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[african american workers]

African American Workers Ironing

[puerto rican workders]

Puerto Rican garment workers, 1953
Courtesy Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives,
Cornell University

In the 1950s, the composition of New York's apparel work force began to change. Highly restrictive immigration quota laws enacted in the 1920s had cut off the flow of cheap labor from Eastern and Southern Europe, forcing the industry to look elsewhere for workers. As Italian and Eastern-European Jewish garment workers got better jobs or retired, they were replaced by Puerto Ricans and African Americans. Due to union gains, government regulations, and industry changes, these new workers did not experience the same level of exploitation as their predecessors.

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