Racial Inequality in Employment: The Patterns of Discrimination

Abstract

Negro wage earners are experiencing a major crisis of unemployment and underemployment. The differential in median income between white and Negro workers has been growing since 1951. Automation and other technological in novations are rapidly displacing Negroes from jobs in dis proportionate numbers. Negro workers have not made signifi cant employment gains in new Southern industrial development and remain excluded from the textile industry, the basic manu facturing industry of the South. In other Southern industries, Negro workers are adversely affected by separate racial seniority lines in collective bargaining agreements. Federal executive orders banning employment discrimination by government con tractors have not been broadly enforced. Federal support of racial discrimination is indicated in the discriminatory operation of employment service agencies and in federally supported ap prenticeship and vocational training programs that discriminate against nonwhite workers. The traditional pattern of anti- Negro practices within organized labor remains intact. The American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organiza tions (AFL-CIO) is becoming more conservative and increas ingly basing itself upon the narrow and restrictive craft unions. Negro workers are mounting an attack against racism within organized labor through public protest and litigation. Recent decisions of the National Labor Relations Board indicate that as a result of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) action there may emerge a new body of labor law to protect the rights of Negro workers. A perma nent crisis of increasing unemployment for the Negro com munity will have far-reaching consequences for American society.