Pieces of the Past

The Effects of Race Relations on the WPA Slave Narratives

by: Jessica Lund

Recalling history is a process of gathering pieces of information in order to form a complete picture of what has happened in the past. This is similar to completing a puzzle in the sense that every piece has its own picture, but yet, without the other pieces the image is not clear. The interviewers for the slave narratives attempted to compile the puzzle of slavery by seeking information from former slaves. The interviewers found pieces of history and recorded their findings in the slave narrative collection. In order to see the whole picture of slavery, one must look at more than just what was said or what was written. To understand slavery, one must be able to read between the lines of the narratives. This can be done by studying the dynamics that were involved in the interview process. One should consider things such as life in the Jim Crow South, segregation, the level of experience of the interviewer and the ability of the slave to recall memories. Only by working through these conditions that faced the former slaves and the interviewers can one truly feel what it was like to be living as a slave in the South.

Atlanta, Georgia was one of the cities that provided former slaves and interviewers for the slave narrative collection. Edwin Driskell is one of the interviewers from Atlanta and he recorded the stories of thirteen slaves. Edwin Driskell did not fit the typical profile of the slave interviewers because he was black. Aside from all of the conditions of the South, the effect of Edwin’s race on the interviews will be discussed later. When looking at Edwin’s interviews, it must be noted that he was a part of the middle class, while the ex-slaves, such as George Womble, were lower class. The effects of class differences in Atlanta are considered when trying to discover the missing pieces of the story of slavery told by ex-slave, George Womble. 1

Race controlled life in Atlanta and in the South in the early 1900s. In Atlanta race defined an attitude and provided a means for classifying people, an inaccurate classification in most cases, but it was a tool for classifying people. This classification created the etiquette in the South where whites treated each other with the utmost respect and treated middle class blacks with very little respect. Whites gave lower-class blacks virtually no respect at all, forcing them to take the rear seats on the bus, verbally degrading them, and making blacks the victims of violence. Because of their race, whites in Atlanta received better opportunities for schooling, for occupations and better living conditions. 2

Segregation in Atlanta and other parts of the South caused blacks and whites to be treated differently in the South. Segregation was set into place by the Jim Crow Laws which created the idea that there should be different schools and public facilities for blacks and whites. These laws were a result of the ideas created by both black and white leaders. These leaders felt that blacks and whites would be better off separated if they could not get along. Blacks and whites were segregated in almost every way. Voting booths, public transportation, and churches were all segregated during the Jim Crow era. Even in the social sense, the people labeled theatres, cinemas, and park benches as either ‘colored’ or ‘white.’ In Atlanta, the people chose to designate certain theaters for blacks. Edwin Driskell, who was a saxophonist in the house band at the time, recalled that The Top Hat club in Atlanta welcomed whites for dancing on Saturday nights but not blacks. At the Top Hat, blacks were allowed to dance on other evenings, just not Saturdays. Clearly the South was divided between the blacks and the whites, and, it’s obvious to see that whites were privileged and blacks were not. 3

Blacks and whites in Atlanta in the 1930s found themselves living in different parts of the city. Whites lived on the North side of town and blacks lived on the South and West sides of the city. This was due to the growth of transportation that was provided at this time. The new railroad that ran westward stimulated movement of blacks to the west, by providing them with a means of transportation to get to their labor intensive jobs. Streetcar lines helped get the domestic workers to their jobs in the North. Sometimes, however, blacks and whites resided in the same area, but they were still segregated. Blacks would live in homes that were in the alleys behind the whites’ houses. It was usually true, however, that the whites who resided near the blacks weren’t much better off than the blacks. The Atlanta City Directory of 1940 listed George Womble, as living in the ‘rear,’ the notation used in the directories for specifying that the homes were in the alleys behind the whites. 4

The racial division of the city of Atlanta had both positive and negative effects on the citizens. When the blacks found themselves living together, they formed neighborhood bonds and made certain places their own. Auburn Avenue was the place for blacks in Atlanta to gather, they endearingly termed it “The Avenue.” Auburn Avenue was the place to go as soon as the work day ended, whether it be to go out for dinner, to shop or to dance. Auburn Avenue was a place of escape for the blacks, a place where they wouldn’t be humiliated by segregation and faced with the pain of racism. “The Avenue” was a home for black Atlantans. 5

Away from Auburn Avenue, however, the blacks were very vulnerable to acts of violence and retaliation. During the 1930s the Ku Klux Klan was actively fighting the spread of blacks into white territory. The KKK, as it was called, burned crosses in front of black homes, set churches on fire, and committed other acts of violence to show their disapproval of the growth of black neighborhoods. The KKK wore white robes and masks to cover their faces as they rode through the city spreading threats of white supremacy. Black Atlantans refused to be threatened and continued to move westward closer to white neighborhoods. 6

