The 1918 Pandemic and Lent in 1919
A Look Into The Life of Mrs. Hattie McDaniel Perry
This Women’s History Moment Is NOT about Hattie McDaniel, the Oscar award winning Black actress from Gone with the Wind. I honor her and am thankful for all she did in opening the profession to other Black and Brown females who have followed her.
This Women’s History Moment is about Mrs. Hattie McDaniel Perry, July 16,1893-December 3, 1977. She was born in Ithaca, NY, to Celia Barnett, and jointly raised by her mother, Omar and Hattie Jones. It is Omar Jones’s name that appears on her Cornell University (CU) transcript as “parent.” She spent three years at CU, trained to become a Madam C.J. Walker independent entrepreneur, taught at Haines Normal and Industrial Institute (Haines), Augusta, GA; worked in insurance in Augusta and Atlanta, GA, attended Atlanta University, Lincoln University, Lincoln, Missouri; worked for The Race Relations Institute, Fisk University, and The Amistad Research Center, Tulane University. She was also a member of the American Missionary Association, and a member of The Congregational Church of Atlanta and New Orleans.
Hattie was a prolific writer. Her letters cover the period 1911 through the early 1970s. They were very descriptive and revealed what she and others in the Augusta community did. They detail her travels from Ithaca to Buffalo, from Buffalo to New York City and Brooklyn, from Brooklyn to Augusta and Atlanta, from Atlanta to Missouri, Missouri to Tennessee, and from Tennessee to Louisiana. She wrote many letters to her mother, sister, family, friends, and classmates. In addition to teaching at Haines, she sometimes served as secretary to Miss Laney, the school’s founder and principal.
Hattie lived through the pandemic of 1918–1919. The Augusta Chronicle and other newspapers indicate that people wore face coverings (masks) then just as we did in the recent pandemic. In an October 2, 1918 letter, she describes how people in Augusta and surrounding communities dealt with the isolation and lack of supplies. She comments on the soldiers from nearby Camp Hancock, an Army Base.
“The soldiers cannot come into town unless they come in a private car or walk…a distance of some 6 or 7 miles.”
As the October 2, 1918 letter indicates, Hattie worked at Haines and at various insurance companies. In addition to working two jobs, she participated in social and religious activies, including Lent. Lent is one of the topics she covers in the following letter to her mother on March 6, 1919.
I feel certain that Hattie McDaniel Perry knew some of my ancestors, specifically my grand aunt, Armenia Rebecca, and her sister Mattie Louise — who became my grandmother. Hattie began teaching French and English at Haines in September 1916. She taught the French to the primary grades and later to students in the Precollege Prepratory Program which Armenia graduated from on May 13, 1918.
The likelihood of them knowing one another is increased when I look at the fact that Hattie lived at 1237 Railroad Avenue, the street that ran parallel to our ancestors’s home at 1243 Augusta Avenue. They were neighbors, separated by one street and practically living in one another’s backyard. Oh, how I wish I could have a conversation with both. What fun information they both would share. They also had letter writing in common as Armenia wrote her family and friends often, and they answered.
In 1920, Hattie moved to Atlanta, Georgia. Her goals to continue her education and increase her salary were still priorities. So, too, was getting to know her new city. The following letter is as informative as those written from Augusta.
After leaving Augusta and Atlanta, she accepted an executive secretary position at Fisk University. She was personally asked by Dr. Charles S. Johnson, sociologist in the Race Relations Institute (RRI) at Fisk, to come and serve as his secretary. He later became the first Black President of Fisk and asked her to join him. However, she chose to remain with the RRI as assistant to Dr. Clifton H. Johnson, founder of the Amistad Research Center (ARC). Her knowledge of the American Mission Association was critical to helping Dr. Clifton H. Johnson organize and build the ARC. After a dispute with Fisk University, Dr. Clifton Johnson moved the ARC to New Orleans. Hattie McDaniel Perry moved with him, and became the executive administrator of ARC.
In her nearly 40 years at Fisk University, Hattie McDaniel Perry wrote and received letters from a large variety of people. Some of the individuals included W. E. B. Dubois, Dorothy L. Height, John Hope (first Black President of Morehouse College), Pearl S. Buck, Roy Wilkins, and John Hope Franklin to name a few.
Dr. Clifton H. Johnson said, “Hattie Perry knew everybody and everybody knew her. She was very knowledgeable and could answer any questions about Fisk University and the people she met there, some of whom came to see her because of her expertise.” — from 2002 in-person Interview by Dr. Mary Marshall
This is confirmed in Hattie’s January 24, 1979 obitutary in The Times Picayune,
Mrs. Hattie McDaniel Perry, nationally known authority on the history of race relations in the United States, died Tuesday norning … after a brief illness. She was 84.
This Women’s History Moment has been brought to you via the letters of Hattie McDaniel Perry and Armenia Rebecca Williams Grant. Both women’s writings added much to my understanding of the places my ancestors lived.
©March 2022— All rights reserved
Sources
The Hattie McDaniel Perry Papers. The Amistad Research Center, New Orleans, LA
Mary M. Marshall, PhD. The M. Marshall Collection
The Times Picayune Newspaper, New Orleans, LA
