Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2022/Fall/Section087/Dona Balmer

Overview

Dona Balmer was a low-class white woman in the 1930s during the great depression era. Interviewed by Harris, Bernice K. We can assume that Dona Balmer’s full legal name is Dona Balmer Male White.

Biography

Crowd gathering at the intersection of Wall Street and Broad Street after the 1929 crash

Personal Life

Dona Balmer was born in Pleasant Hill, NC. Donna lived in a household of nine people and two being her twin babies. None of them had any consistent schooling due to how far it was and the lack of transportation. They were considered very poor at the time and most of them did not have enough clothes to wear to school. Some of the children went because their teacher would bring in clothes that they could wear. They couldn't go to church because they had nothing to wear that fit the social norms of what was acceptable at the time. They would move from house to house for the majority of their life because of the unemployment at the time. Unemployment was one of the biggest social issues in the 1930s.

Adult Life

The majority of women at the time like Donna wouldn’t vote because it wasn’t considered socially acceptable for women. This was a major political issue at the time when there was the women's rights movement. Most women like Donna's sister Louise would do housework, cooking, and cleaning. To live in all of these different houses they would have to do work around the property such as sharecropping, farming, cutting wood, and other duties. During the time of the great depression, they would have to get by without beds, food, clothes, and many other necessities. They were better off now due to welfare people that would come to inspect the house and decide what necessities they will provide. Donna was a lot different because she did most men's work like cropping and plowing. When they would do work for the owners of the crops and the house, the majority of the owners wouldn't pay them what they owe and kicked them out. They would waste months of work to get nothing in return.

Social Context

The Great Depression

Following the significant stock market crash in 1929, the Great Depression was one of the worst economic declines that the US has seen in History. This also affected the rest of the world as well as the US especially because of the war debt that was still in place. Most of the family incomes were known to have dropped by an average of 40%, including around 11,000 banks failing to result in many families being left with absolutely no savings. Though white Americans were affected by the great depression, African Americans arguably had it the worst. Between factory and farm workers, farmers had it the worst due to oversupply and nobody to sell the product to. While most jobs vanished, the ones that were still existing were fulfilled by white Americans, leaving African Americans to suffer. Almost 13 million people were left unemployed. The Great Depression was later resolved, due to the economy being mobilized for world war two. Men and women in the US joined the armed forces, resulting in stable wages, further improving the economic disaster.

Women's Rights Movement

Following Women's Suffrage, women were still denied all voting rights, resulting in The Women's Rights Movement, which started in the 1920s but no change was made until the 1960s and lasted throughout the 1970s. Women desired equal rights and opportunities which were available to men. Because of World War One, women were pushed into male roles and had to get jobs working in factories. This led to women realizing what they are capable of and that if they can take the same role as a man, then they can have the same rights. Women during this movement also desired further freedoms to be granted to them such as freedom from discrimination, violence, equal wage, and owning property. During the Women's Rights Movement, there were women activists referred to as "Flappers", who dressed scandalously to act out against women's social norms of what was expected of them. This showed that women were free to express themselves without a man's decision on it. Eventually, the Women's Rights Movement led to further political issues such as the ability to vote, then according to the 19th amendment, women were finally granted the right to vote. It took decades of women protesting and acting out against social norms for there to be any change. The Women's Rights Movement's goals were to make education available to women, and give the right for a woman to own property, women the right to their own bodies, and the right to custody.

References

1. Archives, National. n.d. Great Depression Facts. New York: National Archives. Accessed 10/11/22. https://www.fdrlibrary.org/great-depression-facts#:~:text=throughout%20the%201920s.-,At%20the%20height%20of%20the%20Depression%20in%201933%2C%2024.9%25%20of,economic%20disaster%20in%20American%20history.
2. Wheelcock, David. What Caused the Great Depression? Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, 2000, https://www.stlouisfed.org/the-great-depression/curriculum/economic-episodes-in-american-history-part-5.
3. Barbara Silberdick, Fienberg. Black Tuesday : The Stock Market Crash of 1929. Achieve, 1995, https://archive.org/details/blacktuesdaystoc00fein.
4. "women's suffrage | Definition, History, Causes, Effects, Leaders, & Facts | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2022-10-27.
5. Editors, History com. "Flappers". HISTORY. Retrieved 2022-10-27.