Another major contributor to the lifestyle of Atlanta in the 1930s was the Great Depression. Certainly the Depression impacted the lives of all of those living in Atlanta during the 1930s, but it had different affects on the middle and lower classes. The middle class, blacks or whites, found themselves changing their eating habits, generally eating more grits and rice than usual. However, lower class citizens, mostly blacks, found themselves digging through garbage cans to survive. Relief agencies such as the welfare and the Red Cross stepped in to provide food and shelter, but they simply could not keep up with the demand. 7

Employment rates during the Great Depression in the city of Atlanta dropped between twenty-five to thirty percent, but in the black districts this was a seventy to seventy-five percent drop. Whites needed jobs and so they kicked the blacks out of some factory jobs. Previous to the Depression, certain jobs were not fit for whites. These were usually jobs that involved working in factories, cleaning public places or other service positions. The Depression changed everything. Whites realized that if they were going to have jobs at all, they would have to lower themselves to these poor-class positions. As a result of this shift of whites into the poor-class workplace, the blacks were kicked out of the work force, and soon found themselves on the streets struggling to survive. 8

Franklin Roosevelt proposed the New Deal in 1933 to assist those who needed jobs. Specifically, he organized numerous government programs to employ people who were in dire financial need. These programs included Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), National Recovery Administration (NRA), and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Roosevelt’s programs helped decrease the need for jobs, but they could not offer the amount of jobs necessary for all of the people who were searching for employment. 9

In 1935 the Roosevelt administration started a new relief program under the Works Progress Administration, commonly known as the WPA. The WPA offered jobs in numerous areas including: social work, road crew labor, public parks clean-up, old building restoration and even supervisory jobs were offered. These jobs varied greatly in the skills and education required to perform the tasks assigned. Those who were lower-class found themselves doing labor-oriented work; building roads and serving on railroad crews. College educated employees were given the opportunity to supervise or to do social work. The social work positions involved going to the homes of people seeking government assistance to determine if they should receive it. The slave narrative positions were usually assigned to people with some form of a college education. Often, this meant that most of these people in social work and those assigned to the slave narratives were white, but occasionally there was a college-educated black person who was able to take the job. 10

Edwin Driskell was working as a musician at the time when the WPA jobs were available. According to the Atlanta city directory of 1935, he was a student living on Beckwith Street, which is very near to Atlanta University and not far from Morehouse College. Both of these universities were well-known for their prominently black student body. Edwin Driskell would have been twenty-four years old in 1935, so it can be assumed that he was a college student. Because he was college educated, Edwin had the chance to be a slave narrative writer. This does not suggest, however that he was a professional interviewer. Whether or not he was able to record verbatim all of those things that were spoken to him is unknown. This is another reason why the slave narratives have to be analyzed closely, in order to determine what was actually said and possibly what may have been left out. 11

In order to analyze the story of George Womble written by Edwin Driskell, more details about each of these men must be discussed. Interestingly, Edwin Driskell was born in 1911 and was a musician and a college student in 1935. Edwin played in the band at Theatre 81 and also in the band at The Top Hat, a dance club in Atlanta. He was disciplined with his time, attending college while playing at the club. In Living Atlanta he talks about his schedule, “We got out of school at 2:00, the first show at 81 was around 2:30 or 3:00 and we played until 11:30 that night.” It’s probable that because of his position as a musician, Edwin was able to get a job with the WPA. Edwin Driskell’s narrative titled “George Womble-ex slave” was published in 1937. 12

The biographical information on George Womble is more limited and because he was a slave, his records are incomplete and are difficult to obtain. Some details that Driskell notes in the narrative are important in the comparison between Womble and Driskell. Womble was born in 1843, making him sixty-eight years older than Driskell. Womble apparently didn’t appear to be ninety-three years old at the time of the interview, Driskell said he looked about fifty or so. Womble credited his lack of wrinkles to some advice he had received from a fellow slave who told him never to use soap on his face. Even though his face didn’t show his age, it’s possible that Womble’s memory was not complete at the time of the interview. He was ninety-three years old, his memories of slavery would have been from the first twenty years of his life, and chances are, he left out a detail or two. 13

Another important part of studying the slave narratives is the manner in which they took place. Most often the interviewers went into the homes of the former slaves, and asked specific questions about their slavery experiences. In the of case of Edwin Driskell, he was black, so George Womble may have not have sugar-coated his stories the way slaves tended to do for the white interviewers, especially white women. The slaves who were interviewed by whites were careful when revealing their memories because they were afraid there might be some sort of repercussion if they said something horrible about the whites. This was especially true for slaves who were still living in areas near or on their old plantations. Some former slaves believed that they would receive rewards for sharing good memories about slavery because they thought that the interviewer was a representative of the government and had some political power. These slaves were seeking benefits and thus told stories that would earn the approval of the white interviewers. 14

