|
African Americans were aware that access to economic and social opportunities was greater for those with lighter skin, such as George A. Myers, a Republican politician from 1880 to 1930, and owner of the Hollenden Hotel Barber Shop in Cleveland, Ohio. In the nineteenth century, the economic achievement of the black population in Cleveland was greater than in most other cities with the exception of New Orleans. In several cities, such as Boston, Southern migrants tended to be lighter-skinned, more urban, and more literate than the general populations of their states of origin, characteristics that often reflected their free status in the antebellum South.
|
view larger image
