Black workers had long history with fed jobs before shutdown

Black workers had long history with fed jobs before shutdown

DETROIT — For Cheryl Monroe and generations of other African-Americans, federal government jobs have long been a path to the middle class and a way to provide a comfortable life for their families.

Then the record-long government shutdown hit, making it hard for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration chemist from Detroit to pay her mortgage.

"People say 'save for a rainy day' and you're always saving, but when there is no check, that's a hurricane not a rainy day," Monroe said.

The shutdown that ended Friday left an especially painful toll for African-Americans who make up nearly 20 percent of the federal workforce and historically have been on the low end of the government pay scale.

The federal government played an important role in the building of the Black middle class in the United States, giving African-Americans job opportunities that weren't always available in the private sector. It started during World War II and the post-war years when the need for manpower was great as large numbers of whites were in military-related or war-production jobs.

These jobs offered African-Americans a chance to reach for a "slice of the American dream," said Frederick Gooding Jr., African-American studies professor at Texas Christian University and author of the recently published "American Dream Deferred: Black Federal Workers in Washington, D.C., 1941-1981."

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