In considering the various occupations, trades, etc., in which our
Colored Americans are engaged, the locality must be taken into account.
The colored man, like the Jew, the Irishman, and the Italian, meets with
more prejudice in one than in another locality, and he must govern his
occupation in a great measure by that prejudice, until he is strong
enough to overcome it, and intelligent enough to find a way to overcome
it.
There are many who hold that the Colored American in the South finds
less opposition and prejudice against him in the trades and occupations
than in the North. There is less also in the East than in the West,
except that in the Middle West, or the northern portion of Mississippi
Valley, where there is less prejudice against the employment of Colored
Americans outside the large cities where the trades unions prevail and
control. Owing to this diminution of prejudice in the Middle West, the
number of Colored Americans in that part of the country is increasing,
likewise improving.
In the South, it is said, the differences between the two races is not
so much prejudice against employment, as a political idea that the
Colored Americans are on the way to obliterate the color line.
Notwithstanding this opposition, the Colored American readily finds room
for his labor where he would be impeded in the North and West from the
opposition of the great labor unions, the great aim of which is material
progress and not intellectual.
It is for the Colored American, therefore, to govern his choice of a
business, trade, or profession by the locality in which he lives or
purposes remaining during his natural life. In that selection, he is
afforded advantages to rise to any limit of perfection and thus obtain
profit from his talents and capacity.