SOME READJUSTMENTS OF THE TEXAS NEGRO FAMILY TO THE EMERGENCY OF WAR
In: Social science quarterly, Band 50, Heft 4, S. 994-1011
ISSN: 0038-4941
For an introduction to this article see SA 0206/E9423. The article is a reprint from Southwestern Social Science Quarterly, 1944, 25, 2, 100-117. Res is presented which inquired into the readjustments that have taken place in Negro fam life as 'a result of war emergency (WWII), & to what entent these readjustments may have been conditioned by the factor of minority group status. 1, 000 Tex Negro fam's were selected from various towns & cities in East Tex according to the proportional representation of the Negro pop in these areas. 50 Negro fam heads were asked to write letters giving an account of how the present war has affected their fam's. The following aspects are dealt with: (1) changes in fam formation; (2) changes in place of residence; (3) changes in econ functions of fam members; (4) relation of fam readjustment & minority group status. Data show that under the influence of WWII Amer fam's come into existence more rapidly & become dissolved more rapidly than in peace time. Negro fam's are no exception. Fam's had an abnormally high rate of mobility during the 3-yr period immediately following 1941, & their reasons for moving were based upon attempted adjustment to the labor demands of the US war economy. Responding to the expanded labor demand in specific industries, members of these fam's shifted from a group of agri'al & domestic service workers to a mass of factory labor. Although this shift intensified racial friction, it resulted in a change of the position of these fam's & the establishment of a new pattern of life which they defined as better than the old. The att's of white & Negro Coll students revealed a willingness of whites to tolerate this change in ES as long as the traditional SR of the races are maintained. 4 Tables, 5 Charts. Henry A. Bullock, SOME READJUSTMENTS OF THE NEGRO FAMILY IN 1944 AND 1970-offers an explanation of how the author viewed Negro fam readjustment in the first instance & how he views it now. In 1944 the concern was with the degree & manner in which an instit accommodates to new circumstances imposed upon it by the external environment in which it is enmeshed. Then the quality of black fam's was judged in terms of how they deviated from WASP norms. Now the Amer assimilation ideal is being abandoned. Blacks want to be black. Negro fam's could now be observed in terms of the efficiency with which they are org'ed to meet needs generated by conditions under which black people have to live. In a ghetto, a WASP style of fam org would be a poor tool for fam survival. Today's res'er should probe beyond the structural horizon & into the dynamics of fam org itself. This will lead to a further & beneficial fading of the demarcation line between pure & applied res. M. Maxfield.