Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2021/Spring/105i/Section 24/Mary Willingham

Overview

Mary “Mamie” Willingham was a practical nurse and laundress who lived in Athens, Georgia. She was interviewed by the Federal Writer's project by Sadie Hornsby, John Booth, and Sarah Hall on June 9th, 1939.

Early Life

Willingham was born on a small farm in Clarke County. Willingham's mother died when she was a baby, so she doesn’t know how old she is or when her birthday is. She reached the second-grade in a church schoolhouse, and then stopped going. She was raised mostly by her older sister and worked on a farm until she was 16, when she went to live in and work in a white families' home. She made money this way until she met a man and married him. Once married, She spent two years getting her practical nursing certificate.

Adult Life

Nursing Education early 1940s

Willingham was a practical nurse for much of her adult life, assisting doctors and midwives. In her interview with the Federal Writer's Project, she said that she received less money and less rest time during nursing jobs than white nurses, and described often being blamed for the mistakes of white doctors that she assisted. Due to the economic depression, she eventually lost much of her business as people transitioned to family care instead of hiring private nurses. She worked towards getting a midwife certificate so that she could make thirty five dollars a week. While she waited for this, she worked as a laundress, and made less than five dollars on average per week. In this work and her daily life, she describes facing discrimination from white clients, bosses, and from a Federal Employment Office that she visited to find work. She said that she was blamed for not having enough money saved when she went to the employment office to look for a job. She also mentioned to her interviewers that she would refuse to launder ratty-looking clothes from white clients for fear they would accuse her of ruining them.

Willingham and her husband had two daughters and two sons, all of whom had to drop out of school to work and help provide for their household. Her husband mixed mortar, a job he started after being let go from his city position due to a work-related injury. Willingham explained that she struggled greatly with the seven dollar rent and bills for her house, which she said she had spent enough money on to have bought. She was in fear of having her water and lights cut off. However, she described herself as very resilient and was always working to put food on the table. Her date of death is unknown.

Social Issues

The Great Depression and Working Black Women

The Great Depression changed the dynamic of women in the workforce permanently, and these changes differed based on race. Women received lower wages than men, and black women received less job security and lower wages than their white counterparts, making employment and financial security doubly as difficult during the Great Depression. The New Deal Social Security Act excluded farmworkers and domestic workers, the two main career fields for black women at this time. They were denied the safety net provided to most other citizens of the Great Depression. “Over 25 percent of the National Recovery Administration’s wage codes set lower wages for women, according to T.H. Watkin’s The Great Depression: America in the 1930s. And jobs created under the Works Progress Administration confined women to fields like sewing and nursing that paid less than roles reserved for men.”All African American workers were the last to be hired, and first to be fired, and the history of lower pay meant that they had no savings to fall back on. Black female workers were especially exploited. "Cheating by employers was also common, but these women had no recourse. They had to feed their families, even on the fifteen or twenty cents an hour they received. Black domestics reported earning between $6 and $10 dollars a week, a dramatic drop from even the low $15 they averaged in the 1920s.” In Willingham's profession, the Great Depression presented a crisis for nurse practitioners, both in hospitals and on private duty. The programs of the New Deal helped public health nurses, but the demand was low for private duty nurses, many of whom lost work.

Barriers to Education for African-Americans

Interior of African American Schoolhouse in Heard County, Georgia

The Great Depression brought changes to America’s education system in some ways for better, in other ways for worse. The economic turmoil of the 1930s caused schools to go underfunded. Jim Crow laws dictated that the negative effects of segregation be further amplified by a restriction of resources on black schools. “Schools for black children received less money, were sometimes given discarded books from white schools, and had to make do with lower quality buildings and facilities. Few black schools offered standard high school programs, and teachers often suffered from lack of training facilities and lower salaries.” Education access increased for some students, because a lack of employment opportunities allowed young people to stay in school for longer. However, this was not the case for most rural children like Willingham, who had to leave school to work in fields or odd jobs and bring money to their families.

Barriers to Homeownership for African-Americans

Intentional discriminatory zoning laws and other racially charged policies led to the exclusion of African Americans from homeownership, and relegated them to poorly maintained, low-value communities with less financial support from the city. Forcing African Americans to rent, and forcing them into segregated communities caused poverty and dismal living conditions during the Great Depression. City services were overburdened, and there were not enough housing or job opportunities to go around. Racism against black Americans escalated. City officials promoted racial division by enforcing segregation and discriminating against black people in social, career, and housing services Officials also perpetuated discrimination by using restrictive covenants, or private contracts that blocked Jewish and Black people from owning and renting in certain areas by forbidding it. This discriminatory practice was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in Corrigan v. Buckley in 1926. Zoning and racially restrictive covenants effectively enforced segregation and limited housing and homeownership opportunities for people of color. Black families like Willingham's were made to rent properties in poorly maintained communities, and were systemically driven out of white communities. Alternatively, they experienced the consequences of white flight after moving into a white community.