12th and Locust

This site is a really interesting spot. In 1890, it was rented by Reverend Christian of Shiloh Baptist Church and Christopher Perry Jr. (our friend from the Philadelphia Tribune in the first stop) during a strike by Russian-Jewish cloakmakers. They had convinced the Blum Brothers, one of the leading manufacturers, to hire black women to break the strike. They rented this house to house newly employed workers who needed a place to stay, Perry had reportedly been housing more than a hundred in his own home prior to this. There was exceeding interest in these positions. However, the strike broke shortly after, and the original women returned to their positions.

This demonstrates a couple interesting things about the city at this time. In particular, it shows the difficult position that Black people found themselves in in relation to unions and the labor movement. Frequently, they were excluded from both certain forms of employment, and, when they were allowed to work in a certain job, they would be excluded from the related unions if they were available. Thus, though many Black leaders wanted to engage in labor movements, frequently the biggest gains for Black people came through acting as scabs during strikes. The antagonistic relationship between unions and Black workers can be seen from a story about the street car workers. In 1898, the Philadelphia and West Chester Street Care Company hired two black workers. The other workers organized a two week strike in response, which ended up getting the two fired.

A second important point made here is the role of Black women in the labor industry. Du Bois discusses throughout the book how women worked regularly, stating:

“All the forces that are impelling white women to become breadwinners, are emphasized in the case of Negro women: their chances of marriage are decreased by the low wages of the men and the large excess of their own sex in the great cities; they must work, and if there are few chances open they must suffer competition in wages.”

Thus we see how so many women would jump at the opportunity to enter a new line of work, leading to the exceeding interest in the cloakmaking opportunities, and the renting of this building.