Demographic change and entrepreneurial occupation: African Americans in Northern Cities

American Journal of Economics and Sociology, The,  April, 1996  by Robert L. Boyd

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Before 1900, barbering was an important entrepreneurial occupation for African Americans in northern cities. African Americans in the North initially entered this occupation in the early nineteenth century as service providers to whites. Like many personal services, barbering was a low-prestige vocation that required long hours at low pay; but it was a relatively easy occupation to learn and enter.

Moreover, it was one of the few personal services "which offered the opportunity of upward mobility through shop ownership" (Katzman, 1973, 115). To the extent that whites shunned barbering as too degrading and arduous, an entrepreneurial occupation was created for African Americans.

Throughout the nineteenth century in many northern cities, African Americans were greatly overrepresented in barbering and served a predominantly white clientele. For example, in 1870, African Americans were only 2.8 percent of Detroit's population but they were 55 percent of the city's barbers (Katzman, 1973, 62, 116). From the 1860s to the 1880s, many of the leading and most lucrative barbershops in Detroit were owned by African Americans. These barbershops were "the single most important black business" in the city (Katzman, 1973, 117, 128). Similar patterns existed in other cities. In Cleveland, for instance, African Americans were only 1.4 percent of the city's population in 1870, but they were 43 percent of its barbers (Kusmer, 1976, 10, 76).

According to Lieberson's model, the concentration of African Americans in barbering would decline between 1900 and 1930. During this period, as was noted earlier, the rapid growth of the African American populations of northern cities was a major factor in the deterioration of race relations. One might expect that, as racial discrimination against African Americans increased, their representation in barbering would decline, since they would lose the predominantly white clientele which they served at the beginning of the study period.

The concentration of African Americans in barbering in the ten cities in Table 1 will be analyzed by an index of occupational representation (R). This index measures the extent to which African Americans are over- or underrepresented in an occupation. In general, the R index is calculated as follows:

R = African Americans in an Occupation/Total Workers in an Occupation / Total African American Workers/Total Workers

If the proportion of African Americans in an occupation is the same as their proportion of the city's work force, then R will equal one. If their proportion in an occupation is greater, then R will be greater than one, indicating overrepresentation. If their proportion in an occupation is lower, R will be less than one, indicating underrepresentation.

The R indexes of African Americans in barbering will be compared to those of foreign-born whites. Lieberson's model predicts that between 1900 and 1930, the representation of foreign-born whites in barbering would increase in northern cities. As was stated earlier, the stabilization of the foreign-born white populations of these cities, in conjunction with the rapid increases of their African American populations (Table 1), would tend to reduce discrimination against foreign-born whites. Hence, the concentration of the latter in occupations serving the native white majority might increase.