Archive Assignment

Comparing the Women labor force with the “Civil Rights” Movement

I guess this assignment actually came to me as a surprise. I was almost getting to the point where my creativity with the “sit in” assignment was running its course. I did not know what other point or direction I could take with the project. Then, Professor Caison took the class to Special Collections in Library South at Georgia State University. As I begin to hear Tracy speak about the items that they had in collections I became very intrigued by women who worked in the labor force when the men went away to war; and upon their return these women were thrown back into the kitchen without any remorse. It seems like the rights of women was an issues as well as the rights of African Americans. But what happens to the African American woman? Does she turns into a “mammy” or a “maid” just to work; or is the fruits of her labor already engulfed in discrimination and economic poverty?

Therefore my quest starts to find that story or images that can create an outlet for me to discuss something else that is dear to my heart. I saw in the Atlanta Journal Constitution a photo of a struggling African American woman in the slums of Atlanta, GA because work was limited. She went against “two rules” of the workplace; she was African American and a woman.

Whenever some of these minority women were able to find jobs they had to work in places that degraded them. Many of these women had to work in night clubs as bartenders, waitresses, dancers and even working for drug lords. The southern poverty identity centralized around majorities but for some reason the media plays close attention to the African American communities. My next photo shows a “working woman,” who could not find a job anywhere but a Downtown Night Club.

On March 24, 1969 the Great Speckled Bird, posted an article that demonstrates the ideals of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The article discusses that Coretta Scott King, Rev. Ralph David Abernathy wanted to do a peaceful march for labor workers. The main complaint was that these workers were “over worked and under paid.” They wanted to urge people to march on Easter so it would deter people from promoting criminal acts against the marchers. Luis Melendez was the president for “United Farm Working Organization Committee,” he had urged for some companies in Atlanta like Dekalb General Hospital and Marietta Journal Plant to pay their minority workers fair wages. This march gave the SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) the ability to push for change in a city that was evloving with minorites from every walk of life. Below is an image of the Great Speckled Bird.