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Linda Loubert, PhD:

Dr. Linda Loubert Economics Department Morgan State University 1700 E. Cold Spring Lane Baltimore, MD 21251 Phone: 443-885-1885 Email: Linda.loubert@morgan.edu

Linda Loubert, PhD, a graduate in Political Economy from the University of Texas at Dallas, is an Assistant Professor in the Economics Department at Morgan State University.

Dr. Loubert’s primary research interests are in the areas of public policy, including education finance. She integrates spatial mapping techniques with economic analysis and uses Geographical Information Systems (GIS) for spatial analysis of urban education in public schools. Much of her work also extends to gender and inequality in the workforce, and environmental and social justice issues for underserved populations.

Jeanetta Churchill, MS:

The Institute for Urban Research Morgan State University 1700 E. Cold Spring Lane Montebello Complex, C-205 Baltimore, MD 21251 e-mail: Jeanetta.Churchill@morgan.edu Office: 443-885-1256 Mobile: 443-889-9726

Jeanetta Churchill, MS, is a Research Associate in the Institute at Urban Research of Morgan State University where she uses geographic information systems (GIS) to spatially investigate issues impacting urban populations. Ms. Churchill previously directed the Baltimore City Data Collaborative, where she produced tables and maps to monitor demographic and social indicators for children, youth, and families at the neighborhood level. Ms. Churchill holds a Masters in Urban Spatial Analytics degree from The University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Science degree in Biometry from the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center.

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TITLE:

UNDERSTANDING THE IMPORTANCE OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT IN BALTIMORE BY EXPLORING JOBS AND EDUCATION

AUTHORS:

LINDA LOUBERT AND JEANETTA CHURCHILL; MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

ABSTRACT:

One of the main components of Civil Rights Movement that stemmed from The March on

Washington in 1964 was jobs. Indeed, Martin Luther King, Jr.’ life ended during his struggle to bring

justice for the sanitation workers in Memphis, TN. Because education and jobs are highly correlated,

this study explores the educational levels and job types .The time period of 1960 and 2010 are used to

capture what changes occurred during that 50 year span and what that implicates for this

quinquagenary. Among other important policy prescriptions for the March on Washington was the

“dream” for changes in the lives of poor, African Americans as articulated by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The location of education attainment and job types are explored spatially by U.S. Census Tract

decadal data for Baltimore City. Baltimore’s racial makeup flipped from predominately white (65%) in

1960 to predominately black (64%) by 2010, yet it still exhibits a high degree of poverty during those

times. With these changes in demographics, we examine whether or not the Civil Rights Era of policy

reform for jobs on a federal level play a significant role in putting African Americans to work and out of

poverty in a city such as Baltimore, MD. Our study indicates that although some things changed, much

stayed the same, particularly the percent of those below the poverty line.

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Introduction

One of the main components of Civil Rights Movement that stemmed from The March

on Washington in 1963 was jobs. Indeed, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life ended during his struggle

to bring justice for the sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee. Because education and jobs

are highly correlated, this chapter explores educational levels and job types. The time period of

1960 and 2010 are used to capture what changes occurred during that 50-year span and what

that implicates for this quinquagenary. The location of education attainment and job types are

explored spatially by using U.S. Census Tract decadal data for Baltimore City, Maryland.

Baltimore’s racial makeup flipped from predominantly white (65%) in 1960 to predominately

black (64%) by 2010, yet it still exhibited a high degree of poverty in 1960 and as well by 2010

(see Table 1). With these changes in demographics we try to answer the question of whether

or not the Civil Rights Era of policy reform for jobs on a federal level played a significant role in

employment for African Americans in a town such as Baltimore.

