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[CHAPTER 33]
[Page 1]
Trades and Occupation[s], 1900--1930. Just as many of the famous old ante bellum building[s] of New Orleans and of Louisiana were built either wholly or in part by Negro labor, slave and free, so today is the Negro still an important part of all building operations. In 1901 a correspondent wrote that “The new stone library of Tulane University is now being erected by Negroes entirely”--apparently referring to the old Tilton Library which was built at a cost of $50,000.1 A candidate for Congress, championing the cause of his laboring constituents, charged some years ago that the head of New Orleans’ city administration had “built the Auditorium, Courthouse, Canal Street, etc, with…outside cheap negro labor.” 2
Negroes are well represented in the building and construction trades, not only as common and skilled laborers, but also as boss contractors and builders, and union officials. In the mixed union locals many Negroes are to be found among the bricklayers, plaster[er]s, cement finishers, hod carriers, lathers, tile helpers, roofers, and other trades. In carpentering, a trade once almost monopolized by free colored men before the Civil War, 2,811 Negroes were working in 1910. This figure, however, had fallen to 2,759 in 1930--the difference due probably to the financial depression which was then setting in.
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