at your 
earliest convenience? 

1. Name of institution. 

2. Address. 

3. How many of your graduates or former students are earning a 
living entirely as artisans? 

4. How many of the above mentioned are: Carpenters, blacksmiths, 
brickmakers, masons, engineers, firemen, dressmakers, iron and steel 
workers, shoemakers, painters, plasterers, coopers, tailors? 

5. Where are most of these artisans located at present? 

6. How many of the rest of your graduates or former students are 
earning a living partially as artisans? 

7. What trades and other work do they usually combine? 

8. What difficulties do your graduates meet in obtaining work as 
artisans? 

9. Do they usually join trades unions? 

10. How many of them teach industries in schools? 

11. Will you kindly furnish us with a list of your graduates from 
industrial courses, with occupations and present addresses? 

8. Replies to the following questionnaire sent to Negro 
Artisans: 

DEAR FRIEND: 

For several years past Atlanta University has made an annual study 
of some phase of Negro life in America. The results of these studies 
have been published in book form and have received the attention of 
thinking people thruout the civilized world. In this way we have been 
able, we believe, to help the entire Negro race. This year the University 
is making a study of the Negro Artisan. Your name has been sent to us 
as one of the leading artisans in your community. Will you kindly answer 
the following questions and return the blank to us at your earliest conve 
nience? By so doing you will greatly help this work. 

1. Name? 

2. Address? 

3. Age? Sex? 

4. Married, single, widowed or divorced? 

5. Trade? 

Scope of the Inquiry 

23 

6. (a) Do you work for yourself? 
Do you own your own tools? 
Do you hire other workers? 
What is your average income? 
(b) Do you work for wages? 
What wages do you receive? 
Time unoccupied per year? 

What wages do the whites receive for the same kind of 
work? 

7. How did you learn your trade? 

8. Did you attend a trade school? 
How long? 
Where? 

9. Do you belong to a trade union? 
If so, what union? 
Do whites belong? 
Can you join with the whites? 
If you do not belong to a union, why not? 

10. Do you work with whites? 

Do you work chiefly for whites or for Negroes? 
What is the feeling between the white and colored workers in 
your trade? 

11. Education: Common school? Higher training? 

12. Do you own real estate? 

13. Are the conditions for the Negro skilled worker growjng better? 
Why? 

14. Remarks. 

9. Study of Negro skilled labor, thru employer and em 
ployee. 

10. Study of the relation of the Negro artisan to organized 
labor in the United States. This study was made by means 
of a blank questionnaire sent to labor organizations, national, 
state and local, thruout the country. 

The statements of present conditions which are made in 
these pages under the various state headings are taken from 
the replies of interested friends and correspondents of the 
Atlanta Conference, both North and South. The Negro arti 
sans themselves have also contributed much valuable infor 
mation concerning local conditions. 

 24 

The Negro American Artisan 

Section 2. The African Artisan 

A Select African Bibliography 

Af ricanus, Leo: "Geographical Historic of Africa." London, 1600. 

Earth, Heinrich: "Travels and Discoveries in the North and Central Africa." 
New York, 1859. 

Bowen: "Missionary Labor in Africa." Charleston, 1857. 

Deniker: "The Races of Man." London, 1900. 

Dowd, Jerome: "The Negro Races." New York, 1937. 

Featherman: "Social History of the Races of Mankind. Nigritians, etc." 
London, 1887. 

Kingsley: "Travels in West Africa." London, 1900. 
"West African Studies." London, 1901. 

Livingstone: "Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa." New- 
York, 1858. 

Park: "Life and Travels." New York, 1858. 

Quatrefages: "The Pygmies." New York, 1895. 

Ratzel: "The History of Mankind." 3 Vols. London, 1897. 

Reclus: "The Earth and its Inhabitants." New York, 1892. 

Rohlfs: "Reise von Mittelmeer noch dem Tschad-See und Golf von Guinea." 
Leipzig, 1875. 

Schweinfurth: "The Heart of Africa." New York, 1874. 

Stanley: "In Darkest Africa." New York, 1890. 

Staudinger: "Im Herzen der Haussa Lander." Oldenburg and Leipzig, 1891. 

Stuhlmann: "Mit Emin Pasha ins Herz von Africa." Berlin, 1894. 

A study of the Negro American artisan quite naturally 
begins with the entrance of the Negro into American life. 
Twelve years after the founding of Jamestown in Virginia 
and one year prior to the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, 
the first cargo of Negro slaves was brot to the American con 
tinent. Sold to the settlers in the Virginia colony, these Ne 
groes joined in the work of building the nation, a-work which 
demanded both brain and brawn. Endowed with physical 
strength, this new American group was no mean asset to the 
economic forces of the new world, considered especially in the 
light of the strenuous demands of the strenuous period. 

What had been the experience of the members of this 
group, so rapidly increasing by birth and by the activities of 
slave-catcher and slave-trader? Had there been anything in 
the African life which would render the Negroes capable of 
taking a part in the building of homes, the acquiring of wealth, 
the developing of the new land, the building of the nation? 
Is there any evidence of mechanical skill among the African 
natives? A glimpse into African life may help us to answer 
these questions; for among the Pygmies, the Hottentots, the 

The African Artisan 

25 

Bushmen, the Ashantis and in practically all parts of the con 
tinent of Africa, we find concrete evidences of that ability 
which makes for artisanship. 

While the Pygmies, still living in the age of wood, make 
no iron or stone implements, they seem to know how to make 
bark cloth and fibre baskets and simple outfits for hunting 
and fishing. Among the Bushmen the art of making weapons 
and working in hides is quite common. The Hottentots are 
further advanced in the industrial arts, being well versed in 
the manufacture of clothing, weapons and utensils. In the 
dressing of skins and furs as well as in the plaiting of cords 
and the weaving of mats we find evidences of their work 
manship. In addition, they are good workers in iron and 
copper, using the skeepskin bellows for this purpose. The 
Ashantis of the "Gold Coast" know how to make "cotton 
fabrics, turn and glaze earthenware, forge iron, fabricate 
instruments and arms, embroider rugs and carpets, and set 
gold and precious stones."1 Among the people of the banana 
zone we find rough basket work, coarse pottery, grass cloth, 
and spoons made of wood and ivory. The people of the mil 
let zone, because of uncertain agricultural resources, quite 
generally turn to manufacturing. Charcoal is prepared by 
the smiths, iron is smelted and numerous implements are 
manufactured. Among them we find axes, hatchets, hoes, 
knives, nails, scythes and other hardware. Cloaks, shoes, 
sandals, shields and water and oil vessels are made from 
leather which the natives have dressed. Soap is manufac 
tured in the Bautschi district, glass is melted, formed and 
colored by the people of Nupeland, and in almost every city 
cotton is spun and woven and dyed. Earth tells us that the 
weaving of cotton was known in the Sudan as early as the 
eleventh century. There is also extensive manufacture of 
wooden ware, tools, implements and utensils. 

Leo Africanus writing of Timbuctu in the sixteenth cen 
tury said: ' 'It is a woonder to see what plentie of Merchandize 
is dayly brought hither and how costly and sumptuous all 

'Reclus: "The Earth and its Inhabitants," Vol. 3, p. 241. 

 \ 

1 

26 

The Negro American Artisan 

things be. .... Here are many shops of artificers and 
merchants and especially of such as weave linnen and cloth."] 

Kuka, on the west shore of Lake Tchad, and Sokoto, in 
the northwestern part of the empire of the same name, are 
the principal manufacturing centers of this district. Here 
cotton is spun and woven into cloth; skins are tanned and 
manufactured into boots, shoes and saddles; and implements, 
ornaments and tools are wrot of iron. 

Thruout the continent of Africa we find evidences of the 
industrial ability of the natives. Anthropologist and geolo 
gist, scientist and man of letters, alike record the achieve 
ments of the African people along this line. 

The industries of the native Africans were greatly dis 
turbed during the activities of the slave trade. Dowd in his 
sociological study, "The Negro Races," says: 

During the activities of the slave trade there was a noticeable de 
cline in native manufactures thruout Africa, especially along the coast 
regions. The natives gave up to a large extent their primitive industries 
and depended upon the sale of slaves as a means of supplying what they 
wanted in the line of manufactured goods.2 .... During the flour 
ishing days of slave exportation to America, the industrial arts declined 
as well as the cultivation of the soil. One of the effects of the contact 
with European peoples and products was at first to cause the natives to 
imitate the articles of foreign manufacture, such as glass and gunpowder, 
and but for the slave trade and other mistaken policies of the white man 
which disorganized the whole economic life of the natives there is no tell 
ing what strides would have been made in all lines of industry. Since 
the abolition of the external slave trade, the revival of industrial activi 
ties among the people of the Sudan has been hindered by the wars between 
the pastoral Fellatahs and native blacks. s 

Dr. Franz Boas, whose knowledge of man has been a 
source of inspiration to many a social reformer, in speaking 
of the African Negro, says: 

The achievements of races are not only what they have done during 
the short span of two thousand years, when with rapidly increasing num 
bers the total amount of mental work accumulated at an ever increasing 
rate. In this the European, the Chinaman, the East Indian, have far 
outstripped other races. But back of this period lies the time when man 
kind struggled with the elements, when every small advance that seems 

'Africanus: "Geographical Historie of Africa," pp. 287-291. 
s Dowd: The Negro Races, Vol. 1, p. 94. '•Ibid. P. 108. 

The African Artisan 

27 

to us now insignificant was an achievement of the highest order, as great 
as the discovery of steam power or of electricity, if not greater. It may 
well be, that these early inventions were made hardly consciously, cer 
tainly not by deliberate effort, yet every one of them represents a giant's 
stride forward in the development of human culture. To these early ad 
vances the Negro race has contributed its liberal share. While much of 
the history of early invention is shrouded in darkness, it seems likely that 
at a time when the European was still satisfied with rude stone tools, the 
African had invented or adopted the art of smelting iron. 

Consider for a moment what this invention has meant for the advance 
of the human race. As long as the hammer, knife, saw, drill, the spade 
and the hoe had to be chipped out of stone, or had to be made of shell or 
hard wood, effective industrial work was not impossible, but difficult. A 
great progress was made when copper found in large nuggets was ham 
mered out into tools and later on shaped by melting, and when bronze 
was introduced; but the true advancement of industrial life did not begin 
until the hard iron was discovered. It seems not unlikely that the people 
that made the marvelous discovery of reducing iron ores by smelting 
were the African Negroes. Neither ancient Europe, nor ancient western 
Asia, nor ancient China knew the iron, and everything points to its intro 
duction from Africa. At the time of the great African discoveries to 
wards the end of the past century, the trade of the blacksmith was found 
all over Africa, from north to south and from east to west. With his 
simple bellows and a charcoal fire he reduced the ore that is found in 
many parts of the continent and forged implements of great usefulness 
and beauty. .... Nothing, perhaps, is more encouraging than a 
glimpse of the artistic industry of native Africa. I regret that we have 
no place in this country where the beauty and daintiness of African work 
can be shown; but a walk thru the African museums of Paris, London 
and Berlin is a revelation. I wish you could see the scepters of African 
kings, carved of hardwood and representing artistic forms; or the dainty 
basketry made by the people of the Kongo river and of the region near 
the great lakes of the Nile; or the grass mats with their beautiful pat 
terns. Even more worthy of our admiration is the work of the black 
smith, who manufactures symmetrical lance heads almost a yard long, or 
axes inlaid with copper and decorated with filigree. Let me also mention 
in passing the bronze castings of Benin on the west coast of Africa, 
which, altho perhaps due to Portuguese influences, have so far excelled 
in technique any European work, that they are even now almost inimita 
ble. In short, wherever you look, you find a thrifty people, full of energy, 
capable of forming large states. .... In place of indolence you 
find thrift and ingenuity, and application to occupations that require not 
only industry, but also inventiveness and a high degree of technical skill.' 

'Atlanta University Leaflet, No. IS. 

 L£ 

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28 

The Negro American Artisan 

Section 3. The Ante-bellum Negro Artisan 

The Negro slave was the artisan of the South before the 
war. Both on the plantation and in the towns and cities there 
was a constant demand for his service. While the average 
workmanship was low and suited only to rough plantation life, 
it is nevertheless true that on many of the better plantations 
and in many of the towns and cities there were first-class 
Negro skilled workmen. 

Prior to the war there were a large number of Negro mechanics in 
the southern states; many of them were expert blacksmiths, wheel 
wrights, wagon-makers, brick-masons, carpenters, plasterers, painters 
and shoemakers. They became masters of their respective trades by 
reason of sufficiently long service under the control and direction of ex 
pert white mechanics. During the existence of slavery the contract for 
qualifying the Negro as a mechanic was made between his owner and the 
master workman.1 

The South was lacking in manufactures, and used little machinery. 
Its demand for skilled labor was not large, but what demand existed was 
supplied mainly by Negroes. Negro carpenters, plasterers, bricklayers, 
blacksmiths, wheelwrights, painters, harnessmakers, tanners, millers, 
weavers, barrelmakers, basketmakers, shoemakers, chairmakers, coach 
men, spinners, seamstresses, housekeepers, gardeners, cooks, laundresses, 
embroiderers, maids of all work, were found in every community, and 
frequently on a single plantation. Skilled labor was more profitable than 
unskilled, and therefore every slave was made as skillful as possible 
under a slave system.2 

Bruce in his economic history of Virginia in the seven 
teenth century speaks as follows of the Negro mechanics in 
that colony: 

The county records of the seventeenth century reveal the presence of 
many Negro mechanics in the colony during that period, this being espe 
cially the case with carpenters and coopers. This was what might be 
expected. The slave was inferior in skill, but the ordinary mechanical 
needs of the plantation did not demand the highest aptitude. The fact 
that the African was a servant for life was an advantage covering many 
deficiencies; nevertheless, it is significant that large slaveholders like 
Colonel Byrd and Colonel Fitzhugh should have gone to the inconvenience 
and expense of importing English handicraftsmen who were skilled in the 
very trades in which it is certain that several of the Negroes belonging to 

1 Ex-Governor Lowry, of Mississippi, in North American Review, 156:472. 
- G. T. Winston in Annals of American Academy, July, 1901, p. 111. 

The Ante-bellum Negro Artisan 

29 

these planters had been specially trained. It shows the low estimate in 
which the planters held the knowledge of their slaves regarding the 
higher branches of mechanical work.1 

It is stated that among the slaves of the first Robert Bev- 
erly was a carpenter valued at £30, and that Ralph Wormeley 
of Middlesex county owned a cooper and a carpenter each 
valued at £35. Colonel William Byrd mentions the use of 
Negroes in iron mining in 1732. In New Jersey slaves were 
employed as miners, iron-workers, sawmill hands, house and 
ship carpenters, wheelwrights, coopers, tanners, shoemakers, 
millers and bakers, among other employments, before the 
Revolutionary War. As early as 1708 there were enough 
slave mechanics in Pennsylvania to make the freemen feel 
their competition severely. In Massachusetts and other states 
we hear of an occasional black artisan. 

During the early part of the nineteenth century the Negro 
artisans increased. In the District of Columbia many "were 
superior mechanics, .... Benjamin Banneker, the Ne 
gro astronomer, assisting in surveying the District in 1791." 
Olmsted, in his journeys thru the slave states, just before the 
Civil War, found slave artisans in all the states. In Virginia 
they worked in tobacco factories, ran steamboats, made 
barrels, etc. On a South Carolina plantation he was told by 
the master that the Negro mechanics "exercised as much 
skill and ingenuity as the ordinary mechanics that he was used 
to employ in New England." In Charleston and some other 
places they were employed in cotton factories. In Alabama 
he saw a black carpenter a careful and accurate calculator 
and excellent workman; he was bought for $2,000. In Louis 
iana he was told that master mechanics often bot up slave 
mechanics and acted as contractors. In Kentucky the slaves 
worked in factories for hemp-bagging, and in iron works on 
the Cumberland river, and also in tobacco factories. In Mobile 
an advertisement read:' 'good blacksmiths and horse-shoers for 
sale on reasonable terms."2 

1 Bruce: Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century. II., pp. 405-6. 
2Atlanta University Publications, No. 7, pp. 13-14. 

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The Negro American Artisan 

An official register of free persons in Richmond county, 
Ga., 1819, printed in the Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, March 13, 
1819, furnishes the following statistics:1 

Boat corkers. . 
Carpenters. . . 
Harnessmakers 
Millwrights 
Saddlers . . . 
Seamstresses 
Weavers ... 

Total . 

. 1 

. 12 
1 

. 2 
. 2 
.31 
. 9 

.58 

The entire labor in a cotton factory located in Maury county, 
Tennessee, in 1827 was performed by slaves. 

Thruout the slave states there seems to have been a con 
stant demand for Negro apprentices. The following adver 
tisements are but examples: 

APPRENTICES WANTED. —The subscriber carrying on the blacksmith's 
business in all its branches on Reynold street, near Calffrey and Bus- 
tin's hotel, would willingly receive three Negro fellows as apprentices. 
The owners may confidently rely that every necessary attention will be 
given to their instruction. J. J. PERIN. [Advertisement from the 
Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle. March 2, 1811].2 

WANTED IMMEDIATELY—As an apprentice to the blacksmith's busi 
ness, a smart, active boy, of from twelve to fifteen years of age, who 
can come well recommended. A black boy of this description will be 
taken. Wanted also, a Journeyman who understands his business and 
has good recommendations for honesty, industry and sobriety. A black 
man would not be rejected. ELLIS MADDOX, Nashville. [Advertise 
ment from the Tennessee Gazette and Mero District Advertiser (Nash 
ville), October 24, 1804].3 

In many places in the South, white mechanics and Negro 
mechanics worked side by side with little or no friction. A 
letter of H. Crowell to the editor of the Federal Union, Mil- 
ledgeville, Ga., dated March 18, 1836, speaks of a boat build 
ing establishment on the Flint river where there were "ten 
or fifteen white mechanics, and some twenty or more Negroes, 
working well.'' Buckingham in discussing labor in the cotton 
mills at Athens, Ga., in 1839, says: 

'Documentary History of American Industrial Society, Vol. II, pp. 143-147. 

2 Printed in Documentary History of American Industrial Society, Vol. II, pp. 348-9. 

'Ibid. P. 349. 

The Ante-bellum Negro Artisan 

3\ 

. . . There is no difficulty among them on account of color, the 
white girls working in the same room and at the same loom with the 
black girls; and boys of each color, as well as men and women, working 
together without apparent repugnance or objection. .... The Ne 
groes here are found to be quite as easily taught to perform all the re 
quired duties of spinners and weavers as the whites, and are just as tracti- 
ble when taught.1 

Of the Negroes in New York City from about 1835 until 
1841, it is said: 

The occupations included three carpenters and joiners, five boot and 
shoemakers, five tailors, .... one engraver, one watch and clock 
maker, one sign painter, two dress and cloakmakers.2 

The slave mechanics were often hired out by their masters 
and in many cases were allowed to hire their own time. Such 
encouragement naturally resulted in the growth of a privil 
eged class among the slaves and this class produced many of 
the Negro leaders of the ante-bellum days: Vesey, Nat Tur 
ner, Richard Alien and Absalom Jones, as examples. Among 
this class were many who, free in everything but name, 
acquired property, reared families and often lived in comfort. 

The lot of these slave mechanics was by no means an easy 
one, for they had continually to encounter the opposition of 
white mechanics. The legislatures of Pennsylvania and 
Maryland were prevailed upon by white mechanics to pass 
enactments aimed at the Negro mechanics and thruout the 
South were concrete evidences of such opposition. 

The jealousy of the white artisans toward Negro competi 
tion is shown by the following open letter from a citizen of 
Athens, Ga., printed in the Southern Banner (Athens), Janu 
ary 13,1838: 

To the Contractors for Mason's and Carpenter's Work, Athens: 

GENTLEMEN:—I desire your candid consideration of the views I shall 
here express. I ask no reply to them except at your volition. I am 
aware that most of you have strong antipathy to encourage the masonry 
and carpentry trades of your poor white brothers, that your predilections 
for giving employment in your line of business to ebony workers have so 
cheapened the white man's labor, or expatriated hence with but a few 
solitary exceptions, all the white masons and carpenters of this town. 

'Buckingham, J. S.: Slave States of America, Vol. II, p. 112. 

-Haynes, George Edmund: "The Negro at Work in New York City," p. 67. 

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32 

The Negro American Artisan 

The white man is the only real, legal, moral and civil proprietor of 
this country and state. The right of his proprietorship reaches from the 
date of the studies of those white men, Copernicus and Gallileo, who in 
dicated from the seclusion of their closets the sphericity of the earth: 
which sphericity hinted to another white man, Columbus, the possibility 
by a westerly course of sailing, of finding land. Hence by white man 
alone was this continent discovered; by the prowess of white men alone 
(tho not always properly or humanely exercised), were the fierce and 
active Indians driven occidentally: and if swarms and hordes of infuriated 
red men pour down now from the northwest, like the wintry blast thereof, 
the white man alone, aye, those to whom you decline to give money for 
bread and clothes, for their famishing families, in the logic matter of with 
holding work from them, or employing Negroes, in the sequel, to cheapen 
their wages to a rate that amounts to a moral and physical impossibility 
for them either to live here and support their families—would bare their 
breasts to the keen and whizzing shafts of the savage crusaders—defend 
ing Negroes, too, in the bargain, for if left to themselves without our 
aid, the Indians would or can sweep the Negroes hence, "as dew drops 
are shaken from the lion's mane." 

The right, then, gentlemen, you will no doubt candidly admit, of the 
white man to employment in preference to Negroes, who must defer to 
us since they live well enough on plantations, cannot be considered im- 
peachable by contractors. It is a right more virtual and indisputable 
than that of agrarianism. As masters of the polls in a majority, carry 
ing all hefore them, I am surprised the poor do not elect faithful members 
to the legislature, who will make it penal to prefer Negro mechanic la 
bor to white men's. But of the premises as I have now laid them down, 
you will candidly judge for yourselves, and draw a conclusion with me, 
that white bricklayers and house-joiners must henceforward have ample 
work and remuneration; and yourselves and other contractors will set the 
example, and pursue it for the future without deviation. 

Yours respectfully, J. J. FLOURNOY. 

In 1845 the Georgia legislature passed an act aimed at 
Negro mechanics. 

"An act to prohibit colored mechanics and masons, being slaves or 
free persons of color, being mechanics or masons, from making contracts 
for the erection of buildings, or for the repair of buildings, and declaring 
the white person or persons directly or indirectly contracting with or em 
ploying them, as well as the master, employer, manager, or agent for said 
slave, or guardian for said free person of color, authorizing or permitting 
the same, guilty of a misdemeanor. 

"Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa 
tives of the state of Georgia in General Assembly met, and it is hereby 
enacted by the authority of the same, That from and after the first day 

The Ante-bellum Negro Artisan 

33 

of February next, each and every white person who shall hereafter con 
tract or bargain with any slave mechanic, or mason, or free person of 
color, being a mechanic or mason, shall be liable to be indicted for a mis 
demeanor; and on conviction, to be fined, at the discretion of the court, 
not exceeding two hundred dollars.'' 

Then follows another clause imposing the like penalties on 
the owners of slaves, or guardians of free persons of color, 
who authorize the contracts prohibited by this statute. 

Charles Lyell, commenting upon the law said: 

1 may first observe, in regard to this disgraceful law, which was only 
carried by a small majority in the Georgian legislature, that it proves that 
not a few of the Negro race have got on so well in the world in reputa 
tion and fortune, and in skill in certain arts, that it was worth while to 
legislate against them in order to keep them down, and prevent them 
from entering into successful rivalry with the whites. It confirms, there 
fore, most fully the impression which all I saw in Georgia had left on my 
mind, that the blacks are steadily rising in social importance in spite of 
slavery or, to speak more correctly, by aid of that institution, assuming, 
as it does, in proportion as the whites become civilized, a more and more 
mitigated form. .... 

I have heard apologists in the North endeavoring to account for the 
degraded position which the Negroes hold, socially and politically, in the 
free states, by saying they belong to a race which is kept in a state of 
slavery in the South. But, if they really desired to accelerate emanci 
pation, they would begin by setting an example to the southern states, 
and treating the black race with more respect and more on a footing of 
equality. .... Many white mechanics who had emigrated from the 
North to the slave states, declared to me that every opening in their 
trades was closed to them, because the black artisans were employed by 
their owners in preference. Hence, they are now using in Georgia the 
power given to them by an exclusive franchise, to pass disabling statutes 
against the blacks, to prevent them from engaging in certain kinds of 
work. In several states, Virginia among others, I heard of strikes where 
the white workmen bound themselves not to return to their employment 
until the master had discharged all his colored people. Such combinations 
will, no doubt, forward the substitution of white for Negro labor, and 
may hasten the era of general emancipation. But if this measure be pre 
maturely adopted, the Negroes are a doomed race, and already their sit 
uation is most critical.1 

Another evidence of white opposition to Negro mechanics 
is seen in the petition signed by about two hundred mechanics 

'Lyell, Charles: "A Second Visit to the United States." 

 34 

The Negro American Artisan 

The Ante-bellum Negro Artisan 

35 

and laborers and presented to the city council of Atlanta, Ga., 
March 5, 1858. 

We, the undersigned, would respectfully represent to your honorable 
body that there exists in the city of Atlanta a number of men who, in the 
opinion of your memorialists, are of no benefit to the city. We refer to 
Negro mechanics whose masters reside in other places, and who pay 
nothing toward the support of the city government, and whose Negro 
mechanics can afford to underbid the regular resident citizen mechanics 
of your city to their great injury, and without benefit to the city in any 
way. We most respectfully request your honorable body to take the 
matter in hand, and by your action in the premises afford such protec 
tion to the resident mechanics of your city as your honorable body may 
deem meet in the premises, and in duty bound your petitioners will ever 
pray. 

In Ohio about 1820 to 1830 and thereafter the white me 
chanics' societies combined against Negroes. In Philadelphia 
the series of fearful riots against Negroes was due in large 
part to the jealousy of white working men and several riots 
and disorders on the part of white mechanics aimed against 
Negroes occurred in New York, Washington and other cities. 

Notwithstanding great opposition, the Negro artisan man 
aged to keep in evidence. The following letter is of interest:1 

During the days of slavery the Negro mechanic was a man of im 
portance. He was a most valuable slave to his master. He would always 
sell for from two to three times as much in the market as the unskilled 
slaveman. When a fine Negro mechanic was to be sold at public auction, 
or private sale, the wealthy slave owners would vie with each other for 
the prize and run the bidding often up into high figures. 

The slave owners early saw the aptitude of the Negro to learn handi 
craft, and fully appreciating what vast importance and value this would 
be to them (the masters) selected their brightest young slavemen and had 
them taught in the different kinds of trades. Hence on every large plan 
tation you could find the Negro carpenter, blacksmith, brick and stone 
mason. These trades comprehended and included much more in their 
scope in those days than they do now. Carpentry was in its glory then. 
What is done now by varied and complicated machinery was wrot then by 
hand. The invention of the planing machine is an event within the 
knowledge of many persons living today. Most of our wood-working 
machinery has come into use long since the days of slavery. The same 
work done now with the machine, was done then by hand. The carpen 
ter's chest of tools in slavery times was a very elaborate and expensive 

1 From Mr. J. D. Smith, stationary engineer, Chicago, 111. 

outfit. His "kit" not only included all the tools that the average carpen 
ter carries now, but also the tools for performing all the work done by 
the various kinds of "wood-working" machines. There is little oppor 
tunity for the carpenter of today to acquire, or display, genius and skill 
in his trade as could the artisan of old. 

One only needs to go down South and examine hundreds of old south 
ern mansions, and splendid old church edifices, still intact, to be convinced 
of the fact of the cleverness of the Negro artisan, who constructed nine- 
tenths of them, and many of them still provoke the admiration of all who 
see them, and are not to be despised by the men of our day. 

There are few, if any, of the carpenters of today who, if they had the 
hand tools, could get out the "stuff" and make one of those old style 
massive panel doors,—who could work out by hand the mouldings, the 
stiles, the mullions, etc., and build one of those windows, which are to be 
found today in many of the churches and public buildings of the South; 
all of which testify to the cleverness of the Negro's skill as artisan in the 
broadest sense of the term. For the carpenter in those days was also the 
"cabinet maker," the wood turner, coffin maker, generally the pattern 
maker, and the maker of most things made of wood. The Negro black 
smith held almost absolute sway in his line, which included the many 
branches of forgery, and other trades which are now classified under dif 
ferent heads from that of the regular blacksmith. The blacksmith in the 
days of slavery was expected to make any and everything wrot of iron. 
He was to all intents and purposes the "machine blacksmith," "horse- 
shoer," "carriage and wagonironer and trimmer," "gunsmith," "wheel 
wright;" and often whittled out and ironed the hames, the plowstocks, and 
the "single-tree" for the farmers, and did a hundred other things too 
numerous to mention. They were experts at tempering edge tools, by 
what is generally known as the water process. But many of them had 
secret processes of their own for tempering tools which they guarded 
with zealous care. 

It was the good fortune of your humble servant to have served his 
time as an apprentice in a general blacksmithing shop, or shop of all 
work, presided over by an ex-slave genius known thruout the state as a 
"master mechanic." In slavery times this man hired his own time,— 
paying his master a certain stipulated amount of money each year, and 
all he made over and above that amount was his own. 

The Negro machinists were also becoming numerous before the down 
fall of slavery. The slave owners were generally the owners of all the 
factories, machine shops, flour-mills, saw-mills, gin-houses and threshing 
machines. They owned all the railroads and the shops connected with 
them. In all of these the white laborer and mechanic had been supplanted 
almost entirely by the slave mechanics at the time of the breaking out 
of the Civil War. Many of the railroads in the South had their entire 
train crews, except the conductors, made up of the slaves—including 

" 

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36 

The Negro American Artisan 

engineers and firemen. The ' 'Georgia Central'' had inaugurated just such 
a movement, and had many Negro engineers on its locomotives and Negro 
machinists in its shops. So it will be seen at once that the liberation of 
the slaves was also the salvation of the poor white man of the South. It 
saved him from being completely ousted, as a laborer and a mechanic, by 
the masters, to make place for the slaves whom they were having trained 
for those positions. Yet, strange as it may seem to us now, the great 
mass of poor white men in the South who were directly and indirectly 
affected by the slave mechanic, —being literally forced out of the business, 
took up arms and fought against the abolition of slavery. 

While the poor whites and masters were fighting, these same black 
men were at home working to support those fighting for their slavery. 
The Negro mechanic could be found, during the conflict, in the machine 
shops, building engines and railroad cars, in the gun factories making 
arms of all kinds for the soldiers, in the various shops building wagons, 
and making harness, bridles and saddles, for the armies of the South. 
Negro engineers handled the throttle in many cases to haul the soldiers 
to the front, whose success, in the struggle going on, meant continued 
slavery to themselves and their people. All of the flour mills, and most of 
every other kind of mill of the South, was largely in charge of black men. 

Much has been said of the new Negro for the new century, but with 
all his training he will have to take a long stride in mechanical skill before 
he reaches the point of practical efficiency where the old Negro of the old 
century left off. It was the good fortune of the writer once to fall into 
the hands of an uncle who was master of what would now be half a dozen 
distinct trades. He was generally known as a millwright, or mill builder. 
A millwright now, is only a man who merely sets up the machinery, and 
his work is now confined mostly to the hanging of shafting, pulleys and 
belting. In the days of slavery the millwright had to know how to con 
struct everything about the mill, from foundation to roofs. This uncle 
could take his men with their "cross-cut saws" and "broad axes" and go 
into the forests, hew the timbers with which to build the dams across the 
rivers and streams of water, to erect the "mill house" frames, get out 
all the necessary timber and lumber at the saw-mill. Then he would, 
without a sign of a drawing on paper, lay out and cut every piece, every 
mortise and tenon, every brace and rafter with their proper angles, etc., 
with perfect precision before they put the whole together. I have seen 
my uncle go into the forest, fell a great tree, hew out of it an immense 
stick or shaft from four feet to five feet in diameter, and from twenty to 
thirty feet long, having as many as sixteen to twenty faces on its surface, 
or as they termed it, "sixteen" and "twenty square." He would then 
take it to the mill seat and mortise it, make the arms, and all the intricate 
parts for a great "overshot" water wheel to drive the huge mill machin 
ery. This is a feat most difficult even for modern mechanics who have a 
thoro knowledge of mathematics and the laws of mechanics. 

The Economics of Emancipation 

37 

It is difficult for us to understand how those men with little or no 
knowledge of mathematics, or mechanical rules, could take a crude stick 
of timber, shape it, and then go to work and cut out a huge screw and 
the "Tap-blocks" for those old style cotton presses. 

Section 4. The Economics of Emancipation 

Emancipation found many Negro artisans of varying de 
grees of skill and efficiency scattered thruout the United 
States. So far as the South was concerned, the Negro slave 
had been for years the actual artisan; and it was the black 
artisan who met peculiar conditions in the readjustment which 
followed the war measure by which four million black men 
were set free. For a time, of course, the old conditions re 
mained and the Negro artisan, not infrequently patronized by 
his former master, still held undisputed sway. Three circum 
stances, however, soon disturbed the situation: 

(1) The competition of white mechanics. 

(2) The efforts of the Negro for self-protection. 

(3) The new industrial development of the South. 

First: The opposition of white mechanics to Negro work 
men which was evident in ante-bellum days became more 
intense after the emancipation of the slaves and in the compe 
tition which followed, the untutored, inexperienced black me 
chanic found himself outdistanced by his thriftier white com 
petitor, sometimes by fair means, sometimes by foul. With 
out the protection, and with less and less of the patronage of 
his former master, the Negro artisan found himself being 
gradually supplanted by the white working man. 

Secondly: The Negro artisan found himself at a political 
disadvantage. Having no political power with which to de 
fend himself, he was still at the mercy of his white competi 
tor, who was armed with the ballot. Seeing that his safety 
and, in the long run, his very economic existence depended 
upon the possession of the ballot, the Negro made desperate 
efforts to secure that power. These efforts of the Negro to 
secure the ballot further complicated his economic position. 

y 

 38 

The Negro American Artisan 

Thirdly: The new industrial development of the South 
made new demands upon the mechanic. Old methods of 
production gave way to new ones and the Negro mechanic, 
schooled in the economy of the ante-bellum days and knowing 
so little of mills and machinery, found himself unprepared to 
meet the demands of the new economy. Nevertheless into 
this field he made his way. How far he has been able to take 
his place in the ranks of the American artisans, the census 
reports from 1870 to 1910 will show. 