TABLE 1: Demographic characteristics of Baltimore City, MD in 1960 and 2010

1960 2010

CHARACTERISTIC NUMBER PERCENT NUMBER PERCENT

White 610,608 65% 183,830 30%

Black 325,589 35% 395,781 64%

Other Category 2,827 0% 41,350 7%

Male 452,606 48% 292,249 47%

Female 486,418 52% 328,712 53%

Age under 18 315,584 34% 133,560 22%

Age 18 to 34 200,406 21% 181,674 29%

Age 35 to 64 338,167 36% 232,915 38%

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Age 65 and over 84,867 9% 72,812 12%

Percent below poverty line 212,154 23% Not

available 23%

Total Population 939,024 100% 620,961 100%

SOURCE: U.S. Census Data, www.socialexplorer.com, New York City, NY: Social Explorer 2014.

Education in Baltimore

Beginning with the history of education in Baltimore, we see it was not unlike most

Eastern cities in the early 18th and 19th centuries. Clergy were the overseers of the early

schools. Colleges like Morgan College (now known as Morgan State University) were

established under religious entities. Philanthropists also contributed to schools for the poor.

Public education which started around 1830 in Baltimore did not come easy for it was beset

with an indifferent citizenry for public schooling. The board of commissioners of Public Schools,

however, was diligent in seeing it come into fruition. Funding for public schools came from

tuition fees, a city tax, the State school fund, and from dividends on bank stock and rents

(BCPSS, 2007).

During the period of 1860 to 1900 the population of the city doubled and its growth

advanced the importance of education and culture. The city began to be known for its

universities, colleges, and medical and professional schools. This also marked the period for the

beginning of the “colored” schools. Culturally, it was the norm to establish separate schools for

nonwhites at that time. In 1883 the “Colored High and Training School” was the first high

school for African Americans and later acquired the name of Frederick Douglass High School. It

was first located on East Saratoga Street near St. Paul Street but moved slowly west to different

locations before it settled at its the present location on Gwynn Falls Parkway on the west side

of Baltimore. One of the most notable alumni was Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, a

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graduate of the class of 1926. Interestingly, Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, which opened

its doors as a high school in 1937, settled right off Orleans Street to accommodate the

community of African Americans on the east side of town. Douglass and Dunbar high schools

became the two important institutions for educating African Americans in the city. Their

location in the city served as a focal point on the east and west side for African American

households. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) serves as a useful tool to emphasize

characteristics of these neighborhoods and to explain the changes in education and jobs for

citizens in Baltimore. Knowing that large numbers of African Americans were clustered in US

Census tracts around these schools during the 1960s provides robustness to the analyses that

follow (Map 1).

In 1960, education for a small number of black middle-class helped show the affluence

that was possible. McKay (2007) found that upper middle-class women in Baltimore’s African

American community exhibited labor force characteristics seen mostly with white women in

2000. That is to say, a large percentage of the women worked rather than stay-at-home. These

women were a part of the “Lads and Lassie Intensive Study Sample” done by the University of

Maryland Medical School. Even though the study only had 169 men and 169 women which

represented 0.1% of the total black population, it did offer a glimmer of what was possible for

African Americans as well as a reality check that very few were well-off during that time. Most

of these women (82%) were employed in professional occupations and 91% of them had a

college degree , (McKay 2007). The study showed that as many women as men held positions

in professional and managerial occupations which was unusual since that phenomenon was not

seen until 2000 for white women.

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In 1960 the overall percent of African Americans receiving a high school degree or more

was 45 and increased to 76 by 2010 which indicates that more were graduating at least from

high school. We also know that the number of African Americans almost doubled in the city

during that same period. Using a spatial crosstab analysis (Map 1), we can show the pattern of

those neighborhoods that were predominately African American with a high school degree or

more moving farther away from the center of the city into the county by 2010. Sadly, the inner

east and west side now have predominately Black neighborhoods with high numbers of

residents without high school degrees.

MAP 1: Variability of completion of a high school diploma or higher by African-American residence (among African Americans aged 25 and up), by census tract; Baltimore City, MD, 1960 – 2010.

