African American Response to Industrialization
The African American response to industrialization in Richmond is marked by resistance, adaptation, and contributions to the city’s changing economy. After the Civil War, Richmond’s economy had to transition out of a society that relied heavily on slave labor. For newly emancipated African Americans, this period represented opportunity, but with many challenges. Many former enslaved people became sharecroppers, but this proved challenging because white landowners provided tenants with a portion of the crop in exchange for labor, with little to no payout. Of those who did own land, the farms were so small they had to supplement their income by working as laborers on other farms or factories. The war had devastated the city and the rebuilding process opened new avenues for employment in industries like tobacco, iron, and railroads.
Since African Americans were excluded from the whites-only economic system, they started relying on each other to create black businesses, like restaurants and retails shops, in segregated urban areas to service one another. Pioneers like Maggie L. Walker, born and raised in Richmond, became the first Black woman to establish and be president of a bank in 1903, St. Luke Penny Savings Bank, in the United States. Her bank was, “part of a larger network of businesses that served and employed African Americans who would otherwise have been left outside the economic mainstream”10
African Americans entered the workforce in large numbers, often taking the most labor-intensive and low-wage jobs. They would endure harsh working conditions in factories who often exploited their labor. Workers in Richmond exhibited resilience and resourcefulness by forming labor unions and other collective organizations to advocate for fair wages, better working conditions, and put an end to discriminatory practices. Relying on interracial solidarity, Black and white workers came together to form their own union, under the Knights of Labor11 umbrella, to improve conditions by leveraging widespread boycotts. Crossing racial lines, all workers exerted pressure on the factories as one. Terence Powderly, the General Master Workman of the Knights said, “We organize the colored workers into separate assemblies, working under the same laws and enjoying the same privileges as their white brethren…The politicians have kept the white and black men of the South apart, while crushing both. Our aim shall be to educate both and elevate them bringing them together.”
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