The Negro American after slavery made four distinct and 
different efforts to reach economic safety. The first effort 
was thru the preferment of the selected house servant class; 
the second was by means of competitive industry; the third 
was by means of land-holding; and the fourth was by means 
of what may be called the group economy. 

(1) The one person who under the slave regime came 
nearest escaping from the toils of the system and the disa 
bilities of the caste was the favorite house servant. This 
arose from four reasons: 

(a) The house servant was brot into closest contact 
with the culture of the master's family. 

(b) He had more often the advantages of town and 
city life. 

(c) He was able to gain at least some smattering of 
an education. 

(d) He was frequently a blood relative of the master 
class. 

It is not surprising, then, that the natural leadership of 
the emancipated race fell to this class. Indeed the brunt of 
reconstruction fell on their. shoulders. When the history of 
the reconstruction period is written according to truth and 
not according to our prejudices it will be clear that no group 
of men ever made a more tremendous fight against more over 
whelming odds. 

It seemed natural at this time that this leading class of 
upper servants would step into the economic life of the nation 
from this vantage ground and play a leading role. This they 

The Economics of Emancipation 

39 

did in several instances, the most conspicuous being the bar 
ber, the caterer and the steward. For the most part, however, 
economic society refused to admit the black applicant on his 
merit to any place of authority or advantage. He held his 
own in the semi-servile work of barber until he met the charge 
of color discrimination from his own folk and the strong com 
petition of Germans and Italians; while the caterer was dis 
placed by the palatial hotel in which he could gain no foothold. 
On the whole, then, the mass of house servants found the 
doors of advancement closed in their faces. The better tenth, 
both themselves and thru their better trained children, 
escaped into the professions and thus found economic inde 
pendence. The mass of servants remained servants or turned 
toward industry. 

(2) The second attempt of the freedmen was made along 
the lines of industrial co-operation. It was a less ambitious 
attempt than that of the house servants and comprehended 
larger numbers. It was characterized by a large migration 
to cities and towns and entrance into work as teamsters, rail 
way section hands, miners, saw-mill employees, porters and 
hostlers, etc. This class met and joined in the towns the 
older class of artisans, most of them connected with the 
building trades, and together these classes attempted economic 
advance. Excepting the farmers, it is this class that has 
attracted most attention, that has met all the brunt of the 
economic battle and that is usually referred to in studies of 
this sort. What the outcome of this second attempt at eco 
nomic freedom will be can only be divined by calling attention 
to the third method by which the Negro has searched for the 
way of life. 

(3) Meantime, however, the freed hands had started for 
ward by a third way: that of land ownership. Most of those 
who got any start became share tenants and a fourth of these 
succeeded in buying land. Those who bot land approximated 
economic independence, formed the closed plantation economy 
of the olden times, but with colored owner, colored laborers, 
and colored tenants. In an increasing number of cases the 

 / 

r 

%. 

^ 

\ 

40 

The Negro American Artisan 

colored store came in to help them and thus a complete system 
of what may be called the group economy was established. 

(4) The group economy, the fourth method, is of striking 
importance. However, outside the country districts it is little 
understood. It consists of such a co-operative arrangement 
of industries and services within the Negro group that the 
group tends to become a closed economic circle largely inde 
pendent of the surrounding white world. The recognition of 
this fact "explains many of the anomalies which puzzle the 
student of the Negro problems. 

One used to see numbers of Negro barbers; one is tempted 
to think that they are all gone. Yet today there are more 
Negro barbers in the United States than ever before but at 
the same time a larger number than ever before cater solely 
to Negro trade, where they have a monopoly. Because the 
Negro lawyer, physician and teacher serve a colored clientage 
their existence is half forgotten. The new Negro business 
men are not successors of the old; there used to be Negro 
business men in New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore cater 
ing to white trade. The new Negro business man caters to 
Negro trade. So far has this gone that today in every city of 
the United States with a considerable Negro population the 
black group is serving itself with religious ministration, medi 
cal care, legal advice and education of children; and to a 
growing degree with food, houses, books and newspapers. 
So extraordinary has been this development that it forms a 
large and growing part in the economy in the case of fully 
one-half of the Negroes of the United States and in the case 
of between 50,000 and 100,000 town and city Negroes. Rep 
resenting at least 300,000 persons, the group economy ap 
proaches a complete system. To these may be added the bulk 
of the 200,000 Negro farmers who own their farms. They 
form a natural group economy and they are increasing the 
scope of it in every practical way. 

The Occupations of Negroes 41 
Section 5. The Occupations of Negroes 

I recommend to them (the people so declared to he free) that, in all 
cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.1 

The entrance of the Negro into gainful occupations in a 
large way followed the abolition of slavery. Handicapped by 
lack of previous training and beset by desperate economic 
conditions, the freed blacks launched forth as free workers 
on a paid labor basis. The census figures from 1870 to 1900 
have given evidence of the Negro's place in gainful occupa 
tions. The following statistics are taken from the census of 
1900:2 

Occupations of American Negroes, WOO 

Agricultural pursuits . . 
Professional service .... . . 

Domestic and personal service . 

Trade and transportation ......... 

Manufacturing and mechanical pursuits . 

2,143,164 or 53.7 per cent. 
. 47,219 " 1.2 
. 1,317,859 " 33.0 
. 2 8,989 " 5.2 
. 275,116 " 6.9 

Occupations of Native Whites (Native Parents), 1900 

Agricultural pursuits . ..... 6,004,039 or 43.3 

Professional service ... . . . 803,288 " 5.8 

Domestic and personal service ... 1,841,853 " 13.3 " 
Trade and transportation . ...... . . . . 2,410,018 " 17.3 

Manufacturing and mechanical pursuits . .... 2,823,131 " 20.3 

Occupations of Native Whites (Foreign Parents), 19OO 

Agricultural pursuits . ...... .... 1,100,608 or 20,8 " 

Professional service. ..... ..... 259,434 " 4.9 

Domestic and personal service ...... . 913,645 " 17.2 

Trade and transportation .......... . . 1,225,351 " 23.1 " 

Manufacturing and mechanical pursuits .... 1,801,886 " 34.0 " 

Occupations of Foreign Whites, 1900 

Agricultural pursuits . . . ........... 1,074,211 or 18.7 

Professional service ...... .......... 143,893 " 2.5 " 

Domestic and personal service . 1,435,407 " 25.0 
Trade and transportation ........ . 915,151 " 16.0 

Manufacturing and mechanical pursuits . . 2.168,153 " 37.8 

These statistics show that the per cent of Negroes engaged 
in agricultural pursuits is greater than the per cent of any 
other group of American citizens so engaged. The same is 
true for domestic and personal service. The former is ex 
plained, of course, by the large rural Negro population; the 
latter, by the strenuous economic conditions which confront 
the ever increasing mass of black people who move to the 
urban centers. Professional service claims 1.2 per cent of the 
Negro_workers, an appreciable increase over 1890. 

From the Emancipation Proclamation. 2The figures for 1910 are not yet available. 

 •^ t 

\ 

\j-f-- 
5 

% 

Ml 

V 

42 

The Negro American Artisan 

SEX, GENERAL 
NATIVITY AND 
COLOR 

Both sexes (all persons) * 

Native white — native 
parents ...... 

Native white foreign 
parents 
Foreign white . . 

Males- 
Native white — native 
parents ..... 
Native white — foreign 
parents .... 
Foreign white . . . 

Females — 
Native white — native 

Native white— foreign 
parents ... 
Foreign white . . . 
Negro . . ... 

Agricultural 
Pursuits 

Number 

10,381,765 

6,004,039 

1,100,608 
1,074,211 
2,143,154 

5,685,429 

1,071,210 
1,032,484 
1,561,153 

318,610 

29,398 
41,727 
582,001 

Per 
Ct. 

100.0 

57.8 

10.6 
10.4 
20.6 

60.4 

11.4 
11.0 
16.6 

32.6 

3.0 
4.3 
59.5 

Professional 
Service 

Number 

1,258,538 

806,288 

259,434 
143,896 
47,219 

530.570 

146,357 
117,973 
31,625 

275,718 

113,077 
25,923 
15,594 

Per 
Ct. 

100.0 

64.1 

20.6 
11.4 
3.7 

64.1 

17.7 
14.2 
3.8 

64.0 

26.3 
6.0 
3.6 

Domestic 
and Personal 
Service 

Number 

5,580,657 

1,841,853 

913,645 
1,435,407 
1,317,859 

1,258,045 

554,424 
967,838 
635,933 

583,808 

359,221 
467,569 
681,926 

Per 
Ct. 

100.0 

33.0 

16.4 
25.7 
23.6 

36.1 

15.9 
27.8 
18.2 

27.9 

17.1 
22.3 
82.6 

Trade and 
Transpor 
tation 

Number 

4,766,964 

2,400,018 

1,225,351 
915,151 

208,989 

2,168,869 

1,020,507 
852,035 
204,852 

231,149 

204,844 
63,116 
4,137 

Per 
Ct. 

100.0 

50.4 

25.7 
19.2 
4.4 

50.9 

23.9 
20.0 
4.8 

45.9 

40.7 
12.6 
0.8 

Manufactur 
ing and 
Mechanical 
Pursuits 

Number 

7,085,309 

2,823,131 

1,801,886 
2,168,153 
275,116 

2,305,779 

1,324,889 
1,886,769 
241,934 

517,352 

476,997 
281,384 
33,182 

Per 
Ct. 

100.0 

89. 8 

25.4 
30.6 
3.9 

39.9 

23.0 
32.7 
4.2 

39.4 

36.4 
21.4 
2.5 

"Including Chinese, Japanese and Indians. 

Dividing the Negro wage-earners by sex we have: 

Males Females Total 

Professions .. . ........ 

Agriculture . ..... .,..,.. 

Trade and transportation ........ 

Manufacturing and mechanical pursuits 
Domestic and personal service . 

Total .... 

1.2 

58.3 

7.7 

9.0 

. 23.8 

100.0 

1.2 

44.2 

0.3 

2.5 

51.8 

100.0 

1.2 

53.7 

5.2 

6.9 

33.0 

100.00 

These statistics show that in 1900 about twelve per cent of 
the Negroes engaged in gainful occupations were engaged in 
trade and transportation and manufactures and mechanical 
pursuits, an increase of about two per cent over those so 
engaged in 1890. There is shown a decrease of about three 
and one-half per cent in agricultural pursuits, largely explained 
by the cityward movement of the Negro, which also explains 
in part the slight increase in the number of Negroes engaged 
in domestic and personal service. Taking all the states of 
the union we have the following figures for 1900: 

The Occupations of Negroes 
Negro Wage=earners, 1900 

BY STATES 

United States . . . . . 

Continental United States . . 

Alabama ... - 

Arizona . . . . - 

Arkansas ... .... 

California ... 

Colorado ... . 

Connecticut. . . . 

Delaware ......... 

District of Columbia ... 

Florida ..... . . . . • 

Georgia . . 

Idaho .... ... 

Illinois ...... 

Indiana ..... . .... 

Indian Territory 

Iowa ...... . . 

Kansas . . . . 

Kentucky ... . 

Louisiana . . 

Maine .... . 

Maryland ... 

Massachusetts . . 

Michigan ..... 

Minnesota. ....... 

Mississippi ... 

Missouri ... 

Montana .... . . . 

Nebraska . 

Nevada ... 

New Hampshire . ... 

New Jersey 

New Mexico . . 

New York .... 

North Carolina . 

North Dakota . 

Ohio ..... 

Oklahoma. 

Oregon 

Pennsylvania 

Rhode Island . . 

South Carolina 
South Dakota . 

Tennessee . 

Texas. 

utah ; ' ' ; 

Vermont 

Virginia. . 
Washington. . . . ; 

West Virginia. . . 
Wisconsin . . 

Wyoming . 

All Occupations 

Males 

2,682,091 

2,675,497 

256,452 

1,175 

116,594 

3,903 

3,273 

4,923 

9,764 

25,115 

74,528 

302,616 

135 

31,757 

19,566 

11,293 

4,801 

15,892 

87,766 

194,386 

455 

70,728 

10,864 

5,510 

2,224 

275,925 

52,294 

700 

2,508 

58 

242 

23,035 

833 

34,011 

179,139 

127 

33,180 

5,560 

568 

55,805 

2,978 

224,561 
197 

146,013 

175,382 

376 

305 

187,726 
1,289 

17,424 
1,019 

522 

Females 

•1,316,872 

1,316,840 

150,294 

167 

46,546 

1,349 

1,344 

3,047 

3,864 

23,448 

26,844 

163,234 

30 

9,725 

6,838 

2,283 

1,083 

4,4311 

36,712 

100,888 

171 

35,658 

5,747 

1,678 

568 

150,041 

21,272 

212 

903 

17 

156 

13,211 

129 

23,059 

87,178 

3J 

10,449 

1,262 

159 

24,624 

1,928 

138,560 

55 

65,744 

67.709 

71 

105 

80,239 
216 

3,273 
235 

55 

Trade and 

Transportation 

Males 

205,017 

204,852 

13,639 

40 

5,431 

6C3 

527 

1,026 

770 

5,999 

6,293 

19,004 

7 

5,119 

2,941 

401 

582 

1,661 

9,654 

9,899 

92 

8,682 

2,325 

618 

429 

10.301 

7,260 

74 

381 

5 

40 

3,839 

71 

7,669 

9,250 

13 

4,751 

405 

71 

9,033 

764 

8,238 
26 

16,281 

10,886 

16 

39 

16,930 
121 

2,455 
106 

85 

Females 

4,137 

4,137 

225 

'82 

19 

10 

28 

17 

214 

94 

468 

1 

184 

47 

6 

14 

34 

123 

164 

1 

147 

99 

19 

23 

198 

79 

2 

14 

2 

67 

137 

143 

116 

12 

3 

201 

19 

219 

233 

107 

1 

548 

' 18 

f 

Manufacturing 

and Mechanical 
Pursuits 

Males 

241,963 

241,934 

26,140 

57 

7,159 

410 

571 

648 

865 

2,565 

11,403 

23,021 

10 

4,326 

2,617 

1,078 

1,430 

2,955 

9,975 

11,331 

68 

7,780 

1,555 

656 

114 

9,687 

5,917 

55 

289 

6 

35 

2,065 

238 

4,419 

15.924 

12 

5,366 

199 

59 

9,150 

362 

13.807 
19 

15,892 

6,906 

20 

31 

27,835 
348 

6,376 
74 

109 

Females 

33,186 

33,182 

1,453 

15 

445 

130 

55 

138 

67 

1,691 

1,202 

2,680 

1 

753 

339 

39 

60 

220 

1,165 

2,498 

10 

1,146 

532 

146 

67 

1,188 

614 

18 

48 

5 

11 

369 

3 

1,401 

2,609 

1 

715 

20 

13 

1,277 

148 

2,237 

1,808 

813 

8 

2 

4,869 
29 

99 
21 

3 

According to the twelfth census there were in the United 
States in 1900 215,369 skilled Negro artisans distributed by 
occupations as follows: 

 44 The Negro American Artisan 

Negro Artisans in the United States—Census of 1900 

The Occupations of Negroes 

45 

f1 

Occupations No. 

Architects, designers, etc. 52 

Electricians .............. 185 

Engineers (civil, etc.), and surveyors . 120 

Carpenters and joiners ...... 21,114 

Masons (brick and stone) ....... 14,337 

Painters, glaziers and varnishers . . , 5,784 

Paper hangers . . . . .... 586 

Plasterers. ............. 3,757 

Plumbers and gas and steam fitters . 1,193 

Roofers and slaters ........ 3 s8 

Mechanics....... 377 

Brick and tile makers, etc. . 9,970 

Glassworkers ... . . 427 

Marble and stone cutters . 1,257 

Potters .......... 212 

Blacksmiths..... . . 10,104 

Iron and steel workers . , 12,327 

Machinists ....... . 1,233 

Steam boiler makers.... . . - . 335 

Stove, furnace and grate makers . . 248 

Tool and cutlery makers . . 198 

Wheelwrights. ...... 376 

Wireworkers ............. 144 

Boot and shoe makers and repairers . . 4,574 
Harness and saddle makers and repair 
ers ...... ...... .... 273 

Leather curriers and tanners . . 1,073 

Trunk and leather case makers . . 23 

Cabinet makers ......... 342 

Saw and planing mill employees 33,266 

Coopers . . . ........ 2,964 

Other woodworkers . 2,803 

Brass workers..... . . 110 

Occupations No. 

Clock and watch makers and repairers. 1(19 

Gold and silver workers ........ 66 

Tin plate and tinware makers . . . 924 

Other metal workers . . . . . 353 

Bookbinders....... ...... 86 

Boxmakers (paper) .......... 60 

Engravers.......... .... 22 

Paper and pulp mill operatives .... 261 

Printers, lithographers and pressmen . 1,221 

Bleaching and dye works operatives . 446 

Carpet factory operatives. . . . . 43 

Cotton mill operatives ......... 1,425 

Hosiery and knitting mill operatives 36 

Silk mill operatives .......... 136 

Woolen mill operatives .... . . 169 

Other textile mill operatives , . 330 

Dressmakers ............ 12,572 

Hat and cap makers. . ...... 22 

Milliners. ...... . , ... 180 

Seamstresses .... .... 11,538 

Shirt, collar and cuff makers . 181 

Tailors and tailoresses . . 1,845 

Other textile workers... . 159 

Broom and brush makers . . . 213 

Charcoal, coke and lime burners . . 3,870 

Engineers and firemen (stationary) . 10,227 

Glove makers ..... . 15 

Model and pattern makers 24 

Photographers ......... 247 

Rubber factory operatives ...... 44 

Tobacco and cigar factory operatives . 15,349 

Upholsterers ..... ..... 1,045 

Other miscellaneous industries . . 21,939 

It is seen here that the occupations which claim the largest 
numbers of male Negro artisans are those connected with the 
building trades: milling, carpentering, masonry and working 
in iron and steel. The female workers classed as artisans are 
engaged chiefly as dressmakers and seamstresses. When one 
remembers, in the first place, the Negro's physical endowment, 
and in the second place, the economic conditions which pre 
vailed during the slave regime, these statistics are rather as 
one would expect. These two hundred thousand and more 
Negroes engaged as skilled or semi-skilled workers occupy an 
important place in their own racial group and are indeed no 
small asset to the economic forces of the nation. Had their 
training been better their social value, great as it is today, 
would be even greater. 

Taking the sixteen former slave states and the District of 
Columbia we have the following table: 

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FEMALE— 
Dressmakers and seamstresses . 
Milliners ... ... 
Printers . 
Tailoresses . . 

Total , . 

"\V3 

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4 

9 

 46 

The Negro American Artisan 

The Occupations of Negroes 

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Ages 

10-15 

16-24 

25-34 

35-44 

45-54 

55-64 

65 years and over . 

Age unknown. . 

The Ages of Negro Employees —1900 

Manufacturing and Mechani- 

cal Industries 
8,901 
74,357 
79,496 
51,696 
33,652 
16,301 
8,302 
2,444 

™ j -, „, 

Trade and Transportation 

8,146 

61,385 

62,787 

39,756 

22,238 

8,999 

3,652 

2,191 

Negro Artisans by Age Periods—1900 

AGE PERIODS 

MALE— 
Blacksmiths and wheelwrights . - . . . 
Boot and shoe makers ..... 

Butchers . . ... 

Carpenters and joiners ......... 
Cotton mill operatives ..... 

Masons . ... 

Miners and quarrymen 
Printers ..... .... 
Steam railway employees . 
Tailors . . 

Textile mill operatives ........ 
Tobacco and cigar factory operatives . 

FEMALE— 
Dressmakers, milliners and seamstresses 
Tobacco and cigar factory operatives . 
Tailoresses . . 

Total . ..... 

10-14 
Yrs. 

133 
46 
75 
118 
72 
( 

67 
1,348 
45 
495 
48 
68 
1,298 

256 
478 
13 

4,569 

15 2t 
Yrs. 

1,505 
538 
833 
2,196 
380 
277 
1,792 
11,825 
414 
18,272 
575 
261 
3,608 

6,819 
2,056 
99 

51,450 

25-St 
Yrs. 

2,070 
839 
869 
4,155 
283 
420 
3,920 
11,915 
387 
20,223 
510 
2' 9 
2,562 

8,311 
1,214 

80 

57,967 

ss-u 

Yrs. 

1,882 
791 
531 
4,627 
178 
3LO 
3,633 
6,191 
166 
9,802 
185 
132 
1,496 

4,914 

823 
65 

35,726 

•55-54 
Yrs. 

1,927 
970 
350 
4,672 
116 
160 
2,680 
3,400 
65 
4,067 
100 
111 
788 

2,378 
368 
34 

22,186 

55-64 
Yrs. 

1,656 
831 
172 
3,201 
29 
58 
1,429 
987 
29 
1,076 
60 
55 
295 

976 
114 
15 

10,983 

esyrs 
and 
over 

1,179 
451 

70 
1,910 
M 
111 
720 
260 
12 
261 
42 
17 

12! 

410 

40 
7 

1 

e 

10,352 
4,466 
2,900 
20,870 
1,072 
1,253 
14,241 
35,926 
1,118 
54,196 
1,520 
853 
10,171 

24,064 
5,093 
313 

5,536 188,417 

The table on page 45 shows the Negro artisans in the 
sixteen former slave states and the District of Columbia. In 
view of the constant migration of Negroes to urban centers 
it is interesting to note the distribution of Negro artisans 
in such places. The table which appears on page 46 is com 
piled from the twelfth census and gives the Negro artisans 
of sixteen large cities in both the North and the South. The 
figures show that the skilled Negro workers are to be found 
chiefly in the southern cities, which fact accounts in large part 
for the attitude of the local trades unions toward Negro 
laborers. The table appearing on page 47 shows the ages of 
Negro artisans. The average age among the Negro workers 
is quite low and argues that the Negro youths are started to 
work'at an early age and so are denied the opportunities for 
that education which should be afforded them in their forma 
tive years of adolescence. 

 \ 

\ 

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t&'^f&Zfi 
l«7?^e> 

!P^«JV. 

l^S^Xf' 

1 

/ 

48 

The Negro American Artisan 

Section 6. Alabama 

The state of Alabama had 827,307 Negroes in 1900 and 
908,275 in 1910. According to the census of 1900 the state 
had the following skilled and semi-skilled Negroes:1 

Alabama 

Male— 

Engineers (civil and mechanical) . 
Barbers ...... ....... 

Steam railway employees ... 
Brick and tile makers ....... 

Blacksmiths and wheelwrights . 
Boot and shoe makers . . 
Butchers ...... 

Carpenters and joiners ....... 

Cotton and other textile mill op's . 
Iron and steel workers ... ... 

Machinists.............. 

Marble and stone cutters and masons. 

7 

657 

6,313 

544 

898 

335 

217 

1,807 

168 

4,439 

81 

Male 

Millers. . 73 

Painters ...... 389 

Plasterers ........ . 204 

Plumbers and gas fitters . 82 

Printers ....... . . . . 43 

Steam boiler makers ........ CO 

Engineers and firemen ( stationary) . 714 

Female— 

Dressmakers and seamstresses . 1,318 
Milliners.......... ... 6 

General Conditions2 

BIRMINGHAM : Many skilled Negro laborers here carpenters, masons, 
blacksmiths, plasterers and machinists. Negro skilled laborers are losing 
because of unions and poor pay. Industrial school training has made very 
little improvement on the old, self-made artisan. Not many of the young 
men from this district ar.e entering the trades. Negro artisans are not 
having much success when compared with the white artisans. It is hard 
for a colored man to get skilled labor here under a white contractor. 

FLORENCE: There are not many skilled Negro laborers here. They 
follow chiefly, blacksmithing, carpentering and shoemaking. Negro 
skilled labor is losing here, because those most skilled are carried else 
where because of better wages and steadier work. Industrial school 
training has made very little if any difference here. The young men are 
not entering the trades but those already in are succeeding well. 

MOBILE: Many Negro skilled laborers are here—brick masons, black 
smiths, carpenters, horseshoers and wheelwrights. The Negro skilled 
laborers are gaining here, because the requirements for skilled labor are 
met by industrial school training. The young men enter the trades pre 
viously named, in great numbers, and are taking the place of the old-time 
workmen, thereby showing the public the need of more industrial schools 
since modern times demand new ideas. 

MONTGOMERY: Many Negro skilled laborers here—carpenters, brick 
masons and painters. Negro skilled laborers are gaining, because they 

lThe figures given in this section and following sections are taken from the "Twelfth 
Census of the United States, 1900, Special Reports. Occupations." They are the only 
available figures. 

2 The statements of general conditions given in this and following sections are taken from 
the replies received from correspondents of the Conference. 

Alabama 

49 

are increasing in number and doing more work for their own race. In 
dustrial school training helps in acquiring wealth, but it does not make 
one liberal and unselfish. The young men are entering the trades and the 
artisans in this community are having more than medium success. 

TALLADEGA.—Average number of Negro artisans here—carpenters, 
blacksmiths and brick masons. Negro skilled laborers are not gaining 
fast, because of common race prejudice and general lack of steadiness. 
Very little results of industrial school training visible outside of schools 
founded by industrial school graduates. The young men are entering the 
trades and the colored artisans on the whole are successful. 

TUSKEGEE.—Many Negro skilled laborers here—carpenters, brick 
masons, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, shce makers and cabinet makers. 
They are gaining because they are becoming more and more efficient in 
the trades. The results of industrial school training are that many men 
and women are being sent out as skilled workers. The young men are 
entering the trades in large numbers. The Negro artisans in this com 
munity are doing well. 

Replies of Artisans1 

BIRMINGHAM.—Contracting Electrician. I do not belong to a union, 
tho I have been asked to join. The unions are not particular about col 
ored electricians and they would not furnish me with help should I belong 
to them, which would handicap my business. I am now wiring the Ala 
bama Penny Savings Bank building ($50,000) and a dormitory ($30,000). 
I just finished the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church ($50,000) and Sixth 
Avenue Church ($40,000), besides many residences ranging from $300 to 
$10,000 for both white and colored people. 

MONTGOMERY. —Painter. Conditions are growing better for the Ne 
gro skilled worker because the men who are entering the trades now are 
steady and intelligent. The local trade conditions among Negroes are 
encouraging. Practically all of the brick work, lathing and plastering is 
done by Negroes. In painting and carpentering the whites and blacks are 
about equal. Plumbing is practically a white trade here. Electricians 
are divided with a big white majority. 

SELMA.—Merchant Tailor. I employ sixteen workmen and do an 
average business of $16,000 or $17,000 per year. I work five white tailors 
and the rest colored. Conditions are growing better for the Negro 
skilled workers because they are growing more proficient. 

The replies printed in this section and following sections are taken from the questionnaires 
which were filled out and returned by Negro artisans. 

 x 

•y 

\ 

H 

1 

50 

The Negro American Artisan 

Section 7. Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah 

The Negro population of these states in 1900 and 1910 was 
as follows: 

STATES 

Arizona . 
Colorado . . 

Nevada . . . , 
New Mexico. . 
Utah ..... 

Total . 

1900 

1,848 

8,570 

184 

1,610 

672 

12,834 

1910 

2,067 

11,453 

513 

1,628 

1,143 

16,804 

The census of 1900 recorded the following Negro skilled or 
semi-skilled workmen in these five states (and territories): 

Male- 
Barbers ...... .... . . . .202 

Steam railway employees ..... . . 8'J 

Brick and tile makers ...... 10 

Blacksmiths and wheelwrights . . . 21 
Boot and shoe makers .... 10 

Butchers ....... 4 

Carpenters and joiners . . . . . .38 

Iron and steel workers . . . 165 
Machinists .... .......... 5 

Marble and stone cutters and masons . . If9 

Section 8. Arkansas 

Male- 
Painters . . 9 
Plasterers ....... . 18 

Plumbers and gas fitters . - 5 
Printers ......... .... 6 

Engineers and firemen (stationary) . . 22 

Female- 
Dressmakers, seamstresses and milliners 73 
Printers ... .... ... 2 

Arkansas had 366,856 Negroes-in 1900 and 442,891 in 1910. 
According to the census of 1900 the state had the following 
skilled and semi-skilled Negro laborers: 

Arkansas 

Male- 

Engineers (civil and mechanical) . 
Barbers ............. 

Steam railway employees . . . 
Brick and tile makers ..... 

Blacksmiths and wheelwrights . 
Boot and shoe makers 
Butchers ...... 

Carpenters and joiners . . . 
Iron and steel workers .... 

Machinists . ..... 

i 

. 411 

2,318 

93 

323 

81 

71 

569 

39 

41 

Male- 
Marble and stone cutters and masons . 
Millers .... .... ...... 

Painters... . . . . ..... 

Plumbers and gas fitters ..... 

Printers. . ..... ..... 

Engineers and firemen (stationary) . 

Female— 

Dressmakers and seamstresses . 
Milliners ... 

184 

4 

103 

29 

26 

278 

399 

7 

General Conditions 

FORT SMITH. — Not many skilled Negro laborers here; a few carpen 
ters, masons and blacksmiths. He is gaining as a skilled laborer because 
of manual training in schools. As results of industrial school training, 
the boys who enter are inclined to work and remain in school longer, and 
when out, readily find employment. There is a perceptible increase in 
the number of young men entering carpentry. The Negro artisans are 
having fair success here. 

POPLAR GROVE. — Not many Negro skilled laborers here; a few car 
penters and brick-layers. Skilled labor among Negroes is gaining because 

Arkansas, California 

51 

their work is proving more efficient. A vindication of Negro labor in the 
trades is a result of industrial school training. The young men are enter 
ing the trades very slowly. The artisans in this community are earning 
a livelihood and stand second to none. Our best buildings are the work of 
Negro artisans. Our near-by villages have discarded all other artisans 
where the Negro skilled labor can be obtained. 

TEXARKANA. —Many Negro skilled laborers here—tailors, carpenters, 
masons and smiths. The Negro is gaining as a skilled laborer because 
of the sharpness of competition. Industrial school training causes marked 
efficiency and steady employment with good pay for service. The young 
men are entering the trades. The artisans are receiving good pay and 
steady employment. 

Replies of Artisans 

BRINKLEY.—Builder and Contractor. I can build anything from a 
pier to a bank. I am a member of tne B. and M. I. U. of America, which 
organization admits both white and Negro members. Conditions are 
hardly growing better because bias, selfish interests tend to push the 
Negro hard. 

ENDORA.—Tailor. Conditions are growing better here because the 
people in this section are looking for the real artisan regardless of color 
and learning to appreciate the substantial rather than the superficial. 

Section 9. California 

The state of California had 11,045 Negroes in 1900 and 
21,645 in 1910. The census of 1900 recorded the following 
skilled or semi-skilled Negro laborers for the state: 

Male- 

Engineers and firemen (C. and M.) . 
Baibers .............. 

Steam railway employees ... 
Brick and tile makers ..... 

Blacksmiths and wheelwrights . . 
Boot and shoe makers . 
Butchers 

California 

Male- 
Painters . . ..... 23 

Plasterers........ 20 

Plumbers and gas fitters . . 3 

Printers ......... 7 

Steam boiler makers ....... 1 

Engineers and firemen (stationary) . 6 

Female— 

Dressmakers and seamstresses . 98 
Milliners . . 2 
Printers... . . 3 
Tailoresses . .8 

.... ..... . . 

Carpenters and joiners . . ...... 41 

Cotton and other textile mill operatives . 1 
Iron and steel workers 8 
Machinists ........... 2 

Marble and stone cutters and masons . 33 

General Conditions 

OAKLAND AND SAN FRANCISCO.— Few Negro skilled laborers here— 
carpenters, painters and plasterers. Negro skilled labor is gaining as a 
result of industrial training because the industrial schools add more skill 
to all lines of work. A few young men are entering the trades. The 
Negro artisans are not having very great success here because they are 
barred by union labor organizations. 

 \£ 

s, 

V 

\ 

52 

The Negro American Artisan 

Section 10. Connecticut and Massachusetts 

The Negro population of these states in 1900 and 1910 was 
as follows: 

STATES 

Connecticut. . . 
Massachusetts . 

Totsl. 

1900 

15,226 

31,974 

47,200 

1910 
15,174 
38/'42 

63,216 

The census of 1900 recorded the following skilled or semi 
skilled Negro laborers in these two states: 

Connecticut and Massachusetts 

Male- 
Engineers (civil and mechanical) . . . 5 
Barbers .... ... .... . . 383 

Steam railway employees . ...... 114 

Brick and tile makers . .... . . 19 

Blacksmiths and wheelwrights . . . . 55 

Boot and shoe makers . ..... 203 

Butchers ...... . . 28 

Carpenters and joiners . . ... . 148 

Cabinetmakers ............. 3 

Cotton and other textile operatives ... 46 
Iron and steel workers ......... 101 

Machinists . . ............ 63 

Marble and stone cutters and masons . . 238 

Male- 
Millers . , . . ....... 

Painters . ............. 

Plasterers ............... 

Plumbers and g-as fitters , . . 
Printers . . ........... 

Steam boiler makers ......... 

Engineers and firemen (stationary) . 

Female- 
Dressmakers and seamstresses . , . 
Milliners ...... . , 

Printeis . . . . 

Tailoresses 

. 2 
.125 
. 9 
. 39 
. 45 

. 144 

. 438 
. 16 
. 2 
. 26 

General Conditions 

NEW HAVEN.—Not many Negro artisans here in proportion to the 
population. They are mostly carpenters, masons and painters. The Ne 
gro skilled laborer is just about holding his own because the younger 
element is not looking toward the trades. The success of the Negro 
artisan, on the whole, is fair. 

HAVERHILL.—Fair number of Negro skilled laborers here. They are 
engaged chiefly in the manufacture of shoes and are just holding their 
own. Industrial school training would give the Negro a decided advan 
tage here. The young men are not entering the trades very fast; they 
are more inclined to do menial labor. The artisans are having fair success. 

PITTSFIELD.—Not many Negro skilled laborers here. The Negro 
skilled laborer is losing because race prejudice discourages him. 

Section 11. Delaware, District of Columbia and Maryland 

The Negro population of these geographical divisions in 
1900 and 1910 was as follows: 

STATES 
Delaware ... 
District of Columbia . 
Maryland ....... 

Total . 

