The Texas Standard, Volume 30, Number 3, September-October 1956 Page: 18

                                
TSU PROFESSOR 'MAKES'
TIME MAGAZINE
Time Hagazine for August 13 gave
more than a column of space to Texas
Southern University's Dr. Henry Allen
Bullock's study of the economic status
of the Houston Negro.
The article follows:
RETAIL TRADE
THE NEGRO MARKET
"Economic equality is always a pre-
lude to total equality."
This week Professor Henry Allen
Bullock, 50, a trained sociologist
(Ph.D., University of Michigan, '42)
and director of graduate research at
Houston's all Negro Texas Southern
University (enrollment: 3,000), told,
in an 18-month study of his fellow
Negroes' earning power and buying
habits, how close the Southern city
Negro has moved toward economic
equality with whites. While his 100-
page report is confined to the South's
largest city, (Houston, pop. 725,000),
it is a good indication of the Negro's
material advances throughout the
Southland.
More Money. Bullock's report is
based on a poll of 1,028 households,
out of Houston's burgeoning Negro
wmM
DR. HENRY ALLEN BULLOCK
population of 156,000, and of 127
stores patronized by Negroes. He cal-
culates that Houston Negroes spend
$168 million a year; they constitute
21.2% of the city population, account
for 15% of its purchases. Furthermore,
he figures that his spending power is
backed by a property investment of $45
million.
Bullock reckons that the median in-
come of the Negro household in Hous-
ton has risen from $2,900 in 1940 to
18
t . «
Dr. R. H. Eastman, Stanford University Associate Professor of Chemistry, right, discusses the
use of a Micro-Kjeldhal used in protein analysis with A. C. Herald of Phyllis Wheatley High
School, Houston, Texas, left, and Bruce D. Johnson of Helena Senior High School, Helena,
Montana, during summer seminar at Stanford. The teachers attended an eight-week seminar for
high school science and math teachers on fellowships granted by Shell Companies Foundation,
Inc. Sixty fellowships have been granted by Shell in an effort to help curb downward trend of
high school enrollment in physics, chemistry, math and engineering subjects.
Mr. Herald, a native Houstonian, holds a master of science degree from Prairie View A & M
College. An instructor at Wheatley since 1950, he had previously served as principal of a high
school in Hempstead and as an associate professor of chemistry at Prairie View. He is a
member of the Texas Academy of Sciences, the American Chemical Society, and has served
as consultant to the National Science Teachers Association.
$4,016 today. One reason for the rela-
tively high income is that Negro
families frequently have more than one
wage earner; one family in three has
a second paycheck.
More Work. The survey found that
Negro unemployment in Houston has
dropped from 11% in 1940 to "less
than 3% of those who want to work
now." Moreover, there has been a
migration from the low-paying coun-
tryside to the city in response to ex-
panding employment opportunities.
From 1900 to 1950, while the Negro
population of Texas went up 58%, the
number of city Negroes quadrupled in
the state. They are also getting better
jobs. Bullock checked 736 manufactur-
ing firms, found eight of them now
employ Negro chemists, nine have
Negro engineers.
Houston's prospering Negroes spend
more for housing (mostly rent) than
whites, less for clothing and autos. Still
53.9% of the Negro households in the
poll owned autos. (Their preference,
in order: Chevrolet, Buick, Ford, Cad-
illac.) Negro personal savings, propor-
tionately, are double the savings of
Houston families in general.
More Potential. Houston's Negro is
a prolific buyer of appliances; for each
dollar spent on home furnishings, 54c
goes for washing machines, stoves, re-
frigerators, air conditioners, etc. Sev-
enteen of 20 househoulds plan to buy
more appliances or furniture this year.
Among Houston Negroes, 60.6% fami-
lies own vacuum cleaners, 85.6% re-
frigerators, 37.6% TV sets.
Houston's Negroes still shy from
some specialty products, not from lack
of money, but because they have never
felt the need for them, e.g., only 15.6%
buy baby food. Concludes Pollster
Bullock: "Because of its youth, its bet-
tering education, its increasing life
span (up to 63 for U.S. Negro males in
1950), the total Negro market has
barely been tapped."
Already scores of letters have been
received from various agencies ex-
pressing interest in the study. Dr.
Bullock plans to publish a book on the
study, thus giving more people ad-
vantage of it.
TEXAS STANDARD
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