Making the effort: the racial contours of Detroit's labor markets, 1920-1940

In 1940 the Ford Motor Company employed half of the black men in Detroit but only 14 percent of the whites. The authors postulate that black Detroiters were concentrated at Ford because they were excluded from working elsewhere. Those most affected were young married black men. A Ford job was virtually the only opportunity they had to earn a family wage; but to keep it, they had to put out extra effort that Ford required. White married men in Detroit had better employment opportunites elsewhere, so they tended to avoid Ford or leave quickly.