1900 

30,697 

86,702 

235.064 

352,463 

1910 

31,181 

94,446 

232,249 

357,876 

Florida 

53 

The census of 1900 recorded the following skilled or semi 
skilled Negro workers: 

Delaware, District of Columbia and Maryland 

Male- 
Engineers (civil and mechanical) . 7 
Barters. ............. 1,202 

Steam Railway employees 884 

Brick and tile makers ... . 855 

Blacksmiths and wheelwrights . . 289 

Boot and shoe makers ......... 288 

Butchers ....... ..... 151 

Caipenters and joiners ....... 560 

Cabinet makers............ 23 

Cotton and other textile mill operatives 15 

Iron and steel workers ........ 86() 

Machinists ...... ....... 44 

Marble and stone cutters and masons. 982 

Male- 
Millers . .............. 22 

Painters ...,.....,...,. 241 

Plasterers .......... ^ .... 210 

Plumbers and gas fitters . ,,»... 103 

Printers. ............... 122 

Steam boiler makers. ......... 1 

Engineers and firemen (stationary) . . 562 

Female— 

Dressmakers and seamstresses . . 2,6.46 
Milliners .... 6 
Printers . . 19 
Tailoresses. . . 15 

General Conditions 

WASHINGTON.—Not many Negro skilled laborers here. They are 
losing because of labor unions. Very little results of industrial school 
training is perceptible save in the increase in school attendance. A few 
young men are becoming engineers. Those in the trades are doing well. 

BALTIMORE.—Not many Negro skilled laborers here—carpenters, 
cement layers, shoemakers and printers. The Negro is losing as a skilled 
laborer because of insufficient opportunity for intensive industrial train 
ing. Industrial school training has caused an awakened interest of edu 
cated classes in the need for artisans in the community. The young men 
are entering the trades in a very slight degree only. The Negro artisans 
are producing satisfactory results because they show possibility of per 
forming employment in practically any line. 

Section 12. Florida 

There were 230,730 Negroes in Florida in 1900 and 308,669 
in 1910. The census of 1900 recorded the following skilled or 
semi-skilled Negro laborers: 

Male 

6 

352 

2,118 

Engineers (civil and mechanical) 
Barbers. ........ 

Steam railway employees : 
Blacksmiths and wheelwrights . 
Boot and shoe makers . . . , . 
Butchers .............. 

Carpenters and joiners . ..... 1,150 

Machinists ............. 39 

Marble and stone cutters and masons. 287 

Florida 

Male— 

Painters ......... 

Plumbers and gas fitters . 

Printers...... ..... . . . 

Engineers and firemen (stationary) . 
99 

Female- 
Dress makers and seamstresses . 
Milliners . .......... 

123 

218 

37 

29 

394 

891 

2 

General Conditions 

GREENVILLE. —There is a friendly feeling between the white and col 
ored laborers here, largely due to the Negro's preparation. The conditions 
are growing better for the Negro skilled workers because they can do 
more work and in many cases better work. 

 / 

54 

The Negro American Artisan 

Section 13. Georgia 

The state of Georgia had a Negro population of 1,034,813 
in 1900 and of 1,176,987 in 1910. According to the census of 
1900 there were the following skilled and semi-skilled Negro 
workers in the state: 

Georgia 

Male- 
Engineers (civil and mechanical) . . 6 
Barbers. ............... 1,116 

Steam railway employees ....... 6,366 

• Brick and tile makers ... ..... 639 

Blacksmiths and wheelwrights .... 1,230 

Boot and shoe makers. . 664 
Butchers ........ . 363 

Carpenters and joiners . ... 3,385 

Cabinet makers ... .... ... 54 

Cotton and other textile mill operatives Br 5 
Iron and steel workers ... . . 281 

Machinists ... ... . 154 

Marble and stone cutters . . . 1,508 

Male- 
Millers . 
Painters....... 

Plasterers ....... 

Plumbers and gas fitters ... 
Printers ........ 

Steam boiler makers . . ..... 

Engineers and firemen (stationary) . 

Female— 

Dressmakers and seamstresses . 
Milliners .... 
Printers . . 
Tailoresses ....... 

126 

885 

3,9 

139 

2.234 

7 

3 

25 

General Conditions 

ALBANY.—Many skilled Negro laborers here—carpenters, masons and 
blacksmiths. Negro skilled labor is gaining because the number is in 
creasing. Industrial school training has caused very marked results. 
Many young men are entering the trades. The success among the artisans 
at present is much better than it has been in many years. 

AMERICUS.—Not many skilled Negro laborers here; a few carpenters, 
masons and blacksmiths. The Negro is gaining as a skilled laborer. In 
dustrial school training has produced good results. Few young men are 
entering the trades. The artisans are having good success. 

COVINGTON.—Not many skilled Negro laborers here; a few carpenters. 
The Negro skilled laborer is gaining because the attendance in trade de 
partments is increasing. Industrial school training has caused improve 
ment in the homes. Many young men are entering the trades. The 
artisans find ready employment. 

DAWSON.—Many skilled Negro laborers here—carpenters, brickma- 
sons, blacksmiths and tailors. They are gaining because of the increase 
in intelligence. Very little results of industrial school training evident 
in this community. The young men are entering the trades. The Negro 
artisans are succeeding well. 

FORT VALLEY.—Many skilled Negro laborers here. They are chiefly 
builders. The Negro skilled laborer is losing here because he does not fit 
himself to compete with the trained white artisan. Those who are able 
to hold their own are those who have had some industrial school training. 
A. great many young men are entering the trades, but they are going in 
as apprentices and can hardly attain the efficiency to cope with the 
trained artisan. The Negro trained laborer is having splendid success. 

Georgia 

55 

HARLEM.—Many skilled Negro laborers here for the size of the town— 
carpenters, printers, masons, blacksmiths and engineers. They are 
gaining because of competency and reliability. As results of industrial 
school training there are better buildings, better kept homes and scien 
tific farming. The young men enter the trades now and then and are 
having great success. They are all kept busy. 

HARTWELL.—Many skilled Negro laborers here—carpenters and ma 
sons. In many instances they are losing because of the lack of constancy. 
Industrial school training creates thrift and industrial habits. Not many 
young men in this section entering the trades. The Negro artisan is 
having moderate success here. 

LA GRANGE.—About a dozen Negro skilled laborers here—carpenters, 
bricklayers and plasterers. They are losing here because of race antipa 
thy and a love for their own by the other race. Not many results of 
industrial school training visible as yet. Few such students have come 
here. Not very many young men are entering the trades. The artisans 
are making a moderate living. 

MACON.—Many skilled Negro laborers here—brickmasons, carpenters, 
tailors, blacksmiths, plasterers and painters. I am unable to say 
whether or not he is gaining, but the demand is much greater than the 
supply. The majority of the graduates of industrial schools are either in 
the civil service or studying or practicing some profession. Not many 
young men entering the trades. Most of the brick work and plastering 
is done by colored artisans. Can find them at work on the largest and 
finest buildings. We have at least two Negro contractors, whose patrons 
are almost exclusively of the other race. 

STANFORDVILLE.—Not many Negro skilled laborers here. They fol 
low farming chiefly. The Negro skilled laborer is losing here, because 
before the Civil War it was customary to put Negro boys under a good 
artisan as apprentices to learn certain trades. With freedom these con 
ditions passed away and Negro men as a whole are not inclined for their 
boys to learn trades. Very little results of industrial training perceptible. 
The sewing and cooking departments of many of the American Mission 
ary Association schools produce very marked results among the Negro 
women. The Negro artisans receive all the patronage of the community 
from both races. Efficient work is all that is required. 

Replies of Artisans 

ALBANY.—Contractor and Builder. There are more colored workmen 
here than white, hence the feeling is fairly good. Conditions are grow 
ing better for the Negro skilled worker. This is the day of the survival 
of the fittest in the mechanical world and especially here in southwest 
Georgia. 

 I 

56 

The Negro American Artisan 

AMERICUS. —Contracting Plasterer and Brick Mason. I am a mem 
ber of Union No. 19, Georgia, B. and M. I. U. of the United States of 
America. Conditions are improving slightly. The Negro can do more 
and better work in a given time and have less to say about it and give 
the contractor less trouble. While some contractors favor the white me 
chanic as a general thing the work is more progressive with the Negro at 
his post. The Negro workers need to learn about plan reading and thoroly 
fit themselves for their work. 

AMERICUS. —Contractor and Builder. Conditions seem to be standing 
because white workers are coming in and preventing the Negro workers 
from having so much to do. Perhaps the colored workman would do 
better if he possessed more stability and reliability. There would be a 
greater demand for his work. 

ATLANTA.—Bricklayer. Conditions are growing better for the Negro 
skilled worker because the class of work done at present demands the 
skilled workman. I was secretary of B. and M. I. U. No. 6 of Georgia 
for five years, said union being colored. Whites and Negroes have sepa 
rate unions but their laws and government are the same, each receiving 
charter and regulations from the executive board of the B. and M. I. U. 
of America. 

ATLANTA.—Plumber. I have made several attempts to join the union 
but have been refused because of my color. Conditions are growing bet 
ter for the Negro workers because skill is able to compete with skill and 
the men of the other race who are in the field find that they must forget 
prejudice, etc., in order to keep abreast with their rivals. A few years 
ago the supply houses in Atlanta would not sell material of any kind to a 
Negro master plumber but now they vie with each other in giving us the 
best of goods at the lowest possible wholesale prices. 

ATLANTA.- -Brick Mason. There is the same prejudice and discrim 
ination as in other fields of labor. Negro contractors are barred even 
from the architects' offices. About one per cent of these offices are open 
to Negroes. In some cases it has come under my observation that even 
if a Negro has equal ability and in some instances a lower bid he is barred 
or the job is given to his white opponent. 

BAINBRIDGE. — Horse Sheer. There is a very good feeling between 
the white and colored workers here. There is a class of white and colored 
people here that can get together and settle any difference. I came to 
this town about ten years ago by an invitation from the mayor and chief 
of police to establish a business. They have stood by me as they would 
stand by a white man. 

GIBSON.—Blacksmith and Buggy Builder. So far as blacksmithing is 
concerned it is simply a matter of efficiency of the workman. Conditions 
are growing better because the masses are being educated to the imme- 

Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin 57 

diate needs of their community, thus making themselves useful. I have 
been establisht here four years. All of the county's work in general 
repairing on road machines, carts, dumps, wheelers is done at my place. 
OXFORD.—Carpenter and Builder. Conditions are growing better 
because the richer and better class of whites has now reached the place 
where the skill of the workman and not the color of his skin is considered. 
I finished one of the finest white churches in Covington and a twelve-room 
dwelling for a white banker's son. I can use any man's blue print if it 
can be worked by the scale. 

Section 14. Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin 

The Negro population in these states in 1900 and 1910 was 
as follows: 

STATES 

Illinois . 
Indiana . 
Michigan . 
Minnesota. . 
Wisconsin . 

Total. . 

WOO 
85,078 
57,505 
15,816 
4,959 
2,542 

taw 

1P9,041 

60,280 

17,115 

7,(>84 

2,930 

165,900 196,420 

According to the census of 1900 these states had the follow 
ing Negro skilled or semi-skilled workers: 

Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin 

Male 

Engineers (civil and mechanical) . 7 
Barbers. ............ 2,135 

Steam railway employees .... . 1,030 

Blacksmiths and wheelwrights . 226 

Brick and tile makers . 187 

Boot and shoe makers 82 

Butchers ...... 147 

Carpenters and joiners ........ 353 

Cabinet makers... ....... 18 

Cotton and other textile mill operatives 20 

Iron and steel workers ... . 441 

Machinists . . . . ....... 83 

Marble and stone cutters and masons.. 824 

Male- 
Millers.. 
Painters ... 
Plasterers ........ 

Plumbers and gas fitters . 
Printers ........ 

Steam boiler makers ........ 

Engineers and firemen ( stationary ) 

Female— 

Dressmakers and seamstresses 
Milliners . 
Printers . . 
Tailoresses 

289 

257 

63 

94 

6 

575 

. 1,179 

24 

7 

14 

General Conditions 

CHICAGO.—Not many Negro skilled laborers here—carpenters, plum 
bers, brick-layers and plasterers. The Negro artisan is losing because 
of labor unions and competition. Industrial school training is producing 
good results where skilled workmen are turned out. Very few young 
men are entering the trades. The artisans are having small success in a 
general way. Some few are doing excellently. 

MINNEAPOLIS.—Not many skilled Negro laborers here—carpenters, 
plasterers and contractors. As a skilled laborer the Negro is gaining 
because of his superior work. Not many young men are entering the 
trades. The artisans are succeeding well. 

 L£ 

58 

The Negro American Artisan 

ST. PAUL.—Not many Negro skilled laborers here—shoe makers, tai 
lors, cleaners and pressers. The Negro skilled laborer is not gaining 
because of a lack of "get up." No results of industrial school training 
are evident. The Negro young men are not entering the trades. 

Section 15. Iowa and Kansas 

The Negro population of Iowa and Kansas for 1900 and 
1910 was as follows: 

STATES 

Iowa . . 
Kansas 

Total. 

1900 

12,693 

52,003 

64,696 

1910 

15,078 

54,504 

69,582 

According to the census of 1900 these two states had the 
following skilled or semi-skilled Negro laborers: 

Iowa and Kansas 

Male- I 

Barbers . ......... . . 496 

Steam railway employees . . . 540 

Brick and tile makers ...... 96 

Blacksmiths and wheelwrights . . 128 

Boot and shoe makers ......... 44 

Butchers ..... ....;.... 79 

Carpenters and joiners . ....... 127 

Cabinet makers .... 2 

Iron and steel workers . .80 

Machinists ..... ... . . .17 

Marble and stone cutters and masons . . 291 

Millers . . ... 20 

Male- 
Painters . . 
Plasterers ........ 

Plumbers and gas fitters 
Printers ........ 

Steam boiler makers . ... 

Engineers and firemen (stationary) 

Female— 

Dressmakers and seamstresses 
Printers. - .... 
Tailoresses 

. 55 

.157 

. 20 

. 33 

. 3 

138 

. 199 

5 

1 

General Conditions 

DBS MOINES.—About thirty Negro skilled laborers here two carpen 
ters, six masons, three linotypers, one printer, five chauffeurs, one lathe 
worker, five modistes and seven manicurists. Very few young men are 
entering the trades. The artisans are succeeding very well. 

ATCHISON.—The Negro skilled laborer is in evidence here. The 
largest blacksmith and repair shop in the state of Kansas is in this city. 
It is kept by a Negro whose income is said to be more than $8,000 a year. 

LAWRENCE.—Not many skilled Negro laborers here—blacksmiths, 
marble cutters, electric wirers, plumbers and carpenters. The Negro is 
gaining as a skilled laborer because he has begun to recognize the need 
for efficiency in order to be steadily employed. The results of industrial 
school training are very apparent—increased efficiency, increased self re 
spect and aspiration, and respect from the opposite race. The artisans 
here are successful in keeping busy all of their time. They are promoted 
and their salaries are frequently raised. 

Replies of Artisans 

DBS MOINES.—Dressmaker. There is no union here of members of 
my trade. If there were, I could join along with the white workers. 

Kentucky 

59 

They treat me as well as they treat each other and the Negro woman 
who learns her trade well has the same chance that the white girls have. 
I have worked at my trade for more than ten years. I have held positions 
in some of the largest white establishments in this state as manager and 
as head waist maker and have always been well treated. 

DBS MOINES.—Mechanic. Conditions are growing better. Negroes 
hold good positions when competent, providing they are self-respecting 
and stick to business. I am hopeful for Negro skilled workmen. We 
should have more of them. I believe, tho, the Negroes should organize 
and own and oper'ate business for themselves. 

Section 16. Kentucky 

The state of Kentucky had 284,706 Negroes in 1900 and 
261,656 in 1910. According to the twelfth census the state 
had the following skilled or semi-skilled Negro laborers: 

Kcnti 

Male- 
Engineers (civil and mechanical) 4 
Barbers. ....... . . . . . 812 

Steam railway employees . 2,384 
Brick and tile makers ...... . . 342 

Blacksmiths and wheelwrights . 539 
Boot and shoe makers ...... 116 

Butchers ...... . 93 

Carpenters and joiners . 701 
Cabinet makers. ..... 11 

Cotton and other textile mill operatives 117 
Iron and steel workers . . 370 
Machinists ...... ...... 35 

Marble and stone cutters and masons. 757 

ucky 

Male- 
Millers . ........ . 76 

Painters . ....... 234 

Plasterers. ......... 285 

Plumbers and gas fitters ...... 37 

Printers. .... .... 21 

Steam boiler makers ........ 5 

Engineers and firemen (stationary) . 431 

Female- 
Dressmakers and seamstresses . 721 
Millinei s . . . 7 
Printers . . 2 
Tailoresses . 4 

General Conditions 

BOWLING GREEN.—Many skilled Negro laborers here—carpenters, 
blacksmiths and stone masons. They are gaining because the skilled 
laborer has no trouble in getting work. All who desire to work are kept 
busy. Those artisans coming from our industrial schools are doing well; 
the better prepared they are the better they succeed. Not very many 
young men entering the trades, but a surprising number considering the 
sentiment. Sentiment is getting better and they are succeeding. 

FRANKFORT.—Many Negro skilled laborers here in proportion to the 
population—carpenters, plasterers, engineers, stone masons, firemen, 
shoe makers, paper hangers and decorators. The Negro skilled laborers 
are losing slightly because they are not as steadily employed as heretofore 
and many have moved to other towns and cities. Industrial school train 
ing causes those having trades to receive better wages and to be more 
self-sustaining and independent. Fewyoungmen are entering the trades; 
not enough, tho. Most of the artisans are substantial citizens, possessing 
homes of their own besides other property. Many of these homes are 
unusually modern, commodious and good. 

lly 

DOCfJ 

 I 

p \ 

60 

The Negro American Artisan 

HAWESVILLE.—Three Negro skilled laborers here—two blacksmiths 
and a tinner. They are gaining because the demand for their labor is 
increasing. Industrial school training causes better pay and greater de 
mand for their service. The young men are entering the trades slowly 
but the success is encouraging. 

HENDERSON.—An average number of Negro skilled laborers here— 
carpenters and blacksmiths. They are seemingly holding their own. 
Few young men enter the trades. The artisans are succeeding when 
efficient. 

LEBANON.—Few Negro skilled laborers here—plasterers, carpenters 
and stone masons. They are losing because the older skilled laborers are 
dying and the young men have not learned the trades. The young men 
are not entering the trades. The success of the artisans is only moderate. 

LEXINGTON.—Many skilled Negro laborers here—plumbers, black 
smiths, tinners, carpenters, painters, brick-layers, stone masons, silver 
smiths and tailors. The Negro is gaining as a skilled laborer because 
there are more here now than fifteen years ago. Industrial school train 
ing has produced good results. The people are learning that labor is 
honorable, understanding that by the sweat of the brow you must earn 
what you eat. The artisans are succeeding finely. 

RICHMOND.—Many skilled Negro laborers here—carpenters, masons, 
engineers, blacksmiths, tailors, upholsterers and tinners. The skilled 
laborer is gaining because he is much in demand. If a Negro can do good 
work he need not fear the white man, but he loses when his work does 
not come up to the white man's. We need more skilled laborers here. 
There are wide fields open to the skilled laborer here. We have to give 
our work to the white man because the Negro cannot do it. The industrial 
school training is doing a great thing for the young Negro. He is going 
out into the world and doing business for himself. He is his own boss 
and is making good money. Where he at one time worked under a boss 
for three dollars per week, he is now making under his own management 
ten and fifteen dollars per week. Many young men are entering the 
trades. The Negro artisans are succeeding very well. 

Replies of Artisans 

FRANKFORT.—Shoe Maker and Repairer. There is a friendly feeling 
between the white and colored workers in my trade here. I have had 
white shoe makers work for me. My shop is equipt with modern ma 
chines and I made them pay for themselves. I enjoy a nice trade from 
both white and Negro patrons. 

FRANKFORT.—General Contractor and Builder. Conditions are not so 
good here because of growing race prejudice and because there are not 
young men enough learning the trade. I came to Frankfort in 1883 and for 

Louisiana 

61 

eight years thereafter my work was for white contractors. Since that 
time I have been contracting for myself and have had as many as seventy- 
five men under my employ at one time. None of the white contractors 
in Frankfort now will employ colored mechanics. 

HAWESVILLE.- Blacksmith. There exists a friendly feeling here 
between colored and white workers. I think conditions are growing bet 
ter for the Negro laborer because he does better work with less conten 
tion with contractors. 

HENDERSON.—Blacksmith. There is an exceedingly friendly and 
congenial feeling between the white and colored workers here, hardly any 
prejudice existing as far as trade relations are concerned. As I see it 
the country is demanding efficiency and satisfactory results and if the 
Negro mechanic can produce these he is sure to get recognition and con 
sideration. 

Section 17. Louisiana 

The state of Louisiana had 650,804 Negroes in 1900 and 
713,874 in 1910. The twelfth census (1900) recorded the fol 
lowing skilled or semi-skilled Negroes for the state: 

Louisiana 

Male 

Engineers (civil and mechanical) . 14 
Barbers........ 515 

Steam railway employees . . . 3,086 
Brick and tile makers ..... 339 

Blacksmiths and wheelwrights. . 700 
Boot and shoe makers... . . 304 

Butchers ... . . . 195 

Carpenters and joiners . . 1,711 
Cabinet makers.... ... . 45 

Cotton and other textile mill operatives 22 
Iron and steel workers .... . . 36 

Machinists ........ ... 33 

Marble and stone cutters and masons. 877 

Male- 
Millers . . . 31 
Painters . - 3B4 
Plasterers. ....... 271 

Plumbers and gas fitters . 27 

Printers ........ 60 

Steam boiler makers ......... 7 

Engineers and firemen (stationary) . 504 

Female— 

Dressmakers and seamstresses . 2,241 
Milliners ... ....... . 12 

Tailoresses . ...... 99 

General Conditions 

BATON ROUGE.—Many skilled Negro laborers here—carpenters, brick 
masons, plasterers, painters and decorators. The Negro artisan is hold 
ing his own here because there are not so many white artisans and the 
Negro gives full satisfaction. Very many young men are entering the 
trades. The Negro skilled laborers are having fair success. 

MONROE. —Many skilled Negro laborers here—carpenters, masons, 
painters, plasterers, etc. The Negro skilled laborer is gaining because 
of his efficiency in whatever he has a chance to do. Whenever the trained 
man is given work he does it commendably no matter where trained, in 
school or out. The training is the necessity and should be given to all. 
The young men are entering the trades. The Negro artisan is having 

 62 

The Negro American Artisan 

Mississippi 

63 

J?1 

such success as should be reasonably expected from one who does his duty 
with an open chance before him. 

Replies of Artisans 

BATON ROUGE.—Contractor and Brick-layer. I do not belong to a trade 
union at present for the union went to the bad here more than a year ago. 
At that time we had quite a number of whites in our organization, tho 
we Negroes had the majority. I think conditions are growing better for 
the Negro skilled worker. He does his work as a rule with more taste 
and does more in an allotted time. That within itself is the solution of 
the work problem. The man who has work to be done employs as a rule 
the man who puts up the most complete package. The majority of the 
mechanics in Baton Rouge are colored and they own an enormous amount 
of real estate. We have any quantity of jack-leg white carpenters who 
dislike working with the colored brother but they need his assistance to 
such an extent that they work with him, tho with reluctancy. In other 
words, they simply can't do without the colored man in the trades. We 
have two colored men here who have been contracting for twenty years. 
They are highly considered by the white people and do principally all of 
the city work. They are now engaged in putting another story on one of 
the largest hotels in the city. 

MONROE.—Plasterer. I do not belong to a trade union because I do 
not endorse the methods adopted by trade unions to enforce their claims. 
An amicable relation exists between the white and colored workers of my 
trade in this place. I fear conditions are not growing better for the 
Negro skilled worker because of the very small number with a liberal 
education that are engaged in the trades. 

NEW ORLEANS.—Electrician. I do not belong to a trade union because 
the union here will not admit a Negro. I believe the conditions for the 
Negro skilled worker are growing better because the world is now looking 
for the man who can deliver the goods. My experience in this city has 
been interesting. My work is inspected and approved by a board known 
as the Louisiana Fire Prevention Bureau. The city electrician also 
approves my work. 

Section 18. Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont 

The Negro population in these states in 1900 and 1910 was 
as follows: 

STATES 

Maine ...... 

New Hampshire 
Rhode Island . . 
Vermont 

Total ... 

WOO 
1,319 

662 
9,092 

826 

11,899 

1910 

1,364 

564 

9,529 

1,621 

13,078 

According to the census of 1900 these states contained the 
following skilled or semi-skilled Negro workers: 

Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont 

Male- 
Barbers .......... • 106 

Steam railway employees .... .33 

Blacksmiths and wheelwrights . 19 

Brick and tile makers .... .1 

Boot and shoe makers . . 13 

Butchers ........ 11 

Carpenters and joiners ... 34 

Cabinet makers .......... . . 2 

Cotton and other textile mill operatives . 24 

Iron and steel workers .... . . 16 

Machinists .... ......... 17 

Marble and stone cutters and masons . 59 

Section 19. Mississippi 

Male- 
Painters ...... . . 

Plasterers ... .... . 

Plumbers and gas fitters ...... 

Printers . . ............. 

Steam boiler makers ........ 

Engineers and firemen (stationary) .. 

Female — 

Dressmakers and seamstresses . 
Milliners ............ 

Printers . . 

Tailoresses .... 

38 

3 

6 

8 

1 

25 

136 

3 

1 

4 

The state of Mississippi had a Negro population of 907,630 
in 1900 and of 1,009,487 in 1910. According to the census of 
1900 there were the following skilled or semi-skilled Negro 
workers in the state: 

Mississippi 

Male- 
Engineers (civil and mechanical) . 3 
Barbers ... .... . 486 

Steam railway employees . . 4,681 
Bride and tile makers ..... 460 

Blacksmiths and wheelwrights 663 
Boot and shoe makers . . 152 
Butchers ....... .183 

Carpenters and joiners ..... . . 1,497 

Cotton and other textile mill operatives 14 
Iron and steel workers ........ 48 

Machinists . ...... 52 

Male- 
Marble and stone cutters and masons . 392 
Millers ..... 15 

Painters..... . . 227 

Plumbers and gas fitters . 27 

Printers ......... . . . . 27 

Engineers and firemen (stationary ). . 479 

Female— 

Dressmakers and seamstresses . 1,112 
Milliners ...... . 8 

General Conditions 

HOLLY SPRINGS.—Not many Negro skilled laborers here — black 
smiths, carpenters and brick masons. The Negro is gaining as a skilled 
laborer because his services are always in demand. Industrial school 
training has produced efficiency and reliability. Only a few young men 
are entering the trades. 

INDIANOLA.—Many Negro skilled laborers here—contractors, foremen, 
carpenters, brick-layers, electricians, engineers, blacksmiths, agricultur 
ists, etc. The Negro artisan is gaining in proportion to his skill. There 
are more demands for laborers trained in industrial schools than for the 
unskilled. Some of the young men are entering the trades. The artisans 
°i this community are attaining competence and material and business 
rating of a high order. 

NATCHEZ.—About twenty Negro skilled laborers here—carpenters, 
masons, plasterers, painters, blacksmiths and chauffeurs. The skilled 

 \ 

/ 

p^®§ 

»i 

64 

The Negro American Artisan 

Negro laborers are gaining here because of proficiency. Industrial school 
training turns out better workmen. The young men are entering the 
trades. The Negro artisans are having fair success here. 

VICKSBURG. —Many skilled laborers here—carpenters, blacksmiths, 
masons, paper hangers, cement workers, plasterers, painters and uphols 
terers. In some respects they are losing because of prejudice. First, 
eleven years ago there was not a contractor here who did not work Ne 
groes, now the leading contractor does not employ a single Negro carpen 
ter. Secondly, because the Negro as a carpenter does not acquire the 
skill of the finished workman. There are more Negro brick-layers than 
white and they get work with all the contractors. The best cement 
worker and plasterer in town is a Negro. The third reason that the Ne 
gro is losing is that there are no young men entering the trades to fill the 
old workmen's places. Not many workmen here who have attended in 
dustrial schools. The Negro artisans are having fair success; that is, 
they make money. The brick masons and cement workers do not accu 
mulate very much. 

Replies of Artisans 

INDIANOLA.—Carpenter. A fairly good feeling exists between the 
white and colored workers in this section. Conditions are growing bet 
ter for the Negro skilled worker because ability is the thing needed and 
most contractors (private parties) have seen that the skilled Negro me 
chanic is a money saver. 

NATCHEZ.- Mason. I am a member of Natchez Union, No. 7, being 
permitted to join with the white workers. I think conditions are growing 
better for the Negro skilled laborer. 

VICKSBURG.- Contracting Brick-layer. There is a good feeling be 
tween the white and colored workers here and the conditions are growing 
better for the Negro skilled workers. I am president of the Brick-layers' 
Union, to which both whites and Negroes belong. 

VICKSBURG.—Decorator. Conditions are growing better for the Ne 
gro skilled laborer because thoro training is giving him confidence in him 
self and is demonstrating the Negro's ability to render competent service. 
When I began this work I had no intention whatever of remaining in the 
trade; but finding it a lucrative trade I applied myself diligently, always 
with a desire to excel. As a result my reputation as a workman grew 
and today I cannot accept all the work offered me. 

YAZOO CITY.—Contractor and Builder. Conditions are growing bet 
ter for the Negro skilled worker because he is learning to see how well 
he can do what is entrusted to him instead of how little he can do for the 
money that is paid him. I teach my men to do their work so well that 
no one else can improve upon it; the importance of doing their best at all 
times. I believe it is largely this that keeps me busy. 

Missouri 

65 

Section 20. Missouri 

The state of Missouri had a Negro population of 161,234 
in 1900 and of 157,452 in 1910. The census of 1900 recorded 
the following skilled and semi-skilled Negro workers for the 
state: 

Missouri 

Male- 
Engineers (civil and mechanical) .... 2 

Barbers ................. 910 

Steam railway employees . . . 769 
Brick and tile makers . .... . . 275 

Blacksmiths and wheelwrights . . . 187 
Boot and shoe makers ...,,,,... 55 
Butchers . ............. 116 

Carpenters and joiners ... ..... 219 

Cabinetmakers ..... ..... 5 

Cotton and other textile operatives ... 6 
Iron and steel workers . ....... 243 

Machinists . . . . ... . . 23 

Marble and stone cutters and masons . 798 

Male- 
Millers . 
Painters . 
Plasterers. ...... 

Plumbers and gas fitters 
Printers . . 

. 29 

. 66 

.212 

30 

37 

Steam boiler makers .......... 3 

Engineers and firemen (stationary) . 411 

Female- 
Dressmakers and seamstresses . 
Milliners . . . . 
Printeis .... 
Tailoresses 

.412 

2 

2 

. 4 

General Conditions 

BOONVILLE. — Several Negro skilled laborers here— two carpenters, 
two masons, two engineers and a plumber. The Negro is gaining as a 
skilled laborer. The number has increased slightly in ten years. As re 
sults of industrial school training we have an engineer and a carpenter. 
Only three young men are entering the trades. The artisans here are 
succeeding well. 

CHILLICOTHE. — Not many Negro skilled laborers here — a few black 
smiths, engineers and masons, a few gardeners and farmers, while the 
majority are day laborers. The Negro is losing as a skilled laborer be 
cause he is not pursuing it extensively. In this section he is not taking 
up the work. Those who do follow it find employment readily. There 
are no persons here from an industrial school. The young men are not 
entering the trades. The Negro skilled laborer is succeeding where he 
can do the work. 

DALTON. — Not many Negro skilled laborers here— carpenters, plas 
terers and painters. The Negro is gaining as a skilled laborer because 
of large openings. Many results visible in every way of industrial school 
training, especially in the trained farmers. Some young men are entering 
the trades. The Negro artisan is succeeding well in this community. 

MARYVILLE. —Practically no Negro skilled laborers here — a few plas 
terers and house-cleaners. Those laboring in these occupations are very 
proficient. There is no gain in the number because organized white labor 
does all of the skilled work and there are too few Negroes to organize. 
There are no Negro workmen, trained in industrial schools in this city. 
The young men are not entering the trades. What Negro artisans there 
are are having splendid success. 

 66 

The Negro American Artisan 

ST. Louis. — Not many Negro skilled laborers here— brick-layers, 
carpenters, plumbers, blacksmiths, paper-hangers and plasterers. The 
Negro is not gaining as a skilled laborer because of lack of motive and 
inclination. Industrial school training promises much. Not many young 
men are entering the trades. The Negro artisan as far as he is efficient 
is succeeding splendidly. 

Replies of Artisans 

BOONVILLE.- -Contracting Brick -layer and Plasterer. There is a good 
feeling here between the white and colored workers in my trade. I fre 
quently hire white plasterers. Conditions are growing better for the 
Negro skilled laborer. 

DALTON. — Carpenter. I do not belong to a union, tho I could join 
with the whites. An agreeable feeling exists between the races in my 
trade. Conditions grow better as the Negro workers master their trades. 

ST. Louis. — Stone Cutter. I am a member of the Building Laborers' 
International Protective Union, Local No. 3, a Negro union. Negroes 
cannot join with the whites. The conditions can hardly be said to be 
growing better here for there are not enough Negroes in the trades to 
make it so. I could put many to work if they were qualified. We have 
a few plasterers and brick-layers working here, but they cannot get into 
the unions here on account of past dealings with white unions in regard 
to colored hod carriers' union. We have seven-tenths of the work here 
now. 

ST. Louis. — Electrician. I do not belong to the union because Ne 
groes are not admitted to Electrical Workers' Union in the state of 
Missouri. Conditions are growing better because the Negroes are build 
ing more homes and business places for themselves in St. Louis. Negro 
plumbers are in great demand here, there being only one finished plumber 
here at present. The Negro tradesmen need a leader to go to the front 
for them and I think they will be able to get into the unions then. I 
could get three times as much work if I could join the Electrical Workers' 
Union. As I am the only finished Negro electrician here I cannot fight 
the union alone. There are six other unfinished Negro electricians here 
who do very good work. 

Section 21. New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania 

The Negro population of New York, New Jersey and 
Pennsylvania in 1900 and 1910 was as follows: 

STATES 

New York. 
New Jersey . 
Pennsylvania 

Total. 

ISO!) 

