Poverty & Society
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Rank: Chapter 6 Will Not Discuss
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Pretty straightforward…will integrate where appropriate
Have not finished grading these RQ
Reflection Return and Exam
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Can’t give back…come up for grade
Will go over the whole exam when all have taken it
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Fundraising/Campus Visit

William Julius Wilson, When Work Disappears

The Great Migration

Deindustrialization


Suburbanization of Work
Social Organization
Exam 1
Median Score was between an A-/B
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A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD+
D
F
5
2
0
2
1
1
1
0
1
1
3
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What to say…
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Most of you did very well…a
few are struggling
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Exam was worth 20% of your
grade…
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40% of your grade is
determined by the
questions…

If you’re not doing them, or
not taking them
seriously…you’re making a
mistake
Fundraising and a Trip to Campus

For each task you volunteer for and complete, I’ll give ¼ point on
your assignment grade

A moderator to facilitate discussion

Fundraising Ideas
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Things to gets: Crayons/markers, puzzles, backpacks, supplies, jump ropes
Ways to get them: Back pack drive (Gerald), donation boxes, bake sale
(Lisa), candy sale (Selena); Spare change; dorm storming
Outreach: SGA (Bernard); ROTC (John)
Trip to Campus

Spring Carnival (Snow); Field trip, Basketball game; movie
Rank: Understanding Poverty

Structural forces ensure that there will be losers in the first
place (unemployment, bad jobs, weak safety net)…individual
characteristics help explain who loses…
Societal Lack of
Opportunities and
Supports
Structural Failings
Vulnerability to Poverty
Human Capital and
Demographic
Social Class and
Background
Characteristics
Concentrated Poverty…


A question for people living and working in Chester,: “Why do places like
Chester (Philly, Camden, Cleveland, Chicago, etc.) generate/possess so
many “losers” of the economic game”?
Big question…with a complicated answer…“Concentrated Poverty results
from several factors, including past government policies, racial and ethnic
discrimination, residential segregation, economic changes and
employment dislocations, the movement of prosperous residents to the
suburbs, and finally other, less definable social and cultural forces.”
(Iceland, p.57)
There is a lot in that sentence…
I want to unpack it and teach you about it

William Julius Wilson

Major Scholar in area of urban poverty
 The
Declining Significance of Race
 The Truly Disadvantaged
 When Work Disappears
 More than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner
City (2008)
Understanding Urban Black Poverty

1890, approximately 4 million Blacks in America: 90% in
South…anyone know anything about what they’re doing? How
this map changes?
Integration of Blacks into US Economy

Approximately 4 Million Landless Freed Blacks

Land still controlled by White


Despite promises of 40 acres and a mule
1880 GA:


Blacks were 40% of population
Blacks owned 1.6% of the land

Plantation Owners Still Require Labor?
Blacks need access to make a living?

How might these needs be met?

Sharecropping?

Blacks rented a plot of land and paid the
plantation owner a certain proportion of the
cotton crop
 Plantation
owners advance seed, mule, tools, credit
 Blacks
repaid these debts with a share of their
cotton production
 Share
the crop…
Sharecropping

So…as European Americans (Irish, Italians, Jews,
Russians, Poles, etc) are entering the industrial economy
and beginning the inter-generational journey from
poverty to middle class…

Blacks are bound to the land as “virtual” slaves

Debt Peonage

insolvent blacks, unable to repay debt from one year to another,
were required by law to work indefinitely for the plantation
owner to pay off debt
1890, Blacks in America
Then Things Changes…The Great Migration
North: Why the jump in the teens & 20s?
1600000
1400000
1200000
1000000
800000
600000
400000
200000
0
1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s
The Great Migration

aaa
The Great Migration North:
Why the 1940’s jump?
1600000
1400000
1200000
1000000
800000
600000
400000
200000
0
1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s
The Great Migration: PA
1930: 70% of Pennsylvania’s Black Population was
born somewhere else
 19%
Virginia
 13% South Carolina
 11% Georgia
Philly: The Great Migration
Growth in Black Population, Philadelphia
1910
Black
Population
84,000
% of Philly
Pop.
5.5%
1920
134,000
7.4%
1930
220,000
11.3%
Great Migration…Blacks Become an
Urban Population
US
North
Rural% Urban%
Rural% Urban%
1890
80
20
38
62
1920
66
34
16
84
1950
38
62
7
93
1970
19
81
3
97
Poverty & Society

