The white man turned    ......  I'm from up North," he said.... "They need men up there - good men - all they can get. If Big Mat speaks for this family tell him they can use him and all the other able menfolks in his house:' . . . 
  
  The man reached back in his pocket and pulled out a roll of bills. It was more money than Chinatown had ever thought was in the world. The permanent grin. almost left his face as the man shucked off a ten-dollar bill and gave it to him.... 

  "The freight train will stop at Masonville Junction at midnight. That's tonight. That's where you boys board her for the North."... 

   Hiding his cheek under one big hand, Mat listened to them tell about the crazy jackleg. Not one muscle in his body moved, though Chinatown was waving the bill under his nose.... 

   "What on your mind, Mat?" He took his hand away from his face. A long purple welt blossomed on his cheek.... 

   "Git the stuff packed," Big Mat said. "We goin' to be at MasonviU6 Junction 'fore midnight.'.' . . . 

Saturday morning Big Mat went to the mill a changed man. A- borning in him was a new confidence.... 

   Through the long, hot hours he would do twice as much work as anybody else. In competition with white men, he would prove him- self... 

   Without slowing between molds, they took tests of the steel. The sweat ran into Big Mat's wide-mouthed gloves and made small explosions when it fell on the hot test steel. Big Mat did not flinch. Alone he held the spoon steady. It took two hunkies to hold up a spoon. He smiled behind his expressionless face. His muscles were glad to feel the growing weight of the steel. The work was nothing. Without labor his body would shrivel and, be a weed. His body was happy. This was a good place for a big black man to be.

William Attaway, Blood on the Forge, 1941. 

It is not only the long house, the small pay, and the lack of privacy - we often have to share a room with the children - that we maids find hardest to bear. It is being treated most of the time as though we are completely lacking in human dignity and self- respect. During my first year at this work I was continually hopeful. But now I know that when I enter that service elevator I should park my self-respect along with the garbage that clutters it. Self- respect is a luxury I cannot retain and still hold my job. My last one was a good example of this.... 

Lucille and I both met our Waterloo in the following fashion. I had cooked a huge dinner for many guests - we always had company besides the ordinary family of five - and it was 9:00 P.M. before we two sat down to our meal, both too tired to eat.

Suddenly the bell rang furiously and Lucille came back, flushed with anger. "She say to put the cake right on the ice!"

Soon the bell rang again. "Is that cake on the ice?" called out Mrs. B -

I sang out. "We've just started our dinner, Mrs. B - Later I said to Lucille: "Does she think we're horses or dogs that we can eat in five minutes - either a coltie or a Kiltie?" (Kiltie was the d6g.) Lucille, who loved such infantile jokes, broke into peals of laughter.

In a second Mrs. B - - was at our side, very angry. She had been eaves-dropping in the pantry. "I heard every word you said!"

"Well, Mrs. B - -  we're not horses or dogs, and we have been e4fing only five minutes!"

"You've been a disturbing influence in this house ever since you've been here!" Mrs. B - - thundered. "Before you came Lucille thought I was a wonderful woman to work for - and tonight you may take your wages and go. Tomorrow, Lucille, your aunt is to come, and we shall see whether you go too!" . . .

Jobless, and with only $15 between us and starvation, I still felt a wild sense of joy. For just a few days I should be free and self- respecting! ...

 Naomi Ward, "I Am a Domestic," 1940.

We return from the slavery -of uniform which the world's madness demanded us to don to the freedom of civil garb. We stand again to look America squarely in the face and call a spade a spade. We sing: This country of ours, despite all its better souls have done and dreamed, is yet a shameful land. 

It lynches. 

  And lynching is barbarism of a degree of contemptible nastiness unparalleled in human history. Yet for fifty years we have lynched two Negroes a week, and we have kept this up right through the war. 

  It disfranchises its own citizens. 

  Disfranchisement is the deliberate theft and robbery of the only protection of poor against rich and black against white. The land that disfranchised its citizens and calls itself a democracy lies and knows it lies. 

  It encourages ignorance. 

  It has never really tried to educate the Negro. A dominant minority does not want Negroes educated. It wants servants, dogs, whores and monkeys. And when this land allows a reactionary group by its stolen political power to force as many black folk into these categories as it possibly can, it cries in contemptible hypocrisy: "They threaten us with degeneracy; they cannot be educated." 