99,232 

69,844 

156,845 

325,921 

1S10 
134,181 
89,760 
193,908 

417,849 

New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania 

67 

The census of 1900 recorded the following Negro skilled or 
semi-skilled laborers for these three states: 

New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania 

Male- 
Engineers (civil and mechanical) ... 26 
Barbers. ........... ... 2,461 

Steam railway employees . .674 
Brick and tile makers ......... 2,744 

Blacksmiths and wheelwrights .... 244 

Boot and shoe makers. . 169 
Butchers ........ .112 

Carpenters and joiners . . 438 
Cabinet makers.......... . 22 

Cotton and other textile mill operatives 43 
Iron and steel workers ... .... 1,7(34 

Machinists .......... ... 157 

Marble and stone cutters and masons. 1,644 

Male- 
Millers . . . . 

Painters... 

Plasterers ... ..... 

Plumbers and gas fitters . 
Printers........ .... 

Steam boiler makers . . . . . . 

Engineers and firemen (stationary) . 

Female— 

Dressmakers and seamstresses 
Milliners . ..... 

Printers . . ..... 

Tailoresses ........ 

20 

430 

172 

119 

200 

9 

797 

. 2,754 

24 

4 

32 

Two recent studies of the economic status of the Negro in 
York City1 show that in the skilled trades "the Negro is con 
spicuous by his absence. Only four in every thousand where 
there should be eighteen. .... The census division of 
mechanical pursuits shows only a few colored men working 
at trades, and the paucity of the numbers is often attributed 
by the Negro to a third obstacle in the way of his progress, 
the trade union."2 Hence in New York City "Negroes are 
crowded into these poorer paid occupations because many 
of them are inefficient and because of the color prejudice on 
the part of white workmen and employers. Both of these 
influences are severe handicaps in the face of the competition 
in this advanced industrial community."3 As to the wages 
and efficiency of the Negro workers in New York City, Dr. 
Haynes says:4 

The wages of skilled trades do not affect the larger part of the Negro 
population, because so small a percentage are engaged in these occupa 
tions. .... It is evident that compared with the large number of 
Negro workers few are engaged in the skilled trades, join the unions, and 
thus enter into the more highly-paid occupations. .... The small 
number of skilled artisans who are equal to or above the average white 
workman and can get into the unions receive the union wages. 

The following statistics for Negroes in New York City are 
of interest: 

^iss Ovington: Half a Man. Dr. Haynes: The Negro at Work in New York City. 
2Ovington: Op. cit., pp. 89, 95. -Haynes: Op. cit, pp. 76, 77. 
•" Haynes: Ibid, pp. 82, 83, 89. 

 68 

The Negro American Artisan 

OCCUPATIONS OF NEGROES-NEW YORK 
CITY, 19UO 

Engineers, firemen (not locomotive) . . 
Masons (brick and stone) ..... 

Blacksmiths . . 
Butchers ... ...... . 
Carpenters and joiners . . .... 
Iron and steel workers . 
Paper-hangers 

Plumbers, gas and steam fitters .... 
Printers, lithographers and pressmen . 

Tobacco and cigar factory operatives . 
Fishermen and oyster-men . . 
Miners and quarry-men . . . 
Machinists . ........ .......... 

Number of 
Negroes 
in each 
occupation 

227 
94 
177 

29 
31 
94 
40 
18 
22 

31 
53 

189 
65 
21 
47 

Number oj 
Negroes to 
each 1,000 
workers in 
each occupa 
tion 

14 
7 
6 

12 

4 
2 
3 
4 
19 
14 

2 
2 

1 

16 
45 
64 
3 

Ovington, M. W.: Half a Man. P. 90. 

Negro Wage-earners, 10 Years of Age and Over, Engaged in Selected Occupations—New 
York City, 1890 and 1900 

OCCUPATIONS 

Painters, glaziers, varnishers ... 

Plumbers, gas and steam fitters . . . . 

Tobacco and cigar factory operatives . 

Upholsterers . . . ... ... 
Engineers and firemen (stationary) 

Total .............. ..... 

1890 

28 

20 

99 
10 

11 

33 

146 
20 

11 
61 

455 

WOO 

70 

29 

94 

177 
51 

31 

189 

18 
227 
47 

1,096 

g j> 
«j 

370.0 

78.8 
410.0 

181.8 
184.8 

29.4 

63.3 
272.1 
571.4 

140.8 

Haynes, G. E.: The Negro at Work in New York City. P. 71. 
Occupations of Negro Wage=earners, 15 Years of Age and Over—Manhattan, I9O5 

Pursuits 

No. I 

Pursuits 

No. 

Male- 
Asphalt layers . . . - 
Blacksmiths. . 
Carpenters . 
Confectioners ......... 

Drill runners ...-,... 
Electricians....... 

Engineers (stationary) . .... 

Firemen (stationary) ....... 

Factory employees (not specified) 
Hod carriers .... ... 

Harness and saddle makers 

Cigar makers . 

Kalsominers 

Machinists . .... ...... 

Mechanics (automobile, bicycle, etc.) . 
Masons (stone) ............ 

Male- 
Masons (brick) 8 
Masons (not specified) . . . 5 
Painters and decorators . 26 
Plasterers ........... . 7 

Plumbers (steam and gas fitters) . 5 

Printers and compositors ..... 14 

Shoe makers and repairers . . 6 

Tailors ........ 20 

Miscellaneous . 22 

Female- 
Dressmakers . . . 164 
Garment workers . . 18 
Milliners .... 5 
Seamstresses . . L6 
Tailors* assistants 3 
Miscellaneous .......... . . 6 

New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania 
General Conditions 

69 

r 

NEW ROCHELLE.—Not many Negro skilled laborers here—a few car 
penters. The Negro is gaining as a skilled laborer because the number 
has increased within the last four years. The young men are not enter 
ing the trades. The artisans are succeeding fairly well. 

ORANGE.—Not many Negro skilled laborers here—a few masons and 
carpenters. The Negroes have nothing to gain or lose because the labor 
unions won't admit them and the few who are acting independently are 
either incompetent or unreliable or both. Apparently there are no Ne 
groes of industrial school training here; a few industrious or ' 'industrially'' 
trained would undoubtedly be of service. The young men are not 
entering the trades. The artisans who are willing to work are kept 
busy. 

SCHENECTADY.- Not many skilled Negro laborers here—a few car 
penters and masons. The Negro is gaining as a skilled laborer. The 
young men are not entering the trades. The artisans are having fair 
success. 

Replies of Artisans 

OKANGE.—Painter and Decorator. We have tried hard to get into 
the painters' union but have been held out on account of color. However, 
I use union men. As a rule the white workers do not like to see Negroes 
on the job, but no better for them. If you can do the work you will get 
it to do. 

ORANGE.—Carpenter. I could join with the whites in the union if I 
wished to do so. I have no need to as I am kept busy, being my own 
boss. If a workman is capable he can work anywhere. I take contract 
for all manner of mechanical work and furnish men for any and all lines 
as well as all materials, such as painting, brick-laying, plastering, slating, 
excavating and macadamizing. 

ORANGE. —House Painter. I do not belong to a union. Probably I 
could join. Out of the union, I have a better chance to work colored men 
on my jobs and a better chance to get jobs. The white man in my trade 
seems to be satisfied so long as the colored man will content himself in 
doing those little jobs down the alleys. Only in part are the conditions 
growing better. It is seldom the Negro worker gets a chance to show 
his ability to do things as well or better than the white man. I find more 
prejudice existing among the white tradesmen toward the colored trades 
men than from any other source. It remains, however, for the majority 
of our mechanics to gain the confidence of the employer thru honesty and 
punctuality, being always true to the trust however large or small it may 
be as were our fathers. 

3 

Haynes: Ibid. Pp. 74-76. 

I 

 70 

The Negro American Artisan 

Ohio 

71 

I 

•S\ 

Section 22. North Carolina 

The state of North Carolina had a Negro population of 
624,469 in 1900 and of 697,843 in 1910. The twelfth census 
recorded the following skilled and semi-skilled Negro workers 
for the state: 

North Carolina 

Male- 

Engineers (civil and mechanical) . 
Barbers. .......... 

Steam railway employees . . 
Brick and tile makers ...... 

Blacksmiths and wheelwrights . 
Boot and shoe makers . . . 
Butchers ....... 

Carpenters and joiners . . 
Cabinet makers . 

2 

707 
. 3,268 
825 
719 
330 
.166 
. 1,500 
........... 13 

Cotton and other textile mill operatives 157 
Iron and steel workers 93 
Machinists . .... . . . 52 

Male- 

Marble and stone cutters and masons . 1,112 
Millers .......... . . - 81 

Painters ...... . - 382 

Plasterers ........ 169 

Plumbers and gas fitters 48 
Printers . . . ....... . . 39 

Engineers and firemen (stationary) . 9f'3 

Female — 

Dressmakers and seamstresses . 
Milliners . ...... 

Tailoresses . . 

753 

2 

8 

General Conditions 

CHAPEL HILL. — Many skilled Negro laborers here — masons and car 
penters. The Negro is gaining as a skilled laborer because he seems to 
have a love for the trades. The results of industrial school training are 
good. Many young men are entering the trades. The artisans are suc 
ceeding in that they have all they can do. 

KINGS MOUNTAIN. — Few Negro skilled laborers here — carpenters, 
masons, engineers and blacksmiths. The Negro is gaining as a skilled 
laborer because he is in demand. Industrial school training is causing 
more and better work to be done by our race. The young men are enter 
ing the trades. The artisans are having good success here. 

WINTON. — Not many skilled Negro laborers here — a few masons, 
painters, carpenters and farmers. The Negroes are gaining in farming 
but losing in the other pursuits. The reason for this is not known unless 
it is that farming is the leading industry of this section. No industrial 
school training has been given to the boys. The girls are doing well in 
cooking and sewing. Only a few young men are entering the trades. 
The Negro artisans make a comfortable living. 

Section 23. Ohio 

There were 96,901 Negroes in the state of Ohio in 1900 and 
111,443 in 1910. According to the twelfth census the state 
had in 1900 the following skilled and semi-skilled Negro 
workers: 

Male- 
Engineers (civil and mechanical) 
Barbers .......... 

Steam railway employees .... 

Brick and tile makers ... ... 135 

Blacksmiths and wheelwrights . . 233 
Boot and shoe makers .... 101 

Butchers ........ ... 44 

Carpenters and joiners . . ..... 242 

Cotton and other textile mill operatives 16 
Iron and steel workers ... .... 699 

Machinists ...... ...... 55 

Marble and stone cutters and masons . 692 
Millers. ................ 9 

Ohio 

I Male- 

5 Painters. . 
1,359 ! - Plasterers ......... 

202 Plumbers and gas fitters . 

Printers .......... 

Steam boiler makers ... ... 

Engineers and firemen (stationary) . 

Female- 
Dressmakers and seamstresses . 
Milliners ...... 

Printers ............ .. 

Tailoresses .-,.,.,,. 

205 

305 

25 

37 

7 

369 

573 

17 

2 

23 

General Conditions 

GALLIPOLIS.—Not many Negro skilled laborers here. They are 
losing because work of all sorts is scarce. There are no graduates of 
industrial schools here. The young men are entering the trades very 
slowly. Two or three engineers and two caipenters have establisht excel 
lent reputations in their respective trades. 

IRONTON.—Not many skilled Negro laborers here—carpenters, plas 
terers and brick masons. The Negro is losing as a skilled laborer 
because of old age, death and the failure of the young men to take up the 
trades. The Negro artisans are having very little success. 

OBERLIN.—Not many skilled Negro laborers here—a few carpenters, 
painters, shoe makers and masons. The Negro is losing as a skilled la 
borer because it requires time, energy, money and encouragement to 
acquire skill. Pleasure and amusement are more sought after. The 
young men are not entering the trades. The Negro artisans are having 
good success. 

PORTSMOUTH.—Many Negro skilled laborers here—stationary engi 
neers, blacksmiths, horse-shoers, automobilists, plasterers and tinners. 
The Negro is holding his own as a skilled laborer. No artisans trained in 
industrial schools here. A few young men are entering the trades. The 
artisans here are generally employed. 

SPRINGFIELD.—Many skilled Negro laborers here—carpenters, iron 
molders, blacksmiths, brick masons, stone masons and plasterers. The 
Negro as a skilled laborer is decidedly gaining because there are many 
more than formerly and in different trades. A few years ago we had no 
iron molders, now we have more than fifty who are making their living 
at this trade and the number in the other trades has increased. There 
are some from training schools here who seem to be prospering. The 
young men are entering the trades, but not in as large numbers as they 
should. The artisans here seem to be making a living from their trades. 
A few are making more than a living. There is a colored contracting 
carpenter who takes rank second to none in his trade. He builds the best 
houses in the city. 

 / 

& 

72 

The Negro American Artisan 
Replies of Artisans 

IRONTON. Plasterer. There exists a jealous feeling on the part of 
the white workers toward the colored. We have to bid a little cheaper 
or be very superior in workmanship to the whites. Conditions are grow 
ing worse because of prejudice. 

OBERLIN.- Carpenter. The union would be open to Negroes. An 
agreeable feeling exists between the white and colored workers here. 
For efficient men conditions are growing better. I would say conditions 
in Oberlin are all one could expect. 

PORTSMOUTH.—Plasterer. I do not belong to a union because I think 
them detrimental to our race. The feeling between white and colored 
workers is fairly good where there is no union. I think conditions are 
growing better for the Negro skilled worker. Thru negligence the con 
dition of the Negro here is not what it could be but there are some who 
are progressing rapidly. 

PORTSMOUTH.—Horse-shoer. There is no union here for my trade. 
I could join if there were. The feeling between white and colored workers 
is good. I think conditions are growing better because capital does not 
care for texture of hair or color of skin. Good, fast work is wanted. 
The better and faster the work, the more money for the employer. I am 
serving time as apprentice but my wages are good. 

SPRINGFIELD.—Piano Plate Holder. I do not belong to the union 
because I can not be recognized by the molders' union in this state but I 
can in Illinois. There is an ill feeling between the white and colored 
workers in my trade. I can work only in open shops. Yet conditions 
are growing better because the Negro is grasping every opportunity and 
the manufacturers are giving him a show in order to hold down strikes. 
I have been working at the trade for eleven years. I have been making 
plates for parlor grand pianos for some time. 

SPRINGFIELD.— Holder. I cannot join the molders' union. The union 
ization of men in this trade was to oppose the Negro as well as to protect 
the trade against unskilled labor. At the present time it is purely preju 
dice that operates against us. In many localities the feeling between the 
white and colored workers is bitter, while in others there seems to be the 
best of feeling. Universally there is much bitterness. I think conditions 
are growing better for the Negro skilled worker because: (1) He is 
English speaking. (2) He is obedient. (3) He is trusty. (4) He will 
not strike. (5) He is not hard to satisiy. (6) He is the best mechanic 
where the opportunity is allowed him. I truly advocate schooling not 
only in this but in all branches of trades, especially for the Negro. It is 
not only expected of you to know more and to do better work than the 
white man. It is required of you. So to go into the trade world equipt 
you will be able to confront and battle down every opposition. 

Oklahoma 

73 

Section 24. Oklahoma1 

There were 55,684 Negroes in Oklahoma in 1900 and 137,612 
in 1910. The census of 1900 recorded the following skilled 
or semi-skilled Negro workers: 

Male- 
Barbers . ........... 

Steam railway employees . . . 
Blacksmiths and wheelwrights . 
Brick and tile makers . . . 
Boot and shoe makers . 
Butchers ......... 

Carpenters and joiners . 

Machinists .............. 

Marble and stone cutters and masons. 

Oklahoma 

131 

.341 

CC 

OD 

. 10 

17 

18 

61 

3 

Male- 

Millers . . . . 

Painters . . 

Printers . . ..... 

Engineers and firemen 

Female- 

Dressmakers and seam 

. 54 Milliners . . .... 

(stationary) . . . 

stresses 

i 

9 

13 

9 

22 

50 

2 

General Conditions 

CLARKSVILLE.—Not many Negro skilled laborers here—a few are 
carpenters. They are gaining because they have increased in number 
and efficiency. Industrial school training opens more and better oppor 
tunities for labor. The young men are not entering the trades. The 
artisans are meeting with medium success. 

GUTHRIE.—Few Negro skilled laborers here—carpenters and black 
smiths. They are gaining because they are able to compete with the 
white laborers. Industrial school training causes better homes and more 
pride. Not many young men are entering the trades. Prejudice and la 
bor unions hinder the success of the Negro artisans. 

HENNESSEY.—Not many Negro skilled laborers here—painters, car 
penters, paper-hangers, plasterers and automobile repairers. They are 
gaining because of their superior skill. Industrial school training gives 
the Negro the necessary technical knowledge of his trade. Few young 
men are entering the trades. The artisans are succeeding fairly well 
here. 

OKMULGEE.—Hany Negro skilled laborers here—plumbers, painters, 
blacksmiths, carpenters, engineers and tailors. The Negro is holding his 
own as a skilled laborer. This being a new place most of those in the 
trades gained knowledge of them elsewhere. As results of industrial 
school training the younger men give evidence of more intelligence in 
their work. Not many young men are entering the trades. The artisans 
are succeeding well. 

Replies of Artisans 

GUTHRIE. —Carpenter. I do not belong to a union because I cannot 
join with the whites and the Negro workmen are so divided they will not 
come together and form a union among themselves. The feeling between 
the white and colored workers in my trade is not good. When a Negro 

'Including statistics for Indian Territory. 

* ?! 

a 

=4- 

f 

 J> 

74 

The Negro American Artisan 

South Carolina 

75 

& 

.1 

is classed as a good workman the white workmen at once plan to get him 
out of town. Conditions for the Negro skilled worker are growing better 
because there are enough of them getting together to support each other 
which is enabling them to take contracts of much value. The greatest 
pull back to the Negro is the lack of preparation. 

HENNESSEY.—Brick and Cement Contractor. I am barred from the 
union on account of color. A bad feeling exists between the white and 
colored workers. Extreme prejudice seeks to exclude us from employ 
ment. 

Section 25. Oregon and the Northwest (Idaho, Montana, Ne= 
braska, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Washing- 
ton, Wyoming) 

The Negro population of these states in 1900 and 1910 was 
as follows: 

South Carolina 

STATES 

Idaho . . 

Montana . 
Nebraska . . . 
North Dakota. 
Oregon .... 
South Dakota . 
Washington . 
Wyoming . . . 

Total, . 

1900 

293 

1,523 

6,269 

286 

1,105 

485 

2,514 

940 

13,395 

1910 

646 

1,834 

7,689 

617 

1,519 

817 

6,058 

2,235 

21,415 

According to the census of 1900 these states had the fol 
lowing skilled or semi-skilled Negro laborers: 

Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington, Wyoming 

Male— 

Engineers (civil and mechanical) . 1 
Barbers ............. 310 

............. 

Steam railway employees .... . . 72 

Blacksmiths and wheelwrights . . . 19 
Brick and tile makers ... . . .9 

Boot and shoe makers . . .7 
Butchers ....... 24 

Carpenters and joiners . . 24 
Iron and steel workers . . . 10 
Machinists ......... .... 5 

Marble and stone cutters and masons . . 59 
Millers ........... 1 

Section 26. South Carolina 

Male- 
Painters . . ... .21 

Plasterers ......... 47 

Plumbers and gas fitters . . 5 

Printers ......... 12 

Steam boiler makers ... ... 2 

Engineers and firemen (stationary) 44 

Femrle— 

Dressmakers and seamstresses . . 87 
Milliners .... g 
Tailoresses 1 

The state of South Carolina had a Negro population of 
782,321 in 1900 and of 835,843 in 1910. According to the cen 
sus of 1900 there were the following skilled and semi-skilled 
Negro workers in the state: 

Mal 

Engineers (civil and mechanical) . 
Barbers ........... . 

Steam railway employees ... 
Brick and tile makers ..... 

Blacksmiths and wheelwrights . 
Boot and shoe makers . ... . 

Butchers ....... 

Carpenters and joiners . 

. 5 

537 

. 2,933 

. 567 

803 

. 340 

. 267 

. 2,695 

I Male- 
Marble and stone cutters and masons . 1,069 

Cotton and other textile mill operatives 346 

Iron and steel workers ... 40 

Machinists ...... . 54 

Millers 

Painters 

Plasterers. ..... 

Plumbers and gas fitters . 
Printers ............ 

Engineers and firemen (stationary) . 

Female- 
Dressmakers and seamstresses . 
Milliners .... 

87 

693 

125 

47 

54 

657 

1,992 

3 

General Conditions 

AIKEN. — Many Negro skilled laborers here—carpenters, masons, 
painters and smiths. They are gaining. Industrial school training causes 
them to secure homes and property; to educate the young and surround 
themselves with more of the comforts and in some instances the luxuries 
of life. The young men are not entering the trades as they should. The 
artisans are succeeding well. 

BEAUFORT.—Not many Negro skilled laborers here—brick-layers, 
blacksmiths, carpenters, engineers, painters, plumbers, shoemakers, tai 
lors, tinners and wheelwrights. The Negro is gaining as a skilled laborer 
because he does four-fifths of all the work in his line. He has proven his 
efficiency and hence gets the work. Those who have had training in in 
dustrial schools are in greater demand than the others Manyyoung men 
are entering trades in industrial schools. The artisans are succeeding 
well here. 

FLORENCE.—Many Negro skilled laborers here —blacksmiths, carpen 
ters, masons, painters, tinners and firemen. The Negro is holding his 
own as a skilled laborer because he is in demand for the work. Industrial 
school training has caused some improvement in the quality of the work 
done by men with technical knowledge of the subject. The young men 
are not entering the trades as fast as the times demand. The Negro 
artisans are having very good success. 

LIBERTY HILL.—Not many Negro skilled laborers here—carpenters, 
painters, engineers, masons and blacksmiths. The majority are farmers. 
The Negro is gaining as a skilled laborer and is receiving higher wages. 
Industrial school training causes more skilled laborers. The young men 
are entering the trades. The Negro artisans are having considerable 
success because they have no white competition. 

McCoRMiCK. — Not many Negro skilled laborers here—farming and 
carpentry are their chief trades. They are gaining because they are 
awakening to the fact that skill and competency are required in order to 
survive. Where the Negro goes with industrial training he is preferred 
and appreciated. The physical poise and carriage are conspicuous. The 
young men are entering the trades. The Negro artisans are having good 
success. They work with the white artisans with great acceptability. 

1 

»To i 

 76 

The Negro American Artisan 

NEWBERRY.—Not many skilled Negro laborers here—carpenters, 
blacksmiths, bricklayers and painters. The Negro is losing as a skilled 
laborer because the other races are taking to the trades. Very little re 
sults of industrial training are evident. The young men are not entering 
the trades. The artisans are having fair success here. 

Replies of Artisans 

AlKEN.—Blacksmith. The conditions are growing better for the Ne 
gro skilled workers here because they are doing the best and practically 
all of the work around here. 

BEAUFORT.—Tinsmith and Plumber. Conditions are growing better 
as the Negro workers prove themselves efficient and responsible. I find 
that the trained or skilled workman is always in demand. 

CHARLESTON.—Horse-shoer and Farrier. There is a good feeling 
existing between the white and colored workers. Conditions are growing 
better for the Negro skilled laborers because all avenues are open to 
them. The Negro is the controlling workman in Charleston along all trades. 

Section 27. Tennessee 

The state of Tennessee had a Negro population of 480,243 
in 1900 and of 473,088 in 1910. According to the census of 
1900 there were the following skilled and semi-skilled Negro 
workers in the state: 

Male- 
Engineers (civil and mechanical) . 
Barbers .... 

Steam railway employees . 
Brick and tile makers ..... 

Blacksmiths and wheelwrights. 

Boot and shoe makers . 

Butchers ..... ....... 

Carpenters and joiners ..... 

Cabinet makers ..... 

Cotton and other textile mill operative 

Iron and steel workers 

Machinists .............. 

Marble and stone cutters and masons . 

Tennessee 

Male- 

5 Millers . 
993 Painters . . 
5,542 Plasterers. ........ 

532 Plumbers and gas fitters . 

980 

315 

160 

1,308 

30 

31 

1,242 

87 

1,387 

Printers ....... . . 

Steam boiler makers ...... . 

Engineers and firemen (stationary) 

Female — 

Dressmakers and seamstresses . . 
Milliners .... . . 

Tailoresses . 

100 

340 

235 

137 

45 

94 

709 

. 1,377 

7 

6 

General Conditions 

JOHNSON CiTY.—Not many Negro skilled laborers here. There are 
a few brick masons. The Negro is gaining as a skilled laborer because 
those desiring skilled labor would rather have a Negro, all things being 
equal. The results of industrial school training are very evident in all 
departments of service. The young men are entering the trades. The 
Negro artisans are succeeding. They have all they can do. Some of the 
largest and best houses in the city were built by Negro artisans. 

MEMPHIS.-There are many Negro skilled laborers here—carpenters, 
brick masons, engineers, blacksmiths, printers and painters. They are 

I ennessee 

77 

gaining because of the growing demand for them and because of their 
efficiency. Industrial school training has made a very little improvement 
over the old artisan. Not many young men of this district are entering 
the trades. Negro artisans are having much success here. 

NASHVILLE.—Many skilled Negro laborers here—carpenters, painters, 
blacksmiths, machinists and florists. They are gaining because they are 
increasing in number and efficiency. Industrial school training has made 
avast improvement over the old self-made artisan. Many young men are 
entering the trades. The artisans in this district are having much 
success. 

Replies of Artisans 

JOHNSON CITY. —Brick-mason. I do not now belong to a union tho I 
formerly belonged to one. We failed to get a square deal from our white 
brother workmen and after fifteen years of failure along this line I with 
drew from the union. Conditions here are not so good for the feeling 
between the white and colored workers is very bad and growing worse. 

MEMPHIS. —Brick-mason. I belong to the Brick-layers, Stone-masons 
and Plasterers' International Union, No. 1, being permitted to join with 
the whites. In my trade and union a good feeling exists between the 
races. Memphis, according to my observation, is the best city in the 
world for a colored mechanic. Here he is recognized by every union ex 
cept the plumbers' union, altho there are at least seventy-five or eighty 
extra good colored plumbers here doing nicely. 

MEMPHIS.—Contractor. I formerly belonged to the Carpenters' 
Union, No. 152, the whites and blacks having separate unions. Condi 
tions are growing better for the Negro skilled workers because they are 
delivering the same goods that the whites are. They are more careful 
with their work now than ever before. 

Section 28. Texas 

There were 620,722 Negroes in Texas in 1900 and 690,020 
in 1910. According to the twelfth census the state had the 
following skilled or semi-skilled Negro laborers: 

Male- 
Engineers (civil and mechanical) . 4 
Barbers ...... . .... . 1,058 

Steam railway employees . 4,353 
Brick and tile makers ...... 279 

Blacksmiths and wheelwrights . 526 
.Boot and shoemakers. . . 95 
(Butchers ....... .170 

Carpenters and joiners ..... 764 

Cabinetmakers . . ..... 9 

Cotton and other textile mill operatives 29 
Iron and steel workers .... 107 

Machinists .... ....... 62 

Marble and stone cutters and masons . 309 

Texas 

Male— 

Millers . 19 

Painters. . . . 164 

Plasterers ............... 30 

Plumbers and gas fitters . , , , . 61 

Printers ......... ..... 44 

Steam boilermakers.... ... 3v> 

Engineers and firemen (stationary ). 306 

Female— 

Dressmakers and seamstresses . 751 

Milliners ............. 5 

Printers. ... 6 

Tailoresses . 3 

 1) 

78 

The Negro American Artisan 
General Conditions 

BEAUMONT. —Not many skilled Negro laborers in this community— 
chiefly carpenters and blacksmiths. As a skilled laborer the Negro is 
losing because of the numerous labor organizations of the whites. Indus 
trial school training has evident results here. Young men are entering 
the trades in goodly numbers. The artisans here are having much suc 
cess. 

CAMERON. —A few skilled Negro laborers here. The Negro is losing 
as a skilled laborer because he cannot meet the overwhelming competition 
of the white laborers. Industrial school training is helping the situation 
greatly. Young men are entering the trades steadily. Negro artisans are 
succeeding fairly well. 

CORSICANA. —Not many skilled Negro laborers here—chiefly carpen 
ters and plasterers. The Negro is losing as a skilled laborer here because 
they are few in number and the work mostly has to be done by white 
laborers. Industrial school training has very apparent results here. 
Young men are entering the trades slowly. Negro artisans are having 
medium success. 

DALLAS.—Not many skilled Negro laborers in this community—mostly 
carpenters. They are losing because the white laborers are more effi 
cient. No results of industrial school training can be seen here. The 
Negro artisans are having very poor success. 

HOUSTON.—Many skilled Negro laborers here—carpenters, harness 
makers, plumbers and contractors. They are gaming because of the in 
creasing demand for their services and their high efficiency. The majority 
of these skilled laborers have had industrial school trainirg. Many young 
men are entering the trades. Negro artisans of this community are 
having much success, being employed by both races. 

NAVASOTA. —Not many skilled Negro laborers here—carpenters, 
blacksmiths, engineers, harness makers, painters and tailors. Because 
of the increased demand the Negro as a skilled laborer is gaining. Indus 
trial school training has many good results—increased efficiency, more 
self-respect and higher aspirations. Young men are steadily entering the 
trades. Negro artisans are prosperous. 

SAN ANTONIO.—Many skilled Negro laborers here—carpenters, paint 
ers, plumbers and masons. The skilled Negro laborer is gaining because 
of higher proficiency, the greater need for his services and the general 
building up of this section. The results of industrial school training are 
excellent. Many young men are entering the trades. The Negro artisan 
here is succeeding fairly well. 

WACO.—Many Negro skilled laborers here—carpenters, blacksmiths, 
brick-masons, tailors and butchers. The skilled Negro laborer is holding 
his own here. The results of industrial school training are very poor. A 

Texas 

79 

fair number of young men are entering the trades. Negro artisans are 
having medium success. 

WAXAHACHIE. —Many Negro skilled laborers in this district—carpen 
ters, plasterers and blacksmiths. Negro skilled laborers are gaining 
because of the great increase in their number. Industrial school training 
has made a great improvement on the old self-made artisan. A fair 
number of young men are entering the trades. Negro artisans are having 
fair success. 

Replies of Artisans 

BEAUMONT.—Carpenter. I believe conditions are growing better for 
the Negro skilled worker. Several real estate companies here have all 
their building done by colored workmen. The employers say that the 
Negro is honest in his work and that it is not necessary to stand over him 
to make him work. 

DALLAS.—Paper-hanger and Decorator. There is a great demand 
for Negro skilled labor because in Dallas there is a great deal of local 
work such as repair work. If you can do the work your color doesn't 
matter. This applies to all trades. I have been contracting here for 
twelve years and today I have the largest resident trade of any workman, 
white or black, in Dallas. In the spring and fall I can't secure help 
enough to keep up with my work. I could work a dozen men six months 
in the year. 

HOUSTON. —Contractor and Builder. Negroes have no union here and 
the whites do not allow Negroes to join their unions. A good feeling ex 
ists between the white and colored workers. There is no trouble at all. 
I employ white and Negro laborers and they work together peacefully. 
Conditions are growing better for the Negro skilled laborer because he is 
proving that he is able to do the work and is doing his work the very best. 

Section 29. Virginia 

The state of Virginia had 660,722 Negroes in 1900 and 
671,096 in 1910. The census of 1900 recorded the following 
skilled and semi-skilled Negro workers for the state: 

Male- 
Engineers (civil and mechanical) . 10 
Barbers. ............. 1,(I94 

hteam railway employees . 5,418 
Brick and tile makers . . 863 
Blacksmiths and wheelwrights . 1,222 
Boot and shoe makers 623 
Butchers ....... 239 

^arpenters and joiners ... . 1,619 

ibinet makers... .... ... 239 

ttor. and other textile mill operatives 69 
.m and steel workers . . 1.173 
achimsts . .... ....... 86 

marble and stone cutters and masons. - 967 

Virginia 

Male- 
Millers ........ 112 

Painters ... 250 

Plasterers ......... 508 

Plumbers and gas fitters . 96 

Printers...... 55 

Steam boiler makers ........ 12 

Engineers and firemen ( stationary ) 797 

Female— 

Dressmakers and seamstresses . . . 1,445 

Milliners .......... . 2 

Printers.....,,. . , , 6 

Tailoresses ..,.,......-- 8 

 J 

I 

1 

80 

The Negro American Artisan 

Genera! Conditions 

BRISTOL.—Not many skilled Negro laborers here—carpenters, brick- 
masons and blacksmiths. They are losing as skilled laborers, being 
barred out of the trades unions. The results of industrial school training 
are fairly good. Young men are entering the trades very slowly. Negro 
artisans here are succeeding fairly well. 

CHARLOTTE.—Not many skilled Negro laborers here—chiefly carpen 
ters and blacksmiths. The Negro is gaining as a skilled laborer because 
he competes favorably with the white artisans. Many good results of 
industrial school training are evident. Young men are entering the trades 
in increased numbers. Negro artisans are having much success. 

FARMVILLE.—Many skilled Negro laborers here—chiefly carpenters 
and masons. They are gaining because of the great demand for their 
efficient service. Industrial school training has made very poor results 
here. Many young men are entering the trades. Negro artisans here 
are having excellent success. 

PETERSBURG.—A fair number of skilled Negro laborers here—chiefly 
painters, carpenters and blacksmiths. There is very little to indicate 
that we are near a great industrial school, tho we are. Young men are 
not entering the trades. The Negro artisans here are kept busy. I re 
cently noticed on a large building being erected that all of the plasterers 
working on it were Negroes. 

Replies of Artisans 

CHARLOTTE. —Blacksmith. I have never cared to consider the unions 
for I own and operate my own shop and have all the work I can do. There 
is no color line here for first-class workers. The Negro youth seems to 
be leaving the trades to the white people. Proficient workers are in de 
mand. My advice to the young men of my race would be to learn to be 
masters of the trades and then stick to them. 

FARMVILLE.—Blacksmith. There is a very good feeling providing 
one knows and does well what he is doing in the trades. I think conditions 
are growing better for the Negro skilled workers because in most cases 
they can do just as good work as any and their expense is not so great, 
therefore they are engaged. 

FARMVILLE.—Painter and Decorator. There is a reasonably fair 
feeling with the best white workmen. I think conditions are growing 
better because the Negro workman who is thoroly prepared seems to give 
better satisfaction in this community. 

PETERSBURG.—Practical Horse-shoer. I do not belong to a union 
because I think it does not profit a black workman to belong. It would 
be better for him, I believe, if no union had ever existed. The Negro 
skilled laborers are meeting improving conditions because so many of 

West Virginia 

81 

them are learning under skilled workmen and hence doing good work. I 
know my business from start to finish and can make any patent of shoes 
from my anvil that is on the market. 

