The New York City Negro and Occupational Eviction 1860–1910
It is the basic contention of this paper that intensification of Negro occupational eviction from 1860–1910 imposed another limitation on the Negro in addition to “job ceiling”. The term job ceiling, logically, connotes a prescribed set of trades or occupations, restricted exclusively to a group with ascribed social and economic status, and offers almost no upgrading. Negro eviction from the trades adds another restriction to his already low status, since, the Negro was now not limited in his opportunity to rise in the occupational scale – “job ceiling” – but jobs formerly relegated to him as low-grade Negro jobs were taken away from him – “eviction” – when whites entered into competition for them. This happened when (a) immigrants arrives who did not think such jobs normally beneath their dignity and (b) when native-born whites suffered unemployment.