Black Economic Progress in the Jim Crow South: Evidence from Rosenwald Schools

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Northeastern University; Federal Reserve System - USA; Federal Reserve Bank - Atlanta
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0507
• DOI: 10.1017/S0022050724000548
• 发表日期: 2025
• 页码: 72-109
• 关键词: private philanthropy; IMPACT; DISCRIMINATION; women

摘要

This paper studies the labor market impact of the Rosenwald Schools Initiative, a school construction program in the early twentieth-century South. Using a new sample linking Social Security and census records, we find that exposure to Rosenwald schools raised Black women's labor force participation and occupational standing in 1940; however, we find little evidence that Black men's occupational standing significantly improved. Blacks made no discernible gains in jobs where they were underrepresented, while the gains they achieved were concentrated in jobs where they were commonly found. This suggests that the scope for Black occupational advancement was limited around 1940.