Section 30. West Virginia 

The state of West Virginia had a Negro population of 
43,499 in 1900 and of 64,173 in 1910. The twelfth census 
recorded the following skilled and semi-skilled Negro workers 
for the state: 

West Virginia 

Male- 
Barbers. .......... 255 

Steam railway employees . 1,555 

Brick and tile makers .... 12 

Blacksmiths and wheelwrights 83 

Boot and shoe makers . . 31 

Butchers ........ 10 

Carpenters and joiners ... . . 76 

Cabinet makers............ 1 

Cotton and other textile mill operatives 1 

Iron and steel workers ........ 11 

Machinists . ........... 9 

Marble and stone cutters and masons. 101 

Male- 
Millers . . . . . . - . 

Painters .... 

Plasterers. ........ 

Plumbers and gas fitters . . 
Printers.......... 

Steam boiler makers ........ 

Engineers and firemen (stationary) . 

Female— 

Dressmakers and seamstresses . 

Milliners 

Printers . 

4 

19 

30 

6 

6 

1 

92 

76 

2 

1 

General Conditions 

BLUEFIELD.—Not many skilled Negro laborers here—a few carpenters. 
The Negro is losing as a skilled laborer because he is not allowed to enter 
the trades unions. Industrial school training has made no improvement 
here. Young men are entering the trades very slowly. The Negro arti 
san is having very poor success. 

CHARLESTON.—Many skilled Negro laborers here—chiefly carpenters, 
brick masons and paper-hangers. As a skilled laborer the Negro is 
gaining because of the increase in number and efficiency. Industrial 
school training has added to the efficiency of the Negro. A fair number 
of young men are entering the trades. The success of Negro artisans 
here is fairly good. 

HILL TOP.—Not many skilled Negro laborers here—chiefly carpenters, 
brick masons, painters and printers. The Negro is gaining as a skilled 
laborer because of the increased opportunities in the trades. Industrial 
school training has produced some very apparent results. Young men 
are entering the trades in large numbers. Negro artisans are having 
moderate success. 

Replies of Artisans 

CHARLESTON.—Machinist and Lineman. Conditions are not so good 
as they should be because the whites are banded together in a union 
which strictly bars Negroes. The trade which I have mastered best is 
that of lineman and telephone work in general but owing to such a great 

 / 

> 

.& 

82 

The Negro American Artisan 

opposition in this section by the linemen's union to Negro labor I have 
been completely barred from the telephone work after having served nine 
years in that capacity. My experience in this matter is the experience of 
others of my race. 

CHARLESTON.—Painter and Decorator. I do not belong to a union 
because of the race prejudice as displayed by whites and because I feel 
that trade unions as now conducted are detrimental to Negro workmen. 
Conditions are growing better for the Negro skilled workers because 
locally the field is ample for more workers and the Negro is preferable 
when he can meet the demands. The young men of our race must not 
grow discouraged in the trades because they do not meet with immediate 
success but must learn to "stick to their bush" for results. 

INSTITUTE.—Carpenter. I have never tried to join the unions for I 
have always received the wages for which I asked. Negro skilled workers 
are meeting better conditions. What the Negro needs now is higher 
practical training so as to be able to measure arms with any one. 

Section 31. The Negro and Organized Labor 

The Negro workman has had to encounter racial prejudice 
on the part of his white fellow workmen from early colonial 
days until the present time.1 In the present study an attempt 
has been made to ascertain: 

(1) The attitude of Negro workmen toward labor organi 
zations. 

(2) The attitude of labor organizations toward Negro 
laborers'. 

The results of the former have appeared in the replies of 
Negro artisans printed in sections 6-30.2 The results of the 
latter are collected in this section (Section 31.) 

Some unions admit Negroes in considerable numbers as 
the following selected reports show: 

The Tunnel and Sub-way Constructors' International Un 
ion, New York City, reports about two hundred Negro mem 
bers. ' 'In our trade they are as good as there is in the busi 
ness." 

The Tobacco Workers report four or five hundred Negro 
members, but this is a decrease from the one thousand five 

!See Atlanta University Publications, No. 7, pp. 153-157. Also pages 28-37 of this study. 
2 See pages 48-82. 

The Negro and Organized Labor 

83 

hundred which they had in 1900. They report that the Negro 
workmen "do fairly well." 

The United Mine Workers of America report that there are 
twenty-five thousand colored members and that eighty per 
cent of the largest local union in the organization, with one 
thousand, five hundred and eight members are Negroes. 
The secretary-treasurer reports that the Negro workers are 
"intelligent, honorable, progressive and good workmen." 
The United Mine Workers of America place a fine on any 
local which discriminates on account of color. 

The Brotherhood of Railroad Freight Handlers has fifty 
Negro members. 

The Hod Carriers' and Building Laborers' Union reports 
"about a thousand members," but gives no further informa 
tion. 

The International Union of Pavers, Rammermen, Flaggers, 
Bridge and Stone Curb Setters reports one hundred and fifty 
Negro members as against four hundred in 1900. 

The Brick-layers, Masons and Plasterers' Union reports 
several hundred Negro members. The Negroes make ' 'aver 
age and fair" laborers. "Our constitution provides that any 
discrimination against a man on account of color subjects the 
offending union to a one-hundred dollar fine. The chief and 
only objection to colored men was on account of color. This 
objection is likely to be overcome in time." 

There are other unions that have Negro members. In some 
cases, however, the whites are not elated over the Negro mem 
bership. A union man from central Indiana writes as follows: 

I take more than a mere passing interest in the Negro race, more 
especially those of them who are wage-earners. No true trade unionist 
will object to the Negro belonging to a labor union. I mean by a true 
trade unionist one who understands the economic or industrial question. 
All the men whom I have heard object to the Negro joining a labor union 
or refusing to work with a Negro, were in all cases men who did not 
understand or comprehend the first principles of the so-called "labor 
question." In my own craft (cigar making) as far back as 1867 we ex- 
Punged the word "white" from our International Constitution. There 
are many Negroes who are members of the Cigar Makers' International 
Union and we who believe in the uplift of humanity are pleased to have 

 84 

The Negro American Artisan 

them with us. For a number of years a Negro, William Jones by name, 
was international treasurer of the Cigar Makers' International Union. 
His home was in Mobile, Ala., but of course he was elected largely by the 
votes of northern men. This objection to the Negro in unions is not only 
ridiculous but is criminal and is born of hatred, jealousy and ignorance. 
The Negro wage-earner is a competitor with his white brother (or sister) 
and in order for us whites to maintain our standard of living and secure 
anything approaching humane conditions of labor, we must of necessity 
organize and educate the Negro wage-earner. 

This clap-trap about race superiority is silly. If the white man is so 
much superior to the Negro in a given calling or in all industrial pursuits 
he need fear nothing from his Negro competitor. I have seen specimens 
of mechanism and other tests of the Negro's ability and I say without 
fear of successful contradiction that where the Negro is industrious and 
temperate in his habits he is capable of advancing and becoming proficient 
in the same proportion as any other race. I find again that in those 
unions where Negroes are admitted to membership and are given and 
guaranteed all privileges with any other member, that they make loyal 
and trustworthy union men. One of the staunchest unions we have in 
Indiana is the Negro Building Laborers' Union of Indianapolis. Among 
the miners are some of the most active and loyal union men in the United 
Mine Workers of America. I might mention among these Charles Griffin 
and John Adams of Brazil, Ind., and James Bishop of Clinton, who was 
treasurer of his local union for a number of years and who turned over 
every penny to his successor in office when he retired from the position: 
more than could be said of several of his white predecessors. 

In this city we have not a great many Negroes but we have lots of 
Negro haters, I regret to say. In the Trades Assembly that has nineteen 
affiliated unions, Brother E. L. James (Negro) has held the position of 
statistician of the organization for four years. In the barbers' union 
here the whites (not all of them) refuse to turn out on Labor Day because 
of the presence of the Negro, but I am pleased to state that their course 
in this is not approved of by the unionists in the other unions and the 
active white members of the barbers' union do not join the others in this 
matter. As I said in the beginning, the men and women who really 
understand the economic question do not hold this prejudice against the 
Negro and the people who do hold this prejudice would be just as bitter 
against the Italian, Polish or any other race if the Negro were not here. 
You are at liberty to make whatever disposition of this letter you may 
deem proper. 

Wishing God-speed to all who are striving for the uplift of humanity, 
I am, Yours sincerely, 

A few Negro members are scattered here and there in a 
number of unions. 

\ 

The Negro and Organized Labor 

85 

The Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners' sec 
retary writes: 

Our constitution does not discriminate against Negro membership, 
altho to the best of my knowledge, so far as the United States is con 
cerned, they are a very rare exception, probably owing to the fact that 
we have but very few locals establisht in the South. I have never heard 
any uncomplimentary remarks made against any Negro that has been 
admitted into our organization, either as a trade unionist or as to his 
ability as a carpenter, but as previously stated they have been so few in 
number that it would be impossible for me to attempt to give you any 
reliable information regarding this matter. 

The secretary-treasurer of the International Typographical 
Union is a little non-committal in his answers: 

Competent persons of both races have always been eligible to mem 
bership in our organization. This office does not keep any record showing 
how many males, females or Negroes are connected with the organiza 
tion. All persons, under our laws, must receive the same wages, pay the 
same dues and enjoy the same benefits. A local union can reject any 
applicant for membership if it so desires. The rejected applicant has the 
right of appeal to the executive council and that body has authority to 
order his admission if it believes he has been dealt with unjustly by the 
local union. In some of our southern unions there are objections to the 
admission of Negroes. This is a natural condition which time will proba 
bly eliminate. 

The Boot and Shoe Makers' Union has a few Negro mem 
bers. 

Some unions are composed of city or state employees. In 
such cases few colored members are usually admitted. There 
are, for instance, three members of the Firemen's Association 
of Chicago, 111., and eight members of the City Firemen's 
Protective Association in Wilkinsburg, Pa. 

Four union men are reported in Carlinville, 111.; six union 
pavers are reported in Cleveland, Ohio; a very few belong to 
the Western Federation of Miners; twelve belong to the Gran 
ite Cutters; twelve belong to the Newspaper and Mail Dealers' 
Union, New York; twelve to the Building Laborers of Port 
land, Oregon; twenty-five to the Paving Cutters' Union. 

Quite a number of Negroes belong to Wood, Wire and 
Metal Lathers' International Union; a few belong to the Ger 
man Tailors' Union; the Metal Polishers' Union has one col- 

 . 

86 

The Negro American Artisan 

ored member; the Tobacco Strippers' Union of Tampa, Fla., 
has seventeen colored members; the Janitors' Protective Un 
ion of San Francisco, Cal., has three colored members; the 
American Brotherhood of Slate Workers has fifty; the Inter 
national Brick, Tile and Terra Gotta Workers' Alliance has 
forty or fifty; the Quarry Workers' International Union has 
a "small number;" the International Brotherhood of Foun 
dry Employees probably has a few. The International Broth 
erhood of Book Binders has four. 

The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union writes: 

There are few if any Negroes in our trade. At least I don't know of 
any just now. I knew that in Philadelphia two years ago some Negro 
women were taken in shirt waist factories to replace strikers. I do not 
know if they are still there. 

A typical attitude of the unions with a few Negro members 
is that of the molders. The editor of the International Hold 
ers' Journal writes: 

The International Holders' Union of North America, now in its fifty- 
third year of existence, has never in its laws discriminated against the 
Negro molders. As membership in the organization depends upon the 
votes of the members in the local union where application for membership 
is made, it has followed that very few, in fact an inconsiderable number, 
have been initiated by our local unions in the South where the Negro 
molders are to be found. Here and there, in the east, north, central 
west and Pacific coast Negroes have been taken into membership and 
placed on an equality with the other members so far as the union was 
concerned. 

During recent years a large number of Negroes have worked at 
molding in Chattanooga, Tenn., and many efforts have been made to 
organize them. Some eleven years ago I made strenuous efforts to organ 
ize the Negro molders of Chattanooga but failed. We found considerable 
prejudice on the part of our membership and a suspicion as to the genu 
ineness of our motives by the Negro. Within the last year we have 
placed a southerner, Mr. ——— ———, in the southern field and he gave 
special attention to the matter of organizing the Negroes in Chattanooga 
with considerable success and also with much opposition from the foun 
dry men. In fact, the foundry men informed the Negroes- that if they 
joined our organization they would no longer work at the trade in Chatta 
nooga. We have struck several foundries to protect the Negro to mem 
bership in our organization and at present we are paying strike benefits 
to a number. 

The Negro and Organized Labor 

87 

Our first difficulty which we had to overcome in connection with the 
Negro molderwas to impress upon the southern molder that the question 
was one of economics, it was a question of industrial equality and not one 
of social equality, and that our organization did not exist for any purpose 
except to educate the workmen, regardless of their race or color, to act 
collectively in the industrial field for the purpose of improving their term 
of employment. 

Some of our unions in the South who a few years ago would have re 
fused to initiate Negro molders have since that time not only done so, but 
placed themselves on record as favoring the initiation of Negroes. 

It is interesting to consider the replies made by the labor 
organizations. Many answer directly, many give evasive 
answers, others say that the question of Negro members has 
not been considered, and still others reply simply no Negro 
members. In other cases it is reported that few or no Negroes 
work at the trade. Illustrations follow: 

Gardeners' Protective Union.—We have only a small membership 
and' up to this time no Negro has applied for admission to our union. 
However, in my experience of years as a gardener, I have never heard 
of a good Negro gardener. 

Watch Case Engravers' International Association of America.—The 

Negroes, in my opinion, should receive as much consideration and as good 
treatment as any other human. They have dark skin, but have all other 
faculties the same as the best white man that ever lived. They are neg 
lected in education due to the fact that there is so much pride and vanity 
in too many of our own race and color. 

Gas and Water Workers, Oakland, Cal.—Our business comprises the 
manufacture and distribution of gas, and in the event of a Negro being 
employed, he would be welcomed to membership in our local. 

Wire Drawers.—No religion or color deprives any body from belong 
ing to our union and it should not in any union. 

United Cloth Hat and Cap Makers of North America.—During the 
existence of our organization no Negroes have ever applied for admission 
to our union. As a matter of fact we are not aware of any Negroes em 
ployed in the cap industry, as it is a more or less skillful trade. As a 
matter of principle we do not draw any line between race and race; we 
consider all races alike and it is my firm belief that Negroes can make 
good workers and good union members. 

International Association of Steam, Hot Water and Power Pipe 
Fitters and Helpers.—In place of objections it is necessary that they 
should join to attain the results desired. 

\ 

 •"* 

88 

The Negro American Artisan 

International United Brotherhood of Leather=workers in Horse 

Goods.—No discrimination. Every local union is competent to pass upon 
the applicants for membership, can reject or accept for reasons satisfac 
tory to the local. 

Stove Mounters' International Union.—We have no laws concern 
ing this question. 

Flour and Cereal Mill Employees.—"Have not had to make a test." 
They state the objections to Negroes "because they belong to a class of 
themselves" and do not see how these objections are likely to be overcome. 

The Fur Dressers' Union of Brooklyn, N. V., says the question has 
not yet been considered. 

The International Union of Elevator Constructors says: Our locals 
have the right to refuse any candidate, let him be black or white. All 
candidates are balloted on and are questioned as to their qualifications. 

The undecided attitude is represented in the case which 
follows: 

The Machinists' Helpers and Laborers' Union of Washington, Ind., 

says that Negroes cannot join their union "at present." The reply 
further gives an interesting history. "We have not had any Negroes in 
this shop until six months ago. Some of them are good workmen. Like 
all classes of people there are bad workmen. As for the objections, we 
have not had any applications yet, and the people here have not been 
used to working with the Negroes and the northern folks are stubborn 
about going into any union with the Negro. When these shops were 
built they went into a contract not to hire any Negroes or foreign men for 
twenty years and the contract was lived up to until the strike here two 
years ago. Since the strike was settled they have been hiring some Ne 
groes, but the most of the Negroes that are living here are well-to-do and 
own good farms and they do not bother with the shops much; but those 
that are working in the shops are good, well-to-do folks and peaceful; 
but as far as organizing there has not been anything said to them about 
going in and they do not know anything about the federation. There are 
not more than about twenty Negroes working in the shops." 

The same union in St. Thomas, Ontario, has no Negro members but 
declares "our constitution will take a candidate irrespective of creed, 
color or nationality." 

Other difficulties are hinted at: 

The Journeymen Tailors' Union of America says that Negroes may 
join their union: "Negro tailors are principally in the southern states. 
We have some members in Macon, Augusta and a few other towns in the 
Carolinas and one or two in Chicago. We have discovered that in some 
instances the man who employs a few colored tailors discriminates against 

\ 

The Negro and Organized Labor 

89 

them if they join the union, hence it is hard to interest them to become 
members." 

The separate Negro local is one method of solution: 

The International Union of Steam Engineers has one colored local 
in Washington, D. C. "Colored men whom I have met in our craft have 
been able mechanics and good trade unionists.'' 

The American Brotherhood of Cement Workers has this provision 
in its constitution: "In localities where colored men are working at ce 
ment work colored locals can be formed, provided, however, such mem 
bership shall be granted transfer to colored locals only." 

The Wood, Wire and Metal Lathers' International Union says: ' 'With 
one or two exceptions we have found the colored men unable to maintain 
an exclusive colored organization. We have establisht several colored 
locals in the South, but only two of them have ever made a success, one 
in Savannah and the other in Charleston, the one in Savannah having 
been in existence since our international was formed. I attribute much 
of its success to the influence of one strong character in their ranks, W. 
E. Searles, who has been secretary for a number of years. We estab 
lisht an exclusive colored local in Philadelphia, at the request of both 
the white and colored lathers in that city; but it was an absolute failure." 

The Building Employees' Union of New York has no Negro members 
and explains: "In 1909 we had about twelve Negro members (janitors) in 
our union. We had trouble getting or rather keeping a meeting hall on 
account of them and formed them in a branch as we do have branches of 
different languages. They met two or three times and dropt out. We 
are quite willing to help in forming a branch again." 

Outside forces sometimes compel separation as hinted at 
here: 

There are no Negro members connected with the unions in Herrin, 
111- The secretary writes: "Being a miner mysef will say there is no 
objection to Negroes in the miner's organization as long as they can 
find towns or cities where there is no objection to them living. Our con 
tract with the operators provides for no discrimination on account of 
creed, color or nationality. So does our constitution provide the same." 

The general argument is often put in this way: 
The Negro is employed by the large packing industries extensively 
for in many cases he has the highest paid positions, notably in Kansas 
City, Kan., and East St. Louis, 111. He is equally as skillful as the white 
man and in many cases the employer prefers him. It would thus be the 
height of folly for our organization to legislate against him. As to the 
number we have with us we cannot state as in the smaller cities they are 
affiliated directly with the local union and no mention is made of color in 

_3 

& 

 1 

90 

The Negro American Artisan 

their report to the general office. Of course there are localities in the 
South and South west where local prejudice prevents their becoming mem 
bers of the local union, but in all cases they can form locals by themselves 
and be chartered by the international organization. 

Personally I might say that so long as a man is competent to take 
my situation I care not what his color may be —white, black or yellow. 
I want him to become a member of the organization as the rules and 
usages make it possible for him to do. In our organization (the Amalga 
mated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workers of North America) the Negro 
stands on the same plane with the white man. Our obligation states 
emphatically that a member of our organization agrees not to discriminate 
against a fellow worker on account of his creed, color or nationality. 

Many unions frankly exclude Negroes. 

Negroes are not admitted to membership in the Order of Railway 
Conductors of America. Eligibility to membership in this order is gov 
erned by the laws as adopted by the Grand Division of said order and 
which provides that "any white man shall be eligible to membership who 
is at the time of making application actually employed as conductor of a 
train of a steam surface railway.'' 

The Cutting, Die and Cutter Makers answer, "Nothing doing on the 
Negro.'' 

The Brotherhood of Railway Car Men of America has never had any 
Negro members at all and does not admit them now. An officer writes: 
"I have never lived in the South myself and do not know very much about 
them. Will say that I think the reason Negroes have never been admit 
ted into the order is because our southern brothers will not agree to it. 
We have never had any application for admission that I ever heard of." 

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Engineermen denies 
Negroes admission by their constitution and by-laws. The general sec 
retary says: "Our delegates in convention have always objected to them 
becoming members." 

The International Brotherhood of Boiler Makers, Iron Ship Builders 
and Helpers of America reports that Negroes are not admitted to the 
union and that their membership is provided "by secret work." Some 
of the officers, however, are working to organize in Newport News, Va., 
ship builders who are colored into a separate union. "Our laws, at the 
present time, would not permit the organizing of the Negro, but we hope 
to see that lodge. I expect the future generations to provide a better 
way so that we can be together in one local. Of course, it" they organize 
under the banner of this order their traveling cards will only be in colored 
locals. This is for the beginning, but in future years I expect this will 
be eliminated. There is only color against them, that is all anyone can 
say and we cannot work it out by violent or drastic measures; we must 

The Negro and Organized Labor 

91 

take time to work it out. I am a southern man out and out, raised and 
educated in ———. I worked with the Negroes and they made good union 
men, and always in their places when called on. There is a future for the 
race but it must not be forced on the white race." 

The Federation of Labor of Madison, Wis., reports no colored members 
in any of the local unions and says that they bar Negroes from member 
ship and that some of them refuse to recognize the traveling card of the 
Negro mechanic. This is on account of color and the objection "is not 
likely to disappear. These men form their own local unions if there are 
enough to do so," says the secretary, and then he launches forth: "I 
also wish to state that the American Federation of Labor does not bar 
any nationality no matter what creed, color or sex, and separate charters 
may be issued to unions composed exclusively of colored members. The 
American Federation of Labor spends large sums to organize all wage- 
earners without regard to class, race or sex, etc. These people, if organ 
ized, will become better workmen." 

The American Wire Weavers' Protective Association admits only 
white males. 

The Paving Cutters' Union of the United States and Canada: An 
officer of that union says: "We have no law against them. Haven't had 
much experience with the Negro. I think there are good and bad among 
them as there are among the whites. But what colored men I have ob 
served in our trade, they do not seem to have the same proficiency in 
handling the tools as the white man. From our members in the South, 
particularly in Georgia, whose minds on the Negro question possibly may 
be biased to a more or less extent, I am led to believe that the Negro is 
unable to grasp the principles of unionism. He (the Negro) believes in 
the theory that half a loaf is better than none. He is not capable, they 
say, of being a good union man, working out his own salvation. Possibly 
the day is coming when he will equal the white man, mentally. The Ne 
gro, speaking in connection with his chances industrially, labors under 
great disadvantages. In the first place, the white man will not, especially 
those in the South (1 refer especially to our own members), tolerate the 
Negro to be on the same level as himself. The fact is that the Negro is not 
wanted in the trades. He is all right as long as he is satisfied to occupy 
a position less than or below that occupied by the white man; under such 
conditions he and the white man get along very well together. When I speak 
oi the colored man not seemingly being able to handle the tools with the 
same proficiency as the white man, I perhaps should qualify that state 
ment by mentioning the fact that in order that a man—any man—be pro 
ficient at a trade it is necessary for him to learn in his young days,—grow 
up with the trade as it were. Those of the colored people who have been 
able to a more or less degree to learn our trade have done so under ad 
verse conditions. They, as far as I know, have never been trained in 

 1 

.£ 

92 

The Negro American Artisan 

their young days. Those who have managed to break into the trade have 
picked it up as best they could while working as helpers to the mechanics.'' 

It is probable that ninety per cent of the Negroes of the 
United States are residents of the South and so it is of interest 
to note the attitude of unions in that section. The reports 
from the South are of special interest. 

The Waycross, Ga., Trade and Labor Assembly reports that half 
of the brick-layers and forty-seven of the carpenters are Negroes. Ne 
groes are, however, refused admission to many of the unions and some of 
the unions refuse to recognize the traveling card. The secretary thinks 
Negro workers are "treacherous and unreliable -can't make mechanics 
and are poor imitators." These objections will "never" disappear. 

Sedalia, Mo., has no Negro union men, but the secretary of the labor 
organizations writes: "In some localities perhaps there still exists that 
race prejudice kept alive by the employing class in order that they may 
array race against race for the exploitation of both. Economic pressure 
will eventually compel a closer union between all races—including the 
Negro—for their emancipation from wage slavery; and the Negro will 
be found fighting just as valiantly for the emancipation of the toilers as 
those who fought to break the shackles from four million blacks." 

The Georgia Federation of Labor has one Negro local. The secre 
tary says: "The Georgia Federation does not bar Negro locals or mixt 
locals. In a good many of the carpenters' and painters' unions there are 
Negro members. I have only one local that is composed entirely of 
Negroes. Some of the locals absolutely bar Negroes from membership. 
The chief objection that I hear urged against them is the difficulty expe 
rienced in controlling them in case of strike and in preventing them from 
working under the standard wage scale in their locality." 

The Trade Assembly at Fort Worth, Tex., has no Negro members 
altho it has had them in the past. The objections are said to be "social." 
"Negro delegates of common labor and hod carriers and mortar mixers 
have been admitted to the Trade Assembly and Building Trades Council 
when affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, but in the skilled 
trades Negroes have not been admitted." 

The Federal Labor Union of Dallas, Tex., "keeps Negroes out" by a 
provision in the by-laws and by the refusal of members to elect Negroes. 
The reason for this is thus stated by the secretary: "The ingrained 
prejudice towards anything that looks to the members like an approach 
towards social equality. I think that this prejudice against allowing Ne 
groes to join unions is unreasonable and that the pressure of economic 
forces will remove it. As Negroes become more skilled they will become 
more and more the competitors of the whites in the labor market and if 
they are not organized, either in unions with whites or in unions parallel 

The Negro and Organized Labor 

93 

with the whites and bound by the same obligations and getting protection 
from corresponding white unions, they will cut the throats of the whites 
just as very poor immigrants do in the East or the North. The rise of 
Negro unions for self-protection will probably hasten this day. Time and 
education will go far to produce co-operation among Negroes and whites 
for self-protection just as the progress of industry has forced them to co 
operate in all sorts of work for the bosses." 

There are no Negro members in the Central Trades and Labor Coun 
cils of Roanoke, Va., and none in the local unions. If any applied there 
might be objections on account of color, but such objections are "likely 
to arise" as time goes on. 

From a town in Oklahoma where there are no Negro union men 
comes the following account: "In general we have not had much dealings 
with the Negro. One Negro was refused admission to the halls who car 
ried a card fully paid up. That was when we were under a charter of the 
International Liberty Union. The most important part was that the 
Negro referred to above was a deputy organizer whose commission had 
not yet expired.'' 

The Trades and Labor Council of Memphis, Tenn., has twenty-five 
or thirty Negro members in affiliated unions. The writer thinks that 
prejudice against Negro union men will disappear in time. 

On the other hand, the secretary of the Marshall, Texas, Trades and 
Labor Council does not think these objections will disappear. He says 
that one "cannot make them stick as union men; will scab in spite of all 
that can be done." This council has no affiliated Negro unions. 

The Central Labor Union of Miami, Fla., also has no Negro members. 
The secretary says that admitting Negroes has a "tendency to lower 
wages and self-respect of white mechanics and casts a stigma of associa 
tion," and he hopes that these objections will never disappear. 

The Labor Assembly of Lawton, Okla.,has no Negro union men and 
says "we are not troubled with them to any extent." 

In Greenville, Texas, Negroes cannot join the unions but may have 
unions of their own. The secretary writes: "The Negro makes a first- 
class union man when organized and properly instructed. In times of 
strikes and trouble he is a stayer. I long to see the day when all of the 
colored people are organized industrially and politically and cease to be 
thrown about by every ism that comes along; but this will continue until 
he is organized and educated." 

Prom Temple, Texas, we learn that Negroes are kept out 
of unions: 

The objection is the color-line, caused by southern traditions. Nearly 
all men raised south of Mason and Dixon's line do not want to give the 
Negro any chance to become expert mechanics. The South needs a great 

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The Negro American Artisan 

The Negro and Organized Labor 

95 

awakening to its own necessities from the laboring man's standpoint. I 
have been successfully connected with the labor movement for several 
years in all parts of the country as far as the southern born mechanic is 
concerned. First, they will not attend their local meetings; second, they 
want someone else to take the lead and bear all the brunt of battle. If 
an important subject is to come up on meeting night just a quorum is 
present perhaps out of thirty or forty members. It's the lack of. union 
interest and principle. Have worked hard here for a year and only with 
the help of rounders have been able to organize the printers and musicians; 
clerks and bookkeepers, stenographers, factory employees seem to be 
afraid of losing their jobs. 

The Teachers' Union of San Antonio, Texas, says no Negroes may 
join this union. "They would not think of applying here. It is unthink 
able because it means social equality which saps the foundations of race 
purity. Neither mongrel Negroes nor mongrel whites are desirable." The 
writer does not think that these objections are likely to be overcome in 
time and "certainly hopes not." 

An officer of the Texas State Federation of Labor writes as follows: 
"It is generally understood that the white trades unions of Texas do not 
admit colored people to membership. Once in a while a Federal Labor 
Union is organized which admits on equal terms both races, but no such 
organization has ever lasted long and there is none now in the state. 
There are a few Federal Unions, Longshoremen's Unions and Barbers' 
Unions composed entirely of colored people. These are admitted to 
membership and representation in the Texas State Federation of Labor 
on equal terms with white unions. Colored people, however, do not apply 
for membership in white unions and therefore none has ever been refused 
admission. Legally unions cannot refuse to admit a Negro if he is other 
wise qualified, but a majority of no union would admit that a Negro was 
qualified for membership. Unions cannot legally refuse to recognize the 
traveling card of a union man, no matter if he is colored, but they would 
scarcely tolerate his attending meetings or working on the same job with 
other members. In some trades they make good workmen, which creates 
all the more enmity against them. If they were not capable of becoming 
skilled workers in any trade they would be more cheerfully tolerated by 
the average union membership. The foundation objection to admitting 
them to membership in unions is racial prejudice, which again is based 
almost wholly on the competition for jobs which is so keenly felt by work 
ing men of both races. The Negro is marked with a color that distin 
guishes him from other poor working men and he is condemned because 
he often works cheaper, is more docile (servile), takes abuse without 
quitting and lives cheaper than white men. He also has inherited from 
slavery days a lack of discrimination as to what is honestly his and is in 
clined to retaliate for cruel treatment by petty pilfering to help out his 

starvation wages. The poor white man starves and helps himself to any 
little thing he can pick up when he can no longer secure anything by ser 
vility, beggary or cajolery. The situation is quite deplorable and you see 
the poor white man must have some one to kick. And there he is! Look 
at the color of his skin. 

"These objections will disappear with a general uplift of the condi 
tions of the poor. When the economic conditions are such that poverty 
will be abolisht and there is no man without plenty of jobs at good wages, 
racial prejudices will entirely disappear. Make monopoly get off the back 
of the worker and no longer will any bad feeling exist between the races. 
Until this is done thru an equitable system of taxation, relieving labor of 
the burden and placing it upon monopoly, there is no hope of relief from 
the present deplorable situation. 

"Apply the single tax and racial prejudice will disappear and not 
before. I have no time to elaborate this statement, but it is true. 

"Yours truly, ————————." 

The reports from the various city centrals furnish perhaps 
the best conspectus of conditions and states of mind. 

California 

The Alameda County, California, Central Labor Council has Negro 
members in the Teamsters, No. 1015 Clay street, Oakland; Cooks and 
Waiters, No. 31, 128J Telegraph avenue, Oakland; Journeymen Barbers, 
No. 134, 1512 Broadway, and United Laborers, No. 13018, 311 Fourteenth 
street. Applicants have not been refused to their "knowledge," altho 
"there is a strong racial prejudice evidenced in some of the so-called 
skilled craft unions. I have known some very good Negro workmen who 
were blacksmiths, carpenters, brick-layers, plasterers, painters and 
printers. My experience is that there is no line of skill in which the 
Negro may not attain efficiency. The chief objection is racial; the cause 
of this is the tendency toward miscegenation which is the natural out 
growth of social assimilation in the union meeting. I do not believe 
that these objections will disappear in time from the fact that they inva 
riably enhance with result of experience in both white and black races. 
Personally I sympathize with the Negro rather because his presence here 
is the result of the white man's greed to which I find myself and all wage 
workers victims. 1 feel no personal animosity toward him, tho I must 
confess to aversion to social intercourse of a very close nature, possibly 
based in the belief that when nature created the races it was with the 
intent that they be kept separate. I owe the race a debt of gratitude 
which inspires a sympathy with all who are mentally fit and morally my 
equal. I believe that as time goes on with education and the inculcation 
of race responsibility in industrial affairs men will prove the economic 
friends of the Negro. The only bar that now stands between him is his 

ovo'1 

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96 

The Negro American Artisan 

The Negro and Organized Labor 

97 

\ff 

preference to supplant the white man in industry at a lesser price than 
that establisht by unions; in short, his allowing himself to be misled into 
scabbing' by those who have even less use for him than his white union 
brother has. I believe that the American Federation of Labor plan to 
induct him in to separate unions where race prejudice prevents him joining 
where white men dominate will raise the Negro in the estimation of all 
union men. Thru organization into unions he will be taught our inter- 
responsibility. 

The secretary of the Central Labor Council of Los Angeles, Cal., 
says: "We have one local union of Negro building laborers and hod 
carriers of about one hundred and fifty members that is not affiliated 
with the American Federation of Labor and for that reason is not affil 
iated with the central body. Yes, there are Negro members in the locals. 
Cannot give the number but not a great many. Brick-layers, hod car 
riers, plasterers, carpenters, cigar makers, boot-blacks, teamsters, elec 
trical workers. Negroes are barred from only those whose international 
constitution prohibits. We have done our best to get Negro workmen 
interested but have not had a great deal of success. They seem to be 
afraid to get into the organization for some reason or other. Thru the 
locals we have taken the matter up with the international unions that 
have a clause in their constitutions that bar Negroes, urging them to 
remove the clause." 

