The Bronx Slave Market
Ella Baker, the great socialist and civil rights organizer, was born this day in 1903. Here's her classic 1935 article on economic exploitation and black domestic workers in Great Depression–era New York.
American civil rights activist Ella Baker in Washington, DC, on September 18, 1941. (Afro American Newspapers / Gado / Getty Images)
The Bronx Slave Market! What is it? Who are its dealers? Who are its victims? What are its causes? How far does its stench spread? What forces are at work to counteract it?
Any corner in the congested sections of New York City’s Bronx is fertile soil for mushroom “slave marts.” The two where the traffic is heaviest and the bidding is highest are located at 167th street and Jerome Avenue and at Simpson and Westchester avenues.
Symbolic of the more humane slave block is the Jerome Avenue “market.” There, on benches surrounding a green square, the victims wait, grateful, at least, for some place to sit. In direct contrast is the Simpson Avenue “mart,” where they pose wearily against buildings and lampposts, or scuttle about in an attempt to retrieve discarded boxes upon which to rest.
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