The Bronx Slave Market, 1935
This 1938 account reveals the discrimination African Americans faced during the Great Depression.
Topic: African Americans and the New Deal
Please study this document and answer the following questions.
{Begin handwritten}Beliefs and Customs -- Folk Stuff{End handwritten}
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK Forms to be Filled out for Each Interview
FORM A Circumstances of Interview {Begin handwritten}[7?]{End handwritten}
STATE New York
NAME OF WORKER Vivian Morris
ADDRESS 225 West 130 St.
DATE December 6, 1938
SUBJECT BRONX SLAVE MARKET
1. Date and time of interview Observation Nov. 30th from 9.40 A. M. to 1.30 P. M.
2. Place of interview 167th St. & Girard Ave. Bronx, New York City
3. Name and address of informant Minnie Marshall, 247 West 132nd St.
4. Name and address of person, if any, who put you in touch with informant.
None
5. Name and address of person, if any, accompanying you
None
6. Description of room, house, surroundings, etc.
Several stores surround this neighborhood slave market, mainly on South side of 5 and 10 cents store, where the Madams shop for domestic necessities etc., including the slave girls and women.
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
FORM C Text of Interview (Unedited)
STATE New York
NAME OF WORKER Vivian Morris
ADDRESS 225 West 130 St.
DATE December 6, 1938
SUBJECT BRONX SLAVE MARKET
Having heard rumors that a "Slave Market" was in existence in the Bronx -- according to hearsay, this market was operated by white "Madams" where Negro women slaved for a few cents per day -- early one November morning, I decided to confirm such reports by making a personal tour of the neighborhood where the condition was supposed to exist.
While walking down 167th St. and as I reached Girard Ave., I found the object of my search. Here I was confronted by sights and tales of woe which I shall always remember.
There, seated on crates and boxes, were a dejected gathering of Negro women of farious ages and descriptions -- youths of seventeen, and elderly women of maybe seventy. These women were scantily attired -- some still wearing summer clothing -- and as the November wind swept and whistled through them, they ducked their heads and tried to huddle within themselves as they pushed close to the wall.
I joined the group as though in quest of a job. Although properly clothed, I too, suffered from the bitter cold which made me shift from foot to foot. Immediately, my thoughts strayed to these twenty or more unfortunate women who were partly-clothed, some with tennis shoes, cut-out men's shoes, warped women's shoes bearing Wanamaker's seal -- the cast-offs of some forgotten "Madam."
A woman with a gold tooth smiled and invited me to share her box. Her face bore cuts over both eyes and the corner of her mouth. She appeared to be as broad as she was tall, but, despite all this, her flat face bore a kindly expression. When she discovered that I was in her category, she became sympathetic and as one woman to another, she began to relate her futile struggle of life from past to present into my receptive ears. She commenced by stating that her name was "Minnie." Minnie was born in the tidewater section of Virginia near Norfolk, a seaport town, in 1908. (She looked forty-five). Her father was a black sailor "brawny of arm and smooth of tongue" -so her mother told her. I interrupted Minnie to question the whereabouts of her father. She stated that, "he had gone down to sea with his ship, so Ma said." She went on to say, "I had been yanked out of school in the third grade at the age of fourteen, in order to take my ailing mother's job at 'Miss Sarah's' -- mother died in a few days." As I listened, attentively, I gathered that Minnie had been repeatedly fired from various positions due to lack of experience and youth -- not having enough endurance and muscle for fifteen to eighteen hours of strenuous laundry and housework. She decided to take a fling at marriage at the age of sixteen. She married a hard-drinking sailor thrice her age who gave her, for a wedding present, Fifty Dollars, and told her, "Get some puddy clo's fo' you' se'f." Minnie, unaccustomed to such a large amount of money, decided to save it -- first having the satisfaction to touch, feel and count. The next night, her husband returned home roaring drunk and demanding money -- "Five Dollars" --and when Minnie timidly took the roll from under the pillow and peeled off the requested amount, he attached her insanely, cutting both her eyes and mouth knocking out her front teeth and taking all of the money, stumbled, and disappeared into the night. She never saw him again!
