At the same time, it considered that only
17 percent of the white community fell into this category. In
October of 1933, between 25 percent and 40 percent of the blacks
in many of the large cities, to which they had moved to find a
brighter future, were on relief. This percentage was three or
four times higher than that of the whites in the same cities. As
affluent whites felt the economic pinch, one of the first items
to be trimmed from their shrinking budgets was the maid or the
gardener. In 1935 the number of unemployed Negro domestics was at
least one and a half million. In that same year, the government
estimated that 65 percent of the Negro employables in Atlanta
were on public assistance while, in Norfolk, 80 percent of the
Afro-American community was on relief.
As Negro unemployment statistics skyrocketed in the early thirties,
The-Jobs-for-Negroes Movement strove to alleviate the crisis. It
was begun by the Urban League in St. Louis. A boycott was organized
against white-owned chain stores which catered to Negroes, but
refused to employ them. The movement spread throughout the
Midwest and had some success in "persuading" white-owned stores
in the heart of the ghettoes to hire Negro employees.
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