St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1960-04-08
ECONOMICS TO FIGURE IN SUCCESS
OR FAILURE IN STUDENT SITDOWN;
RISING NEGRO INCOME A FACTOR

Atlanta amp - Whether by
accident or design, the four Negro
freshman from A & T college who
started a sit-down demonstration
at a jim crow lunch counter in
Greensboro NC, seized upon a key
their elders either didn't recognize
or were loathe to use.
The economies.
1t may be that the sit-downs
and the boycotts growing out of
them may accomplish more in
shorter space of time than all of
the NAACP's brilliant legal man
coverings have done
And this possibility arises be-
cause of economics. The lunch
counters closed by sit downs and
the stores under boycott are being
hit where it hurts - in the pocket.
Negro Now A Big Factor
And such a campaign today is
more effective than 10 years ago
because the Negro is bigger fac
tor in the economics of the South.
Thirty years ago, a pretty good
Negro domestic could be employed
for from IS to SO a week in the
big cities of the South, for less in
the rural areas. Today the rate is
from IS to 81 a day.
High schools and colleges are
turning out thousands of new po-
tential employees every year, well
trained for manual trades, highly
educated for the professions.
They are commanding and get
ting the highest Negro salaries
ever.
Just 10 years ago, only one on
Of five Negro workers in the SOutl
: earned more than $1,000 a year
BY 1866, the last year for which
reliable figures are available, al
; most one out of every two Negroe
, in the region earned at least tina
, much.
! In Metropolitan Atlanta, wher
one of the largest big-city concen
trations of Negroes in the Soutl
is located, the average Negro
earnings increased 40 per cent be
tween 1949 and 1856.
The Negroes buying power i
; playing a large but incalculabl
5 part in the current lunch counte
s revolution and it's offshoots.
y Southern Business worried"
e No merchant will say fatty tina
y the protests are anything NOR
e than of nuisance proportions Blu
d this kind of assault on racial Gus
toms, as opposed through tn
: courts, is having a worrying effec
r on Southern business.
t When a few Negroes attempte
s to desegregate a basement grill i
d a big Southern department store
the board of directors was quickl
d summoned to see what should b
: done
e One Of the most complete
n studies on the effect of racial
d troubles came out of Little Rock
after the school desegregation
d woes there.
l. According to the report, this
what happened to Little Rock:
One-third fewer families move
in and there was double the mum
=, Der of departing families the yea
- after the crisis.
1t became increasingly Difficult
q to employ professional skills.
y Real estate and home buildin
dropped 20 per cent.
Z Industry Avoids City
L New plants ceased coming t
Is Little Rock and there was onl
Of one expansion in 1858 and 1875
following the September, 1875
trouble at Central High.
The demands by Negroes &c
service at public eating caugf
81 store owners between the desire I
cash in on the Negroes buyin
=. power estimated at 81 billion
the Southland the fear that tn
store would lose white trade, whic
still far outstrips business frol
Negroes.
Population MIgrateS