The organization of an ethnic economy: Urban black communities in the early twentieth century

Pioneering investigations of urban black communities have asserted that during the early twentieth century, the diverse activities of black entrepreneurs were not organized into a coherent ethnic economy. However, in the present study, multivariate analyses of Census data cast doubt on this assertion. They show that in large northern cities, measures of black participation in numerous entrepreneurial and professional occupations were positively and significantly associated with one another and were, in some cases, positively associated with measures of black participation in various public service, artistic, entertainment, and mass media occupations. There is evidence, then, for a revisionist view of black enterprise that suggests that important economic and social endeavors coexisted in beneficial relationships within the black communities of cities that were the principal destinations of black migrants from the South in the early twentieth century.

► This study analyzes U.S. Census data on the activities of black entrepreneurs.► The results show that such activities were organized into a coherent economy. ► They show too that such activities affected other endeavors of northern blacks. ► These endeavors were public service, art, entertainment, and mass media. ► The study calls for a new view of black enterprise in the early twentieth century.