During the next twelve years, Minnie worked steadier, became adjusted to conditions and was now a squat, muscular woman whose endurance was beyond the average, and she could now work unlimited hours without audible protest. At this period, she replaced her front teeth with gold ones. "But the scars would be with me till my dying day," she quoted.
In September, 1938, Minnie having saved Twenty Dollars, decided to migrate to New York. She arrived with about six Dollars and paid four for a room, leaving two, and though, very hungry, was afraid to spend money for food that night. Early next morning, Minnie went to an Employment Agency. "Yes, they had jobs at Forty Dollars, sleep in or out." She almost shouted for joy -- that was more money than she could make in Norfolk in two months! But this was New York. The Employment Agent signed Minnie up as a good cook-houseworker, etc., then he profferred her a card, saying: "Four Dollars, please."
Minnie said, her 'shoulders sagged!'
"Fo' Dollas fo' whut?"
"For the job; ya dont think I run this Agency for my health, do you?"
"No, suh, no suh, Ah only got two Dollas 'tween me an de Lawd. Ah clare, Mistuh, ah'll give you de res' fus' week ah woks, hones' Mistuh."
He tore up the slip, saying: "Ya'll pay me when you get paid--
That's a hot one -- keep your two Dollars, lady!"
Minnie tried agency after agency but the results were the same. They wanted their money in front. She couldn't get day's or part-time work because the agents had special cliques to whom these choice jobs went. It was rank folly for any outsider to think of getting one of these jobs. After many days of trying, rent due, money gone, a sympathetic girl in one of the Agencies, told Minnie that, "when she was out of money, she stood on one of the corners in the Bronx, where women came and hired you."
"Next mo'nin' Ah gut up prayin' that de lan lady woudn' heah me and walked de fifty-some blocks to dis place, an' I saw Othah gals standin' heah-so Ah stood wid dem. Soon a fine cah driv up -- dere was a lady hol'in' some O'dem eye-glasses yo' hol' in yo' han' an' peepin' at us -- dem di'mons on huh finguhs mos' blin' you an' de mo'nin' too!" She pointed our way an' de big black buck chauffeur got out an' 'proached us sayin', 'Come heah.' Ah sed, 'Who -- me?'
"He sez, 'yes -- ya wanna wuk, don'cha?'
"I walked to the cah an' he says, 'get in'. Ah staht to got in the back but de madam was dere -- he in de front -- wheah could ah set? "Git in the front. Doan tank ya'll set in de madam's lap, dees ya?' De gals laughed.
"'Vill you get in, goil?' sed de madam, 'hi got no time for dot foolishness.' The gals laffed.
"'Hi pay twanty-five sants an hour -- is dot alright mit you?'
"Ah said: 'Yas'm.' After all, I was 'bout to be put out do's.
"De Drivuh driv down Walton Avenue a ways an' stop 'fo' a fine 'partment house. De madam tuck me up to huh 'partment an' ah 'clare, dese seben rooms she pint out to me ain' fittin' fo' hawgs to live in. Dey was sume doity!
"She say: 'Listen, golly. Hi vant you to do a gutt [chobe?] h'im having company tomorrow. Hi vill tip you fine. Your time begins now. You vill be pait by dot clock. See -- nine-forty five?"
"Dat dam' clock sed de same time dat she said, so Ah tho't mah clock was wrong. (All the gals carry clocks.) Ah sta't wukkin' an' wo'n mo'n fifteen minutes begin, when dot ol' heiffer was givin' orders, "do dis an' do dat." She 'zasperate me so dat ah co'd choke huh tongue out'n huh but ah beared huh. 'Bout six o'clock, ah tol' huh, 'Miss Gol' blatt, ah's thru."
"She sehs, 'bout time,' Den she sta'ts reachin' in con'-ahs fo' dust -- feelin' huh husban's shoit colla's to see ef 'nough sta'ch in dem -- lookin at de flo' mos' touchin' nit wit' huh big nose, nea' sighted se'f. Den she smile and seh, 'Vas de lunch gut?' (dat ole slop-fish, two days ole!)
"Ah said: 'reck'n so!"
"Den she gi' me mah money -- dollar, eighty-seben cent.
"Ah sehs: 'Miss Gol' blatt, ain' you' miscalc'late? Ah wukked eight hours -- tu'k fifteen minutes fo' lunch?'
