Essay On African American Prostitution

Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth century, African American women were limited with equal employment. An area of business that became common for African American women to make profit off was prostitution. This was controversial during the late nineteenth and early twentieth, as it is today. Prostitution not only deeply effects women, but it also has an impact on black America both past and present. Black women prostituting impacts the black community through the greater risks for diseases, legality matters such as jail, and the oppression black women face. One area that African American women were oppressed the most was in the employment industry. In “We Must Live Anyhow”, Cynthia Blair discusses the relationship between employment options for black women and prostitution. One city that Blair focuses on during the late nineteenth earlier twentieth century that was known for sex work is Chicago. During the late 1880’s to early 1900’s, while jobs for white women were changing from domestic to industrial, majority of African …show more content…
One case Castro and Corral mention that shows the African American being denied their rights under this is the case DeGraffenreid v. General Motors. In this case, African American women were fighting for their right to get their jobs back having been laid off, which they believed to be because of their race. The court ruled against them for several reasons. The most important reason was that it was illegal to combine race, color and sex discrimination under Title VII. Another reason was because it was shown that General Motors hired white female workers, so African American women were not allowed to make the claim that they were discriminated against because of sex