Historical Perspectives

1
Historical Perspectives

• Emergence of Black Industrial Working Class and
  Second Great Migration

2
The Crowding Model

• Two labor markets skilled and unskilled
• Only white workers allowed to have skilled
  jobs.
• There exist both skilled and unskilled white
  workers and black workers.
• Analyze effect of color line on wages in
  skilled and unskilled market.

3
Beckers Tastes for Discrimination Model (I)

• Single labor market black white workers
  equally productive.
• Employer has tastes for discrimination .
• Ww wage employer will pay to white worker
• Wb Ww-d wage employer will pay black worker
  with same productivity
• What happens if there are firms that do not have
  tastes for discrimination?

4
Beckers Taste of Discrimination Model II

• Black white workers equally productive.
• White workers have tastes for discrimination
• W- wage white worker will accept if job is all
  white and wage black worker will accept under any
  circumstances
• WdWd wage white worker will demand if job is
  integrated
• Suppose employer needs to hire LT workers. What
  will employer do?

5
Percentage of Detroits Working Men Employed by
Ford
Source Maloney and Whatley, 1995, Making the
Effort The Contours of Racial Discrimination in
Detroits Labor Markets, Journal of Economic
History, Vol. 55, 465-493.
6
Ford Motor Company

• Why did Ford hire black workers? (Demand)
• Why did such a high percentage of blacks in
  Detroit work at Ford? (Supply)
• Read Maloney Whatley (1995)

Ohio Historical Society, Retrieved from
Schomberg Center on Black Culture, New York
Public Libraryhttp//www.inmotionaame.org/migrati
ons/landing.cfm?migration8
7
The Color Line

• Occupational and industrial segregation by race
  not limited to Detroit.
• Similar patterns in North and South.
• Social norms dictated
• Whites not allowed to serve blacks
• Blacks not allowed to supervise whites
• No personal/intimate contact except blacks as
  domestic servants

8
Occupational Segregation
9

10
(No Transcript)
11
Gains in Manufacturing Not Sustained
Source Weaver, 1943
12
Unions and Race

• Why didnt unions welcome blacks?
• What explains the initial failure to employ
  blacks in war industries despite labor shortage?
• Why did the unions desegregate?

13
(No Transcript)
14
(No Transcript)
15
Incorporation of Nonwhites in War Industries
Happened In 1942 But Uneven
Source Weaver (1943)