The authors examine both past and current practices and policies influencing black employment in the railroad, airline, trucking, and urban transit industries. Technological unemployment, declining traffic, and discrimination by unions, carriers, and government agencies have reduced both the number and proportion of blacks in the railroad industry, which was once one of the nation's leading employers of blacks.
These, same railroading mores have affected black employment in airlines and urban transit in the past but today other forces are working to improve black representation in the former and leading to a heavily black work force in the latter. In the trucking industry, the Teamsters' Union and government policy are keys to Negro employment, with the union dragging its feet in supporting an increased number of black over-the-road drivers. A final section compares the situations in the four industries and forecasts future Negro employment trends in light of the most recent employment data, occupational needs, governmental policy, and other significant factors.