OF NEGROS

1950 and

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white

02 79

In 17 of these 27 cities, including only 3 in Southern States, the percentage increase in the Negro population exceeded the increase among whites. An actual decline in the number of whites in the population occurred in Chicago, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Newark, and Nashville. A major factor in the changing Negro and white composition of the population in cities has been the movement of whites to surrounding suburban areas.

TABLE 9.-Population by color, 1950 and 1940, for cities with 50,000 or more nonwhites in 1950

Urban centers. Table 10 shows those larger urban centers in which the Negro population increased substantially in the last decade. In each of these cities the Negro population increased by more than 100 percent. Much of the increase resulted from migration of Negroes in response to wartime opportunities in employment.

In 1950 there were in the United States 232 cities with a population of 50,000 or more; 64 were in the Southern States. Only two of these Southern cities had increases of more than 100 percent in their Negro population over the decade, while 43 cities, widely dispersed throughout the rest of the country, had doubled their Negro population.

TABLE 10.~Population by color, in 1950, for cities of 50,000 or more vii than 100 percent increase in nonwhite population between 1940 and 137

Educational status, 1950 and 1940

Educational attainment.-As shown in table 11, in 1950 Ne aged 25 and over had completed an average of 7 years of sch almost 3 years less than the average for whites. This repres an increase, since 1940, of a year or more for both groups. highest increase of 1.3 years occurred among Negro women. In 1940 and 1950, the educational attainment of Negro and white was exceeded by that of women.

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TABLE 11.—Median school years completed by persons 25 years old and over, by e) and sex, 1950 and 1940

School enrollment.-The percentage of all Negroes aged 5 to 24 enrolled in school increased appreciably between 1940 and 1950. At ages 14 and over the percentage of Negroes in school was lower than among whites, although the difference has narrowed over the decade. About 15 percent of all Negroes aged 18 to 24 were enrolled in school in 1950, compared with 9 percent in 1940. The increase was proportionately much greater than among whites. (See table 12.)

TABLE 12.-School enrollment of the population 5 to 24 years of age, by color, 1950 and 1940

Negroes in the labor force

Proportion in the labor force. The proportion of Negroes in the labor force has been consistently higher than for whites. This has resulted entirely from the fact that a greater percent of Negro women, particularly married women, are in the labor force as compared to white women. Data for recent years on labor-force status of Negroes and whites are presented in table 13. About 63 percent of all Negroes aged 14 years and over were in the labor force compared to about 57 percent of all whites. The proportion of males was about the same for both groups-84 percent but for women the rate for Negroes was 45 percent and that for whites about 30 percent.

Unemployment. Table 13 shows that for both Negro men and women the average rate of unemployment, from 1947 to 1951, has been more than 50 percent above that for whites. Although the rate was about 5 percent for Negroes in 1951, compared with 3 percent for whites, about the same relative improvement had taken place since 1949 when the economic situation was less favorable.

TABLE 13.-Employment status of the civilian noninstitutional population, by color and sex, annual averages 1951, 1949, and 1947

Status of married couples.-Table 14, showing the labor force status of married couples in 1950 and 1940, indicates that in both periods a higher proportion of Negro wives were in the labor force than is true among white women. In 34 percent of the married Negro couples in 1950, both the husband and the wife were in the labor force as compared to 21 percent among white couples. Among both groups percent of couples with both members in the labor force had increased between 1940 and 1950, with a greater relative increase among whites. Among married couples where the husband was not in the labor force, the proportion of Negro wives in the labor force was higher than among

whites.

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TABLE 14.—Percent distribution of married couples, by labor-force status of husband and wife, by color, March 1950 and 1940

Status among different age groups. Table 15 shows, for 1951, the variations at different ages in the labor-force status of Negroes in comparison with white men and women.

About 84 percent of all Negro and white men were in the labor force. However, a significantly higher proportion of Negro men under age 20 and over age 65 were in the labor force. For both Negro and white men, between the ages of 20 and 64, the rates of labor force participation were comparable.

The pattern among women shows some significant contrasts. The proportion of Negro women in the labor force was higher than for whites in every age group except ages 18 to 24. At ages 18 to 19 years, 54 percent of all white women were in the labor force in comparison with 40 percent of Negro women of the same ages. Among white women the rate of labor-force participation dropped after age 20, about the average age of marriage, while for Negro women the rate increased through the age group 45 to 54. At ages 25 to 54 more than 50 percent of all Negro women were in the labor force, in comparison with less than 40 percent of white women in this age group. TABLE 15.-Percent of the civilian population in the labor force, by color, age, and sex, annual average 1951

Industry and occupational trends in employment

Trends among major industries, 1940-50.-Table 16 shows the changes, between the decennial censuses of 1940 and 1950, in the distribution of employed Negro men and women among the major industries. Comparison with the changes among white workers shows some significant differences.

During this wartime decade there was an appreciable increase in the proportion of all Negro men employed in construction, manufacturing, and wholesale and retail trade. In 1950, the 8 percent of all 31⁄2 million employed Negro men who were working in the construction industry almost equaled the percentage of all white workers so employed. The 22 percent of all employed Negroes in manufacturing in 1950 compared with 27 percent of all employed white men. There was a greater decline among Negroes, in comparison with whites, in the proportion employed in agriculture.

Among almost 2 million Negro women working in 1950, employment continued to be largely concentrated in the service industries, although the percentage decreased from about 75 percent in 1940 to 65 percent in 1950. The proportion of all Negro women employed