Black Women, Domestic Work and Expanding Resistance: 1909-1945 (2014)

Undergraduate: Gregg Godwin

Faculty Advisor: Jerma Jackson
Department: History

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During the early 20th century, over half of African-American women who participated in wage labor were in domestic service. These women were at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder due to their race and gender, and the low pay and status of their work. However, in 1955 black female domestic workers were key participants in one of the early successes of the Civil Rights movement, the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Thus, I began this project with a simple question: How did these women¿s conditions and activism evolve over these few decades, leading to a place of greater empowerment?
First, I drew upon my research and writing from a previous class to establish the conditions in which these women labored. I argue that long hours, low wages and poor treatment from employers were the norm. Then, I argue that domestic workers developed a variety of strategies for resisting certain conditions and empowering themselves. In the 1920s, individual strategies like migration emerged. In the 1930s, domestic workers used the new political environment to grow increasingly public and collective strategies such as labor unions. During WWII, many black women left domestic work as defense industries opened up, but the war also helped to spread black women¿s activism beyond just labor issues. The goal of this project is to expound on the significance of these women¿s lives and activism, and to address how they laid the groundwork for prominent 20th century activism such as the Civil Right Movement.