Fundraising/Campus Visit

William Julius Wilson, When Work Disappears

The Great Migration

Deindustrialization
 Suburbanization

of Work
Social Organization
Fundraising and a Trip to Campus

For each task you volunteer for and complete, I’ll
give ¼ point on your assignment grade

Fundraising new information or loose ends

Trip to Campus
 Spring
Carnival (Snow)…the date?
Great Migration…Blacks Become an
Urban Population
US
North
Rural% Urban%
Rural% Urban%
1890
80
20
38
62
1920
66
34
16
84
1950
38
62
7
93
1970
19
81
3
97
The Urban Ghetto


Wilson refers to “Institutional ghettoes” that are
segregated…but day to day activities more or less mirror larger
society
Note Video from the Promised Land

2) At the beginning of the video, the Black Ghetto in Chicago is described
as the Capitol of Black America. Briefly describe the world that is
depicted?
Great Migration and American
Culture…A digression…


Soundtrack of video full of Blues
Black acoustic music migrates up Mississippi with
Migration


Mississippi Delta Blues
Travel on “Highway 61”…Famous Dylan album
 Early Rolling Stones album had many credited blues covers
 Early Led Zeppelin albums had many non credited blues
covers

Willie Dixon sued Led Zeppelin because “Whole lotta love was so
similar to “You need love”….settled out of court
The Great Migration North: The
main pull factor?


Early this semester we noted: “In a capitalist society, a
person’s well being/standard of living will primarily be
determined by their participation in the labor market.”
So why do I bother to review the Great Migration? How
do you think it impacted the rate of black poverty?
The Great Migration…Blacks Enter
Urban Labor Markets

By 1940, the occupational
distribution of transformed
80

Similar to the peasants who had left
Italy or Poland in 1900 to become
wage workers in America, Blacks
left the land in the south & become
modern wage workers
70
60
Farm
50
Service
40
Blue
Collar
Other
30
20
10
0
1900
1940
Occupational Changes Reduce
Poverty

Increased Occupational
The Great Migration…Blacks join the
industrial working class

By 1940, the occupational
distribution of transformed
80
70

Blacks had joined the industrial
working class
60
Farm
50
Service
40
Blue
Collar
Other
30

Four things to consider:

1) Blacks get manufacturing
jobs a generation after other
groups… intergenerational
mobility delayed
20
10
0
1900
1940
The Great Migration…Blacks join
the industrial working class

By 1940, the occupational
distribution of transformed


Blacks had joined the industrial
working class
Four things to consider:

1) Blacks get manufacturing jobs a
generation after other groups…
intergenerational mobility delayed

2) Blacks get manufacturing jobs, but
as 2nd class workers (lowest skilled,
lowest paid)… intragenerational mobility
institutionally limited
The Great Migration…Blacks join the
industrial working class

By 1940, the occupational distribution of
transformed


Blacks had joined the industrial working class
Four things to consider:

1) Blacks get manufacturing jobs a generation
after other groups… intergenerational mobility
delayed

2) Blacks get manufacturing jobs, but as 2nd class

3) They will not get access to the better jobs until the
Civil Rights Act of 1965
workers (lowest skilled, lowest paid)… intra
generational mobility institutionally limited

intra and inter generational mobility impacted

My Dad has already been working for years in a job
that openly discriminated…
The Great Migration…Blacks join the
industrial working class

By 1940, the occupational distribution of
transformed


Blacks had joined the industrial working class
Four things to consider:

1) Blacks get manufacturing jobs a generation after
other groups…intergenerational mobility delayed

2) Blacks get manufacturing jobs, but as 2nd class

3) They will not get access to the better jobs until the
Civil Rights Act of 1965… intra and inter generational
mobility impacted

4) What happens to America’s manufacturing jobs
starting in the 1970s?
workers (lowest skilled, lowest paid)…mobility
institutionally limited

Wilson’s focus…
Occupational Changes Reduce
Poverty…but then “work disappears”
Great Migration into Northern Ghettoes…


Institutional ghettoes are segregated…but day to
day activities more or less mirror larger society
“You could walk out of the house and get a job.
Maybe not what you want but a you could get a job.
Now you can’t find anything. A lot of people in this
neighborhood, they want to work but they can’t get
work” (Wilson 1996: 36).
From Institutional Ghetto to Jobless
Ghetto…
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
Economic Restructuring Hits Urban Black Communities
Very Hard
“As late as 1968-1970 period, more than 70% of
Blacks working metropolitan areas held blue collar jobs
at the same time that 50 percent of all metropolitan
workers held white collar jobs” (Wilson 1996: 31).

