Back of the Hiring LineBack of the Hiring Line

"While most Americans justifiably celebrate Ellis Island ancestors, here are the stories of what that long period of mass immigration after the Civil War meant to freed slaves, their children and grandchildren in the hiring lines of America: decades of delays in gaining industrial job experience, skills, and career connections, and constant setbacks in accumulating and transferring wealth. Average Black household wealth in the 21st century is only a fraction of the wealth of other racial and ethnic groups, including recent immigrants. There are many reasons. This book is about one of them: periodic sustained immigration surges over the last two centuries. This is a little-told history of the struggles of freed slaves and their descendants to climb job ladders in the eras of Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, A. Philip Randolph, Barbara Jordan, and other African American leaders who advocated tight-labor migration policies. It is a history of better disappointments and, occasionally, of great hope."--Back cover