Blacks were commonly discriminated against in the workplace, being segregated from white men and paid less than white women, who were already paid less than white men. Several recognized this problem and sought to fix it. In a letter of grievances to a cotton mill owner, a group of white women wage-workers wrote: "The efforts of the Fulton mill owners to force the white women and girls employed there to work with the negro women who were placed among them is a deliberate attempt to eliminate the white wage-slaves from this avocation and substitute black wage-slaves because they will work cheaper, although the white wage-slaves do not live but simply exist." The women were somewhat insulted that they were to work with the blacks, but were hypocritically opposed to the wage slavery of the blacks and their replacement by the cheaper wage-workers. Even the labor unions were opposed to equality, Peter Rachleff answered when asked about the Assembly 49 incident in which several union members went with one of the blacks in the union to a show, "Personally, I have nothing but kindly feelings for the colored people. I wish them prosperity and success, and I will befriend them in any just claims they may have; but when the plea is put in for social equality, the line of demarcation is clearly and distinctly drawn, so far as I am concerned." This also suggests the spillover
Blacks were commonly discriminated against in the workplace, being segregated from white men and paid less than white women, who were already paid less than white men. Several recognized this problem and sought to fix it. In a letter of grievances to a cotton mill owner, a group of white women wage-workers wrote: "The efforts of the Fulton mill owners to force the white women and girls employed there to work with the negro women who were placed among them is a deliberate attempt to eliminate the white wage-slaves from this avocation and substitute black wage-slaves because they will work cheaper, although the white wage-slaves do not live but simply exist." The women were somewhat insulted that they were to work with the blacks, but were hypocritically opposed to the wage slavery of the blacks and their replacement by the cheaper wage-workers. Even the labor unions were opposed to equality, Peter Rachleff answered when asked about the Assembly 49 incident in which several union members went with one of the blacks in the union to a show, "Personally, I have nothing but kindly feelings for the colored people. I wish them prosperity and success, and I will befriend them in any just claims they may have; but when the plea is put in for social equality, the line of demarcation is clearly and distinctly drawn, so far as I am concerned." This also suggests the spillover