| Abstract: |
We study differences in economic outcomes by perceived skin tone among African
Americans using full-count U.S. decennial census data from the late-19th and
early-20th centuries. Comparing children coded as "Black" or "Mulatto" by
census enumerators and linking these children across population censuses, we
first document large gaps in educational attainment and income among African
Americans with darker and lighter perceived skin tones. To disentangle the
drivers of these gaps, we identify all 35, 992 families in which enumerators
assigned same-gender siblings different Black/Mulatto classifications.
Relative to sisters coded as Mulatto, sisters coded as Black had lower
educational attainment, were less likely to marry, and had less-educated,
likely lower-earning husbands. These patterns are consistent with more severe
contemporaneous discrimination against African American women with darker
perceived skin tones. In contrast, we find similar educational attainment,
marital outcomes, and incomes among differently-classified brothers. Men
perceived as African Americans of any skin tone faced similar contemporaneous
discrimination, consistent with the "one-drop" racial classification rule that
grouped together individuals with any known Black ancestry. Lower incomes for
African American men perceived as having darker skin tone in the general
population were driven by differences in opportunities and resources that
varied across families, likely reflecting the impacts of historical or
family-level discrimination. |