"'Listen' dear goil, Hi neffer cheat hany body. You voiked seven hours -- fifteen minutes, vich giffs you vun dollar -- heighty-two sants, hand hi took hout fife sants for bringink you here, vich makes hi should giff you van eighty seven, bud hi giff you, per agreement, a nize fat tip of tan sants -- van eighty sefen. Goodby!'
"ah was mad den, but when ah got out an' foun' dat it wus eight o'clock and dat ole heifer done cheat me out of two hours, ah cou'd a kilt huh. Well, ah at leas' had sumf'n fo' my lan'lady.
Here, Minnie paused awhile and squinted her tired eyes, say-"Ah hates the people ah Wukks for. Dey's mean, 'ceitful, an' ain' hones'; but whut ah'm gonna do? Ah got to live -- got to hab a place to steh --' dough my lan'lady seys ah gotta bring huh sumf'n or ah can' stay dere tonight..Wait!"
A weazened little woman, with aquiline nose, thick glasses, and three big diamonds which seemed to laugh at the prominent-veined hands which they were on passed down the line, critically looking at the girls. When she reached Minnie, she stopped peering: "Can you do woik-hart voik? Can you vash windows from de houtside?"
"Ah c'n do anything -- wash windows, anywhere." Time was passing, she had to get a job or be put out.
"Twenty-fife sants an hour?"
"No ma'am; thirty-five."
"I can get the youngk goils for fifteen sants, and the old vimmen for tan sants." She motioned toward the others who were eagerly crowding around.
"Yas'm; ah' llgo," said a frog-eyed, speckle-faced; yellow gal, idiotically smiling.
"Me. too," chimed a toothless old hag with gnarled hands -- a memento of some days in Dixie.
"See!" said the woman.
"But dey caint do de wokk Ah kin do," rebutted Minnie defiantly.
"Thirty-sants", said the bargain-hunter, with an air of finality.
"Le's go," said Minnie flashing me a gold-toothed smile.
"See y'u latuh, honey. Ta'k to some o' de othah gals 'bout dere troubles. Sho' he'p yo' wile yo' time 'way.
So long, "Minnie,"
"Hope yo' don' meet no heifer lak' ah did on mah fus' job," she added.
I waved goodbye to the "slave" for a day, as she plodded [???]
| Keyword / Topic : |
African Americans; depression |
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| Citation / Source : |
Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, WPA Federal Writers' Project |
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| Reference : |
America: A Narrative History, 9th Edition, Chapter 29; Inventing America, Chapter 25; Give Me Liberty, Chapter 21
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We Do Our Part-But... (1933)
The author lists the failures of the New Deal in regard to African American needs.
Topic: African Americans and the New Deal
Please study this document and answer the following questions.
In this article, Ira DeA. Reid reaffirmed the patriotism of African-Americans and decried the exclusion of the vast majority of African-American workers from the industrial codes formulated by the National Recovery Administration. As the New Deal progressed and more direct interventions into the economy were attempted, this pattern of excluding African-Americans continued. Consider why the New Deal, dependent as it was on the Democratic majorities in Congress, did so little to help African-Americans.
We Do Our Part--But...
Ira DeA. Reid
- THREE million Negro workers, more than half of the total number of Negroes who must labor for their livelihood, will not be covered by the industrial codes now being formulated by the NRA!
- How are these domestic and personal servants, laborers and other workers to be protected? In New Orleans 700 Negro domestic workers have organized to have the Blue Eagle's wings spread over kitchen, laundry and servant quarters. Is the country's fourth largest field of employment to be ignored? Is this worker to be a lone, lorn creetur in this new set-up?
- These three million black workers are the backbone of the Negro consumer market. For them there is no immediate rise in wages. For them an immediate rise in prices will mean additional insecurity and suffering. Furthermore, in certain areas where there have been uniform minimum wages established for white and black workers employers have replaced Negroes with whites rather than pay them the same wages.
