By the mid-1850s, industries such as mining, commerce, and timber extraction developed, which caused the migration of white populations into the black regions. This caused high unemployment among blacks and forced them to look for labor in Medellin, Bogota, and other urban areas. In the Antioquia department, blacks worked, and continue to work today, on coffee plantations. In the Choco region, blacks work mainly in the mines and in trade services. In the urban areas, blacks work in a variety of low skill labor positions.
Domestic service is a common form of employment for black-Colombian women and children.
Currently blacks are organizing and identifying more as a racial group. Past discrimination nonetheless affects the current status of black-Colombians. In the 1970s, blacks began to organize as an ethnic and racial group. The first in Bogota was formed by students and others from the Pacific Coast region. It also publishes black literature and has strong leadership under Amir Smith Cordoba.