in the first place. It's worth noting that the union in this case, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, was not only a White-only union but also acted consciously to the detriment of Black workers.
This is far from the only time that “diversity” in the workplace has been used to set one group of workers against another. Caitlin Rosenthal, assistant professor at University of California at Berkeley and author of Accounting for Slavery: Masters and Management, put it in stark terms:
Railroad managers and owners made [the case] for diversity [in hiring], but the business case they made was that having a diverse workforce would allow them to divide workers against each other and have more control over them. They said, “oh, we need to hire people with different racial backgrounds, but we're going to use that as a strategic advantage to prevent them from unionizing.” So there are people who've made business cases for diversity before, and they aren't always ones that we would feel good about now.6
Time and again, workers of color have discovered that diversity efforts are not always what they seem on the surface. History offers countless examples of this phenomenon. A 1907 report indicated that Black workers faced prejudice in trade unions and were permitted to work only where Blacks were highly concentrated so not to threaten White workers.7 The point is, the unions that helped protect the mental, physical, and financial well-being of workers didn't cover Blacks.
The Black Experience in Agriculture
The union-dominated industrial jobs were not the only ones available to Blacks. As a matter of fact, national farm statistics show that the opportunities for economic mobility among Blacks were actually to be found in agriculture, a trend that peaked in the 1920s. At the time, there were almost 1 million Black farmers. (Today that number is down to only 1.3% or about 45,000 of the 3.4 million total farmers, of which 95% are White.8) As the financial obstacles of the Great Depression took their toll on the farming industry, the New Deal legislation passed to assist White agricultural workers was not extended to Black ones. As James Gilbert Cassedy notes:
Protective labor legislation of the 1930s, such as the Social Security Act, the National Labor Relations Act, and the Fair Labor Standards Act, did not extend to agricultural workers, although 31.8 percent of the African American population in 1940 was employed in agriculture (40.4 percent in the South).9
In addition, working in agriculture had its own set of challenges. Blacks who were able to save enough money to buy land had to first find a White landowner willing to sell to them.10 Once they purchased or settled, White merchants sold them tools and goods needed to tend to the land and produce crops. Business fairness and ethics weren't legislated in this environment, so merchants were able to vary the prices and premiums they charged. Some agriculture unions weren't as prevalent or well organized as other unions but, even with the agriculture unions, Black farm workers who stood up against unfair commerce practices by White merchants often paid with their lives.
Moreover, from the New Deal through the early 1960s, federal subsidies allocated for farmers sometimes didn't make it to Black agricultural workers because of “local politics.” The inequities of not receiving the same subsidies as their White counterparts reduced their ability to keep their farming profitable and put them at an economic and professional disadvantage to their peers.11
In September 30, 1919, Black sharecropper families gathered near Elaine, Arkansas, to discuss membership in the Progressive Farmers and Household Union, a union of African American tenant farmers and sharecroppers, for the purpose of getting a fair price for their cotton and helping them buy land. Late in the evening White men shot into the church where the meeting was taking place. Days later, Whites who opposed Black farmers' efforts invaded Elaine, resulting in the slaughter of many Black men, women, and children.12
Not being afforded the same rights, pay, and protections as White colleagues was a reality whether you were on the railroad, in the factory, or tilling fields. When people say “systemic racism,” these examples show what they mean. For generations, in all economic sectors, people of color have experienced unethical treatment, unfair pay, and harassment. This costs not only workers but also their employers. Society at large suffers when Black workers are denied full participation in the economy-strengthening gross domestic product (GDP) and participation in capital markets.
Violence and Terror as a Barrier to Entry into the Marketplace
Black business leaders were savvy when wielding power in the capital structure. Throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, several Black business leaders and their employees enjoyed equitable work environments and the ability to achieve greater social purpose, too. This didn't work out as well for others. Some business leaders, who sought to have their own enterprise and share the marketplace with White, established business, did so while paying the price in terms of brutality, violence, destruction of their business, and even death.
In 1892, a mixed-race neighborhood in Memphis was the home of two grocery stores. People's Grocery was a Black-owned store that enjoyed significant success. The other grocery was owned by William Barrett, a White store owner.13 What happened between these two establishments offers a perfect example of what happens when racism exists in a marketplace where violence is an acceptable solution.
Allegedly, a quarrel between White and Black children playing a game near People's Grocery escalated into a quarrel between adults, including workers from the People's Grocery. After the dispute, the White men involved allegedly threated to return to the store later on Saturday. Sensing return was code for confrontation, People's Grocery shopkeepers went to the store Saturday night and armed themselves in preparation for a confrontation. After the men came into the grocery store, People's Grocery shopkeepers shot and wounded them.
After the confrontation and subsequent shooting, the three Black storekeepers, Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell, and Will Stewart and several Black men were “dragged from their home and jailed.” A mob broke into the jail and zeroed in on Moss, McDowell, and Stewart. Each of the three People's Grocery store owners were then shot and killed.14
Research by Ida B. Wells highlights the assumption that when White-run businesses felt threatened by Black-run businesses, they resorted to violence to eliminate the competition.15
Another example is the case of the Tulsa Massacre of 1921, home to Tulsa, Oklahoma's Black Wall Street. Violence ensued, after what was later determined to be a false accusation against a Black youth, and White members of the community destroyed the Black Wall Street section of town. More than 1,200 homes were burned and hundreds more were looted. The community lost stores, churches, a school, a library, the hospital, two newspapers, and much more.
Healthy markets expand and grow. Racism in business in all its vile forms, from violence and brutality to intimidation and passive aggressive behaviors, is unhealthy, uncivil, and unethical. These examples demonstrate how racist attitudes and actions may start in public spaces, but they slither their way into business environments. Racist behavior that is tolerated by social culture, eventually diffuses into business culture.
