White progressives’ racial myopia: Why their colorblindness fails minorities — and the left

[gollygee]

85. Not African American domestic workers

who got paid $3 a day in the 1950s (which is about $26.50 today) for 10 hours or more.

"Everybody who was on the books" eliminates a great number of people of color. So no, African Americans were not doing well financially in the 1950s. The following is an example of pay for African American domestic workers in 1968. From what I've read, $3 a day was pretty standard in the 1950s, and apparently some were still making that in 1968. And in the 1950s, they weren't elgible for social security either.

http://research.library.gsu.edu/c.php?g=115684&p=752642

Bolden started the "maids" union in Atlanta in 1968. At the time, female domestic workers in the city made between $3 and $10 a day. They received no protection under minimum wage law. The union grew quickly. In six months it had a few hundred members, and throughout the 1970s the organization maintained about 2,000 core members. Bolden and her union produced concrete results. By 1976, Atlanta maids earned a daily wage of $14. Seven years later, their wages rose to $40 a day and the maids were covered under federal minimum wage standards.