Young Negro Worker

c. 1931

Young Negro Worker, c. 1931. Jolán Gross-Bettelheim (American, 1900–1972). Drypoint; sheet: 17.6 x 13.8 cm (6 15/16 x 5 7/16 in.); platemark: 17.6 x 13.8 cm (6 15/16 x 5 7/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 1996.287 Hungarian-born Jolán Gross-Bettelheim lived in Cleveland from 1925 to 1937 and worked at a printshop run by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a Depression-era federal program that hired and retained job-seekers on public works and arts projects. Here, she depicted a young Black man taking a break from his labor, probably from one of the many factories or mills in Cleveland’s industrial district. Young Black men migrated to Cleveland from the South in large numbers between 1910 and 1930 seeking work in the city’s booming oil, chemical, steel, and automotive industries.