  It steals from us. 

  It organizes industry to cheat us. It cheats us out of our land; it cheats us out of our labor. It confiscates our savings. It reduces our wages. It raises our rent' It steals our profit. It taxes us without representation. It keeps us consistently and universally poor, and then feeds us on charity and derides our poverty. ' 

 It insults us.

 It has organized a nationwide and latterly a worldwide propaganda of deliberate and continuous insult and defamation of black blood wherever found. It decrees that it shall not be possible in travel nor residence, work nor play, education nor instruction for a black man to exist without tacit or open acknowledgment of his inferiority to the dirtiest white dog. And it looks upon any attempt to question or even discuss this dogma as arrogance, unwarranted assumption and treason.

 This is the country to which we Soldiers of Democracy return. This is the fatherland for which we fought! ... But by the God of Heaven, we are cowards and jackasses if now that that war is over, we do not marshal every ounce of our brain and, brawn to fight a stern", longer, more unbending battle against the forces of hell in our own Ian

 We return. 
 We return from fighting. 
 We return fighting. 
 Make way for Democracy! 

In politics, the New Negro, unlike the Old Negro, cannot be lulled into a false sense of security with political spoils and patronage. A job is not the price of his vote. He will not continue to accept political provisory notes from a political debtor, who has already had the power, but who has refused to satisfy his political obligations. The New Negro demands political equality. He recognizes the necessity of selective as well as elective representation. He realizes that so long as the Negro votes for the Republican or Democratic party, he will have only the right and privilege to elect but not to select his representatives. And he who selects the representatives controls the representatives. The New Negro stands for universal suffrage.

A word about the economic aims of the New Negro. Here, as a worker, he demands the full product of his toll. His immediate aim is more wages, shorter hours and better working conditions. As a consumer, he seeks to buy in the market, commodities at the lowest possible price.

The social aims of the New Negro are decidedly different from those of the Old Negro. Here he stands for absolute and unequivocal "social equality." He realizes that there cannot be any qualified equality. He insists that a society which is based upon justice can only be a society composed of social equals. He insists upon identity of social treatment.

 It went on to specify the methods for achieving these goals: 

First, the methods by which the New Negro expects to realize his political aims are radical. He would repudiate and discard both of the old parties - Republican and Democratic. His knowledge of political science enables him to see that a political organization must have an economic foundation. A party whose money comes from working people, must and will represent working people. Now, everybody concedes that the Negro is essentially a worker. There are no big capitalists among them. There are a few petit bourgeoisie, but the process of money concentration is destined to weed them out and drop them down into the ranks of the working class. In fact, the interests of all Negroes are tied up with the workers. Therefore, the Negro should support a working class political party. He is a fool or insane, who opposes his best interests by supporting his enemy. As workers, Negroes have nothing in common with their employers. The Negro wants high wages; the employer wants to pay low wages. The Negro wants to work short hours; the employer wants to work him long hours. Since this is true, it follows as a logical corollary that the Negro should not support the party of the employing class. Now, it is a question of fact that the Republican and Democratic Parties are parties of the employing or capitalist class.

On the economic field, the New Negro advocates that the Negro join the labor unions. Wherever white unions discriminate against the Negro worker, then the only sensible thing to do is to form independent unions to fight both the white capitalists for more wages and shorter hours, on the one hand, and white labor unions for justice, on the other, It is folly for the Negro to fight labor organization because some white unions ignorantly ignore or oppose him. It is about as logical and wise as to repudiate and condemn writing on the ground that it is used by some crooks for forgery. 

As a consumer, he would organize cooperative societies to reduce the high, cost of living. 

The social methods are: education and physical action in self defense. That education must constitute the basis of all action, is beyond the realm of question. And to fight back in self defense, should be accepted as a matter of course... 

Finally, the New Negro arrived upon the scene at the time of other forward, progressive, groups and movements - after the great world war. He is the product of the same world wide forces that have brought into being the great liberal and radical movements that are now seizing the reins of political, economic and social power in all of the civilized countries of the world. 

His presence is inevitable in these times of economic chaos, political upheaval and social distress. Yes, there is a New Negro. And it is he who will pilot the Negro through this terrible hour of storm and stress.

