Unequal Treatment

Under America's by now well-entrenched system of 'separate but equal,' the plight of black families is brushed aside. Black neighborhoods are typically clustered in less desirable sections of town, out of view.

This policy has the (perhaps) unintended consequence that Blacks cannot travel freely. Most restaurants won't serve them, and even finding a bathroom can be a problem. Hotels and accommodations are hard to find.

The segregation of public spaces leads to publication of the 'Green Book,' an indispensable guide for Blacks on the road. Like truckers. It identifies locations where blacks can get a meal, or even fill the gas tank.
Segregation, Blacks' <i>Green-Book</i>, 1940s

  Inequality
The judicial theory of 'separate but equal' may sound reasonable, but it certainly doesn't describe America in the 1940s. Separate, yes. Equal, hardly. The discrepancies show up in a thousand ways, epitomized by the Green Book (center above).  In some places, black truck drivers can only rest under the shade of their own trucks (top left).

Urban Blacks, 1940s

  Behind the Curtains
There's very little press coverage of life in the black community during the Depression. For a variety of reasons, the average unemployment rate for Blacks is three times higher than for Whites. Yet, in photographs of bread lines and soup kitchens, very few black faces are visible. This may be related to hard feelings left over from the 1920s, when Blacks first started streaming north, competing with Whites for automotive jobs. In any case, the struggle for survival in black communities is largely hidden from view.


Black unemployment, 1940s

  Few Choices
Among the many obstacles that keep Blacks in depressed conditions is the reality that good-paying jobs are not open to them. They don't have the education for good positions, or schools where they can get such education. Most can't travel to a job, because they don't have a car. Many simply walk to nearby fields, or produce-packing houses, but many others remain jobless. This seems to confirm the widespread notion that Blacks are simply too stupid or lazy to get a job. Or so it seems, to many Whites.