Black Women in Texas History

4. Time of Transition: Black Women in Early Twentieth-century Texas, 1900–1930

bruce a. glasrud 4. Time of Transition black women in early twentieth-century texas, 1900–1930 By 1900, African American women in Texas endured slavery, achieved a limited degree of freedom during Reconstruction, and adapted to their particular role in Texas society in the generation after Reconstruction. The succeeding thirty years would be a “time of transition,” in which changes occurred in the lives of numerous black Texas women. The impact and the resultant direction of the efforts of black Texas women have led other writers to describe this period, at least on the national scene, by using phrases such as “Lifting As We Climb,” “No Mountain Too High,” and “They Carried Their Freedom Bags.” In fact, these depictions, in light of the bleak status of black Texas women in 1900, probably seem overly rosy. For too many women, 1900 seemed to bring little more than mere survival. Deep-rooted racism, an extensive system of segregation, potential rape, long and dreary hours of tedious work for little pay, no voting or other political rights, and inadequate food offered little scope for more. Historians have described these years of the early twentieth century as the nadir of race relations. At the same time, however, these slogans do apply to the determined effort of black Texas women to enhance and protect themselves, their families, and their communities during these years. By 1930 a growing African American middle class, migration to urban areas, community-based activities, and the right to vote provided new considerations and opportunities for women. The black population in Texas increased from 670,722 in 1900 to 854,964 in 1930. Despite the apparent gain, by 1930 the percentage decline of the African American population in Texas from 20.4 percent 100 bruce gl asrud to 14.7 percent presaged a decline that continued for the duration of the twentieth century. Although little studied by historians as yet, the decline appeared to lessen white fears of blacks while at the same time reducing black political influence. Concurrently with the percentage decline of black population during this thirty-year period was migration from rural to urban Texas. Staggering poverty and difficult daylong labor coupled with harsh racial conditions in rural Texas fueled this migration. In 1900, the proportion of Afro-Texans residing in urban areas was 19.2 percent; by 1930 the movement resulted in 38.6 percent of African Americans in the Lone Star State residing in urban centers. Despite the urbanization trend the economic plight of black women improved little during the period from 1900 to 1930. The vast majority of black Texas women faced grim economic straits, featured by working in agriculture and dominated by the economics of tenant farming. Even by 1910, over one-half of all black Texas women worked in agriculture and another one-third in domestic work and laundry. With little change, this situation continued through 1930. Women in agriculture endured a long hard life of unremitting labor. They had access to almost no laborsaving devices. They worked in the fields (especially during planting and picking seasons), did chores, and oversaw the family—caring for children, washing, ironing, canning, and cooking . As agricultural workers they averaged ten hours a day in fields during planting and picking time (whether they worked on their own farm or for someone else). Some of the rural black women during these years lived in one of several hundred “freedom colonies,” independent communities established by blacks on the fringes of white settlement in the decades after the Civil War. Life in these settlements had both favorable and unfavorable aspects for black Texas women in the three decades after 1900. They were free of the more stringent Jim Crow laws and attitudes but at the same time they worked long and tedious hours for minimal return. A substantial part of the nonagricultural menial labor force in Texas was made up of African American women, indicating the economic position of black Texans during this period. Black women were required by necessity to work, compared to the number of white women who were gainfully employed, and their wages were much lower. They supplemented the meager wages of black males; whites expected them to work; and they were sometimes the heads of households. In 1900, Time of Transition, 1900–1930 101 black female workers outnumbered white women employed; by 1930 working white women outnumbered blacks, but black...