Associated Press, Atlanta Black Star |
In this Jan. 10, 2019 file photo Cheryl Monroe, right, a Food and Drug Administration employee, and Bertrice Sanders, a Social Security Administration employee, rally to call for an end to the partial government shutdown in Detroit. Paul Sancya/AP Photo. Featured Image
DETROIT (AP) — For Cheryl Monroe and generations of other African-Americans, federal government jobs have long been a path to the middle class and a way to provide a comfortable life for their families.
In this Jan. 10, 2019 file photo Cheryl Monroe, right, a Food and Drug Administration employee, and Bertrice Sanders, a Social Security Administration employee, rally to call for an end to the partial government shutdown in Detroit. Paul Sancya/AP Photo. Featured Image
Then the record-long government shutdown hit, making it hard for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration chemist from Detroit to pay her mortgage.”People say ‘save for a rainy day’ and you’re always saving, but when there is no check, that’s a hurricane not a rainy day,” Monroe said. The shutdown that ended Friday left an especially painful toll for African-Americans who make up nearly 20 percent of the federal workforce and historically have been on the low end of the government pay scale.
