pa1778data.pdf

U.S. STEEL DUQUESNE WORKS
HAER No. PA-115
(Page 26)
hundreds of steelworkers left their jobs for military service,
the demographic character of the city was significantly altered
by the influx of African-American labor from the south. As a
result, the African-American community grew to just over 1,800 or
8.5% of the city's population by 1930. The African-American
influx was the last large migration of people into the city.
After their arrival, the population of Duquesne reached its peak
of just over 21,000. 33
The significance of the Depression related to the changing
character of the city's political leadership. Before the
Depression decade, municipal government was controlled by
Republican Party officials, many of whom had close ties to
management circles within the steel industry. James Crawford,
whose relationship to steel management circles is noted above,
served as the city's mayor from 1917 until 1937. In addition,
managers from the Duquesne Works regularly served on city council
and the increasingly influential Duquesne Businessmen's
Association. The Depression, however, undermined their authority
and prestige. Steel mill officials were unable to provide the
city's working-class residents with adequate employment or to
continue the social welfare programs begun in 1914.
Consequently, their standing within the community declined along
with their standing within the mill. Furthermore, the fiscal
conservatism to which local GOP officials subscribed came to be
seen as a hindrance to recovery efforts, especially when compared
to efforts in nearby communities. The governments of nearby
Pittsburgh and McKeesport, for example, actively utilized New
Deal public works programs administered by the Works Progress
Administration (WPA) and Projects Works Authority (PWA) in an
effort to provide work for unemployed residents and to improve
the infrastructures of their communities. On the contrary,
Duquesne officials declined to participate on ideological
grounds..
As the standing of the city's traditional political
leadership declined, the reputation of local unionists,
especially Elmer Maloy, began to rise. In 1937 Maloy decided to
run for mayor as a Democrat, challenging Republican political
dominance. During the campaign, he identified himself closely
with the New Deal programs of the Roosevelt Administration by
stressing the responsibility of local government to protect the
constitutional right of workers to participate in trade unions,
and the importance of participating in federal public works
Dennis C. Dickerson, Out of the Crucible: Black Steelworkers
in Western Pennsylvania, 1875 - 1980, (Albany: 1986), 57; The 1940
U. S. Population Census, Vol. 1: 159 gives population data for both
1930 and 1940.