More than ½ of these workers were in goods producing
industries

Common saying: “When America gets a cold, Black America
gets pneumonia.”
De-industrialization…Jobless Ghettoes
“The manufacturing losses in some northern cities have been
staggering”(Wilson 1996: 29)

North Lawndale Neighborhood in Chicago loses 57,000
manufacturing jobs
Manufacturing Jobs Lost Between 1967-1987
Pct. Change Total Lost
 Philadelphia
64%
160,000
 Chicago
60%
500,000
 New York
58%
>500,000
 Detroit
51%
108,000

Note video clip on Chester & on Blacks in the Steel Industry
Economic Restructuring…Jobless Ghettoes
Occupational Shift within urban black
community
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Chicago

“57 percent of Chicago’s employed inner city black fathers…who were born
between 1950 and 1955 worked in manufacturing and construction industries in
1974”(Wilson 1996: 30)

By 1987 this was down to 31 percent…
“As a result, young black males have turned increasingly to the low wage
service sector and unskilled laboring jobs for employment, or have gone
jobless”(Wilson 1996: 30)
Philadelphia's Richard Allen Housing Project

1945 54% of household breadwinners in manufacturing

1960s 25% of household breadwinners in manufacturing
By the 1960s, more than 60% of breadwinners were working as maids in
department stores, laundry workers, orderlies and other service trades
What of the remaining urban jobs…
Occupations Adding
ProjectedOccupations
increase
Weekly Pay
Weekly
Paythe Most
forJobsthe Ten
That
1) Systems Analysts
577,000
$1,008
Will
Add
the
Most
Jobs
Through
2010
2) Retail Salespersons
563,000
$329
Median
3)U.S.
Cashiers
Weekly Wages in 2000
4) General
Managers
1. Food
preparation &
serving (includes fast food).
5) Truck2.Drivers
Customer service
representatives.
6) Office Clerks
$261
$473
8. Security guards.
9. Computer
12) Nursing
Aides andsoftware
Orderlies
engineers, applications.
$321
$278
$406
$280
551,000
$797
$336
==4-person
family
poverty line
$336
4-person
family
493,000
$299 poverty line
463,000
$862
3. Registered
7) Registered
Nurses nurses.
8) Computer
Specialists
4. RetailSupport
salespersons.
5. Computer support
9) Personal Care and Home Health Aides
specialists.
10) Teaching Assistants
6. Cashiers (except gaming).
11) Janitors, Cleaners and Maids
7. Office clerks, general.
556,000
$419
451,000
$750
439,000
$983
333,000
$701
$321
375,000
$315
365,000
$324
325,000
$322
$338
Source:
1999
BLS data; $257
10. Waiters and
waitresses.
the 1999 poverty line
for a $500
$0
$1,000
$1,500
family
of four is
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Based on hourly earnings and a 40-hour week.
$327/week.
$1,901
$2,000
7
What of the remaining urban jobs…

Consider Chester…Largest Employers are Widener
and Crozier Medical

What kinds of occupations do these institutions offer?

What are the human capital requirements for these
occupations?

Where do you think that most graduates of Chester’s
school system will plug in?
Sociologists Refer to this as the “Skills
Mismatch”

Skills mismatch & Urban Poverty
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
mismatch between the skills of many urban residents and the skills
required by higher wage parts of the new urban economy
Wilson, p. 32

NYC lost 135,000 jobs requiring less than 12 years education
while gaining 300,000 in industries requiring 13 years or more

Philly lost 55,000 in low education industries and gained 40,000
requiring HS plus some college
William Julius Wilson
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

Not just a skills mismatch…Wilson argues that there is a growing mismatch
between urban blacks and the suburban location of employment. In your
own words, explain this problem. Be sure to a quote or statistic from the text
to support your explanation.
Wilson argues that there is a growing mismatch between urban blacks and
the suburban location of employment. In your own words, explain this
problem. Be sure to incorporate a quote or statistic from the text to support
your explanation.
In your own words, briefly describe what the article “4-Hour Trek Across
New York for 4 Hours of Work, and $28 was about.”
Urban population faced with suburban
job growth…