The Richmond, Cal., Contra Costa Central Labor Council has fifteen 
cement workers and ten hod carriers. These are Negroes. They also 
admit that the unions do bar Negroes from membership and have refused 
admission to Negro applicants and that they do refuse to recognize the 
traveling card of a Negro mechanic. "I organized the Cement Workers' 
Union; at the beginning sent for the regular organizer to come from San 
Francisco. His comment after looking over the men assembled among 
whom I had six Negroes was, 'It looks too dark for me.' This remark 
of the organizer expresses the only objection I have ever heard. I would 
put it, not in his language, but in my own, which is prejudice against race 
and color. This man, a naturalized citizen, proposed to bar these men 
who were born citizens. I told him to go back home and that I would 
organize the union myself. He said that I would not get a charter but I 
knew our rights under the law and put the application for a charter up to 
headquarters in such a way that they knew I understood. Well, we got 
the charter and have a very harmonious mixt union which has been in 
existence now for three years. I state this case at some length, believ 
ing it would be the best explanation I could make. Prejudice is all I can 
see against the race. The colored men are doing their work and satisfy 
ing the employer and are good union men, live strictly up to the rules, 
pay their dues and attend meetings. The large cities of San Francisco 
and Oakland, an hour and a half from Richmond, bar them wherever they 
can. I am president of the Central Labor Council of this county; am also 

a veteran of the Civil War and am still on the firing line for principles I 
advocated over forty years ago.'' 

The Sacramento, Cal., Trades and Federation Council has one hundred 
Negro barbers as members, one hundred and fifteen in the cement 
workers, forty-five hod carriers and fifty teamsters. 

The San Francisco, Cal., Labor Council has no Negro members. The 
secretary writes: "Whatever objections there may have been in the 
past was due to race prejudice which has been overcome, the white mem 
bers realizing that if the Negro is going to live he must work and if they 
don't let him work alongside of them during the time they are enjoying 
industrial peace it is only natural for the Negro to take the place of the 
white man when he is on strike. Also the Negro has stood the test as a 
union man wherever he has been on strike and the local men here know 
it. There are not many Negroes in San Francisco and very seldom do we 
hear of a Negro artisan coming along. They generally make their home 
in Los Angeles, where the climate is warmer. There they have a strong 
membership in the unions and some very active representatives in the 
central councils." 

Colorado 

The Colorado State Federation of Labor of Denver, Col., replies that 
"there are Negro members in the local numbering one hundred. Several 
Negroes are employed in coal mines in this state.'' 

The Pueblo, Col., Trades and Labor Assembly is "composed of Ne 
groes to about thirty in number. The Steam Engineers' local, No. 21, 
has one member. Brother ——, of the steam engineers, is considered a 
first-class workman. Negroes make good building trades laborers." 

Connecticut 

The Central Labor Union of Derby, Conn., says: "There are four 
teen locals connected with this organization and about seven have Negro 
members. They are the carpenters, brick-layers, stone masons, iron 
molders, machinists, hotel employees and hod carriers. No Negro appli 
cant has been refused admission as far as I am able to find out; it's too dan 
gerous. As the capitalist does not look at color, we have to use the same 
rules to play the game. Formerly in industry when all industries were 
small, ideas were small, and the boss usually worked beside his men and 
what the boss thot the men usually agreed with, and he was particular whom 
he had to work with and, of course, that to a large extent kept the Negro 
°ut. But as industries became diversified and the workers were divorced 
from the boss and, in fact, never saw the boss, he did not care who did 
the work so long as his profits were not interferred with; so when his 
employees struck he filled their places with Negroes, who had been denied 
membership in unions, and that is what will make every union eventually 
open its doors to the Negroes. One of the most optimistic signs of the 

 98 

The Negro American Artisan 

11 

times I know of is the growing feeling in the trades union movement for 
economic justice for the Negro. I will state from personal experience on 
the Negro that up to four or five years ago no one was more prejudiced 
against the Negro than myself and I thot it was just and proper to keep 
him out of my union if possible. However, I have since that time joined 
the Socialist party and have found out my mistake, that as the capitalist 
class is no respecter of persons, neither can the workers be divided in 
sex, race or color, but must constitute themselves into a political party 
separate and distinct unto themselves and take over all the means of 
production and distribution, thus insuring every man a job and means of 
livelihood with time for recreation and self-culture. Then and then only 
will the Negro worker and white worker be able to pave the way for the 
real brotherhood of man.'' 

The Central Labor Union of Waterbury, Conn., has no Negro mem 

bers. 

Illinois 

The Aurora, 111., Trades and Labor Assembly has "twenty-five Negroes 
in Building Laborers' Union, about six in Teamsters' Union; both unions 
are composed of white and black members. No objections as to color. 
As a rule there is a good class of Negroes in Aurora." 

The Carlinville, 111., Trades and Labor Assembly has "about fifteen 
Negro members in the Federal Labor Union." 

The Carrier Mills, 111., Central Labor Union has "probably about one 
hundred and fifty altogether in Miners' Unions, Nos. 1059, 1112 and 2837. 
Have no objections here at this place, but there are places in this country 
where they are not allowed." 

The Chicago Federation of Labor is a central body comprising over 
two hundred and seventy local unions. "We have one local union com 
prising all Negro members,—the Asphalt Pavers and Helpers' Union, No. 
25,—who are regularly affiliated with the international, who are affiliated 
with the American Federation of Labor. We have Negro delegates from 
several other organizations. I know of no union affiliated with the fed 
eration that prevents Negroes from joining; at least this office has never 
received any complaint from that direction. We often try to organize the 
Negro but find it difficult for one reason or another, principally, the em 
ployer is successful in always getting some Negro to tell others that 
organized labor is not their friend, etc. The employer always has in 
mind it is to his best interest to keep the Negroes unorganized." 

The Danville, 111., Trades and Labor Council has about seven hun 
dred Negro members in Miners' Union and forty in the Brick, Tile and 
Terra Cotta Workers' Alliance, but admits that they do bar Negroes 
from membership and have had Negroes as applicants. "We recommend 
that the Negro join the trades union of his trade whenever possible. We 

The Negro and Organized Labor 

99 

also recommend that the Negro make a study of the different political 
parties so when voting to vote intelligently and to back up his union with 
political action." 

The Springfield, 111., Federation of Labor has Negro members in the 
local unions, consisting of miners, barbers, hod carriers and cement work 
ers. Some local unions do "bar Negroes from membership and Negro 
applicants have been refused admission to the unions." 

Indiana 

From the Indianapolis, Ind., Central Labor Union comes the word 
that they have Negro members composed of "hod carriers, building la 
borers, plasterers and the structural iron workers. The plasterers num 
ber five, the structural iron workers one, and the hod carriers and build 
ing laborers about one hundred and seventy-five. Once the bricklayers 
refused a Negro member but the international lodge fined the local $150. 
Color is sometimes an objection but the chief objection is the fact that 
once the doors are opened wide too many would come and cause an over 
supply of mechanics for the work in view. The objections will certainly 
disappear in time. The objection held against the colored race is the 
same as is held against the foreign races who are generally brot into 
sections where labor troubles abound and the prejudice is more deep 
seated against the colored man on account of the fact that he understands 
the English language; but for every colored man who, to use a harsh 
term, scabs there are two white men who do the same. The best solu 
tion is to see that the mechanic or artisan is thoroly schooled in all 
branches of whatever trade he may learn and ability will certainly do more 
for him than any agitation either for or against organizing him can off 
set." 

The Logansport, Ind., Trades Assembly has "twenty-one Negro mem 
bers in the Journeymen Barbers' Union, No. 48, out of a total of forty- 
three; from four to five in Building Laborers' Union, according to state 
ofthetrade." The railway orders do bar Negro members. Thesecretary 
has never heard of the traveling card being refused in that city nor that the 
electrical workers wouldbar Negroes. ' 'There are many objections offered, 
but I have failed so far to hear a valid one. I am persuaded that it is pure 
hatred and race prejudice in most instances. Ignorance lies at the bot 
tom of it all. The railway men put forth the rather weak argument that 
the Negro is not reliable and cannot be trusted. This, of course, pertains 
to railway train service. I hope these objections will disappear." 

In Richmond, Ind., the Central Labor Union has no Negro members 
and "there has been very little race trouble here; in fact, not as much 
as occurs in the average northern city of this size. Negroes have not 
applied for admission into the unions, therefore we have never heard any 
objections." 

Sin 

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100 

The Negro American Artisan 

Iowa 

The Dubuque, la., Trades and Labor Congress has no Negro members 
•'at present." The secretary writes: "Whilst quite a number of colored 
people are employed in this city yet they do not seem to be impregnated 
with unionism as we would like." 

Kansas 

The Emporia, Kansas, Trades and Labor Council has no Negro mem 
bers. The secretary-treasurer writes: ' 'Negroes should be treated white 
but kept separate." 

The Girard. Kansas, Industrial Labor Council has four Negro mem 
bers belonging to the Federal Labor Union, No. 12756. Unions do bar 
Negroes from membership. 

Massachusetts 

The State Branch American Federation of Labor of Boston, Mass., 
sends the following message: "We know no race, no creed and no color." 

The Haverhill, Mass., Central Labor Union has twenty-eight Negro 
members in the Boot and Shoe Workers' Union. No Negro applicant has 
ever been refused "on account of color." The chief objection to them is 
"their willingness to take unfair jobs." These objections may disappear 
"by trade union education." 

The Central Labor Union of North Adams, Mass., has no Negro 
members "at present." The objections being "none outside of not de 
siring social intercourse. But in the broad field of labor and labor organi 
zation I know of no objection, either to work with or to hold membership 
in the same organization." 

The Central Labor Union of Springfield, Mass., has Negro members 
in unions of brick-layers, builders, laborers, carpenters, painters and 
coal handlers. The secretary says: "From answers received from ninety- 
five per cent of the local unions affiliated with their central body, not one 
barred a Negro from membership if he was a capable mechanic and could 
pass the regular examination given to all applicants. A case came to my 
attention: Several on a job in a small town where a number of brick 
layers refused to work with a Negro and the labor union of which they 
were members was fined $100." 

Michigan 

The Ann Arbor, Mich., Trades Council has one Negro member, a 
carpenter. 

Missouri 

The Springfield, Mo., City Central Union has "a colored local of 
building laborers and hod carriers with a membership of eighty. The 
barbers have twenty members, but they do bar some applicants for mem- 

The Negro and Organized Labor 

101 

bership. We have Negro workmen in the harness craft, molders and 
blacksmiths that I know of and they are fair mechanics; and also bar 
bers and team drivers. Their color is the most often used in the rejecting 
of colored men in a white local. The objections are not likely to disappear 
altogether but they are not as common as formerly.'' 

Montana 

The secretary of the Anaconda, Mont., American Federation of La 
bor writes that they have "twenty-one Negro members at present as 
compared with six in 1900. The average Negro of this vicinity makes a 
first-class citizen as a whole and the Negroes are very industrious. 
There are about forty-five Negro members of the Mill and Smeltermen's 
Union employed by the Anaconda Copper Mining Company as engine 
drivers and switchmen." 

Federal Labor Union, No. 12968, of Miles City, Mont., has no Negro 
members, objection being "color." "At present I am working with a 
colored man and have been for two years past for the street department. 
I find him a good working man. All crafts, including electricians, team 
sters, engineers and common laborers, are organized and all members 
paid up. He sent in his application two years ago and was turned down 
on account of color, but we recognized his rights and therefore he is 
working right amongst strictly union men and is not bothered.'' 

Nebraska 

The Omaha, Neb., State Federation of Labor has no Negro members 
' 'at present'' altho in 1900 they had ' 'several in building laborers.'' ' 'No,'' 
the unions cannot refuse to recognize the traveling card of a Negro union 
man. "We want the Negroes to feel that we will protect them if they 
will stand with us.'' 

The Central Labor Union of Lincoln, Neb., has "probably ten" Ne 
gro members in the Plasterers' and Federal Labor Unions. The secretary 
writes: "The only objection that I know of is the old story: 'A Negro is 
not as good as a white man.' '' 

The South Omaha, Neb., Central Labor Union has Negro members, 
numbering one in the barbers' union and one in the printers. The secre 
tary writes, "They are not usually good union men." 

New Hampshire 

"The State Branch of the New Hampshire Federation of Labor in 
Manchester, N. H., is a voluntary federation of unions in this state and 
I do not know of any union in the state that bars the Negro workman 
from membership, neither do I believe that there is any good reason to 
bar any worker because of his color, if he is otherwise eligible to mem 
bership. I do not know how many Negroes are members of locals in this 
state. We meet in convention once a year, and we have had a Negro 

P 

 102 

The Negro American Artisan 

delegate twice from a local of paving cutters, he being the only colored 
man in the local." 

New Jersey 

The Central Labor Union of Camden, N. J., sends the following 
message: "We never have had any application from any local union that 
was composed of colored people." 

New York 

The New York State Federation of Labor says: "This is a delegate 
body and there is no distinction as to color or creed. Negro delegates 
have been seated and none rejected." 

Berlin, N. Y., Central Labor Union sends the following word: "If we 
had more Negro members as good as the one we have I think it would be 
better for the unions." 

In Ithaca, N. Y., the Central Labor Union has Negro members in the 
brick-layers and masons to the number of five and the barbers two. "No 
objections and from experience I think it is general thruout the North. 
In our Central Labor Union we have one colored delegate. He is from 
the Barbers'Union; he is one of our bestworkers and highly appreciated 
by all." 

The Central Labor Council of Jamestown, N. Y., has Negro members 
in the Barbers' Union. The secretary writes: "The objections are 
'color.' I believe this is a serious mistake. I myself have more respect 
for the Negro than for the aliens who come to this country, as the Negro is 
an American citizen and we should help to uplift him and respect him." 

Central Trades and Labor Council of Kingston, N. Y., has a Negro 
member "and he is recording secretary of the Butchers' Union; also one 
who belongs to the Hod Carriers' Union and he is a hustler." 

The Lancaster, N. Y., Central Labor Union has no Negro members 
and says "there are some members here who do not like to come in con 
tact with the Negro as a member to our different locals. But the general 
feeling is this way: If he is a man, black or white, and can show us good 
credentials, we take him in." 

In the Poughkeepsie, N. Y., Trade and Labor Council there are Negro 
members—two carpenters, one sheet metal worker and one hod carrier. 

The Salamanca, N. Y., Central Labor Council has no Negro members 
"at present," the reasons given being "social." 

The Federation of Labor, Troy, N. Y., has Negro members in the 
barbers, waiters, teamsters and other unions. The objections are none. 
"A delegate in this body, Mr. Adams, is one of our most efficient and re 
spected members. He is a full-blooded Negro and represents the Barbers' 
Union, composed mainly of whites." 

The Negro and Organized Labor 

103 

The White Plains, N. Y., Central Labor Union has Negro members: 
"Laborers' Local Union, No. 9, has fifteen members. Also the hod car 
riers have ten members. The members of this body that have worked 
with them say they are apt to be careless in their work. The Negro 
members that attend this body attend meetings better than some of 
the white men." 

Ohio 

The Akron Central Labor Union of Akron, Ohio, has Negro members 
in the unions of barbers, steam engineers and lathers, altho there are "very 
few." The traveling card of a Negro mechanic is not refused recogni 
tion "any more than whites." "There are no objections to the Negro if 
he should want to be a union man, so far as I know. What few Negro 
members we have in this city are good mechanics and make good mem 
bers." 

In Columbus, Ohio, the Federation of Labor has Negro members, 
consisting of the musicians, who have fifteen members. The Hod Car 
riers' Union has all Negroes. The secretary writes: "I have never heard 
of any objection in this community unless it is one of association. The 
brewery workers have two Negro members in the powers' department as 
firemen. We have no Negro problem in this state to amount to anything, 
the chief objection being that of the whites not wanting to associate with 
the Negro.'' 

The Central Labor Union of Fremont, Ohio, has no Negro members 
altho they used to have Negro members in the local unions. "When you 
find one good one you will find one bad one.'' 

The Mansfield, Ohio, Trades Council has no Negro members. The 
secretary-treasurer says he does not know the objections. "What few 
unions do bar them do so on orders from headquarters. What their objec 
tion is I do not know." 

The Middletown, Ohio, Trades and Labor Council has Negro members 
in the "hod carriers only." 

The East Palestine, Ohio, Trades Council "has two locals partly com 
posed of Negroes; that is, about fifty members per local. There are two 
in the barbers and four in the brick-layers and masons. We do not think 
it would be policy to bar any nationality or color from labor organizations 
as long as they conduct themselves in the right manner and use the organi 
zation to which they belong in the right manner and for the cause which 
it advocates—the uplift of the working man and wages." 

The Steubenville, Ohio, Trades and Labor Assembly has Negro 
members in the unions of barbers, hod carriers and teamsters. The bar 
bers have thirteen, the hod carriers sixteen and the teamsters eight. The 
local unions do bar Negroes from membership and Negro applicants have 
been refused admission to the unions and the traveling cards are refused 
in most cases. 

r 

OYIOI 

 104 

The Negro American Artisan 

Oregon 

The Trades and Labor Council of Salem, Ore., has no Negro members. 
"The bar-tenders' locals require that the Negroes form a separate union 
and will not allow them in with the whites. The chief objection being, 
as far as I know, simply the fact that they are black." 

Pennsylvania 

The Bradford, Pa., Trades Assembly has one or two Negro members. 
They say some unions do bar Negro applicants, not all. "There are so 
many lazy, worthless Negroes, who bring the whole race into disrepute. 
The honest working Negro is treated squarely as far as my observations 
go. They have been delegates to this body but the union they belonged 
to disbanded. Whether the objections will disappear or not depends on 
the Negro himself, I think." 

The secretary of the Chester, Pa., Federation of Labor says: "I don't 
know of any objection, as we have never yet been up against the question 
of admitting them. The Negro in this section is as a rule usually working 
at cart driving or laboring work in general, and as yet they have made 
no attempt to get into the trades in general. But I must say if they tried 
to join the unions in this city, I think we would have to be shown before 
they would be taken in, as color prejudice is rather strong." 

The Lancaster, Pa., Central Labor Union has no Negro members "at 
present;" there were hod carriers but they have withdrawn and are now 
a lodge. I can give no reason at all for objections, because we have no 
applications from them and not many work in our own crafts that are 
organized. We have had a national treasurer from Tampa, Fla., who 
was a Negro artisan of my own craft of the International Cigar Makers' 
Union of America, and have thousands of good union men of his race and 
we don't bar them in any place. As for other crafts in other localities, I 
could not say; but here we never get any applications for membership as 
yet." He hopes these objections will disappear. 

The Nanticoke, Pa., Federation of Labor has Negro members. They 
state that local unions make their own rules, but they think none is 
excluded in this state. 

The Royersford and Spring City, Pa., Trades Council has no Negro 
members. "The only objections that I ever heard of amongst the various 
trades unionists here was because they are Negroes. What few Ne 
groes that I have ever had occasion to come in contact with in any of our 
public works, I can personally say that I would much rather work with 
the colored man than the majority of the dumpings of Europe that land 
on our shores every day." 

The Williamsport, Pa., Trades Union Assembly has Negro members 
in the hod carriers' and barbers' unions. The secretary says: "In this 
city I notice in particular the race is lazy and indifferent, as probably in 

\ 

The Negro and Organized Labor 

105 

other sections of which I know not. On the other hand, we have with us 
a few Christian gentlemen—black faces, but white hearts, and who may 
be trusted in the extreme." 

In Wilkesbarre, Pa., the Central Labor Union has no Negro members 
but has Negro delegates. Negro applicants can "form unions of Negroes 
in all that do refuse to admit and get charters from international unions. 
Most of the objections are racial and will disappear the more the Negro 
takes part in the union movement." 

Rhode Island 

The Woonsocket, R. I., Central Labor Union has no Negro members 
and the secretary writes "there has never been any Negroes who applied 
for admission to any of our local unions." 

Wisconsin 

The Central Labor Union of Ashland, Wis., has no Negro members. 
The secretary writes: "Some unions admit only white men, barring In 
dians and Chinese as well as Negroes. Lower plane of living makes 
these willing to work at a lower wage and consequent lowering of stand 
ards. Racial prejudice is at the bottom. Race problem has no bearing 
at so northern a point as this and receives little attention." 

The Fond du Lac, Wis., Trades and Labor Council says: "Some have 
one member or so, among whom are masons and brick-layers. The ob 
jections are none because we are all wage slaves regardless of creed or 
color." 

The Milwaukee, Wis., Federated Trades Council has Negro members 
in the carpenters, hod carriers and cement workers. "There is no objec 
tion to admitting them to trade unions here. In fact they are engaged 
in any trade. Every attempt is made to get them to join." 

The Waukesha, Wis., Trade and Labor Council has no Negro assem 
bly. The secretary says: "We have no Negroes in our locals and never 

had any applications." 

Washington 

The Central Labor Council of Seattle, Wash., has "some Negro mem 
bers, number unknown, but a sprinkling in painters, building laborers, 
federal (common) labor and carpenters. This being a northern country 
and the racial problem being of an oriental nature there is very little ob 
jection to the Negro on any grounds." 

Porto Rico 

The Central Labor Union of Porto Rico sends the following message: 
"Our organization has ninety per cent Negro members. As a state we 
have unions composed of ninety per cent of colored people. There are 
Negro members in locals; in fact, more than three thousand are colored 

\ 

% 

 d 

;Sji 
ifl 

106 

The Negro American Artisan 

members in the trades of carpenters, masons, janitors, printers, machin 
ists and all trades. We have no division or difference of color lines in our 
country. We could not tolerate such divisions of race anyway in this 
country. Here in Porto Rico there are two classes of people, the rich 
men and the poor men, and there are no other differences among the 
people than those which come of social standing. We fight against the 
ignorance of the people and against the exploitation and tyranny put in 
practice for those who make capital." 

The Caguas Central Labor Union of Porto Rico says: "Our members 
are one thousand and we have three per cent of Negroes in the unions. 
There are some in all unions.'' 

Ontario 

The Hamilton, Ontario, Trades and Labor Council has Negro mem 
bers but cannot state the exact number. They include cigar makers, 
tobacco workers, lathers, barbers, teamsters and letter carriers. The 
secretary writes: "I am instructed to inform you that Negro artisans 
are not discriminated against in this city; that, if so, it has never been 
brot to our notice.'' . 

Section 32. Some Results of the Attitude of Unions 

What are some of the results of the attitude of organized 
labor toward Negro members? As mentioned before, the 
separate Negro local is one method of solution. The secretary 
of a Negro local in New Orleans, the Street Track Repairers' 
Union, writes: 

In answer to your question blank, let me say that I am a Negro, 
filling the office of corresponding secretary of our local union, working 
hard by day and attending to my official duties at night, not feeling 
the least impatient in so doing because I have the union at heart. I have 
been and always will be for the union cause even if this local sinks. I 
shall be with one that is above the tide if I have to send my application 
to some other local of the American Federation of Labor. I always try 
to keep my conscience clear with my fellow mates and brethren so that 
they may not point the finger of scorn at me. 

On the other hand, many Negroes are working peacefully 
as members of mixed unions. Numerous instances of this 
are noted in the replies of artisans printed in sections 6-30. 
From Sheridan, Wyoming, comes the following message: 

1 would like to state that I have been a member in good standing of 
Local No. 12696 fcr the past four years. I am a charter member and 
have been a regular attendant upon the meetings save when I was absent 

\ 

Some Results of the Attitude of Unions 

107 

from the city. During this period there has never been the slightest ob 
jection raised whenever a Negro candidate was presented for member 
ship. You are at liberty to use this in any way you choose. 

The relation of the Negro to organized labor in Pennsyl 
vania is discussed at length in Dr. Wright's "The Negro in 
Pennsylvania.'' The following selections are taken from that 
valuable study in economic history:1 

The great mass of Negro laborers are unorganized and come in con 
tact but little with the labor union. There are a few Negroes in Phila 
delphia who are members of some of the unions, viz., the carpenters, stone 
masons, brick-layers, painters, cement layers, asphalt pavers, etc. On 
the other hand, there are some unions which do not admit or have not 
admitted Negroes, such as the machinists, locomotive engineers, etc. In 
the more skilled trades the Negro union laborers number less than two 
hundred in Philadelphia and less than three hundred in Pennsylvania. Of 
unskilled labor the most thoroly organized group is that of the hod carriers. 
Thruout the state there are Negro hod carriers. In Philadelphia there is 
a local union composed chiefly of Negroes, with a Negro president. This 
union, the Light Star Lodge, owns a four story brick hall, valued at about 
$20,000. In Pittsburg also the Hod Carriers' Union is composed pre 
dominantly of Negroes, but is not as large as the Philadelphia lodge. 
Next to the hod carriers come the miners. All of the Negro miners in 
the state are union men and members of the United Mine Workers of 
America. These are located chiefly in the western part of the state, 
having their district headquarters at Pittsburg. The United Mine Work 
ers is one of the few unions in which the Negroes agree that they re 
ceive fair treatment. In some of these miners' unions there are Negro 
officers and Negroes are always in attendance at the annual meetings. 

Negroes have made some attempts at independent organizations. The 
most successful of these is that among the hoisting engineers, steam and 
gas engineers, started in Pittsburg in 1900 and incorporated in 1903 under 
"The National Association of Afro-American Steam and Gas Engineers 
and Skilled Laborers in America.'' While the intention is to organize 
Negro labor on a racial basis, there is no antagonism to the general labor 
movement. It is merely believed by the promoters to be better for 
Negro workmen. This union has been of slow growth, however. There 
are only three locals in the state; two at Pittsburg, having fifty members, 
and one at Reading. In Philadelphia there is an organization of hoisting 
engineers which as yet is not connected with the Pittsburg union. There 
are numerous societies and clubs among Negroes which are organized 
along labor lines; but which are more social and beneficial clubs than la 
bor unions. The largest of these is the Hotel Brotherhood, establisht at 

lWright, Dr. B. E., Jr.: The Negro in Pennsylvania, pp. 94-95, 98-100. 

If 

^ fvl 

 \ 

108 

The Negro American Artisan 

Philadelphia in 1881, and including present or former hotel employees. It 
pays sick and death benefits and acts as a kind of clearing house for hotel 
labor. In 1906 the brotherhood purchased a club house at the cost of 
$15,000. The bell-men, the Pullman car porters, the janitors, the private 
waiters, the caterers, the coachmen and others in domestic and personal 
service, have similar but smaller organizations. These organizations 
serve largely as aids in securing work, but have made but little attempt 
to regulate wages and apprentices. .... 

The general opinion of the Negro workers in the Pittsburg steel mills 
who were interviewed by the writer is that the unions are a hindrance 
rather than a help to the Negro. Several have been members and one 
had been president of a southern union and a delegate to the National 
Convention of Steel Workers; some had gone out on strikes for the union. 
Their testimony is summarized as follows: 

1. The organizations out of which the Amalgamated Association of 
Steel and Iron Workers was formed did not admit Negroes. 

2. After the Amalgamated Association was formed white union men 
refused to work with Negro union men or to help protect Negro work 
men, thus making union membership of no industrial value to the Negro 
workers. 

3. All the new opportunities secured by Negroes have been gotten 
in spite of the union, not with its aid. 

4. Membership was offered to Negroes only after they had success 
fully won their places against unions and the pledges of membership gen 
erally broken by the white members. . - . . 

. . . When the present investigation was made . . . very few 
Negroes could be found who had recently applied to the unions for ad 
mission. . . . The . . . investigator . . . found a very pro 
nounced opinion prevalent among the Negroes that they were not welcome 
in the unions. Now instead of applying for admission to the unions, the 
Negroes take for granted that the unions are hostile and they do not seek 
to join. 

This attitude has the effect of preventing many Negroes from at 
tempting to follow their trade. The newcomer who has probably worked 
at the trade of a carpenter in the South is informed as soon as he reaches 
the state that he cannot work at his trade because of the hostility of the 
labor unions. Having probably heard this also before he left the South, 
after a desultory search he gives up under the impression that the union 
is the cause of his inability to get work at his trade. The fact, however, 
is that it is not always the union as much as the increased competition 
and higher standard of efficiency of the more complex community into 
which he has come. 

The leaders of the labor movement both in Pittsburg and in Philadel 
phia are agreed that there is in theory no hostility on the part of the 
union against the Negro. Most of them see clearly what a disadvantage 

Some Results of the Attitude of Unions 

109 

to the labor movement it would be to have Negroes hostile to the move 
ment or the movement hostile to the Negroes. They complain that the 
Negroes have been used in many instances to injure their cause and they 
know that, with increasing intelligence and skill, Negroes will be more 
capable of retarding the movement for the uplift of labor. Most labor 
leaders have to contend very largely with mediocre intelligence and often 
gross ignorance amongwhite men; with greed and selfishness, with human 
nature as it is. They claim that as the ordinary white man who joins the 
Christian church is not revolutionized in his idea about the Negro, so the 
one who joins the union probably has undergone but little change in re 
gard to the Negro. They point out also that non-union white men are as 
averse to working with Negroes as union white men. At any rate as 
the situation now is the majority of Negroes are non-union and will 
probably so remain until they develop enough strength independently so 
that they can be of more definite help or hindrance to the union cause. 
By keeping Negroes out of the trades competition is lessened for the men 
in the union. As long as Negroes wait to be invited in by the unions 
they will remain outside. Only by succeeding in spite of the indifference 
of the union and even its occasional hostility can Negroes hope to be 
recognized. 

The situation in New York City is discussed by both Miss 
Ovington and Dr. Haynes, whose interesting and valuable 
works have been referred to in former pages. Miss Ovington 
says:1 

To the colored man who has overcome race prejudice sufficiently to 
be taken into a shop with white workmen the walking delegate who 
appears and asks for his union card seems little short of diabolical; and 
all the advantages that collective bargaining has secured, the higher 
wage and shorter working day, are forgotten by him. I have heard the 
most distinguished of Negro educators, listening to such an incident as 
this, declare that he should like to see every labor union in America de 
stroyed. But unionism has come to stay, and the colored man who is 
asked for his card had better at once get to work and endeavor to secure 
it. Many have done this already and organized labor in New York, its 
leaders tell us, receives an increasing number of colored workmen. Miss 
Helen Tucker, in a careful study of Negro craftsmen in the West Sixties, 
found among one hundred and twenty-one men who had worked at their 
trades in the city, thirty-two, or twenty-six per cent in organized labor. 
The majority of these had joined in New York. Eight men out of the 
one hundred and twenty-one had applied for entrance to unions and 
not been admitted. This does not seem a discouraging number, tho we 
do not know whether the other eighty-one could have been organized or 

1Ovington, M.W.: Half a Man, pp. 95-98. 

* 

 & ii 

110 

The Negro American Artisan 

not. Many probably were not sufficiently competent workmen. In 1910, 
according to the best information that I cculd secure, there were one 
thousand three hundred and fifty-eight colored men in the New York 
unions. Eighty of these were in the building trades, one hundred and 
sixty-five were cigar makers, four hundred were teamsters, three hundred 
and fifty asphalt workers and two hundred and forty rock drillers and 
tool sharpeners. 

Negroes in Unions—New York City 

Occupations 

Asphalt workers ... ....... 

Rock drillers and tool sharpeners . , 
Cigar makers ...... ... ... 

Waiters ....,,, 
Carpenters . . . . . 

Double drum holsters ...... 
Safety and portable engineers . . 
Eccentric firemen ....... 
Letter carriers . . 
Pressmen . . ... 
Printers .... 
Butchers . ... 

Coopers ....... . . . 
Sheet metal workers . . 
Rockmen ..... ... 

Total 

1906 

320 
300 

250 
121 

90 

90 
60 

30 
28 
15 
10 
10 
6 
3 
3 

q 

i 
i 
i 

1,385 

1910 

350 
400 

240 
165 

40 ' 
19 

37 
35 
0 
30 

8 
3 

2 
1 

1,358 

Entrance to some of the local organizations is more easily secured 
than to others, for the trade union, while part of a federation, is autono 
mous or nearly so. In some of the highly skilled trades, to which few 
colored men have the necessary ability to demand access, the Negro is 
Mkely to be refused, while the less intelligent and well paid forms of labor 
press a union card upon him. Again strong organizations in the South, 
as the brick-layers, send men North with union membership who easily 
transfer to New York locals. Miss Tucker finds the carpenters, masons 
and plasterers' organizations easy for the Negro to enter. There is in 
New York a colored local, the only colored local in the city, among a few 
of the carpenters with regular representation in the Central Federated 
Union. The American Federation of Labor in 1881 declared that "the 
working people must unite irrespective of creed, color, sex, nationality or 
politics." This cry is for self-protection, and where the Negroes have 
numbers and ability in a trade their organization becomes important to 
the white, [t may be fairly said of labor organization in New York that 
it finds and is at times unable to destroy race prejudice, but that it does 
not create it. 

The following account is gleaned from the circumstances 
in the recent New York hotel situation, at which time Negroes 

f 

Some Results of the Attitude of Unions 

111 

were called in to take the places of striking white waiters. 
Tho not dealing primarily with Negro skilled laborers, it is 
illustrative of the relation existing between the Negro and 
organized labor.1 

Now that the strike is in progress, representatives of the Interna 
tiona! Hotel Workers hasten to say that they are not interested in the 
betterment of conditions for the white man alone, but that also they want 
to help the colored man. This statement, coming just at this time, is 
received by the colored waiters "with a grain of salt." The men recall 
what took place among the colored molders of Chattanooga some time 
ago. The white molders struck and colored men were put at the strikers' 
work. Whereupon the white men took the Negroes into their union. 
Shortly after this the colored molders, one by one, found that they were 
losing their jobs until all the Negroes had been replaced by the original 
strikers. Soon after these events a similar situation arose in Louisville 
and the colored molders who had lost their jobs in Chattanooga were given 
the jobs of the striking molders in Louisville. Immediately, as in Chatta 
nooga, the white men offered to take the Negroes into their union, but 
this time the Negroes refused absolutely to enter into negotiations with 
them. The result was that the colored men kept those jobs. 

In the present situation in New York there seems to have been little 
or no attempt on the part of the International Hotel Workers to bring 
the Negroes into this organization. To be sure Negroes are not rejected 
by the union and there are possibly two hundred and fifty colored mem 
bers, but they seem to have gained little for themselves or their racial 
group by this membership. Even tho he is a union member the Negro is 
not permitted to work with white waiters; he can get a job only where 
all the waiters belong to his own color group. 

The colored men who are taking the white men's places are being 
paid the same amount, three dollars a day, which the white men had been 
receiving. 

The Holders' International Union of America, which has 
made a long fight for excluding Negroes from membership, is 
considering the question of admitting them. In their last 
convention one speaker said: 

The Negro has demonstrated that he is a capable mechanic and is 
quite able to fill the place of the white laborer. The southern foundry 
managers are making capital out of the race prejudice between the white 
and the colored molders and if we do not raise the colored worker to our 
standard he will drag us down to his. 

