From the Yazoo Mississippi Delta to the urban communities of the Midwest: Conversations with rural African American women

African Americans had a particularly difficult existence in the rural South during the early twentieth century. For those who wanted to own land, houses, and other property, who desired participation in the political process, and who hoped to improve themselves socially, culturally, and economically, the rural South was deadly. Racism and intimidation killed blacks in body and in spirit, diminishing their emotional and mental strength and limiting the ability of their communities to survive. Among those who suffered the effects of racism, none endured worse hardships than rural African American women who labored diligently on farms in order to contribute economically to their family's survival and well-being.

The pains rural African American women suffered were most evident in the Yazoo Mississippi Delta, where their life was orchestrated around the beat of the cotton planter, the scrape of the hoe, and the rasp of cotton sacks moving swiftly over the fields. Cotton became "white gold," taken from the hands of black share-croppers and day laborers to support the agricultural enterprises of white landlords. "Life was hard," said Eva Glenn, one of thirty-seven women I interviewed who moved from the South to northern midwest cities, "and us black women had no choice but to grow hard along with it."(1) "You could let it beat you," explained Mae Liza Williams, "or you could take control over it by not lettin' what white folk did to you or said `bout yo' people bother you."(2) Or, according to Estella Thomas, "You could leave and go up North and try to find a better life for yo'self."(3)

Leaving was exactly what many African American rural women did. They left the fields and farms by the hundreds of thousands and moved to urban communities across the United States. Many, like Mary Alice Williams of St. Louis, packed their bags for the same reason as did her husband, Isom4: They wanted to make more money and to find better social, cultural, and educational opportunities for their children. According to Willie McWilliams, some women wanted to see "just how different the city was, especially if black people voted and held some kind of office to help they people."(5) Other women made the journey from the field to the city to reunite with family members, especially aunts, uncles, and siblings who had gone ahead of them. These pull factors were particularly strong on those living in rural communities following World War II, but African American female cotton pickers also left because life in the rural South was too hard on women and devastating to their sense of womanhood. Many rural black women left the cotton fields, as Annie West did, because "there was no way to be protected from physical, sexual, and spousal abuse." She proclaimed:

The law was not interested in keepin' black field women safe from any kind of attack, so the fields, because they were so far from town and the lack of enforcement of the law, worked together and actually became a form of imprisonment for many women.(6)

"Surrounded by cotton and cotton fields," Jessie Easter explained, "you felt, at times, that you could not get out and no one could get to you because you was livin' in a closed off community where you did not see many things or folks from the outside.... So the only way to escape the madness caused by greed and the power white folks got from raisin' King Cotton was to run, run, and run away as fast and far as you could."(7) Migration became an attractive alternative to the Deltas cotton fields because it offered many women the opportunity to search for a new identity and a different sense of community.

However, once settled in the North, the women worked hard to maintain some of their rural heritage and culture. "We still like to eat the same foods because it reminded us of home and our traditions," Rosie Fountain explained.(8) "It is so important for my children and the people in this community to understand that black farm women, like me, came from a rich tradition and that all of us did not come off of white people's farm, but actually lived on land owned by our parents and other blacks, went to schools and churches our grandparents helped to build, and shopped in little stores black country people sat up so we could see some positive role models in our little rural community," explained Clementine Coleman of St. Louis.(9)

Upon arriving in the city, many African Americans faced harsh realities. The industrial landscape also presented problems similar to the rural South. Poverty was rampant, and every form of social, cultural, and economic limitation existed. They could only expect difficulties in securing employment, and in finding decent housing, health care, and nutritious food. Transportation and telephones, when they could be afforded, enhanced their lives by helping connect their urban communities to their home communities in the South.(10)

Housing was never plentiful, and that made available to blacks was substandard and wholly inadequate for the large families migrating from farms. Rent was exorbitant, draining families of the majority of their income. Because migrants had been told by promoters of industry needing a cheap workforce that the city offered better housing than in the South, many had looked forward to efficient plumbing and bathroom facilities, and bedrooms large enough to house their families. Such accommodations were scarce and costly. Indeed, respectable housing seemed available only to those who brought money with them for a down payment and only in certain neighborhoods. Women with this kind of money were few, and for the majority, housing "projects" were the only alternative to overcrowded, substandard urban housing.(11)