St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1961-02-24

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Among those the hardest hi
building trades and construction
workers and the railroad workers,
especially those in the dining and
sleeping car services.
The largest unemployment has
been among railroad men operat-
ing as car attendants, dining car
cooks and walters and sleeping
car porters,-jobs in which 80 per
cent of employed Negro males in
the Twin Cities were engaged in
as late as rs years ago. This high
percentage in railroad employ
ment has dwindled.
Others hard hit have been the
375 Negroes who work in the Min
neapolis building trades and con-
struction and the approximately
225 st. Paul Negroes who are found
in the unskilled labor class in the
construction industry.
Despite the us. recession which
now, it Is admitted, has been in
progress since 1858, the Negro
community as a whole has main
tanned most Of the gains made
since World War II, and with the
exception OF the Unemployment sit
uation, seems destined to continue
its advance.
Our states Negro population re-
ported at over $1,000 in 1859 is
now closer to $4,000 men, women
and children. There are approx
imately 1920 persons Of Negro
descent living in Minneapolis and
its suburbs and approximately H.
500 in st. Paul and Ramsey county.
Increased participation in the
economic life of these two COM
munities has zoomed the Negro
purchasing power in Minneapolis
to an estimated 231s million
dollars annually. In St Paul a
conservative estimate Of the COM
munity's buying power is 21h
million dollars.
The total number Of NEGRO"
families in Minneapolis is estimat-
ed at 1924. About AZ per cent of
these families own or are purchas-
ing their homes, despite the I'M
favorable housing market which
still limits Negro families full par
ticipation in the total housing
market.
Housing is the chief remaining
area in Minnesota where broad
race discrimination is practiced.
Many public spirited citizens who
see the danger Of continued hous-
ing discrimination, and its cost In
both moral and ethical values to
both the state, are supporting leg
islative fair housing measures"
which might remove housing dis
elimination as a pattern in this
state. The Negro who can least
afford to pay because of the mod
est income he earns is penalized
financially by the scarcity of
houses he may buy without a bat
tie.
He pays moro for the older
structures available to his fam
lily than many of them are worth
by far - therefore, those less
able to afford inequities In home
purchasing are shackled with the
heavier financial obligations, for
less housing than others.
Progress In Fastening End OF
Housing Bias
The progress note in the housing
field has been the increasing
awareness of the general Mime
sofa public of the problem Of hous-
ing discrimination against minor
tiles, especially Negroes. and in
fewer instances, Jews, Indians and
MeMcans.
This awareness has been in
creased by the third joint effort
under both liberal and conserva-
tive authorship of a bill in the
state legislature to combat race
and religious discrimination In the
sale, lease and rental of housing.
Fair Housing Bill Has Good Chance
The proposed legislation whose
supporters claim has a good chance
of being enacted into law despite
opposition principally from COM
mercial home builders and devel-
opers Of suburban sites, the usual
anti-Negro racist fringe move
ments, plus the arch-conServatives,
protectors Of the status quo.
Debate on open occupancy" as
the non-discriminatory fair hous-
ing" was formerly labeled, has
opened the eyes Of many persons
to the Ubiquitous effect on prop
erty values. community tensions
and fears Of the forced concentra-
ton Of persons Of a single racial