We can hardly find language strong enough to express our opinion of 

'Special investigation made for the Conference. 

t. 

 i,—.*. 

112 

The Negro American Artisan 

the feudal lords when we consider the days when the laborer was bot and 
sold with the land. Our evolution from a condition of slavery to the free 
dom that we now enjoy was slow, but we now withhold our aid from the 
Negro, who is trying to gain the same freedom. 

How can you get the Negro organized unless you are willing to meet 
with him? His interests are identical with yours. Everyone knows that 
this condition will have to be met, yet some of us want to postpone the 
day and let others take the responsibility. Do not let your race preju 
dice warp your judgment. 

We find the following observation in the "Negro Year 
Book, 1912:"1 

Negroes during the year made gains in the field of organized labor. 
At the 1910 annual meeting of the National Council of the American Federa 
tion of Labor a resolution was unanimously passed inviting Negroes and 
all other races into the Labor Federation. The officers of the Federation 
were instructed to take measures to see that Negro workmen as well as 
workmen of other races were brot into the unions. Following out this 
policy steps were taken to unionize the Negro working in the Pittsburg 
district. At New Orleans in October the Negro longshoremen were ad 
mitted to the International Longshoremen's Union. T. V. O'Connor, 
president of the International Union, was present and in his address urged 
fair play between white and black laborers. He said: "We are not going 
to take up social equality but we can if we achieve the proper organiza 
tion bring about industrial equality. To you colored men I will say that 
the white man is ready and willing to assist you to get the same wages 
and working conditions that he enjoys, but you must stand ready to assist 
yourselves." 

The following interesting passages, illustrative of the 
better attitude towards Negro workers, are taken from "An 
Appeal to Timber and Lumber Workers," by Jay Smith, sec 
retary Brotherhood of Timber Workers: 

The constitution of the Brotherhood of Timber Workers declares our 
purpose to be the organization of all wage workers employed in and 
around the timber and lumber industry into one big union regardless of 
creed, color or nationality. .... 

Failing to split the workers' forces on craft lines, the next cry raised 
by the bosses and their stool pigeons is the "Negro question," and so we 
are often asked how will the Brotherhood handle the Negro and the white 
men in the same organization. Answer: How do the capitalists or 
employers handle them? 

To the employer a working man is nothing but a profit-producing 
animal and he doesn't care a snap of his finger what the animal's color 

1Work, Monroe N.: The Negro Year Book, 1912, pp. 18-19. 

f 

Some Results of the Attitude of Unions 

113 

is—white, black, red, brown or yellow; native or foreign born, religious 
or unreligious—so long as he (the worker) has strength enough to keep 
the logs coming and the lumber going—that is all the bosses want or ask. 
It is only when we see the slaves uniting, when all other efforts to divide 
the workers on the job have failed, that we hear a howl go up as to the 
horrors of "social equality." Not until then do we really know how 
sacred to the boss and his hirelings is the holy doctrine of "white 

supremacy." 

This is always the tactics of the bosses: First, prevent the workers 
from organizing any kind of union; failing in this, split them on craft lines 
into as many so-called unions as possible, each with a separate contract 
expiring on a different date with sympathetic strikes strictly prohibited; 
and, then, failing in this, appeal to their race and religious hatred, for, if 
the bosses can divide the workers, the bosses can win every time; but if 
the bosses cannot divide the workers then the workers will win, and win, 
and win until there are no more bosses. In fighting the workers the age 
long motto of the bosses has been: "Divide and conquer." .... 

As far as the "Negro question" goes it means simply this: Either 
the whites organize with the Negroes or the bosses will organize the Ne 
groes against the whites, in which last case it is hardly up to the whites 
to damn the "niggers." .... 

As to the "race question": Once upon a time a butcher threw a 
bone out in the alley; a white dog and a black dog made a rush for it, 
reached it at the same time and started a fight for its possession. While 
they were making fools of themselves a big, lazy red dog sneaked up, 
grabbed the bone and lit out with it. The white dog was a "white 
supremacy" sucker, the black dog was a "social equality" sucker and 
the red dog that got the bone was one of those gentlemen who in one 
breath call the timber and lumber workers "pals" and "freemen" and 
in the next threaten to shut down the mills and starve the workers to 
death if they dare to think and act for themselves—in other words, a 
capitalist, a boss. 

An officer of the Free Federation of Workingmen of Porto 
Rico, a union affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, 
who visited America recently as a delegate to the convention 
of the Federation, makes an interesting reply to the Con 
ference: 

. . . . 1 must say emphatically that there is not such a struggle 
of color distinction in our country. We have, of course, the universal 
distinction of classes. 

Here a person is worth nothing in the commercial, industrial or pro 
fessional life if he has not sufficient intelligence and money. Money and 

f 

& 

 114 

The Negro American Artisan 

intelligence, without regard to the color, are the real forces moving the 
whole mechanism of our society, may a man be white or colored, red or 
yellow. .... 

The working shop, the university, the theater, the library, the social 
hall and every institution that promotes the welfare of mankind and the 
happiness of the spirit, are here opened to all men in accordance with 
their financial positions. 

Our labor movement has more ideal than material basis. The organi 
zations in America are fighting for greater salary, less hours and sanitary 
conditions; the Latin worker follows the brilliant ideal of founding socie 
ties and nations upon the rock of fraternity and absolute harmony to secure 
the real emancipation, may it be social, economical or political. Our 
struggles are noticed by two opposing bands: those who are rich and well 
fed and those who are poor and misfortunate; those who oppress and those 
who are oppressed. 

The distinction of races, the social and political differences are doing 
nothing but dividing mankind into opposite groups to bring forth the 
Universal War. The only place in the world where a man is superior to 
another on account of skin, is the United States of America. No other 
country has such an inferior war, such an unchristian fight, tho it is true 
that the Americans have a deep love for liberty, that they have admira 
ble institutions, a great commercial development and a monument of 
rights unsurpassed in the world, i. e., the constitution that declares that 
all men are equal, that they possess certain inalienable rights to work 
and promote their welfare, but this constitution and all the free institu 
tions of the American people and the splendorous sun of their liberty is 
totally eclipsed by the barbarous struggle of races with the inhuman 
division of the white and the black. 

"America, the cradle of liberty, is being the theater of the most bar 
barous and atrocious war." This is what they say in Europe among the 
Latin and Saxon races of that old continent. It is what they say in J apan, 
even in China, in India and in Northern Africa, where, as you know, the 
first civilization was born. .... 

I certainly regret that I have had to extend these remarks, but I was 
compelled to do it because your letter shows that you have the idea that 
in Porto Rico exists the same hateful distinction of races. I wanted to 
give you the right idea. We have struggles between the rich and the 
poor, between capital and labor. 

Hoping that this information may give you some light and help in the 
work initiated by Atlanta University, and hoping also that the division 
of races in some of the southern states may soon cease, I beg to 
remain, Yours in humanity, 

I 

I 

The Training of Negro American Artisans 

Section 33. The Training of Negro American Artisans 

The success of the man who labors with his hands, even as 
the success of any other worker, depends in no small degree 
upon his training and his capability for the work to be per 
formed. The question of fitness is the determining factor 
under a truly competitive economic system and in the long 
run all other superficial barriers must pale into insignificance. 
This will be more and more apparent in the case of the Negro 
worker as the superficial barriers of race and color are done 
away with and he is allowed to enter unhampered into the 
fair field of economic competition. 

In a social study of the Negro American artisan the ques 
tion of the training of these workers is of vital importance. 
The Negro artisans studied were asked: How did you learn 
your trade? The answers to this question fall into three 
heads: (1) By apprenticeship (41 per cent.); (2) Picked up 
trade (37 per cent.); (3) Attended trade school (21 per 
cent).1 Many of the best and most successful of the Negro 
artisans are among those who come under the first two 
classes, those who learned their trades under the system of 
apprenticeship and those who "picked up" their trades. 
Numerous evidences of this fact may be seen both in ante 
bellum days and during the years that have passed since 

emancipation. 

Recent years have witnessed a marked increase of interest 
in industrial school training for Negroes. Most of the higher 
institutions of learning as well as the secondary schools for 
Negroes have included industrial courses in their curricula. 
The following tables, compiled from the Report of the United 
States Commissioner of Education for 1911, give statistics 
for those secondary and higher schools for the Negro race 
that had students enrolled in the industries: 

1 These percentage figures apply to the artisans making- reply to the Conference question 
naire and not to all the Negro American artisans. Taking- all Negro artisans the percentage 
figures for the first two classes would be larger. The third class would show a smaller per 
centage. 

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116 

The Negro American Artisan 

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Secondary and Higher Schools for Negroes having Students in industries-, t910=H 

LOCATION 

New Jersey 

Bordentown , 

North Carolina 

Burgaw .... 
Edenton . . . 

Enfleld .... 
Fayetteville. . . 
Franklinton ... 

Greensboro 
High Point .... 
Kings Mountain . . 
Lumberton . . 
Newbern . . . 
Oxford . 

Raleigh , ... 
Raleigh , 
Sedalia , . ... 
Wilmineton .... 
Winston-Salem . . 
Winton .... 

Ohio 

Wilberforce. . 

South Carolina 

Aiken . . 
Chester , . 

Columbia ..... 
Cowpens .... 
Greenville . , 
Greenwood . . 
Greer ... 

NAME OF SCHOOL 

Manual Training and Industrial School 

Burgaw Normal and Industrial School .... 
Edenton Normal and Industrial School . . . 

Joseph Keasby Brick Ag., Ind. and Nor. Sch. 
State Colored Normal School ....... 
Albion Academy, Nor. and Ind. School 

Ag. and Mech. College for the Colored Race . 
High Point Nor. and Ind. Institute . 
Lincoln Academy . ........ 

Thompson Institute ... ....... 
Newbern Collegiate Industrial Institute . 
Mary Potter Memorial School 

St. Augustine's School .... 
Shaw University ..... 
Palmer Memorial Institute . . 
Gregory Normal Institute . .... 
Slater Industrial and State Normal School . . 
Water's Normal Institute . . ....... 

Wilberforce University . . . 

Behofield Normal and Industrial Institute . . 
Brainerd Institute ..... . . ... 

Alien University ......... 
Providence Nor., Ag. and Ind. School .... 
Sterling Normal and Industrial College . . 
Brewer Normal School ......... 
Bailey View Academy . 

^ 

1 

h| 

142 

250 
115 

279 
327 
323 

359 
502 
272 
169 
150 
429 

389 
549 
123 
280 
395 
245 

313 

500 
223 

685 
317 
160 
593 
105 

•SB 

if 

31 

142 

145 
115 

223 
187 
323 

268 
110 
110 
122 
150 
389 

339 

300 
70 
157 
184 
58 

201 

211 

40 
141 
95 
279 
105 

S 1 

s I'l 

t2 "^ 
s 

$ 90,000 

10,000 
10,000 

127,0 • 
28,000 
45,OnO 

122.4S3 
35,000 
20,000 
10,500 
75,000 
35,000 

38,000 
260,000 
19,000 
10,000 
25,000 
20,000 

300,000 

75,0"0 
50,00'J 

200,00 . 
10,000 
28,000 
42,501 
3,825 

INCOME, 1910-1911 

Gifts 

$ 

1,000 
2,900 

42,000 

5,000 

^ 

if 

$ 22,000 

600 

3,333 

' 14,350 
2,490 
180 

210 

6,'cob 

225 

16,000 

350 

400 

S 

.0 

's 

$ . . 

75 
360 

9JO 

716 
22 
300 
500 
2,500 
280 

' 10,449 

1,500 
330 
233 

3,335 

700 

'5,bob 
150 
1,128 
1,009 
25 

+i 

1 

$ , . . 

'aoob 

2,040 
1,422 

60 

1,724 

3,000 

to 

il 

$ 

2,000 
600 

' 10,000 

13,473 

2,948 
l.O&O 

8,500 
5,100 

15,951 
17,209 
4,000 
700 

'2,040 

15,450 

4,000 

' 32,000 
900 
1,414 
4,000 
766 

Total 

$ 22,000 

2,675 
980 

8,900 
3,333 
10,01 0 

28,539 
2,512 
3,378 
1,580 
11,000 
5,380 

17,991 
29,080 
5,270 
5,100 
6,330 
2,498 

78,509 

13,050 

' 37,000 
1,450 
2,542 
5,009 
791 

OD 

H 
a 

a 

5' 

SB 

So. Carolina— Cont'd 

Lancaster 
Mayesville . . . 
Mount Pleasant . . 
Orangeburg . . 
Orangeburg ... 
Rock Hill ..... 
Rock Hill . . . . 

Tennessee 

Cleveland . ... 
Jackson . . ... 
Knoxville . ... 
Memphis ..... 
Morristown . . . 
Nashville ..... 

Nashville ..... 
Shelbyville . , . 

Texas 

Austin .- . . 

Austin . . . 
Croekett 

Ladonia (R. 1) . . 
Marshall ..... 

Prairie View . . 
Seguin 

Tyler . . . 
Tyler .... 

Virginia 

Cambria ..... 
Claremont . ... 
Dinwiddie. , . 
Hampton .... 
Lawrenceville . . . 
Norfolk . . . . 
Ozeana ...... 

Petersburg .... 
Richmond . ... 
Richmond ..... 

West Virginia 

Harper's Ferry . . 
Institute ..... 

Lancaster Nor. and Ind. Institute ...... 
Mayesville Educational and Ind. Institute . . 
Laing Normal and Industrial School .... 
Claflin University ... ..... 
Colored Normal, Ind., Ag. and Mech. College 
Clinton Normal and Industrial College . . . 
Friendship Normal and Industrial College. . 

Cleveland Academy . 
Lane College ... 
Knoxville College ... 
Le Moyne Normal Institute .... 
Morristown Normal and Industrial College . 
Fisk University ........... ... 

Walden University ... 
Turner Normal College • • 

Samuel Huston College 

Tillottson College . . ... 
Mary Alien Seminary ........ 

Farmers' Improvement Society Ag. College . 
Wiley University . . ............ 

Prairie View State Nor. and Ind. College . . 
Guadalupe College ...... ....... 

East Texas Academy . . . 
Phillips University 

Christiansburg Industrial Institute ..... 
Temperance, Indust. and Collegiate Inst. . , 
Dinwiddie Ag. and Ind. School ....... 
Hampton Normal and Agricultural Inst. 
St. Paul Normal and Industrial School . 
Norfolk Mission College . . ... 
Rappahannock Industrial Academy ..... 

Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute . . 
Hartshorn Memorial College ... 
Virginia Union University . . 

Storer College ........ 
West Virginia Colored Institute . 

315 
511 
340 
683 
584 
884 
395 

117 
310 
427 
702 
324 
479 

733 
129 

381 

312 

228 

90 
603 

860 
161 

185 
366 

297 
421 
66 
1,399 
529 
634 
73 

605 
21 

24 

20 
26 

98 
418 
104 
683 
584 
75 
90 

115 
243 
212 
702 
240 
305 

140 
92 

80 

251 
228 

90 
375 

860 
161 

160 
100 

78 
281 
66 
1,399 
214 
233 
73 

605 
187 
60 

20 
23 

$ 13,000 
24,950 
3,000 
300,000 
260,000 
12,000 
20,000 

5,000 
85,000 
180,000 
55,000 
100,000 
337,812 

147,780 
8,500 

48,650 

50,000 

15,000 
200,000 

256,750 
65,000 

20,000 
100,000 

75,000 

' 31,000 
1,080,010 
161,023 
92,000 
6,000 

197,000 
100,000 
300,000 

75,000 
104,955 

$ . . . 
3,0" 

6,000 

'4,378 
3,091 

'3,750 

' 45,000 

'128,827 
35 

1,00(1 

$ 805 
250 
800 

' 19,000 
305 
250 

' 10,350 
250 

30,000 

635 
' 21,000 

2,500 
33,550 

$ 286 

5o:> 

75 
6,172 

350 
2,000 

'1,350 
2,100 
5,085 
1,886 
9,766 

31,967 
120 

2,537 

' io.bob 

480 
2,525 

1 io,'oo'< 

850 
2,300 

232 
1,497 
2,860 

'3,203 
2,400 
484 

8,63P 
2,411 
2,289 

472 
265 

$ 1,240 
3,021 
251 

io'o 

500 
3,470 

'2,707 

1,758 
575 

'2,000 
5,000 

250 

'103,699 

1,417 

3,500 

2,096 

1,508 
4,462 
2,000 
26,218 
8,146 
845 

2,800 
5,000 
12,500 
3,2' >7 
14,590 
46,498 

8,755 
2,605 

10,834 

331 

1,000 
3,900 

'1,269 

2,500 
10,000 

6,500 
1,784 
2,150 
152,462 
30,544 
12,780 
1,088 

5,619 
18,000 

8,000 
9000 

$ 3,839 
11,233 
3,126 
38,390 
27,146 
1,500 
2,250 H 

n 

2,300 i 
6,450 ~ 
25,450 B> 
12,012 S" 
20,854 B. 
62,057 3 

42,480 °3 
7,050 o 

>-~ 

13,371 £ 

' io.'ss'i "* 

1,480 0 
6,425 s. 

32,000 £* 
16,269 3 

3,350 n 
12,300 3 . 
O 

BJ 

7,617 3 
48,281 1> 
5,010 % 
384,988 a. 
35,199 » 
15,180 S 
1,572 g 
24,637 

8,030 
23,789 

14,068 
42,815 — 

 \ 

cf 

120 

The Negro American Artisan 

The industrial courses offered in these schools are as 
follows: 

Industry 
Carpentry ......... 

Dressmaking and Sewing . . 
Blacksmithing: and Forging: . . 
Printing; ...... ... 

Cooking ....... 

Mechanical Drawing: . . . 

Tailoring: . 

Millinery . 

Painting: . . ... 

Shoe and Harness Repairing: 
Wheelwrig:hting: ..... 

Bricklaying: ......... . . 

Plastering: ...... 

Laundering: ... ......... 

Sheet Metal and Machine Shop Work 
Electrical Engineering . 
Plumbing:....... 

Up_holstery . . 
Brickmaking: ..... 

Steam Engineering: . . 
Basketry ......... 

Broom Making: , . . , , 
Tinsmithing: ...... 

Mattress Making: ... 
Mechanical Engineering 

Number of 
Schools Offering: 

35 

30 

24 

23 
. . 23 

18 

14 

14 

13 

12 

12 

12 

12 

10 
7 

How far are these courses preparing and how far are they 
designed to prepare Negro youth for the organized industry of 
the South? During the twenty years from 1880 to 1900 there 
was in the South a relative decrease in the importance of 
agricultural and personal service and a large increase in trade 
and transportation, manufacturing and professions. The 
theory of the industrial training of Negro youth is that 
Negroes should be trained to take skilled and intelligent part 
in this development of trade and transportation and manu 
facturing. How far is this true in application? 

If we carefully scan the list of industries taught we may 
divide them into: 

(1) Repair work and tinkering. 

(2) House work. 

(3) Trades and industries. 

In nearly all cases the following courses are training simply 
in repair work and tinkering: 

Carpentry. 

Blacksmithing and forging. 

Tailoring. 

Shoe and harness repairing. 

Wheelwrighting. 

Sheet metal and machine shop work. 

Plumbing. 

Upholstering. 

Tinsmithing. 

Mattress making. 

The Training of Negro American Artisans 

121 

Modern wood-working involves elaborate machinery and 
training in machine methods. In nearly all these schools 
"carpentry" is confined to hand tools and bench work. 
Blacksmithing and forging are taught by the simplest tools 
and not by modern power methods. Tailoring is not taught 
as modern garment making but as individual cutting and 
mending. Shoe repairing is taught but there is but little or 
no use made of shoe making machinery which is universally 
in vogue. Wheels and wagons are made chiefly by hand and 
at a cost which would make competition with machine made 
wagons impossible. The same thing is true of most of the 
other industries. Negro youth are being taught the technique 
of a rapidly disappearing age of hand work. The training 
has undoubtedly good physical and mental results but if used 
as a means of livelihood it will command the poor and 
decreasing wages of tinkers and repairers; and those who 
follow these methods will be completely shut out of modern 
machine industry. 

Happily there are some exceptions to this general rule. 
At Hampton, Tuskegee, Wilberforce and a few other schools 
machine industry along modern lines is being taught in some 
branches of wood-working and metal-working. For the most 
part, however, the courses offered in this division are not 
modern or remunerative. 

The next group comprises the house industries,—dress 
making, sewing, cooking and laundering. Here we see little 
of settled idea or aim. These subjects might be taught with 
the idea of training the mistresses of small homes, or with 
the idea of training servants in rich homes, or with the idea 
of making professional cooks and dress makers. These three 
aims call for widely different courses of study. Usually, 
however, a single course is laid down, the aim of training 
servants is widely advertised and the net result is dubious. 
The third set of industries taught comprises the following: 
Printing, mechanical drawing, millinery, painting, bricklay 
ing, plastering, brickmaking, mechanical engineering, both 
steam and electric, basketry and broommaking. 

f 

 Na 

122 

The Negro American Artisan 

In the case of printing, brickmaking and broommaking 
there is the same difficulty as in the first group, save that 
here hand work is still in fair demand. The linotype and the 
monotype have not as yet displaced the hand typesetter, and 
brickmaking and broommaking by hand are still able to com 
pete with machines. Nevertheless a proper training in the 
industries cannot long omit machine teaching. In the case 
of bricklaying hand work seems secure. Still, re-inforced 
cement work should receive attention. In drawing, painting 
and basketry industry touches upon the work of the artist 
and in this field these schools need strengthening. The 
Negro is humanly the artist and yet little is being done to 
develop his sensitive perceptions. 

The engineering courses are nearly all misnamed, being 
much too short and elementary to deserve the larger desig 
nation. 

To sum up: The industrial school is facing an age of 
machinery. The teaching of mere hand work, save in limited 
amounts and for educative purposes, is not training for 
modern industry. The machine equipment for the larger 
teaching is expensive; but how, for example, can modern 
printing be taught without the linotype and the cylinder 
press, and how can modern shoemaking be taught without 
shoemaking machines? These are the difficult problems 
facing Negro industrial schools. 

The whole plan of study in these schools needs overhaul 
ing. Simply to accept the fact that schools should train for 
practical vocations and then put in any industries taught any 
way is not enough. Modern plants are necessary for the 
teaching of modern industry and intelligent common school 
training must precede it. It is possible that the different 
schools could specialize. One might give instruction in 
mechanical engineering and have a complete and modern 
machine shop; another could have woodworking with the 
complete and modern machinery necessary for the same. 
Certainly the present incomplete makeshifts cannot long 
survive. 

The Training of Negro American Artisans 

123 

The soundness of this criticism is shown by the results of 
industrial teaching. Hampton has given four hundred and 
sixty-seven trade certificates. Of these one hundred and 
sixty-nine are following their trades, thirty-eight are still 
studying, and sixty-three are teaching their trades. It would 
seem then that economic industrial demand was at present 
sufficient to absorb between thirty-six per cent and forty- 
nine 1 per cent of those trained at the best Negro trade 

school. 

A recent publication from Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee, 

Alabama, makes the following observation: 

Almost two-thirds of its 1,508 graduates and three-fourths of its 
12,000 former students are directly or indirectly engaged in some form 
of industrial work. ... Three hundred and seventy-four 
persons, 173 graduates and 201 former students have been considered. 
They were distributed in the trades as follows: 2 bakers, 33 blacksmiths 
and wheelwrights, 5 bookkeepers, 56 brickmasons, 1 cabinetmaker, 42 
carpenters, 2 carriage makers, 1 chauffeur, 1 cook, 1 cooking demon 
strator, 1 cotton classer, 5 in domestic service, 31 dressmakers, 3 sta 
tionary engineers, 8 electricians, 1 elevator operator, 4 firemen, 9 har- 
nessmakers, 1 hostler, 5 janitors, 1 laundress, 3 laundrymen, 9 machinists, 
10 miners, 3 molders, 42 trained nurses, 11 painters, 6 plumbers, 10 
printers, 3 sawmill workers, 19 shoemakers, 26 tailors, 8 tinsmiths, and 
2 woodturners. . . . One hundred and two graduates and 
former students are carrying on business in connection with trades. Five 
are architects, one is in the bakery business, eighteen are conducting 
blacksmithing and wheelwrighting businesses, eighteen are in the con 
tracting and building business, one is in the electrical business, one in 
the florist business, eleven are milliners, five are in the printing business, 
eight in the shoemaking business, and two are in the tinsmithing business. * 

f An examination of the catalogs of other industrial 
schools reveals the following facts concerning the number of 
graduates and those of them at present following trades:8 

1 According as one does not or does count those teaching trades as following their trades. 
There is argument on both sides. 

s Work, Monroe N. Industrial Work of Tuskegee Graduates and Former Students. Pages 
5, 25, 28. 

3 These tables are not exhaustive. However, the figures of present occupations are taken 
from the replies of the schools to the Conference questionnaire or compiled from the lists of 
graduates contained in the catalogs. 

\ 

,1 

=1 A 

y A 

/ 

-V 

 pro*, 

Cf 

124 

The Negro American Artisan 

Alabama 

TALLADEGA COLLEGE 
Total graduates 

Carpenters ... 
Masons ... 
Engineers . 
Dressmakers ..... 

BURRELL NORMAL SCHOOL 
Total graduates . 

Drt ssmakers . . 

Tailors (app) . 

LINCOLN NORMAL SCHOOL 
Total graduates . ... 

Blacksmiths . . 

Painters . . 

Masons . . . 
Plasterers . . 
Dressmakers . 
Tailors . . 

PAYNE UNIVERSITY 
Total graduates . . , ( 
Seamstresses ....... 

Blacksmiths ... . . _ 

Florida 

PENSACOLA NORMAL AND 

INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL 
Total graduates . 

Carpenters . . 

Dressmakers ..... 

ROBT. HUNGERFORD NORMAL 
AND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL 

Total graduates . 
Carpenters . , 
Blacksmiths .... 
Dressmakers . . . 
Printers ... 

THE FLORIDA A. & M. COLLEGE 

Total graduates . , 

Dressmakers ...... 

Carpenters . . . -. .... 

Masons , . , , , , , . 
Tailors ......... 

Printers ........ 

Georgia 

ATLANTA UNIVERSITY 
Total graduates . . 
Dressmakers . 

MORRIS BROWN COLLEGE 

Total graduates . 

Dressmakers . 
Tailors . . 

FT. VALLEY HIGH AND 
INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL 

Total graduates . ... 
Dressmakers 
Machinists . 
Masons . . . 
Carpenters .... 

SPELMAN SEMINARY 

Total graduates . .... 
Dressmakers , . , , , 

Milliners ......... 

5 

1 

3 

1 
3 
2 

: . '. '. . 31 

. . . . 1 

400 

154 

678 

349 

5U 

416 

BALLARD NORMAL SCHOOL 

Total graduates . ... . 227 

Carpenters . . . . . . 1 

Tailors ... 1 
Dressmakers . 2 

ATLANTA BAPTIST COLLEGE 
Total graduates . . . 355 
Carpenters . . 1 

SELDON INSTITUTE 

Total graduates .... . — 

Carpenters ... 4 

Painters ... . .3 

Masons ... .7 

Plasterers . 5 

Dressmakers ... . ... 14 

Coopers ... 2 

Tailors 6 

ALLEN NORMAL AND 
INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL 

Total graduates ...... . . 55 

Dressmakers . . ..... 2 

Shoemakers . 1 

SANDERSVILLE INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL 

Total graduates ......--. — 

Carpenters .,....,, 4 

Engineers .......... 4 

Painters . . 4 

Blacksmiths 3 

Shoemakers . . . . . . 2 

Plasterers . 6 

Masons .... . . 10 

Dressmakers . . . . 12 

Tailors ....... 2 

Kansas 

WESTERN UNIVERSITY AND 
STATE INDUSTRIAL DEPT. 

Total graduates . . . 244 
Shirtmakers . 1 
Dressmakers . 7 
Tailors ... .4 
Carpenters . . . . .1 

Louisiana 

STRAIGHT UNIVERSITY 

Total graduates ... 439 
Dressmakers . . 1 
Contractors . .... ... 1 

Carpenters . 1 

SABINE NORMAL AND 

INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTE 

Total graduates ... . . —— 

Carpenters . .15 

Masons ... . .3 

Firemen... .1 

Dressmakers . . 14 

Blacksmiths . . 2 

Shoemakers........ .5 

Iron and Steel Workers . . . 1 

Brickmasons ... 3 

Painters.... 4 

Plasterers. .3 

Tailors . 4 

The Training of Negro American Artisans 

Mississippi 

LINCOLN SCHOOL 

Total graduates . . 
Carpenters ... 
Dressmakers 
Painters. . . 
Plasterers. . . 

ALCORN A. & M. COLLEGE 

Total graduates . 
Carpenters ... 
Shoemakers . 
Cabinet Makers . - 
Mechanics ...... 

Painters .... - 

Tailors . . 

MERIDIAN ACADEMY 

Total graduates . 

Dressmakers . . 

Milliners . . ..... 

Mechanics . . . . , - - 

469 

.1 

t 

CAMPBELL COLLEGE 

Total graduates 
Dressmakers . 

North Carolina 

WATERS NORMAL AND 
INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTE 

Total graduates ....... • • 

Dressmakers ..,,..-.. : 

ST. AUGUSTINE'S SCHOOL 

Total graduates ... • • • 
Carpenters . . 
Dressmakers . 
Masons . 

STATE COLORED NORMAL SCHOOL 

Total graduates . . 

Carpenters . . J 

Masons ... 

Shoemakers. . 

Blacksmiths 

Firemen... 

Painters ... 

Tailors ... 

Brickmakers 

Dressmakers 

Plasterers. 

KITTRELL COLLEGE 

Total graduates ..... 
Mechanics ..... 
Seamstresses . 
Printers. ... 

J. K. BRICK AGRICULTURAL, INDUS 
TRIAL AND NORMAL SCHOOL 

Total graduates .... 

Painters . . ..... 

Carpenters ... - - - 

Blacksmiths . 

Dressmakers . ... 

A. & M. COLLEGE 
Total graduates . . . 

Mechanics . . 

Engineers. . 

Tinners . . 

Carpenters . . 

Contractors . 

BIDDLE UNIVERSITY 

Total graduates . 
Mechanics. . . , 
Printers ... ... 

235 

208 

227 

125 

152 

1,075 

ROANOKE COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE 

Total graduates . . 
Painters. . 

HENDERSON NORMAL INSTITUTE 
Total graduates ... 
Carpenters ..... 

187 Ohio 

WlLBERFORCE UNIVERSITY 

Total graduates ....... 

Engineers..... 

Milliners. ..... 

Dressmakers . . . 
48 Carpenters . . 

Brickmasons .... 

South Carolina 

BETTIS ACADEMY 
Total graduates . 

Carpenters . . 

Engineers .... 

Dressmakers . 

Blacksmiths ..... 

Firemen. ..... 

Shoemakers .... 

Tailors .... 

Masons 

Painters . . . 

Plasterers. 

HARBISON COLLEGE 

Total graduates . . 
Carpenters .... 
Blacksmiths.... 
Masons .... 
Shoemakers. . . . . 
Dressmakers 

FRIENDSHIP COLLEGE 

Total graduates . 
Carpenters ... 
Painters .... 

Masons ...... 

Plasterers. . 
Dressmakers 
Tailors. . . 

AVERY INSTITUTE 

Total graduates . 
Carpenters . . 
Tailors .... 
Cabinet Makers . . 
Dressmakers . . . 
Ship Carpenters. 
Machinists . 
Patternmakers 
Electricians . . . 

.12 

. 3 
.37 
.10 
. 1 
3 

. 4 
.25 
. 8 
.13 

. 4 

2 

. 2 

1 
.18 

706 

.o^1 

„ V 

 1 26 The Negro American Artisan 

BENEDICT COLLEGE 

Total graduates . . 

Printers ... 

Carpenters ... 

COLORED NORMAL, INDUSTRIAL, 

AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANIC 

COLLEGE 

Total graduates 
Tailors .... 

Masons .... . 

Blacksmiths . 

Tennessee 

LANE COLLEGE 

Total graduates . 
Carpenters . . . 
Blacksmiths . . . 

Dressmakers 

Iron and Steel Workers . 

KNOXVILLE COLLEGE 

Total graduates . 

Carpenters . . 

Masons . . . 

Dressmakers 

Plasterers ..... 

Blacksmiths ... 
Engineers . . 

Iron and Steel Workers 

Tailors ..... 

Brickmakers 

Firemen ... 

Shoemakers . 

Printers. . . ..... 

FISK UNIVERSITY 

Total graduates . 
Tailors .... 

Painters ... 

Masons ... 
Dressmakers , 

Texas 

587 

L 

. 2 

AL 

527 
2 

7 

. 1 

3 
1 

2 
2 

417 

4 

6 

8 

1 

6 
. 4 
. 4 

. 1 

1 

1 

. 2 

795 
. 1 

. 1 

. 1 

. 6 

GUADALUPE COLLEGE 

Total graduates ... 

Mechanics . 

WILEY UNIVERSITY 

Total graduates . . - 

Painters . . 

Plumbers . 

Dressmakers . 
Carpenters . . 

Brickmakers . 

Masons . . . 
Engineers . 

Firemen . . 

Plasterers . . 

BISHOP COLLEGE 

Total graduates . 
Tailors ... 
Printers . ... 

Virginia 

CHRISTIANSBURG INDUSTRIAL 
INSTITUTE 

Total graduates 

Carpenters . 

Painters . 

Masons . . . 

Dressmakers . 

VIRGINIA NORMAL AND 
INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTE 

Total graduates ........ 

Printers. ........ 

Blacksmiths . . . 

Dressmakers 

Carpenters . 

Tailors. . . 

Milliners. . ... 

West Virginia 

STORER COLLEGE 

Total graduates . 
Dressmakers . . 

Carpenters . 

Masons ... 

Mechanics . . 

. 1 

'. 3 

. 1 

. .36 
. 4 

. 6 

. 6 
. 3 

. 3 

. . 2 

1 

2 

3 

3 

1 

. 1 

1 

1 

3 

. 2 

1 

1 

6 

3 

. . 1 

. . 2 

13(1 

143 

276 

67 

9 6 

439 

PRAIRIE VIEW STATE 

NORMAL AND INDUSTRIAL 
COLLEGE 
Total graduates ....... 

