Full Citation

Title: African-American Economic Mobility in the 1940s: A Portrait from the Palmer Survey

Citation Type: Journal Article

Publication Year: 2000

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Abstract: I use retrospective work histories from a unique dataset to follow workers in six cities through occupational, industrial, and geographic moves, thereby characterizing aspects of black economic mobility during the 1940s that cannot be viewed through the Census data. Relatively few migrants were drawn directly from the southern agricultural sector. Black occupational upgrades were larger than white upgrades on average but black upgrades were smaller than those of observationally similar whites. Black veterans did no better than black nonveterans in terms of upgrading or wages. And black workers in war-related industries earned substantially more than observationally similar blacks.

Url: http://www.journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0022050700025754

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Authors: Collins, William J.

Periodical (Full): Journal of Economic History

Issue: 3

Volume: 60

Pages: 756-781

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Migration and Immigration, Race and Ethnicity

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