American Historical Ephemera & Photography, including African Americana

6 x 9 in. printed handbill (toning, creasing and some separation at folds).

Handbill advertising work specific to white laborers only: "Look! Read! Then come straight over and see me if you are looking for the best jobs on the market....Here is What I Want To-Day: Storehouse Laborers, ... Track, Storehouse and Material Yard Laborers ... On several of the jobs we are paying 11 hours pay for 10 hours work...."

The St. Louis Globe-Democrat ran multiple advertisements for "Citro's Labor Agency" at 10 1/2 North 8th Street in 1920 (the agency operated at a different address in 1923). Each advertisement sought specific types of workers for specific jobs, with some advertisements seeking white laborers, some seeking white and "colored" laborers, and others seeking "colored" laborers only seemingly for the more menial jobs. The Pantagraph newspaper of Bloomington, Illinois, offers a clue as to the identity of the agency owner in a paragraph from its 19 January 1921 issue: "Louis Citro, labor agent of Chicago, who supplies the major portion of section hands for the Alton, was at the general offices yesterday, making arrangements about men for the coming season." Citro may have moved from Chicago to St. Louis and other cities to recruit labor due to his own corrupt practices, as the Chicago Tribune reported in 1914 that Louis Citro was "Held Guilty of Defrauding Jobless Men." Though Citro did place men of color, their working conditions were often poor and job opportunities were significantly less for Black males than their white counterparts.