Denver Smith



Professor Baird



Comp. II



Mar. 12, 2007



Migration from the South increased in the 1950s into Chicago due to the new World of production. With world production many of the field hand jobs of the south
were lost to machinery. In Chicago many blacks were able to acquire jobs in the meatpacking industry, everything from moving cattle to the slaughtering. Also a few jobs were with the police and firefighters, and a few bus drivers. These jobs were only in the areas that the blacks lived. Funerals directors and funeral workers were another field that blacks went into. These funeral workers only dealt with the deaths of the black population. In the 1920s and 1930s the Negro Funeral Directors Association was
chartered in Illinois. Porter and maid jobs, when supplemented with tips, paid better than many other opportunities open to them. Working on the railroad was still a catering service to the whites provided by blacks. Black women of the 1950s were mainly hired in the domestic field of work. This work included working as house maids and servants.



This was a very hard time for blacks because of the great numbers entering Chicago in the 50s. Between 1940 and 1960, Chicago's black population grew from 278,000 to
813,000. With this influx jobs were hard to come by, sending many blacks into the profession of prostitution and violent crime.