SOURCE: Raw data from 1960 Decennial Census Data, www.socialexplorer.com, New York City, NY: Social Explorer 2013. Raw data from U.S. Census Bureau, 2006-2010 American Community Survey.

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Neighborhoods which were predominately black in 1960 like Forest Park, Walbrook, and

Sandtown-Winchester had more than 50% of their residents aged 25 and over with a high

school degree or more level of education. Neighborhoods like Ashburton, which was

commonly known as the “Gold Coast” due to its stately homes, was 22% black, and had over

80% of its black residents with a high school or more degree.

Another one of the goals of the March on Washington was to desegregate schools but,

even though the city was not predominately black, by 1960 the Baltimore City Public School

System became predominately black. White flight had started picking up its pace, making

segregated schools the reality. Dot density maps (Maps 2-7) indicate the decadal changes for

African American residence inside and around the city, and shows the locations of where the

city became predominately black. The maps, also, show that the west side of Baltimore has the

greatest migration out of the city using Liberty Road as a quasi “freedom” passage from

segregated neighborhoods without realizing that newly segregated neighborhoods would soon

be created even within the county. De facto segregation that occurred in the neighborhoods

worked its way to racial segregation in the schools, leaving Baltimore with large numbers of

poor residents and students with lower than average expectation for school success and

consequently less chances for better paying job success.

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MAPS 2-7: Dot-density maps of African-American residential patterns; Baltimore, MD 1960-2010.

MAP 2: 1960

MAP 3: 1970

MAP 4: 1980

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MAP 5: 1990

MAP 6: 2000

MAP 7: 2010 SOURCE: U.S. Census Data, www.socialexplorer.com, New York City, NY: Social Explorer 2013.

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The following chloropleth maps present the starkness of that predominately westward

migration of African Americans from the city. Areas spreading west, as well as east, represent a

greater than 70% concentration of African Americans.

MAPS 8-9: African-American residential patterns by census tract; Baltimore metropolitan area, MD, 1960-2010.

SOURCE: Data: U.S. Census Data, www.socialexplorer.com, New York City, NY: Social Explorer 2014. Shapefiles: Minnesota Population Center. National Historical Geographic Information System: Version 2.0. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota 2011

Occupations among African Americans

Data from the 1960 U.S. Census records indicate the primary occupation from which the

person in the labor force earns the most money. The main categories are listed in Figure 1 and

it presents the percent of African Americans working in the major occupational classes. The

Sales category includes any job from peddler to newsboy, insurance agent or sales clerk.

Clerical workers such as secretaries, receptionists, attendants in medical offices, or

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bookkeepers fall into the Service category of occupations. The Management category ranges

from floor and building managers to officials in administration. This also includes business,

science and arts occupations. The Production category can be seen in transportation and

material moving occupations like truck drivers. The Construction category includes jobs utilizing

natural resources to maintenance. Some examples of jobs in this category are laundry and dry

cleaning operatives, bus drivers, asbestos and insulation workers or furnacemen and

smeltermen. Figure 1 shows that in 1960, two-thirds of African Americans worked in service,

construction, and production categories.

FIGURE 1: Percent of employed African-Americans by major occupational class, Baltimore City, MD; 1960 – 2010.

SOURCE: 1960 Decennial Census Data, www.socialexplorer.com, New York City, NY: Social Explorer 2013. U.S. Census Bureau, 2006-2010 American Community Survey.

Although not shown as a category in the figure, the Classified Index of Occupations and

Industries of the 1960 Decennial Census of Population indicates that 11% of nonwhites ages 14

and older were employed as private household workers. (Social Explorer, 2013). The

6.0%

13.6%

25.0%

27.6%

27.8%

11.2%

20.7%

21.6%

6.9%

28.9%

10.8%

0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0%

Unreported occupations

Natural resources, construction, andmaintenance occupations

Production, transportation, and materialmoving occupations

Management, business, science, and artsoccupations

Service occupations

Sales and office occupations

19602006-2010

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representation in Map 10 indicates where most of these household workers were employed.

