Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2022/Fall/Section087/James Adams

James Adams

Overview

James Adams was an odd-jobs worker who lived in Charlotte, North Carolina in the 1930s. He was constantly in search of jobs to survive the economic burden imposed by the Great Depression.

Biography

Early Life

African American male, James Adams was born in the deep south, and grew up in an unstable home with his uncle where he was forced into manual labor and would get physically abused. Having no one to lean on and being left to raise himself, he ran away and was forced to obtain any job that he could find to survive. The first of many jobs he had was working in a circus, he was told to preform African dances with paint covering his face and was subjected to taking shots in his arm to boost his energy levels. After working for a while, he began hating the stage life and left.

Late Life

Adams met his wife while traveling for work and they had three children. Due to the scarcity of jobs because of the Great Depression, combined they made a mere six dollars a week which wasn’t enough to provide for a family of five. Left with no other choice, his two oldest children had to move out and the youngest was sent to live with his grandparents. After this, his wife fell ill and believed that she had a curse put on her. In search of treatment, she left him and went down to stay with her mother for a period of time.

Wagner-Peyser-Act-1933

Policy Influence

The following years Adams worked in jobs created by the New Deal program issued by President Roosevelt. He first started working under the National Youth Administration, but when he fell sick and grew out of the programs age gap, he began working under the Works Progress Administration program. In the interview he states “Roosevelt's been a backbone to many a poor man and he's hope me out. If I could vote I'd sho vote for him to be president again.”

Social Context

Racial Discrimination in Politics

During the 1930’s, the lingering effects of slavery were still prevalent in society. A large percentage of African American’s were unable to vote and didn’t have a voice on policy making. New Deal policies that had been implemented to relieve the stress of the Great Depression, were unproportionally helping White people. Although New Deal programs provided African Americans with needed economic assistance, they were administered at a state level. By allowing states to have control of financial aid, African Americans could be deprived of the resources that policies intended for them to have. Occupational policies created under the New Deal were negatively affecting African Americans as well. The National Recovery Administration developed occupational and geographic classifications that allowed employers to implement lower wages for African Americans.  Without any other job opportunities being available, they were forced to work for cheaper and accept the discriminatory occupational practices. Since it took longer to accumulate wealth and resources, politicians could ensure the continuance of a Jim Crow South.

Child Welfare during the Great Depression

Music Class at St Elizabeths Orphanage New Orleans 1940

The collapse of the American economy during the Great Depression increased unemployment and forced significant wage cuts. Due to the lack of compensation to workers, parents were unable to take care of their children’s needs, and foster homes remained crowded with children who had nowhere else to go . Without family or support systems children were forced to survive on their own. The American Youth Commission in 1935 estimated the number of job-seeking youth at 4,200,000. Policies to protect children against child labor hadn’t been implemented during the beginning of the Great Depression allowing employers to subject child workers to tedious hours of hard manual labor with minimal pay. Realizing the degrading mental and physical health effects that occupational environments had on children, President Franklin Roosevelt, implemented the Fair Labor Standards Act. The Law ensured that when young people worked the environment was safe and didn't jeopardize their health, well-being or educational opportunities.

Migration during the Great Depression

Policy Influencing Migration

New Deal programs affected the migration of citizens throughout the United States. The National Youth Administration focused on providing work and education to predominately young males, while the Works Progress Administration created jobs focused on carrying out public works projects. These programs weren’t evenly distributed across the country and certain geographic areas had an influx of migration ^[10]. No longer economically tied down to their communities, citizens in desperation to escape their circumstances left their homes and looked onward for jobs.

Great migration

The Great Migration

The Great Migration was one of the largest movements of people in United States history. Approximately six million Black people moved from the American South to Northern states roughly from the 1910s until the 1970s. The First Great Migration (1910-1940) had Black southerners relocate to northern and midwestern cities. Many African Americans fell into debt through sharecropping in the south and saw this as the only way to escape. While others were in hopes of finding communities outside the reach of the Jim Crow south.

References

Amadeo, Kimberly. “New Deal Summary, Programs, Policies, and Its Success.” The Balance, March 2022. https://www.thebalancemoney.com/fdr-and-the-new-deal-programs-timeline-did-it-work-3305598#toc-third-new-deal-programs.

Fishback, Price. “The Impact of New Deal Expenditures on Mobility during the Great Depression.” Explorations in Economic History 43, no. 2 (April 2006): 179–222. https://www-sciencedirect-com.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/science/article/pii/S0014498305000227?via%3Dihub#aep-section-id9.

Greenberg, Cheryl. To Ask for an Equal Chance: African Americans in the Great Depression. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2009. https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/lib/unc/reader.action?docID=466939.

Interview, Cora L. Bennett on James Adams, August 8th, 1939, folder 295, Coll. 03709, Federal Writers Project Papers, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Morton, Marian. “Surviving the Great Depression: Orphanages and Orphans in Cleveland.” Journal of Urban History 26, no. 4 (May 2000): 438–455. https://journals-sagepub-com.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/doi/abs/10.1177/009614420002600402.

Perea, Juan. “The Echoes of Slavery: Recognizing the Racist Origins of the Agricultural and Domestic Worker Exclusion from the National Labor Relations Ac.” Ohio State Law Journal 72, no. 1 (2011): 95–138. https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/ohslj72&id=97&collection=journals&index=.

Poole, Mary. Segregated Origins of Social Security: African Americans and the Welfare State. The University of North Carolina Press, 2006. https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/lib/unc/reader.action?docID=413392&query=.

“The Great Migration.” African American Heritage. National Archives, June 28, 2021.https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/migrations/great-migration.

Wecter, Dixon. “The Age of the Great Depression.” New Outlook Magazine, 1948: 181. https://wp.oldmagazinearticles.com/magazine-articles/the_great_depression/1930s-child-labor/.