Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2020/Summer II/Section 013/Granville Brooks

Overview

Granville Brooks was a Louisiana cook who grew up in the post-slavery South. Brooks does not remember his date of birth or age. He spent his life traveling around the South and picking up odd jobs and saving money. Married twice, Brooks supported three children plus his first wife’s nephew financially. Finally settling down in Louisiana, Brooks decided to live a simple life with his second wife and opened his own restaurant.

Biography

Early Life and Career

Brooks was born in Charleston, South Carolina to parents who were slaves. His parents decided to stay with their masters family after slavery ended. After the emancipation of slavery, the economy in the South underwent large changes. It was estimated by the United States Department of Agriculture that the “‘effective labor’ supply at less than one-third of the prewar level” . After the end of the Civil War, around four million freed slaves entering the Southern economy had to face various challenges including poverty, illiteracy, and discrimination . Many freed slaves decided to stay on their previous plantations, however, now they were able to work less hours and create their own personal schedules . Growing up in the plantation his parents used to work in, Brooks did not have the opportunity for formal education, however, he sought to find knowledge through his travels and hard work. During post-slavery, black men at or over the age of 21 were required to pay a road and poll tax. Brooks decided to leave working on the plantation fields to travel around the South, saving money by selling rags on the road and finding odd jobs. He worked for an insurance company, hospital, fishing ship, and as a butler. Brooks notes that he was not fired from most of his jobs, rather he left them to travel and find more opportunities. He found traveling more educationally valuable than the “book learning” that was consumed by the rich and privileged.

Social Context

Education for African American Men

Black men went to school for less years compared to white men on average, attending majority segregated schools with an inferior quality of education . Most African American men only attended school until high school as most white people believed that they could not learn at an advanced level. Most opted to seek employment opportunities instead of pursuing an education. Economists argue that there is a strong relation between the “large and persistent racial differences in the “quantity” and “quality” of schooling in the first half of the twentieth century” and the pervasive unemployment crisis for African Americans during the Great Depression .

Unemployment During The Great Depression

African Americans were the most vulnerable group during the Great Depression as there were the first to get fired from employment opportunities and the last to get hired. After the stock market crash of 1929, the low paying jobs that were typically worked by African American’s, were becoming increasingly filled by whites in need of employment . Unemployment rates spread throughout the nation as “In Atlanta, nearly 70 percent of black workers were jobless in 1934. In cities across the North, approximately 25 percent of white workers were unemployed in 1932, while the jobless rates among African Americans topped 50 percent in Chicago and Pittsburgh and 60 percent in Philadelphia and Detroit” . Only after the New Deal were the voices of African Americans were heard in a political setting . Progress slowly spread and started to benefit African American workers through increased educational gains, relocation to more urban areas, and the decrease of racial discrimination with pressure by the Civil Rights movement . Following the New Deal, employment rates increased vastly for African Americans through the Work Progress Administration .