Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2020/Spring/Section25/Nora Bates

Nora Bates (born Valley Perry) was an African American woman originally from Catmarr (?). Over the course of her life she was married four times and had six children. Bates worked as a washerwoman for most of her life and supported generations of her family for most of her adult life. Bates was interviewed by the Federal Writers Project at the age of 38 and at the time of this interview was living in Cary, North Carolina.

Early Biography

Nora was born in 1901. Neither of her parents are named. In her youth, she dealt with the death of her father, a well and ditch digger, as a young child. She had two sisters and one brother. Her mother was a washerwoman who “didn’t make much, but managed to support we chillum and a old aunt that lived with us”. After the fourth grade Nora left school in order to help her mother with the washing and learnt how to make clothes. At the age of 15 she married her first husband, Buck Bates who she had the first of her four children. After the passing of Buck five years later, the family continued to live with his mother.

Personal Life

At 38 years old, she had been married three times and has six children. Her second husband suffered from serious drinking and gambling habits leading the family to financial instability. These addictions led to a spat of arguments with her husband rarely living at home. This culminated when he stole a significant amount of the family’s savings and left to return to Georgia. After hearing the her estranged second husband had been murdered Bates' remarried for the third time before finding out this man was married to another woman and had a family residing in South Carolina. She encouraged him to return to his family and the void marriage was terminated. Following the end of her last marriage she moved her family and her sister’s family up to Cary, North Carolina. Initially, finding work was a challenge as many residents of Cary were not used to employing African American washerwomen. As Bates' children grew up she faced the problems that came with the changing value of money as well as facing overt racism and preparing her children for an openly racist world. In 1929 Bates’ sister died from pellagra at which point Bates’ ability to support her mother and aunt was significantly reduced. “Sister had helped out some ‘bout Mammy and Aunty, but as soon as she died de whole burden fell on me.” Her aunt and mother died the following year.

Social Issues

African American Educational Disparities in the Jim Crow South

In the early 1900s educational opportunities for African Americans were extremely limited. Many white employers often “preferred their laborers illiterate, or semiliterate at best, and viewed formal education as a needless distraction”. This attitude towards limiting education paralleled the deep racism present in the Jim Crow South. Due to financial circumstances and the economic instability during and following the Great Depression many African Americans did not complete a full education and opted instead to enter to workforce. Within the African American community, many advocated for segregated schools and viewed them as more beneficial than desegregated schools. For African American women this lack of education severely hindered their opportunities for social mobility. Violence against women existed in and out of the workplace often times as a reaction to and African American women stepping into a role that could have been fulfilled by a white worker.

The Southern Washerwomen Industry during the Great Depression

For the generation following Civil War, finding work was often a struggle but the impacts of the depression disproportionally effected the African American community at the time. Washerwomen were often forced to undercut each other’s wages in order to get work. In this specific industry, the black washerwomen had very little control over their wages especially when being outbid by competition. Many African Americans during this time period struggled to support their families with only one adult working. “The disproportionate sex ratio among blacks made wage work all the more imperative for women, especially for single, divorced, or widowed mothers saddled with the sole responsibility for taking care of their families.”