Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2023/Fall/Section20/Carlmon Hamilton: Let Me Live!

Overview

Carlmon Hamilton is a black man born and raised in Norwood, Alabama. He was in his late adolescence at the height of the Great Depression. His 1939 interview titled “Let Me Live!” delves into the issues of racism-induced financial instability, underrepresentation in politics, and systemic barriers to education during the 1930s and 1940s.

Background

Childhood:

Black farmers being evicted from their land during the Great Depression.

Carlmon Hamilton was born in 1913 in Norwood, Alabama. His family owned a large farm and he grew up relatively well-off. Once a highway was built near their property, Carlmon’s family was forced to move away because of the harassment they experienced from white people. They began “moving around from one place to another” quite frequently and endured severe financial instability . Though he grew up with nine siblings, six of them died from various accidents or diseases that they couldn’t recover from because Hamilton’s family could not afford healthcare.

Early Adult Life:

His mother avidly encouraged education and pushed Carlmon to pursue a degree. He began supporting himself when he was a teenager and graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta. At the time of his interview, he was 26 years old and a graduate student working toward a sociology degree at Atlanta University. Hamilton was supporting his parents minimally through this time and hoped to “get launched into [his] own career before [having] to take on their full support” once his father stopped working . He was unmarried as he did not feel financially stable enough to support a family and focused on earning enough to make a living. Hamilton strongly believed that the American political system was not supporting African American citizens at this time. He advocated for increased representation and involvement in politics in his community.

Social Context

Displacement of African American Families and Consequential Loss of Wealth

During the 20th century, politicians implemented systemic barriers that impeded the progression of black wealth. They disguised their intentions as keeping the U.S. economy strong, but their housing policies weakened black communities. These policies essentially took away the wealth and economic stability African Americans achieved through property ownership. Additionally, the government's Home Owner's Loan Act (signed in 1933) was racially motivated in its assessment of risks to property value . This act "denied people of color—especially Black people—access to mortgage refinancing and federal underwriting opportunities," claiming that colored people were a financial risk . The refusal of loans and redlining of neighborhoods forced black families out of their homes and launched them into periods of instability as they had trouble getting financial help and finding places to live. This widespread poverty also resulted in a drastic drop in marriage rates. Many young people lacked the necessary funds to get married and so marriage rates dropped at the same speed as the stock market. This steady decline in marriage licenses shows “how profoundly the economic downturn of the 1930s affected Americans” .

Political Changes During the Great Depression

In the uncertainty and widespread poverty of the Great Depression, Americans looked to their politicians to represent them and pass initiatives to support them. Due to the insufficient representation of black Americans in politics, the Great Depression impacted Black Americans more harshly than White Americans. Unemployment rates for African American citizens were much higher, poverty rates were worse, and there was a noticeable lack of policies benefiting them . This led to an increased and widespread interest in electoral politics in the 1930’s. The spark for change-making motivated the “rise of African American activism, which laid the groundwork for the Civil Rights Movement" . African American citizens were encouraged by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal policies, and first lady Eleanor Roosevelt’s civil rights involvement. In 1936, black people “voted overwhelmingly for [FDR],” indicating the widespread shift in their “political allegiance from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party” .

Educational Inequalities in the 1930s and 1940s

Young African American students studying in a small segregated classroom.

One of the largest seen effects of the Great Depression is the way Americans’ attitudes regarding education changed. Education funding took a massive hit and although exceedingly important to Americans before the Great Depression, education transformed into “a luxury that could not always be afforded” . Students had to deal with fewer resources and inadequate instruction and the treatment of black students was noticeably inferior to white students. It was the general opinion during this time that white people deserved to be better off than black people. Schools were heavily segregated and racially motivated “violence became more common again, especially in the South” . Segregated schools for African American students were less safe, “received less money,” and were subject to “lower quality buildings and facilities” . Outside of education, jobs were taken away from or denied to African American people regardless of their qualifications . It was difficult for black people to achieve success during this time as they were constantly put down by white people, and racial tensions were high.