In the North there was some blurring of racial distinctions, but they remained strong enough to get the black labor force off quite clearly. While the pay for the same job in the same plant was usually equivalent, when blacks came to predominate in a specific job classification, the rate on it would tend to lag. White and black workers were often hired in at the same low job classification; however for the whites advancement was often possible, while the blacks soon bumped into a job ceiling. In terms of day-to-day work, white labor was given a systematic advantage over black labor and a stake in the racist practices....  

In the South, where four-fifths of nation's black population still lived at the end of the 1920s, the situation of black labor was to all appearances essentially unchanged.... Black workers were concentrated in stagnant or declining plants, such as sawmills, coal mines, and cigar and tobacco factories. The increased hiring of blacks in such places was chiefly a reflection of the fact that the jobs had no future and the employers were not able to attract white workers. Black employment in textiles was severely limited, as in South Carolina, where state law forbade blacks to work in the same room, use the same stairway, or even share the same factory window as white textile workers.

....the bulk of the Negro population became concentrated in the lower- paid, menial, hazardous, and relatively unpleasant jobs. The employment policy of individual firms, trade-union restrictions, and racial discrimination in training and promotion made it exceedingly difficult for them to secure employment in the skilled trades, in clerical or sales work, and as foremen and managers. Certain entire industries had a "lily-white" policy - notably the public utilities, the electrical manufacturing industry, and the city's banks and offices.

Ira De A. Reid, who was on the Social Security Board, further detailed the plight of Black workers:

Blind alley occupations for workers who have latent capacity for other jobs is, the rule rather than the exception among Negro workers. For the Negro there is little encouragement and less opportunity for promotion. Success stories of rises from laborer to superintendent and manager are few. Opportunities for training are even more restricted. Apprenticeships are few and other opportunities for trade training rare. Schools do not see the wisdom of training Negro pupils in skilled crafts because there is no opportunity for placing them after they have been trained. Employers will not hire them because they have no training. The vicious circle continues when a privileged few do received  the training or the required apprenticeship only to find that white workers refuse to accept them as fellow workmen. Strikes have been waged on this account. Union workers have been known to walk off the jobs when a Negro fellow unionist was employed.

In the first years of the slump, black unemployment rates ran about two- thirds greater than white unemployment rates. As the depression wore on, the relative position of the black labor force declined so that by the end of the decade it had proportionately twice as many on relief or unemployed in the Mid-Atlantic States, and two and a half times as many in the North Central States. In the Northern cities only half the black men had regular full-time employment. In the larger cities, for every four black men in full- time regular employment there was one engaged in government-sponsored emergency relief The differential in the South was not as great, for much of the unemployment there was disguised by marginal occupations on the farms. 

The vast demand for labor in general, that had to turn itself into a demand for black labor, could only be accomplished by way of a great expansion of the black sectors of metropolitan labor markets. Training programs for upgrading to skilled and semiskilled jobs were opened up, at first in the North and later in the South.... World War I had established a space for black laborers as unskilled workers in heavy industry . During World War II this space was enlarged to include a number of semi-skilled and single-skilled jobs in many industries.

World War II marked the most-dramatic improvement in economic status of black people that has ever taken place in the urban industrial economy. . , . Occupationally, blacks bettered their positions in all of the preferred occupations. The biggest improvement was brought about by the migration from South to North (a net migration of 1,600,000 blacks between 1940 and 1950). However within both sections the relative proportion of blacks within skilled and semi-skilled occupations grew. In clerical and lower-level professional work, labor shortages in the government bureaucracies created a necessity for a tremendous black upgrading into posts hitherto lily-white. 

Much has been written and said concerning the housing situation in Chicago and its effect on the racial situation. The problem is a simple one. Since 1915 the colored population of Chicago has more than doubled, increasing in four years from a little over 50,000 to what is now estimated to be between 125,000 and 150,000.... Already overcrowded this so called "Black Belt" could not possibly hold the doubled colored population. One cannot put ten gallons of water in five-gallon pail.

