Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2021/Spring/105/Section 87/Granville Brooks

Bibliography

Granville Brooks was an African American man that was born and raised on a plantation in Charleston, South Carolina, who lived during the abolition of slavery, the reconstruction era, and the Great Depression. He found work anywhere he could, working as a fireman, butler, or cook. Brooks also completed some traveling to Florida. As he lived in Georgia and married his first wife in 1905. His first wife passed and about 17 years later he remarried to a woman named, Harriette. Throughout his life, he had to face many challenges due to the racial injustices imposed on many still today. Brooks has lived a life of content and was ready for the next calm chapter of his life.

Professional Life

Brooks was born free, from formerly enslaved parents. As he got older, he fled the former plantation that his family all still stayed and worked at. He luckily got a job as a butler for Dr. Eugene Foster at 311 Washington Avenue, Charleston for 11 years. His boss was the president of the Board of Health. He has saved enough money to travel around which was a lifelong dream of his. He then got a job as a fireman on the road in Pensacola, where he made 4 dollars a day. Brooks then moved to Augusta, Georgia, and opened up his own restaurant, where he then saved up about $2300. He then sold his restaurant in order to go to New Orleans. There he got a job as a cook from 1915 to 1935 in the hospital. He got to make $75.00 a month but was then laid off because they replaced the black staff with white employees. He had some trouble getting a job once he was let go but found a new occupation as a rock crusher and got $39.40 a month. He still wanted to get to find a better job later in this life.

Social Context

Lack of Education in the Black Community

Many new free people who had formerly been enslaved or had parents that were enslaved had little to no education. In the early 19th century there were many laws prohibiting teaching slaves how to read and write. Even after the emancipation proclamation, education was very limited and wasn’t seen as often. Many lower-class individuals were left without learning past elementary education, if that was even the case in some. Some lower-class white kids were taught higher education due to the charity the higher class folks were giving but education was not state enforced. This acted as a limitation in their lives since they could not easily apply to other jobs because they couldn’t fill out the application that would grant them the ability to higher their social and financial position. Thus, creating a long cycle of inexperience and plateau their progression.

Gender Inequality

The fight for more women’s rights also began in the late 19th century and continued to the 20th century. The right to vote and have a voice had begun to fill many women’s minds. Women were considered as less than men in situations consisting of the household and financially. Men were supposed to be the head of the household and the only providers for their families. The husband would go to work and the wife would stay home and cook, clean, and care for her children if they had any. Some would work as home nurses because the nursing in hospitals was almost all done exclusively by the men. The women were pushed into a box of conforming to traditional core values of how women are supposed to act to serve their husbands but as the decades were passing, women began to fight for the equality they deserved. During the Great Depression, women continued the fight though it may have regressed it was still a fight they fought every day. It wasn't until after that people began to truly notice how valuable women were to our society.

Racial Inequalities in Employment during the Great Depression

During the Great Depression, no one escaped the economic devastation that occurred due to the stock market crash. So many jobs were lost, leaving people desperate for any job available. The first people to be let off were African Americans that held any positions because they were considered of holding less precedent compared to their white equals. Their positions would either disappear or be filled by a white individual in need of employment. The unemployment rate raised to about 50% in 1932, doubling the percentage for the white population. Due to these unfair circumstances, hundreds of thousands of African Americans fled to the North and West in search of jobs.

References

1. Anderson, J.D. “The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935.” (2010). Univ of North Carolina Press.
2. Dittmer, J. “Black Georgia in the Progressive Era, 1900-1920.” (1980) University of Illinois Press.
3. Franklin, V.P. “Introduction: Documenting the NAACP’s First Century- From Combating Racial Injustices to Challenging Racial Inequalities.” (2009). The Journal of African American History, 94(4), 453-463. Accessed March 20, 2021 https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/JAAHv94n4p453
4. Klein, Chrisotpher. “Last Hired, First Fired: How the Great Depression Affected African Americans” (2018)..  Accessed March 17, 2021.  https://www.history.com/news/last-hired-first-fired-how-the-great-depression-affected-african-americans
5. “Women’s History in America” (1994). Compton’s NewMedia, Inc. Accessed March 18, 2021. http://www.wic.org/misc/history.htm