- Too long have we heard the soporific pronouncements of labor leaders on economic equality for black workers. The utterances of new voices frequently cause us to smile knowingly. We know, however, that we economic patriots are spending our strength with over-matching waves unless we heed the warning of Frances Perkins' recent statement on differential wages. She said:
- "The low rates of 25 cents and 27 cents per hour of the two Southern districts are presumably based on the predominance of Negro labor in those districts. But Negroes are also consumers. Their purchasing power is needed to provide different markets for the products of agriculture and industry. Their cost of living is not lower than the living costs of the whites; it is rather that they live differently and on a lower standard. A sound, national industrial system cannot be based upon a capitalization of these lower living costs.... and increased wages that will not unfairly compete with the wages of the white laborer is essential to achieving this end."
- As consumers Negroes need protection. Remove the differential wage, eliminate the company store and commissary from competition with private enterprise, establish minimum wages for the domestic occupations in which Negroes are employed--and something still remains undone. Negro areas are ones in which some of the most undesirable merchandising practices are conducted. The Negro consumer finds his neighborhood stores cluttered with a large supply of inferior and cheap goods at prices that are high under any standard. These goods include food, housing and clothing, commodities of all sorts. Furthermore, the goods being cheap means that they are produced under undesirable conditions of labor and distribution. The elimination of these cheap goods would, of course, diminish the purchasing power of the average Negro consumer. The continuance of such merchandising practices as have accompanied the distribution and sale of these goods, including some nefarious practices of partial and installment payments, would violate both the spirit and the letter of NRA standards. There is a price for economic recovery--is it to be paid?
- Because of the hours of employment of the large number of Negroes employed as personal and domestic servants, the Negro consumer has purchasing habits that would be distinctly inhibited by any regularization of the hours of the local shopkeeper. Though no studies have been made on this phase of consumer activity, it is well known that the most active buying hours among Negroes are after 6 P. M. Likewise, the barber shop depends upon the late afternoon and evening trade for its largest income. Such steps, therefore, as are taken to regularize the operations of the merchandising agencies must take into account these consumer habits of Negro workers--habits conditioned by the nature of their employment.
- Chaos is come again with the unions. We believe in collective bargaining. We should like to participate in the collective action of all workers but organized labor in the United States has repeatedly kept the word of promise to our car and broken it to our hope. Today 24 national trade unions exclude us from their ranks and proscribe us in our employment.
- Seven killed--7 wounded--1 flogged! "Murder for the job," says The Nation. This is the clue to the problems of Negro firemen who sought to hold their jobs on certain Southern railroads in 1932. They did their part in stabilizing employment.
- Telegram:
"Negro employees of Federal Barge Line operated (Continued on Page 285) by War Department went on strike in East St. and St. Louis on August 22nd in protest against intolerable work conditions. Investigator reports men were compelled to remain on duty from 12 to 15 hours before being checked out at night though paid only for work actually done sometimes as little as two hours. They were compelled to buy meal tickets from restaurant designated by Superintendent. Were refused hearings on complaints against discrepancies in hours, work and pay. Were intimidated by police summoned by Government representatives." - There are 865,000 Negro farm owners and tenants who view with justifiable skepticism the possibility of their full participation and protection in the farm loan scheme. Their suffering is no mere word. They have seen. They have felt. Despite the crooning and drooling paternalism of a recent magazine article on the Negro farmer, he knows too well that Santa Claus has not yet hit Dixie.
- We are famished at the feast of mere ballyhoo, for we realize that clamorous Negro labor knocks with its million hands for that firm action that would remove its blight as the canaille of the labor market. The NRA should seek to remove and in no way should condone a basic economic discrimination and fear that has long feebled the pulse of American industry.
- 'Tis true, 'tis pity; and pity 'tis 'tis true--We Do Our Part--BUT. . . .
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Harold Ickes Criticizes Segregation (September 20. 1935)
Interior Secretary Ickes condemns segregation in the Civilian Conservation Corps.
Topic: African Americans and the New Deal
Please study this document and answer the following questions.
With this letter, Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes entered the debate over racial discrimination in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). He wrote to the director of the CCC, Robert Fechner, and argued that African-Americans were more than capable of serving as supervisors in CCC camps. Do Fechner's reputed doubts about African-Americans' capacity contrast with his insistence that they were treated equally by his agency, as he wrote in a letter the following day?
Harold Ickes to Robert Fechner, 20 September 1935
Harold Ickes to Robert Fechner, 20 September 1935, "CCC Negro Foremen" file, Box 70O, General Correspondence of the Director, Record Group 35, National Archives, College Park, Maryland.
THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR
WASHINGTON
September 26, 1935
My Dear Mr. Fechner:
I have your letter of September 24 in which you express doubt as to the advisability of appointing Negro supervisory personnel in Negro CCC camps. For my part, I am quite certain that Negroes can function in supervisory capacities just as efficiently as can white men and I do not think that they should be discriminated against merely on account of their color. I can see no menace to the program that you are so efficiently carrying out in giving just and proper recognition to members of the Negro race.
Sincerely yours,
[Harold L. Ickes]
Secretary of the Interior
Hon. Robert Fechner,
Director, Emergency Conservation Work,
Washington, D.C.
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President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to Robert Fechner (September 27, 1935)
Roosevelt did not order an end to segregation in the Civilian Conservation Corps.
Topic: African Americans and the New Deal
Please study this document and answer the following questions.
In this letter, President Franklin Roosevelt requested that segregated black crews in the CCC and Park Service be placed under the supervision of black foremen. He noted that these black foremen should not be asked to do technical work. While Eleanor Roosevelt had many close ties to the civil rights leaders of the 1930s, the President maintained a more ambivalent stand toward African-American rights. The Democratic Party depended heavily on southern Democrats, who won a series of concessions in the racial policies of the New Deal administration's expanding agencies and programs.
FDR to Robert Fechner, 27 September 1935
FDR to Robert Fechner, 27 September 1935, "CCC Negro Foremen" file, Box 700, General Correspondence of the Director, Record Group 35, National Archives, College Park, Maryland.
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
Fechner -
In the CCC Camps, where the boys are colored, in the Park Service work, please try to put in colored foremen, not of course in technical work but in the ordinary manual work.
FDR
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Robert Fechner Defends Segregation in the CCC (September 21, 1935)
CCC director Robert Fechner argues that segregation is not discrimination.
Topic: African Americans and the New Deal
Please study this document and answer the following questions.
In this letter to Thomas K. Griffith, the director of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Robert Fechner, defended the CCC's policy of segregation, arguing that it did not amount to discrimination. He maintained that African-American enrollees, although segregated, received equal treatment in all respects and that they had not complained about their treatment. Nonetheless, there is persuasive evidence that African-Americans received proportionally fewer CCC jobs and other New Deal benefits.
Robert Fechner to Thomas L. Griffith, 21 September 1935
Robert Fechner to Thomas L. Griffith, 21 September 1935, "CCC Negro Selection" file, BOX 700, General Correspondence of the Director, Record Group 35, National Archives, College Park, Maryland.
September 21, 1935
Mr. Thomas L. Griffith, Jr.
President
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
1105 E. Vernon Avenue
Los Angeles, California
Dear Mr. Griffith:
The President has called my attention to the letter you addressed to him on September 14, 1935, in which you ask for information relating to the policy of segregation in CCC camps.
The law enacted by Congress setting up Emergency Conservation Work specifically indicated that there should be no discrimination because of color. I have faithfully endeavored to obey the spirit and letter of this, as well as all other provisions of the law.
At the very beginning of this work, I consulted with many representative individuals and groups who were interested in the work, and the decision to segregate white enrollees, negro enrollees, and war veterans, was generally approved. I believe that the record of the past thirty months will sustain the wisdom of our decision.
While segregation has been the general policy, it has not been inflexible, and we have a number of companies containing a small number of negro enrollees. I am satisfied that the negro enrollees themselves prefer to be in companies composed exclusively of their own race.
This segregation is not discrimination and cannot be so construed. The negro companies are assigned to the same types of work, have identical equipment, are served the same food, and have the same quarters as white enrollees. I have personally visited many negro CCC companies and have talked with the enrollees and have never received one single complaint. I want to assure you that I am just as sincerely interested as anyone in making this work of the greatest possible value to all who have a part in it.
Sincerely yours,
(Sgn) ROBERT FECHNER
ROBERT FECHNER
Director
RF/bp
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Free soup, coffee
Unemployed workers sought a free meal or cup of coffee from charities.
Topic: African Americans and the New Deal
Please study this document and answer the following questions.
Unemployed workers sought a free meal or cup of coffee from charities.
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