Although many Negroes had been living in "white" neighborhoods, the increased exodus from the old areas created an hysterical group of persons who formed "Property Owners' Associations" for the purpose of keeping intact white neighborhoods  ....  Early in June the writer, while in Chicago, attended a private meeting    ...  Various plans were discussed for keeping the Negroes in "their part of the town," such as securing the discharge of colored persons from positions they held when they attempted to move into "white" neighborhoods, purchasing mortgages of Negroes buying homes and ejecting them when mortgage notes fell due and were unpaid and many more of the same caliber. The language of many speakers was vicious and strongly prejudicial and had the distinct effect of creating race bitterness.

The Job Ceiling subordinates Negroes but does not segregate them. Restrictive covenants do both. They confine Negroes to the Black Belt, and they limit the Black Belt to the most rundown areas of the city. There is a tendency, too, for the Negro communities to become the dumping ground for vice, poor-quality merchandise, and inferior white city officials. Housing is allowed to deteriorate and social services are generally neglected. Unable to procure homes in other sections of the city, Negroes congregate in the Black Belt...

They went on to analyze how segregated housing led to further social and cultural segregation:

The conflict over living space is an ever-present source of potential violence. It involves not only a struggle for houses, but also competition for school and recreational facilities, and is further complicated by the fact that Negroes of the lowest socioeconomic levels are often in competition with middle class whites for an area. Race prejudice becomes aggravated by class antagonisms, and class-feeling is often expressed in racial terms.

Residential segregation is not only supported by the attitudes of white people who object to Negro neighbors - it is also buttressed by the internal structure of the Negro community. Negro politicians and businessmen, preachers and civic leaders, all have a vested interest in maintaining a solid and homogeneous Negro community where their clientele is easily accessible. Black Metropolis, too, is an object of pride to Negroes of all social strata. It is their city within a city. It is something "of our own" It is concrete evidence. of one type of freedom - freedom to erect a community in their own image. Yet they remain ambivalent about residential segregation: they see a gain in political strength and group solidarity, but they resent being compelled to live in a Black Belt. 

It is Sunday morning in the "black belt " The pastor of one of the largest churches has just finished his morning prayer. There is an air of quiet expectancy, and then - a most unusual discourse begins. The minister, in the homely, humorous style so often affected by Bronzeville's "educated" leaders when dealing with a mass audience, is describing a business exposition:

"The Business Exposition at the Armory was one of the finest achievements of our people in the history of Chicago. Are there any members of the Exposition Committee here? If so, please stand. [A man stands.] Come right down here where you belong; we've got a seat right here in front for you. This man is manager of the Apex Shoe Store - the shoes that I wear.. We can get anything we want to wear or eat from Negroes today. If you would do that it would not only purchase the necessities of life for you, but would open positions for your young folks. You can strut as much as you want to and look like Miss Lizze [an upper-class white person], but you don't know race respect if you don't buy from Negroes. As soon as these white folks get rich on the South Side, they go and live on the Gold Coast, and the only way you can get in is by washing their cuspidors. Why not go to Jackson's store, even if you don't want to buy nothing but a gingersnap?  Do that and encourage those girls working in there. Go in there and come out eating. Why don't you do that?"

This is the doctrine of the "Double-Duty Dollar," preached from many Bronzeville pulpits as a part of the weekly ritual. Church newspapers, too, carry advertisements of all types of business from "chicken shacks" to corset shops. Specific businessmen are often pointed out to the congregations as being worthy of emulation and support, and occasional mass meetings stress the virtues of buying from Negroes - of making the dollar do "double-duty": by both purchasing a commodity and "advancing The Race." The pastor quoted above had been even more explicit in an address before the Business Exposition crowd itself:

"Tomorrow I want all of YOU people to go to these stores. Have your shoes repaired at a Negro shop, buy your groceries from a Negro grocer ... and for God's sake, buy your meats, pork chops, and yes, even your chitterlings, from a Negro butcher. On behalf of the Negro ministers of Chicago I wish to commend these Negro businessmen for promoting such an affair, and urge upon you again to patronize your own, for that is the only way we as a race will ever get anywhere."' . . . 

This endorsement of business by the church simply dramatizes, and brings the force of sacred, sanctions to bear upon, slogans that the press, the civic

organizations, and even the social clubs repeat incessantly, emphasizing the duty of Negroes to trade with Negroes and promising ultimate racial "salvation" if they will support racial business enterprises....

To the Negro community, a business is more than a mere enterprise to make profit for the owner. From the standpoints of both the customer and the owner it becomes a symbol of racial progress, for better or for worse.