Contractors and Builders . . 
Mechanics..... 

Tailors 

PAUL QUINN COLLEGE 

Total graduates . . 
Printers. . . 

762 

158 

WEST VIRGINIA 

COLORED INSTITUTE 

Total graduates . 
Carpenters 
Engineers. 
Blacksmiths . . 
Dressmakers . . 
Masons 
Painters. ... 

Tailors. ......... 

Iron and Steel Workers . 

274 

The following table showing the number of Negro pupils 
receiving industrial training in the school year 1910-11 is 
taken from the Report of the United States Commissioner of 
Education: 

The Training of Negro American Artisans 
Negro Pupils Receiving Industrial Training, 1910=11 

127 

STATES 

Alabama ... . ... 

Arkansas . . 

Delaware ........ 

District of Columbia . . . . . 

Florida .... 

Georgia . .... 

Indiana . . .... 

Kentucky . ... 

Louisiana . . 

Maryland .... . 

Mississippi . 

Missouri ... 

New Jersey 

North Carolina 

Ohio .... 

Oklahoma . . 

South Carolina . 

Tennessee ... ... 

Texas . . 

Virginia 

West Virginia . 

Total . . 

Male 

2,252 

322 

156 

287 

427 

1,327 

36 

223 

1,386 

132 

1,245 

210 

53 

1,560 

67 

42 

1,314 

861 

730 

1,524 

233 

14,366 

Female 

3,129 

616 

60 

261 

608 

2,531 

20 

316 

1,948 

210 

1,222 

268 

89 

2,457 

144 

18 

1,933 

1,223 

1,637 

2,137 

209 

21,036 

Total 

5,381 

938 

216 

548 

1,035 

3,858 

55 

539 

3,334 

842 

2,467 

478 

142 

4,017 

201 

60 

. 3,247 

2,074 

2,367 

3,661 

442 

35,402 

" U. S. Commissioner of Education, Report of 1911. 

It would seem fair to conclude that from half to two-thirds 
of the Negroes trained in industrial schools do not follow 
their trades. This may be on account of other offers made 
to them, such as teaching in rural schools. However, con 
sidering the poor pay in such competing occupations and the 
rising wages of and growing demand for skilled artisans, one 
cannot help reaching the conclusion that the Negro industrial 
schools are not yet meeting the demands of modern industry. 

Section 34. The Economic Future of the Negro American 

What are the questions in the present problem of the 
economic status of the Negro American? They may be 
summed up in four groups: 

1. The relation of the Negro to city and country. 

The relation of the Negro to group and national economy. 
The influence of race prejudice. 
The question of efficiency. 

City and Country 

A fact of great importance in regard to the economic con 
ditions of the Negro American is his cityward movement. 
According to the Thirteenth Census 2,689,229 or 27.3 per 

2. 

3. 

4. 

.(f 

 fe«o,'.i !l 

lS*n 

-I 
I/ 

128 

The Negro American Artisan 

cent of the Negroes in the United States lived in urban cen 
ters in 1910, a decided increase over 1900. The cityward 
movement of the Negro is explained by:' 

1. The divorce of the Negro from the soil. 

2. The trend of the Negro to industrial and commercial centers. 

3. Secondary or individual causes- 

(a) Attractiveness of urban centers. 

(b) Labor legislation. 

(c) Desire for economic improvement. 

(d) Family relationships. 

(e) Desire to escape from restrictive and oppressive legislation 
and social customs. 

This means an intensifying of the urban economic prob 
lem. This group of 2,689,229 town Negroes presents pre 
eminently all of the economic problems outside of those con 
nected with land holding and agriculture. 

Moreover, the city Negroes include more than a third of 
the intelligent Negroes of the United States and have a rate 
of illiteracy of probably less than 25 per cent. Unquestion 
ably it is in the city that the more intricate problems of 
economic life and race contact are going to be fought out. 
On the other hand, the very presence of seven million Ne 
groes in the country districts makes the economic problem 
there, tho simple in quality, of tremendous proportions in 
quantity and of added significance when we see how the 
country is feeding the city problems. 

Group Economy and National Economy 

Present conditions show that while the force of compe 
tition from without is of tremendous economic importance in 
the economic development of the Negro American it is by no 
means final. In an isolated country the industry of the 
inhabitants can be supported and developed by means of a 
protecting tariff until the country is able to enter into inter 
national trade with fully developed resources; that a similar 
thing can be accomplisht in a group not wholly isolated but 
living scattered among more numerous and richer neighbors 
is often forgotten. There is therefore a double question in 

1 See Haynes, G. E. The Negro at Work in New York City, pp. 13-44. 

The Economic Future of the Negro American 

129 

regard to the Negro's economic advance. The first question 
is: How far is the Negro likely to gain a foothold as one of 
the economic factors in the nation's industrial organization? 
The second is: How far can the Negro develop a group 
economy which will so break the force of race prejudice that 
his right and ability to enter the national economy are 
assured? 

Race Prejudice 

Race prejudice, more than any other single factor, retards 
the Negroes' development in the economic world. Outside 
of all question of ability an American of Negro descent will 
find more or less concerted effort on the part of his white 
neighbors: 

(1) To keep him from all positions of authority. 

(2) To prevent his promotion to higher grades. 

(3) To exclude him entirely from certain lines of industry. 

(4) To prevent him from competing upon equal terms with white 
workingmen. 

(5) To prevent his buying land. 

(6) To prevent his defence of his economic rights and status by the 

ballot. 

Efforts in these directions have been prest with varying 
degrees of emphasis and have had varying degrees of success. 
Yet they must all be taken into account in any economic study 
of the Negro American. Strikes have repeatedly occurred 
against Negro firemen, of whose ability there was no com 
plaint. The white office boy, errand boy, section hand, loco 
motive fireman all have before them the chance to become 
clerk or manager or to rise in railway service. The Negro 
has few such openings. Fully half of the trade unions in the 
United States, counted by numerical strength, exclude 
Negroes from membership and thus usually prevent them 
from working at the trade. Another fourth of the unions 
while admitting a few black men here and there practically 
exclude most of them. In only a few unions, mostly un 
skilled, is the Negro welcomed, as in the case of the miners. 
In a few others the economic foothold of the Negro has been 
good enough to prevent his expulsion, as in some of the 

L 

 l£4 

130 

The Negro American Artisan 

building trades. Agitation to prevent the selling of land to 
Negroes has for a long time been evident over large districts 
of the South and is still spreading. In an Atlanta campaign 
in the not far distant past the most telling cartoon for the 
influence of white voters was one which represented the 
house of a particular candidate in process of erection by black 
men. The black vote was of course disfranchised in this 
contest, as it is in a large part of the South. 

Negro Efficiency 

The last element in the economic condition of the Negro 
is the great question of efficiency. How efficient a laborer is 
the Negro and how efficient can he become with intelligent 
technical training and encouragement? That the average 
Negro laborer today is less efficient than the average Euro 
pean laborer is certain. When, however, you take into 
account the Negro's past industrial training, his present 
ignorance, and the social atmosphere in which he works it is 
not exactly fair to condemn him nor is it easy to say offhand 
what is his possible worth. Certainly increasing intelligence 
has made him increasingly discontented with his conditions 
of work; the determined withdrawing of responsibility from 
the Negro has not increased his sense of responsibility; the 
systematic exploitation of black labor has decreased its 
steadiness and reliability. Notwithstanding all this there 
never were before in the world's history so many black men 
steadily engaged in common and skilled labor as in the case 
of the American Negro. Nor is there today a laboring force 
which seems capable, under judicious guidance, of more 
remarkable development. 

Economic Groups 

The Negroes of America may be divided into three dis 
tinct economic groups: 

(1) The independents—farmers, teachers, clergymen, merchants and 
professional men and women. 

(2) The struggling—artisans, industrial helpers, servants and farm 
tenants. 

(3) The common laborers. 

The Economic Future of the Negro American 
The Independents 

131 

The independents number possibly 300,000 Negroes and 
include 225,000 farmers, 25,000 teachers, 17,000 clergymen, 
15,000 merchants and numbers of professional men and 
women of various sorts. They are separated sharply into a 
rural group of farmers and an urban group and are charac 
terized by the fact that with few exceptions they live by an 
economic service done their own people. This is least true 
in regard to the farmers but even in their case it is approxi 
mately true, for they, to an increasingly large degree, raise 
their own supplies and use their produce as a surplus crop. 
Usually thru this alone do they come into national economy. 
This group is the one that feels the force of outward compe 
tition and prejudice least in its economic life and most in its 
spiritual life. It is the head and front of the group economy 
movement, comprehends the spiritual as well as the economic 
leaders and is bound in the future to have a large and impor 
tant development, Limited only by the ability of the race to 
support it. However, in some respects this group is truly 
vulnerable. Many of the teachers, for instance, depend upon 
educational boards elected by white voters and many depend 
upon philanthropy. There has been concerted action in some 
of the rural districts of the South to drive out the best Negro 
teachers and even in the cities the way of the independent 
black teacher who dares think his own thots is made difficult. 
In many cases Negro teachers under the great philanthropic 
foundations are being continually warned that their bread 
and butter depend on their agreeing with present public 
opinion in regard to the Negro. There is growing up how 
ever, silently, almost unnoticed, a distinct Negro private 
school system officered, taught, attended and supported by 
Negroes. Such private schools have today at least 30,000 
pupils and are growing rapidly—another example of group 
economy as produced by the Negro American. 

If we regard exclusively the urban group of these inde 
pendents we find that the best class of this group is fully 
abreast in education and morality with the great middle class 

 132 

The Negro American Artisan 

of Americans. They have furnisht notable names in liter 
ature, business and professional life and have repeatedly in 
Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Washington and 
other great urban centers proved their right to be treated as 
American citizens on a plane of perfect equality with other 
citizens. Despite this fact and despite the fact, too, that 
this group is numerically small and without much inherited 
wealth, it has been struggling under two overwhelming bur 
dens: First, upon this group has been laid the duty and 
responsibility of the care, guidance and reformation of the 
great stream of black rural immigrants from the South sim 
ply because they happen to be of the same race. There is no 
claim or vestige of a claim that this small city group of risen 
Negroes is responsible for the degradation of the plantation, 
yet upon this small group the great work is placed. In the 
case of other immigrants to our urban centers, each race must 
care for its own and be responsible for its advancement, but 
the helpers are given all aid and sympathy in their undertak 
ings and their hands are upheld. In the case of the Negro 
however, every disability, every legal, social and economic bar 
placed before the new immigrant must be endured by the 
city group on whom the immigrants have been dumped. 
And that group must be judged continually by the worst, 
class of those very immigrants whose uplift is calmly shifted 
by the city at large. 

What is the result? The talented tenth is submerged 
under the wave of immigration. And this is the second bur 
den under which the group has labored. This has been the 
experience in many cities of the North. In the South, how 
ever, the beating back of the leading group has not awaited 
the excuse of immigration. On the general ground of impu 
dence or indolence members of this class of economic and 
social leaders have been repeatedly driven out of the smaller 
towns, while in the larger cities every possible combination 
and tool from the Jim Crow laws to the secret society and the 
boycott has been made time and time again to curtail the 
economic advantages of the members of this class and to 

I 

* 

The Economic Future of the Negro American 

133 

make their daily life so intolerable that they would either 
leave or sink to listless acquiescence. 

What then, in view of these conditions, can this town 
group do in self defence? - It can organize the Negroes about 
it into a self supplying group. This organization is actually 
going on. So far has it gone that in cities like Washington, 
Richmond and Atlanta a Negro family which does not employ 
a Negro physician is in danger of social ostracism; in the 
North this is extending to grocery stores and similar busi 
nesses. Whereas only a few years ago Negroes transacted 
insurance business with white companies, today more than 
half of that business has passed to black companies. 

There are persons who see nothing but the advantages of 
this course. But it has grave disadvantages, too. It in 
tensifies prejudice and bitterness. For example: White 
insurance agents and collectors in the South, for fear of 
white opinion, would not take off their hats when they 
entered Negro homes. The black companies have harpt on 
this, publisht it, called attention to it and actually capitalized 
it into cold cash. Again, this movement narrows the activity 
of the best class of Negroes, withdraws them from much 
helpful competition and contact, perverts and cheapens their 
ideals- in fact provincializes them in thot and deed. Yet it 
is today the only path of economic escape for the most gifted 
class of black men and the development along this line is 
certain to be enormous. 

Turning to the rural group of this independent class the 
Negro land owners are to be considered. Here first one runs 
against one of those traditional statements which pass for 
truth because unchallenged, namely, that it is easy for the 
southern Negro to buy land. The letter of this statement is 
true but the spirit of it is false. There are vast tracts of 
land in the South that anybody, black or white, can buy for 
little or nothing for the simple reason that such tracts are 
worth little or nothing. Eventually these lands will become 
valuable. But they are almost valueless today. For the 
Negro, land to be of any value must have present value for 
he is too poor to wait. Moreover it must be 

 a 

134 

The Negro American Artisan 

The Economic Future of the Negro American 

135 

1. Land which he knows how to cultivate. 

2. Land accessible to a market. 

3. Land so situated as to afford the owner protection. 

There are certain crops which the Negro farmer knows 
how to cultivate; to these can be added certain food supplies. 
Gradually intensive cultivation can be taught but this takes 
a long time. It is idle to compare the South with Belgium or 
France for the agricultural economy of those lands is the 
result of centuries of training aided by a rising market and 
by law and order, while the present agricultural economy of 
the South is but a generation removed from the land murder 
of a slave regime. No graduate of that school knows how to 
make the desert blossom as the rose and the process of teach 
ing must be long and tedious. Meantime he must live on 
such crops as he knows how to cultivate. In addition to the 
poverty of the soil, bad roads, comparatively few railroads 
and few navigable rivers throw much of this land out of use 
fulness. But even more important than all this: the Negro 
farmer must seek the protection of community life with his 
own people and this he finds in the black belt. It is pre 
cisely in this black belt, however, that it is most difficult for 
him to buy land. For there it is that the capitalistic culture 
of cotton with a system of labor peonage is so profitable that 
land is high. In addition, in many of these regions it is con 
sidered bad policy to sell land to Negroes because a fever of 
land owning "demoralizes" the labor system; so that in the 
densest black belt of the South the percentage of land hold 
ing among Negroes is alarmingly low, a fact that has led to 
curious moralizing on the shiftlessness of black men. 

The increase of the average size of farms in many parts 
of the South is illustrative of the astounding and dangerous 
concentration of land holding in that section which is itself 
more appalling when it is noted that many of these farms do 
not belong singly to single owners but are owned in groups 
of as high as forty or fifty by great landed proprietors. 
Many of these landed proprietors refuse to sell a single acre 
of land to black men. While there are of course large regions 
where black men can buy land on reasonable terms, it is 

usually land poorly situated as regards markets, or unhealth- 
ful in climate, or so placed as to afford the owners poor 
schools and lawless, overbearing white neighbors. 

Add to these facts the results of the training and the 
character of the Negro farmers. Black farmers are often 
discust and criticised as tho they were responsible, trained 
men who carelessly and viciously neglect their economic 
opportunity. On the contrary they are for the most part 
unlettered men, consciously and carefully trained to irrespon 
sibility, to whom all concepts of modern property and saving 
are new and who need benevolent guardianship in their up 
ward striving. Such guardianship they have in some cases 
received from former masters and in this way a considerable 
number of the present land owners first got their land. In 
the great majority of cases however, this guardianship has 
consisted in deliberately taking the earnings of the Negro 
farmer and appropriating them to the use of the landlord. 
The argument was this: "These Negroes do not need this 
money. If I give it to them they'll squander it or leave the 
plantation; therefore I will give them just enough to be 
happy and keep them with me. In any case their labor 
rightfully belongs to me and my fathers and was illegally 
taken from us." On the strength of this argument and by 
such practices it is a conservative estimate to say that three- 
fourths of the stipulated wages and shares of crops which 
the Negro has earned on the farm since emancipation has 
been illegally withheld from him by the white landlords, 
either on the plea that this was for his own good or without 
any plea at all. 

Would this wealth have been wasted if given the laborer? 
Waiving the mere question of the right of any employer to 
withhold wages, take the purely economic question: Is the 
community richer by such practices? It is not. The South 
is poorer. The best Negroes would have squandered much 
at first and most would have squandered all, but this would 
have been more than offset by the increased responsibility 
and efficiency of the resulting Negro landholders. Nor is 

 136 

The Negro American Artisan 

this mere pious opinion. There is in the South in the middle 
of the black belt, a county of some 700 square miles, 
Lowndes County, Alabama. It contained in 1910 28,125 
Negroes and 3,769 whites. It was formerly the seat of the 
most strenuous type of American slavery—with absentee 
owners, living at ease in Montgomery, great stretches of 
plantations with 500 to 1000 slaves on each driven by over 
seers and riders. There was no communication with the out 
side world, little passing between plantations. The Negroes 
were slothful and ignorant—even today, fifty years after 
emancipation, the illiteracy among those over ten is about 
51 per cent. It would be difficult to find a place where 
conditions were on the whole more unfavorable to the 
rise of the Negro. The white element was lawless, the 
Negroes thoroly cowed, and up until recent times the body of 
a dead Negro did not even call for an arrest. In this county 
during the last twenty years there has been carried on a 
scheme of co-operative land buying under the Calhoun School. 
It was asked for by a few Negroes who could not get land; 
it was engineered by a Negro graduate of Hampton; it was 
made possible by the willingness of a white landlord to sell 
his plantation and actively further the enterprise by advice 
and good will. It was capitalized by white northerners and 
inspired by a New England woman. Here was every element 
in partnership and the experiment began in 1892. It encoun 
tered all sorts of difficulties: the character and training of 
the men involved; the enmity of the surrounding white popu 
lation with a few notable exceptions; the natural suspicion 
of the black population born of a regime of cheating; the low 
price of cotton; several years of alternate flood and drouth; 
and the attempts of the neighboring whites to secure the 
homesteads thru mortgages. 

The twentieth annual report of the Principal of the Cal 
houn Colored School of Calhoun, Lowndes County, Alabama, 
says: 

While in 1892 the majority of the people lived in rented one-room 
cabins, now by far the larger number are in cottages of from two to four 

The Economic Future of the Negro American 

137 

rooms and in some cases as many as six to eight rooms. Many of these 
cottages were put up and are owned by the Negro occupants on land they 
have bot thru the school. 

The improvements have come slowly and by daily almost impercep 
tible growth, but just as truly have they come to stay and to increase. 
All the land the school had for sale near its own locality 
has been bot by the Negroes. Several men have this year finisht 
their payments on land and on houses, and have paid in full the mort 
gages they were under. Only a few men have still a debt remaining 
before they can really say, "These are our own homes." In several 
instances a man has sold a few acres of his land to lessen the debt upon 
the whole, and this is a double help. It reduces his financial burden and 
forces him into more intensive farming. 

Not only from an economic point of view but from the 
standpoint of the sociologist as well the experiment here in 
Lowndes County has been both interesting and successful. 
The Negroes call it the "Free Land." There are no over 
seers and riders roaming about whipping the workers and 
seducing black wives and daughters; there is an eight 
months' school in their midst, a pretty new church, monthly 
conferences, a peculiar system of self government, and a 
family life of high moral tone. 

What has been done in Lowndes County under the Cal- 
houn School and the sensible guardianship of its wise leaders 
could be duplicated in every single black belt county in the 
South. It is to be hoped that such will be done and on that 
hope is based one's faith in the economic future of this black 

rural group. 

The Struggling 

The second great economic group among the Negroes of 
America may be called "the struggling." It includes the 
artisans, the industrial helpers, the servants and the farm 
tenants. This group is characterized as follows: 

1. It is sharply divided into a city and a country group. 

2. While it has a large significance in the group economy of the 
Negro American, its overwhelming significance is for the industry of the 
nation as a whole. 

3. Its great hindrance is the necessity of group substitution in the 
place of individual promotion. 

4. Its greatest enemy is the organized opposition of its white fellow 
workmen. 

\ 

 " 

138 

The Negro American Artisan 

The rural group of this class of Negro Americans consists 
of farm tenants. In a large number of cases farm tenancy 
has been an aid to land buying; in many cases farm tenancy 
has been a school of thrift and saving; in the majority of 
cases it was the only available system after the war when the 
Negroes were set free without landed possessions of their 
own. Yet, when all this is said, it remains true that the sys 
tem of farm tenancy as practiced over the larger part of the 
South today is a direct encouragement to cheating and peon 
age, a means of debauching labor, and a feeder of crime and 
vagrancy. It demands for its support a system of mortgage 
and contract laws and a method of administration which are 
a disgrace to twentieth century civilization. For every man 
whom the system has helped into independence it has pushed 
ten back into virtual slavery. It is often claimed that honest 
and benevolent employers and landholders have made this 
system a means of uplift, development and growth. In 
thousands of cases this is perfectly true; but at the same 
time it remains true and terribly true that any system of free 
labor where the returns of the laborer, the settlement of all 
disputes, the drawing of the contract, the determination of 
the rent, the expenditure of the employees or tenants, the 
price they pay for living, the character of the houses they 
live in, and their movements during and after their work are 
left practically to the unquestionable power of one man who 
owns the land and profits by the labor and who is in the exer 
cise of his power practically unrestrained by public opinion or 
the courts and who has no fear of ballots in the hands of the 
laborers or their friends—any such system is inherently wrong. 
If men complain of its results being shiftlessness, listlessness 
and crime, they have themselves to thank. To the man who 
declares that he is acting justly and treating his tenants and 
employees even better than they treat themselves, it is suf 
ficient answer to say that he is an exception to the rule; that 
the majority of the landholders are as indifferent to the wel 
fare of their men as are employers the world over; and that 
a deplorably large minority consciously oppress and cheat 

The Economic Future of the Negro American 

139 

them. The best employer or landholder suffers therefore 
for the sins of the average. 

The only salvation for these Negro tenants lies in land- 
holding, and in this the Negroes have made commendable 
strides. In 1890 Negro Americans owned 120,738 farms; in 
1900 they owned 187,799 farms; in 1910 they owned about 
220,000 farms, an increase of over 82 per cent. If the Ne 
groes thruout the whole of the rural South had been encour 
aged by such wise economic leadership as was the case in 
Lowndes County, Alabama, referred to above, the record 
would be even more encouraging. 

The city group of this class of Negro workers consists of 
perhaps 130,000 skilled artisans, 600,000 semi-skilled and 
ordinary industrial helpers, and 500,000 servants. The ser 
vant class has lost most of its best representatives because it 
offers a narrower and narrower method of uplift. This is 
due in part to foreign competition and in part to the fact that 
the temptations to Negro girls in domestic service are greater 
than in any single industry. It must be remembered that the 
mulatto is the product of house service in the South. 

With the skilled and semi-skilled Negroes the industrial 
history has been this: Groups of Negroes have been excluded 
entirely from certain trades and admitted to others. Unfor 
tunately they have been able to hold their place in the second 
set by working for lower wages, tho in certain industries 
they have forced themselves without resorting to the lever of 
low wages. This gave the trade unions a chance to fight 
Negroes as scabs. In some battles the unions won and so con 
tinued to exclude Negroes. In other cases the Negroes won and 
were admitted to the unions. Even in the union, however, 
they have been and are today discriminated against in many 
cases. In the near future the members of this class of Negro 
workingmen are going to have the struggle of their lives and 
the outlook indicates that by the fulcrum of low wages and 
the group economy, coupled with increasing efficiency, they 
will win. This means that the Negro is to be admitted to 
the national economy only by degrading labor conditions. 

 fctp- 

140 

The Negro American Artisan 

The alternative offered is shameful and could be easily avoided 
if color prejudice did not insist upon group substitution for 
Negroes in industry. That is, under present conditions a 
single individual or a few men of Negro descent cannot 
usually gain admittance to an industry. Only when they can 
produce workmen enough to supply the whole industry or the 
particular enterprise can the black man be admitted. Then 
immediately this substitution is made the occasion of a change 
in labor conditions—lower wages, longer hours and worse 
treatment. It thus often happens that by refusing to work 
beside a single black man, the workmen in an industry suffer 
a general lowering of wages and working conditions. The 
real economic question in the South is: How long will race 
prejudice supply a more powerful motive to white working- 
men of the South than decent wages and industrial conditions? 
Today the powerful threat of Negro labor is making child 
labor and the fourteen-hour day possible in southern factories. 
How long will it be before the white workingmen of the South 
discover that the interests that bind them to their black 
brothers are greater than those that artificially separate them? 
The answer is easy: That discovery will not be made until 
the present wave of extraordinary prosperity and exploitation 
passes and the ordinary every day level of economic struggle 
begins. If the Negro can hold his own until then his develop 
ment is certain. 

The Common Laborers 

The third distinct economic group of American Negroes is 
the group of common laborers numbering more than two mil 
lions. A million and a quarter are farm laborers and the 
remainder are common laborers of other sorts. This group 
includes half the breadwinners of the race and its condition 
is precarious. In many of the country districts of the South 
the laws concerning contracts, wages and vagrancy are con 
tinually forcing the lower half of these laborers into pauper 
ism and crime. In most of the southern states the law con 
cerning the breaking of a contract to work made between an 
ignorant farm hand and a land owner and covering a year's 

The Economic Future of the Negro American 

141 

time is enforced to the letter and the breaking of such a con 
tract by the laborer is a penitentiary offense. A large pro 
portion of the homicides in the country districts of the South 
in which Negroes are the slayers or the victims arise from 
disputes over wage settlement. So intolerable has the con 
dition of the farm laborer of the South become, that he is 
running away from the country and entering the cities, there 
to add to the already complex problems of city life. One 
frequently hears the demand for immigrants to fill the places 
of these fleeing Negro farm hands. Notwithstanding all 
efforts in this direction it is safe to say that no group of 
immigrants will stand the present contract and crop lien sys 
tem. Certain it is that they will not stand the lawlessness 
of the average country district of the South where every 
white man is a law unto himself and where no Negro has any 
rights which the worst white man is bound to respect. So bad 
has this lawlessness become in some parts of the South that 
concerted and commendable action has been taken against 
white cappers and night riders and a few peonage cases 
have reached the courts. These efforts, however, have but 
scratched the surface of the real trouble—a trouble which lies 
deep-seated in the social fabric of the South, a trouble which 
so seriously retards the whole South in its economic advance 
ment and development. 

On the whole there are four general cures for the economic 
submersion of this class of Negro Americans. First, the 
classes above must be given every facility to rise so as not to 
bear down upon them from above. Secondly, the system of 
law and law courts in the South by which it is practically 
impossible in the country districts and improbable even in the 
cities for a black laborer to force justice from a white em 
ployer must be changed. Thirdly, Negro children must be 
given common school training. The states are not doing 
their duty in this respect and the tendency in some of them 
is to do less.l 

1 See Atlanta University Publication, No. 16, The Common School and the Negro American. 

 sau 

142 

The Negro American Artisan 

Finally, the black laborer must have a vote. It is impos 
sible for these two million and more black workingmen to 
maintain themselves when thrust into modern competitive 
industry so long as the state allows them no voice or influence 
in the making of the laws or the interpretation and adminis 
tration of the same. 

The value of land and buildings owned by Negroes in the 
South in 1910 was $272,992,238, an increase of nearly 90 per 
cent in a single decade. This does not include land owned 
by Negro farmers and rented out. On a basis of the value 
of farm property the total Negro wealth today may be esti 
mated at $570,000,000. Yet in much of the South the holders 
of this wealth are as absolutely disfranchised as the worst 
criminal in the penitentiary. They cannot say a word as to 
the condition of the roads and highways which pass their 
property, or as to the location or supervision of their schools 
or the choice of teachers, or as to the selection of the 
government officials or the fixing of the rate of taxation. 

Summary 

Half the Negro breadwinners of the nation are partially 
submerged by a bad economic system, an unjust administra 
tion of the laws, and enforced ignorance. Their future 
depends on common schools, justice, and the right to vote. 
A million and three-quarters of men just above these are 
fighting a fierce battle for admission to the industrial ranks 
of the nation—for the right to work. They are handicapped 
by their own industrial history which has made them often 
shiftless and untrustworthy; but they can, by means of wise 
economic leadership, be made a strong body of artisans and 
land owners. Three hundred thousand men stand economi 
cally at the head of the Negroes, and by a peculiar self pro 
tecting group economy are making themselves independent of 
prejudice and competition. 

What can be said of any one of these groups of black 
working men can be said of them all. In so far as they are 
given opportunity and assured justice, in so far can the world 
expect from them the maximum of efficiency and service. 

\ 

\ 

n 

Index 

African Artisan, The . 

Ages of Negro Employees ...... 

Alabama ........ ........ 

Ante-bellum Negro Artisan, The 

Arizona ........ 

A.rKansas .......••-•••-••• 

Artisans, Negro, in the United States . 

A +1 +• 

Atlanta University .... . . 21, 22, 

Baltimore . ........ 

Bibliography, A Select ..... 

California ........ 

Chicago. . . ... . . 

Colorado . . .... ... 

Connecticut ... .... 

Delaware ......... 

District of Columbia . ...... 

Economic Future of the Negro American 

Economic Groups of Negro Americans . 

Economics of Emancipation, The . . 

Efficiency, Negro. ........ 

Florida ....... 

Georgia .... . - . 30, 31 

Group Economy of Negroes 

Illinois. . 

Indiana ...... 

Iowa ....... ...... 

Kansas ....... ......... 

Kentucky . . 

Louisiana . 

Maine . . ....... 

Maryland ... 

Massachusetts . . 

Michigan 

Minnesota . ... 

Mississippi . . . ......... 
Missouri ....... 

Montana . . . 

, . . . . ..... .24-27 

...... 47 

. 48-49, 84, 123, 124, 136, 139 

........ 28-37 

......... 50 

.... 50-51 

.... .44 

. 56, 130, 133 

27, 29, 82, 114, 117, 124, 141 

....... . 40, 53 

....... . 9-20, 24 

. . .51, 87, 95-97 

.34, 57, 85, 88, 132 

.... 50, 97 

.... ... 52, 97-98 

.52-53 

... . 52-53 

. . 127-142 

. . . 130 

. . 37-40 

. 127, 130 

......... 53, 93, 124 

, 32, 33, 34, 54-57, 91, 92, 124 

38, 40, 127, 128-129 

. . . .57, 89, 98-99 

. . . 57, 83, 99 

. . 58-59, 100 

. . 58, 89, 100, 124 

. 59-61 

. 61-62, 124 

.... . 62-63 

... . .52-53 

52, 100 

. 57, 100 

. . . . 57-58 

........ 63-64, 125 
. . . . 65-66, 92, 100-101 

..... 74, 101 

\ 

IIM 

 J" 

144 

The Negro American Artisan 

Nebraska..... ......... . 74, 101 

Negro Skilled Laborers by Selected Cities . . .46 
Negro Skilled Laborers by Selected States ........ .45 

Nevada .... .......... 50 

New Hampshire .... 62-63, 101-102 

New Jersey . . .......... . 66-67, 69, 102 

New Mexico.... .......... . . .50 

New Orleans .......... ... 62, 106, 112 

New York ...................... 66-69, 88, 102-103 

New York City .... . 31, 34, 40, 67-68, 82, 85, 89, 109-111, 132 

North Carolina .70, 125 

Occupations of Negroes ........... 41-47 

Ohio ... ...... ...... 34, 70-72, 103, 125 

Oklahoma ........... . 73-74, 93 

Ontario ........... ...... ... 106 

Oregon ........... ...... . 74, 104 

Organized Labor, The Negro and ..... . 82-106 

Pennsylvania . . . . 29, 66-67, 104-105, 107-109 

Philadelphia ........... 34, 40, 107, 108, 132 

Pittsburg . . ................ 107, 108, 112 

Porto Rico ............. . . 105-106, 113-114 

Race Prejudice ............ ....... . 127, 129-130 

Results of the Attitude of Unions, Some . 106-114 

Rhode Island ...... . 62-63, 105 

Schools ................... . 116-119 

Scope of the Inquiry ....... ..... 21-23 

South Carolina . ...... ...... 74-76, 125 

Summary . . .......... 142 

Tennessee . . ........ ....... 76-77, 86, 93, 126 

Texas ................ . 77-79, 92, 93, 94, 126 

Training of Negro American Artisans, The ........... 115-127 

Utah ,,.,,,, ......... ..... .50 

Vermont . ........ ............ 62-63 

Virginia .......... 24, 28, 29, 79-81, 90, 93, 126 

Wage Earners by Sex, General Nativity and Color . .42 

Wage Earners, Negro, by States . . . . ... 43 

Washington .... .... 74, 105 

Washington, D. C. . 34, 53, 132, 133 

West Virginia . 81-82, 126 

Wisconsin ....... 57, 91, 105 

Wyoming .... . . . . . .... 74, 106-107 

flWI ift 

\ V 

STUDIES OF NEGRO PROBLEMS 

The Atlanta University Publications 

COPIES FOR SALE 

No. 1. Mortality among Negroes in Cities; 51 pp., 1896. 
Out of print. 

Mortality among Negroes in Cities; 24 pp. (2d edi 
tion, abridged, 1903). 120 copies at 25c. 

No. 2. Social and Physical Conditions of Negroes in Cities; 
86 pp., 1897. 750 copies at 25c. 

No. 3. Some Efforts of Negroes for Social Betterment; 66 
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No. 4. The Negro in Business; 78 pp., 1899. Out of print. 
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The College-bred Negro; 32 pp., (2d edition, 
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No. 6. The Negro Common School; 120 pp., 1901. Out of 
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No. 7. The Negro Artisan; 200 pp., 1902. 350 copies at 75c. 

No. 8. The Negro Church; 212 pp., 1903. 120 copies at $1.50. 

No. 9. Notes on Negro Crime; 75 pp., 1904. 754 copies at 50c. 

No. 10. A Select Bibliography of the Negro American; 72 
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No. 11. Health and Physique of the Negro American: 112 
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No. 15. The College-bred Negro American; 104 pp., 1910. 
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No. 17. The Negro American Artisan, 144 pp., 1912. 2000 
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<£• 

 C 

IB! 

r*"" 

THE dear earth is very foolish. It 
is making such a pother about 
color and race and forgetting the spirit 
in man. As tho for one moment of 
the eternal moments it matters whether 
a man's skin is black or white or red 
or yellow, whether he lives in a palace 
or a cabin. These things are not life. 
They are only shadows. Forget them 
and sland in the sunlight of gentleness 
and brotherhood—the light most pre- 
—Mary White Ovington. 

I