American Dream Deferred: Black Federal Workers in Postwar Washington, DC

This study explores the history of black workers in Washington, D.C.’s federal sector from World War II (WWII) to the early 1980s.  Many blacks viewed government employment as a welcome alternative to the limited job prospects and career trajectories available in the hostile and discriminatory private sector.  As their numbers in the public sector in Washington increased, African-Americans gained a measure of economic security, elevated their social standing, and increased their political participation, primarily through public sector unions and such civil rights. 

However, the growth of racial liberalism in the post-war era did not do away with discrimination in federal employment.  In contrast to their white colleagues, black federal workers consistently faced lower wages and slower promotion rates, despite presidential commissions and laws intended to eliminate racial inequities in the workplace. Gradually, black workers improved their status through collective and individual activism, within a context of official support for their rights.

Public employment is an understudied source of African American, labor and institutional history; many blacks used it to escape economic oppression in the South. With a heavy concentration of both black workers and federal agencies, Washington, D.C is an excellent site for a monograph on this subject. Moreover, the tensions between the stated, anti-racist policies of the government and the continuance of discriminatory patterns has implications for other urban areas in which African-Americans moved in large numbers during and after WWII.

See more of: Federal Offense: A Complex History of Female, Native American, and African American Civil Servants
See more of: AHA Sessions

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