Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2020/Summer II/Section 01/Willie Roberts

Amy Burtner (discuss • contribs) 15:22, 13 July 2020 (UTC)

Biography

Introduction

Willie Roberts was an African American man living in Durham, North Carolina during the late 1930s. He lived in the area his entire life up, however his date of birth and date of death are unknown. He was more fortunate than many people of color living in that day, and he worked hard to keep everything he had. He worked as a blacksmith and a farmer, along with other side jobs. His wife worked as a maid during the summers when her children were out of school

Family

Roberts and his wife, Mary, lived on a 23-acre plot of land that Mary inherited from her parents. Her parents purchased a 46-acre property when they first got married. Mary’s mother worked as a teacher in the local school and as a piano teacher out of her home until the property was completely paid for. When Mary’s parents died, she and her brother each inherited half of the land. Mary lived there with her first husband, John Thomas. They had 4 children together. After his death and a respectable mourning period, she married Willie, who she had known for many years. Willie and Mary kept a small homestead that kept them in vegetables, milk, eggs, and sometimes meat. They also kept an ox for plowing and occasionally would keep pigs. .

Work

Willie Roberts was a hard worker who was dedicated to the welfare of his family. Through his many careers and ambitions, he managed to provide for his family with the help of his wife. He worked lots of different jobs to keep food on the table for his four stepchildren. Despite having his own land, Roberts found it more cost-effective to farm other people’s land for a wage than to raise crops of his own. He also spent time working in the American Tobacco Factory during months when the farming was slow. Additionally, Roberts did some work as a blacksmith and mechanic. He shod horses and repaired cars, farm machinery, and tools. Additionally, when her children were out of school in the summer Mary would take work as a maid in Chapel Hill to help put a few extra dollars in their pockets.

Challenges

The Roberts family lived a more fortunate life than many African American people in the 1930’s, but they still faced challenges. In the year prior to the interview recorded by W. O. Forester, Willie was charged with “interacting too much with the white folk .” The Roberts’ white neighbors claimed that both Mr. and Mrs. Roberts entertained white people of the opposite sex, and one woman claimed that Willie Roberts had assaulted her. Roberts denied all of these claims but was charged anyway. Because of this, the family was forced to take out loans to pay their bills. Roberts was confident that he could pay off these loans.

These were not the only struggles the Roberts family faced. Willie and Mary were often pressured by their white neighbors to sell their land. However, they refused because they knew what they were being offered was far less than the value of the property. They were fortunate to own land, to begin with, and even more so to know it’s worth. Many people of color were swindled out of their land for pennies because they simply did not know its value, or they were so pressed for cash that they were forced to take any offer .

Social Issues

Racism in the Legal System

"White" and "Jim Crow" railcars; racial segregation in the United States as cartooned by John McCutcheon.(Image and caption from Wikimedia Commons)

In the 1930s, America was in the middle of the Jim Crow era . Under this system, white people and people of color were segregated in nearly every possible faction of life. People of color were expected to act as second class to white people. When passing on the street, black people were expected to walk closest to the road or even step into it if necessary . They were allowed to speak on the street but people of color were expected to act with a pleasant and respectful regard towards a white person. There were also major differences in the appropriate decorum for addressing a white person versus a black person. A person of color was expected to refer to a white person as “boss,” “Cap’n,” or in cases where both parties knew each other extremely well, Mr., Ms. or Mrs. African American people were referred to as “Boy,” “Uncle,” Negro followed by a first name, “Jack,” or other common names. There was no situation where it was considered appropriate to give a black man the title of "Mister."

Drinking fountain on the Halifax County Courthouse (North Carolina) in April 1938. (Image and caption from Wikimedia Commons)

White people and black people were segregated physically as well as socially. There were separate waiting rooms at bus stations, separate train cars, separate restrooms, and even separate drinking fountains. Additionally, schools, orphanages, and hospitals were strictly segregated . Many states required that black students and white students use completely different sets of textbooks, which had to be stored in separate locations . In some states, it was illegal for white people and people of color to work in the same areas of factories . Many labor unions did not allow African American members, and in many cases, the companies that had the most opportunities for work would not hire people of color. Often cities required different entrances for white people and people of color. In many states, interracial marriage and even intimate relationships between interracial couples were illegal . In addition, people were not allowed to purchase homes in neighborhoods where most of the other people in the neighborhood were people they could marry . Many states also had laws that outright denied black people the right to vote or were designed to limit their eligibility to vote. These included literacy tests, poll taxes, rules that a person was only eligible to vote if their grandfather was eligible to vote, and other restrictive rules.

Smoldering ruins of African American's homes following race riots - Tulsa Okla 1921 (Image and caption from Wikimedia Commons)

In addition to laws prohibiting people of color from living as full American citizens, the judicial system, police, and media often did not allow for fair treatment of people of color accused of crimes . Police arrested people of color for the most minor infractions, they were routinely denied bail and were not offered fair trials. Sentencing laws were unfair toward people of color, especially those who were accused of crimes against a white person . The police often did not come to the aid of people of color. Typically, police either did not try to stop racial riots or often even encouraged the actions of white perpetrators of racial violence . In many places, people of color were not allowed to sit on courtroom juries and they certainly weren’t allowed to be judges and other court officials . This meant that people of color were tried by white juries and white judges, many of whom had owned slaves themselves or whose families had owned slaves. In the media, newspapers would print vastly exaggerated stories of African American crimes, and in some cases, made up crimes entirely. The combined effect of these factors was that by 1910, more than 30% of the population in US prisons were people of color, who made up only 11% of the overall US population.

African American Land Ownership

After the civil war ended, many newly freed slaves had difficulty finding land to purchase . African Americans were not able to get land from the public domain because of federal laws, many states had laws that made it more difficult to own land as an African American person. Many white landowners flat out refused to sell land to people of color and often threatened the safety of African Americans who did attempt to purchase their own property. Because of these things, many people of color bought up the first tracts of land that became available to them . This sometimes meant buying land with little value. Due to the limited opportunities for income, many people of color had to rely on credit to be able to get their new homesteads started. However, in many cases, they were not able to make enough money off their land to pay back what they had borrowed, and their land would be repossessed. Another thing that was common was for a person of color to place the deed to their land in the trust of a white “sponsor”, often a former slaveholder.. While this allowed the person to keep their land throughout their life, it often prevented the land from being handed down to their offspring after their death .