Economic and Social Discrimination
- In the previous sections, you have seen how African Americans faced systemic discrimination and violence in education and lack of political rights.
- For the exam, it is fundamental that you emphasize that Jim Crow laws institutionalized social and economic inequality, African Americans were excluded from quality education, healthcare, and public services across the Southern United States.
- In this section, we will look at other aspects of this discrimination that complement what you have already learnt.
Discrimination in higher education
- Before the 1960s, African Americans faced deep structural barriers to higher education. Most predominantly white institutions barred Black students through formal or informal segregation.
- In the South, public universities were legally segregated, while in the North, exclusion persisted through admissions bias and lack of financial support.
- By 1940, only about 2% of African Americans aged 18–24 were enrolled in college. This limited access meant African Americans had little exposure to advanced training, research opportunities, and professional networks, which were key for entering high-paying fields such as law, medicine, engineering, or business.
- Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) provided the main route to higher education for African Americans. However, they were chronically underfunded and excluded from federal and state resources that supported white institutions.
- Most HBCUs lacked advanced degree programs, well-equipped science labs, or competitive graduate schools. Despite training generations of teachers, clergy, and professionals, their limited resources meant they could not match the prestige or opportunities offered by white universities.
- Even with degrees, Black graduates often faced employer prejudice and lacked the credentials or social capital needed to compete for professional jobs, reinforcing economic and occupational inequality.
Case study
Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University)
- Founded in 1881 in Tuskegee, Alabama. The founding board included Lewis Adams (a formerly enslaved Black man) and George W. Campbell (a former slaveholder). Booker T. Washington became the first principal and a key figure in early Black education.
- The aim was to educate Black students, especially in industrial and agricultural skills. The Alabama legislature gave only $2,000 in funding, with no land or buildings. Students and faculty built the campus themselves, even making bricks by hand.
- The school relied heavily on private white Northern donors such as Andrew Carnegie and Julius Rosenwald. This created financial dependence and pressure to conform to donor expectations.
- Tuskegee focused on vocational training (carpentry, agriculture, domestic work). Booker T. Washington argued that economic self-sufficiency would lead to future civil and political rights.
- This approach was criticized by W.E.B. Du Bois, who saw it as too accommodating to white supremacy and limiting to Black aspirations.
- Jim Crow laws in Alabama shaped every part of Tuskegee’s existence. Students often faced hostility off-campus and lacked access to public resources. The school was also closely monitored by white officials to ensure it did not encourage “radical” ideas.
Job opportunities
- Additionally, there were discriminatory hiring practices and widespread occupational segregation confined African Americans to low-paying, menial jobs, while skilled and professional positions remained largely inaccessible.
- For example, "White only" job listings were openly published in newspapers, hiring quotas or “racial ceilings” limited how many Black workers could be hired even in labor-heavy industries.
- In both North and South, employers used racial codes to exclude Black applicants or restrict them to janitorial, kitchen, or heavy labor roles.
- While white workers could progress from apprenticeship to journeyman and then to supervisory roles, Black workers were typically barred from unions, especially in the North.
- Many were also blocked from civil service exams or given tests designed to ensure failure.
- They were further denied training opportunities in fields like mechanics, engineering, teaching, or medicine, reinforcing exclusion from skilled professions.
- During the 1930s and 1940s, over 75% of Black women were employed in domestic service as maids, cooks, and nannies.
- Many Black men worked as sharecroppers, porters, janitors, and sanitation workers, often in low-paid, insecure jobs.
- According to the 1940 U.S. Census, only 2.3% of Black men were in white-collar occupations, compared to 26.7% of white men, underscoring sharp racial inequalities in employment.
Example
In the 1950s, African Americans in cities like Chicago and Detroit were often restricted to janitorial, domestic, or factory labor, even when qualified for higher-level work. Despite a growing industrial economy, union exclusion and employer bias meant that Black workers were typically the last hired and the first fired. In many skilled trades, such as plumbing, electrical work, or management roles, access was effectively blocked by white-only unions and apprenticeship programs.
Housing policies
- Redlining and discriminatory housing policies deeply entrenched racial and economic segregation in the U.S. before the 1960s. These practices were not accidental but systemically enforced by federal institutions such as the Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) and supported by private banks.
- HOLC and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) created “residential security maps” that graded neighborhoods by perceived investment risk. Areas with Black residents were marked in red (“hazardous”), effectively denying them access to mortgages, regardless of income or creditworthiness.
- Banks and real estate agents refused loans to Black families or steered them into overcrowded, under-resourced areas through “contract buying,” where they paid inflated prices without gaining real ownership until all payments were made.
- These policies blocked Black wealth accumulation, as homeownership is a major source of generational wealth in the U.S. As a result, Black families were locked out of suburban growth and public-school systems funded by local property taxes.
