Black Folk and the Economy- Progress and Regress

When the NAACP was founded in 1909, our nation was in the middle of an industrialization that would transform the labor market, and catapult the United States into world leadership, both militarily and financially.  We were in the middle of a wave of immigration, with 37 million people coming to these shores between 1840 and 1920.  We may also have been at a low point in race relations, since after Reconstruction there had been a systematic erosion of African American rights, especially voting and public accommodations rights.  In 1906, an amateur anthropologist and head of the New York Zoological Society had a Congolese man, Ota Benga put on display at the Bronx Zoo, with apes and other animals, describing him as “the missing link”.  In 2009, the New York Post published a cartoon that likened the President of the United States to a monkey!  In 1904,Mary White Ovington (who would be the first chair of the NAACP Board of Directors) began a study of the economic situation for African Americans in New York.  In 1908, a race riot (which some describe as a race war) broke out in Springfield, Illinois when an angry mob demanded law enforcement officers turn over a black man accused of sexually assaulting a white woman.  The mob systematically destroyed the black business district and a poor black neighborhood.

Hard Work

The unemployment rate rose from 8.1 percent to 8.5 percent and more than 600,000 people lost their jobs last month.  Just this year, more than 2 million have lost jobs.  Since the recession began more than 5.1 million have been separated from their work.  Some have gone back to work, but many have not been able to find employment.  By anyone’s assessment, this is an employment crisis that undermines the possibility of economic recovery.

President Obama managed to zip through European capitals with his message of hope and confidence, but the numbers belied his message.  He says we can fight this economic slump and he is right, but the fight is likely to be longer than he plans.  Our unemployment rate of 8.5 percent is high, but it is an underestimate of the real deal.  When part-timers and those who have dropped out of the labor force are counted, we are speaking about 15.6 percent or more.  African Americans are experiencing 25 percent rates or more, rates that are greater than those experienced in the Great Depression.

The numbers are a cold reflection of the everyday realities of people who struggle to eke out a living and maintain their lives and lifestyles...