Spatial Mismatch


The demand for labor has shifted away from neighborhoods where
blacks are concentrated in favor of suburban areas
Chicago as an Example

1970-1990, 60% of new jobs in Chicago area were created in
the Northern Suburbs


Blacks are less than 2% of that population…you should be wondering
why?
By 1990, Chicago Accounted for just 37% of the jobs in metroregion
Another problem…Suburbanization of
Employment

Donut Shaped DevelopmentShare of Jobs within 3, 10, > 10
mile Radius of central city, 1996
Another problem…Suburbanization of
Employment

Share of Metropolitan Employment, 1999
Spatial Mismatch: Transit

You read about a woman who commutes more than 2
hrs each way from Philly to the Suburbs for a $7.25
job

Reverse Commute…City to suburb commute is often tough

In some cases, not even possible

Presence in suburbs can bring problems… “racial
harassment”
Gautreaux Program



5. Briefly describe the Gautreaux program. Why
was it initiated? What did it do? What did the
research generated from this program find?
Poverty due to a “culture of poverty” or structural
factors like lack of jobs…This program provides a
nice test…
Anyone remember what it was?
Gautreaux Program


Court ordered relocation of 4,000 people from
Chicago Public Housing to other areas of Greater
Chicago
Provided a Natural Experiment: Two groups to
compare

Researchers could “contrast systematically the experiences
of low income blacks who had been assigned private
apartments in the suburbs with the experience of a control
group with similar characteristics and histories who had
been assigned private apartments in the city” (Wilson
1996: 38)
A Simple Experiment



Poor Urban Blacks Moved to Suburbs Measure
Employment Status
Poor Urban Black Stay in city  Measure Employment
Status
The only thing that differed was the location


Culture was the same; level of human, social and cultural capital is
initially the same
What did they find?
Study Findings

“After taking into account the personal characteristics of the

When asked why…respondents said there were more jobs.
respondents (family background, family circumstances,
levels of human capital, motivation, length of time since the
respondent first enrolled in the Gautreaux
program)…found that those who moved to apartments in
the suburbs were significantly more likely to have a job
after the move than those placed in the city”(Wison 1996:
38)

Findings support spatial mismatch theory…yet another challenge to
the idea that poverty is primarily about culture

Raises interesting questions about housing policy
Joblessness Snowballs into other problems
in the Ghetto…

“Changes in the industrial and occupational mix,
including the removal of jobs from urban centers to
suburban corridors, represents external factors that
helped elevate joblessness among inner city blacks.
But important social and demographic changes within
the inner city are also associated with the escalating
rates of neighborhood joblessness…” (Wilson 1996:
42).
Joblessness creates other problems…

Wilson notes that after 1960, certain types of
African Americans began to leave inner cities.
Please describe who left the cities. Why do you
think the departure of these people would have a
negative effect on a community?
Exodus…Movement of the People

Woodlawn on the South Side of Chicago

White Flight: From 66 percent white in 1950 to 10 percent white in
1960

After 1960, “as sizable exodus of black residents followed,
including a significant number of working- and middle class families”
(Wilson 1996: 6).

“outmigration of non-poor black families”(Wilson 1996: 42)

Population falls from 80,000 in 1960 to 24,473 in 1990

How would the movement of working and middle class families
transform a neighborhood?
Middle Class Exodus

Loss of Black middle class impacts on social capital
 Job

networks erode
Reduces role models who stress importance of school,
career aspirations, etc.
 Teachers
move in
and social workers move out…drug dealers
Middle Class Exodus…Small Business Decline &
Neighborhoods Crumble

Woodlawn on the South Side of Chicago


Business base erode from over 800 establishments in 1950
to about a hundred today (Wilson 1996: 5)
“Neighborhoods disintegrate”

Excess housing stock leads land lords to abandon houses

Tax base erodes leading to cuts in services

Garbage collection; Park maintenance; Schools…
Joblessness & Middle Class Exodus Results in Lack
of Social Organization

Joblessness




Working and Middle Class Flight





Decrease in income
Change in structure and rhythm of everyday life
Impact on commercial businesses in neighborhood
Further erosion of commercial sector
Erosion of social capital (job networks)
Lack of role models
Population decline leads to abandoned housing
All Contributes to weakening of Social Organization/Social
Capital...and weakened Social Organization/Social Capital
further feeds disintegration of neighborhood…
Now…
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Fundraising and plans…

Next…Segregation and opportunity