These areas were white but employed black household workers.

MAP 10: Percent of African-American females aged 14 and over employed as domestic household workers by census tract; Baltimore City, MD, 1960.

SOURCE: 1960 Decennial Census Data, Minnesota Population Center. National Historical Geographic Information System: Version 2.0. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota 2011.

By 2010, many more African Americans worked in the sales and office and management

occupations even though about the same percentage (28%) worked in service occupations. The

data seem to indicate that labor improvements were in progress. A more detailed examination

is necessary to validate these changes in the percentages. Therefore, we use the rigor of spatial

analysis (Map 11) to uncover concentrated areas in the city whose workers were employed in

the occupational categories of service, management, construction, and sales. The clusters of

neighborhoods for sales workers are used to illustrate migration of categories of workers

moved out of the city The legend in the map shows clusters of areas that have higher levels of

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people in sales which are surrounded by other census tracts with high percentages in sales and

it gives those clusters a label of “High-High”. The label “High-Low” means that there are a

significant amount of workers in sales but they are not surrounded by tracts that have a

significant amount of workers in the sales category. This means there were some scattered

pockets in the city where there were a significant amount of residents who worked in the sales

occupation category. Similarly, the Low-High category means that there were few residents in

that Census tract working in sales, and those tracts were surrounded by tracts that had high

numbers of sales workers. The Low-Low category simply indicates that there were few workers

in sales in that tract or in the surrounding tracts. This type of spatial analysis helps to cement

the notion that those with “good” jobs were moving out of the city by 2010. All of the other

categories showed the same movement; African Americans with jobs moved away from the city

center by 2010.

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MAP 11: Clustering of African-Americans working in Sales and Office occupations, by census tract; Baltimore City, MD, 1960 – 2010.

SOURCE: Raw data from 1960 Decennial Census, www.socialexplorer.com, New York City, NY: Social Explorer 2013. U.S. Census Bureau, 2006-2010 American Community Survey.

The Unemployment map from 2010 (Map 12) presents a “telling tale” on the idea of poverty in

the city. Although unemployment data for 1960 are not shown, areas with 10% up to 23% of

unemployment are similar to the areas with the low education rates in 1960 as shown in Map 1

which stands as a great proxy to indicate the location of those low unemployment rates. Those

areas are closely aligned with the same areas in Map 12. This could then solidify the reality of

a “poorer” and “worse off” Baltimore. This, of course, was not the “dream” based on the

March on Washington in 1963. Policy prescriptions following the March on Washington like the

Civil Rights Act of 1964 failed in many aspects when the patterns of unemployment over the

years are closely observed.

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MAP 12: Percent unemployed among labor force aged 16+, by census tract; Baltimore, MD metro area, 2006-2010.

SOURCE: U.S. Census Data, www.socialexplorer.com, New York City, NY: Social Explorer 2013.

The evaluation of education and labor is seen on one hand as two improvements for

African Americans from 1960 to 2010. Indeed, improvements in the percentages receiving a

high school degree or higher did occur and movement into more management type

occupations occurred. Yet, a closer examination of the data using GIS, we can see that the

migration of African Americans out of Baltimore City and the growth of unemployment within

the city suggest that the best outcomes did not occur as a result of the “dream” for African

American. The best contemporary policy prescription would be to improve access to higher

quality education, occupations and employment in higher earning categories, thereby, reducing

the poverty levels and unemployment that exists today for the State of Black Baltimore.

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References

Baltimore City Public Schools, Early Schools http://thomasghayes.baltimorecityschools.org/About/History/Early_Schools.asp Retrieved January 9, 2014.

McKay, Ruth, 2007, Monthly Labor Review, vol 130 n 2, February 2007 p.3-8

www.socialexplorer.com. New York City, NY: Social Explorer 2014.

U.S. Census Bureau, 2006-2010 American Community Survey.