During the interview the former slaves were given the opportunity to freely share their experiences, but they were also directed to answer specific questions. The questions were worded in a way to provoke a specific response from the narrator. Some questions that were asked involved what living arrangements were like, how the food was, and what types of jobs were done. Questions regarding the care of children were asked, but were worded as “The children were taken care of, right?” Clearly this wording may cause the slave to simply agree with the statement being made, instead of responding with his actual thoughts on the matter. 15

Even though George Womble and Edwin Driskell were of the same race, there are many other differences to account for that may have affected the reliability of the interview. Edwin was about twenty-six years old and fresh out of college at the time of the interview. George, on the other hand, was ninety-three and nearing the end of his life at this point. The difference in age is significant and certainly could limit the relationship between these two men. Edwin could not understand what it was like to be George Womble, he only knew how things were in Atlanta at the time, and he had to do his best to interpret whatever George told him. Whether or not Edwin’s interpretation was correct is unknown, but the experiences that were recorded do correspond to many stories of the other slaves in the narrative collection. 16

George Womble shared his memories of being raised as a slave. Womble’s account of slavery seems less harsh than some of the others, perhaps because he was a house slave. It has been seen that the house slaves were generally given lighter punishments, but the trade off was that they were under constant watch of the master. Noting that Womble’s account seems less harsh is fine, as long as the possibility that he left some things out is still considered. Maybe George Womble left out some of the harsh stories of whippings and beatings because he didn’t want Edwin to think that he was just a bitter old man, wallowing in the pain of his history. It’s also possible that Womble has repressed some of his worst memories of slavery because they are too painful. The truth is that whatever Womble shares must be counted as valuable, but should never be taken at face value because the missing pieces are sometimes the most crucial. 17

George Womble and Edwin Driskell both lived in Georgia, but at the same time, they lived in two different worlds. George was born into slavery, lived more than twenty years of his life as a slave and then became another lower-class black when slavery was abolished. Most likely, after slavery ended, he found a low-paying job and struggled all his life to support his family. In his narrative, he makes reference to his wife and their six children. The interview took place during the Depression, Womble probably had as much difficulty living with what he had as any other of the lower class blacks during this time. Womble had lived a rough life by the time he told his story. Even after the interview, his lower-class status is shown when looking at the city directory. In 1940, George Womble lived in Atlanta in the rear on Crew Street. George Womble had most likely given up on believing that he’d ever get ahead; Driskell, however, went to college and had the opportunity to live as a part of the middle class. 18

The information about Edwin Driskell before he began working for the WPA is important, but so is the information about his life after the WPA. According to the Atlanta City Directory, in 1944 he was a postal carrier and remained in that position until he began working for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in 1967. He married Nellie C. in 1947 (her maiden name was not documented). In 1977, Edwin retired from his position with the HUD, and aside resided on Waterford Street in the Northwest section of Atlanta. No more records of Edwin Driskell after 1980 were found, except that he was an interviewee for the collection of oral history of Atlanta, a book published in 1990 called Atlanta Living. 19

Although Edwin Driskell had the major role in the recording of the story of George Womble, the government had a role too. Editors were hired by the federal government to read these slave narratives and make corrections as necessary. These editors were almost always white and were reading the narratives for grammatical mistakes. Of course, with the dialect of the former slaves, often the initial stories were changed and re-written in more correct English. Often these corrections removed some of the realness of the memories shared by the former slaves. This editing created a situation where one person tells the story, the interviewer records it to the best of his ability, and then the editor goes through and interprets those phrases that are not quite grammatically correct. In some cases, this can change the feeling of the whole story. The most unfortunate part of this editing, is that usually the original documents of the interview are not available. What is published is more the editor’s account of slavery, and not the actual memories of the former slave. 20

The slave narratives are a valuable piece of history, but it is necessary to know that these stories are only pieces of the puzzle. To see the whole picture, one must consider the world as it was when the slaves were interviewed, and as it was when slavery took place. The levels of segregation in Atlanta, the attitudes about race and class and the relationships between individuals all played a role in the outcome of these narratives. It can be said that these narratives are the stories of slaves and of slavery, but it should not be said that these stories reveal everything about slavery. To experience what it was like to be a slave, one must be able to convey the emotion, the pain, the struggling, the physical agony, the wretchedness, the hatred, the horrid nightmares of slavery. One must be able to feel the overwhelming joy and blessing when the sweet taste of freedom is granted. One cannot do this with words alone, expressions must be seen, images must be created, emotions must be surfaced in order to even remotely understand. In order to know the life of a slave, one must consider every piece of the puzzle and put all of these pieces together. This research connected a few of these pieces, but there are so many left, and so many experiences that have never been shared. The search for the rest of the pieces continues, but the reality that the whole puzzle will ever be put together fades with the passing of each former slave whose memories will never be recorded.