What was life like for a black woman in 1930s America?
It would vary considerably, depending on where she lived, what kind of education she had had, what sort of job she did. Domestic service was the commonest form of employment for black women at this time, and a black servant might be ‘live in’ (that it she would live with the family who employed her) or she might be ‘live out’ (have her own place). A married woman of course would be much more likely to ‘live out’. Her experience would vary enormously depending on the kind of family she worked for, how much they valued her, what their attitude generally was towards black people or towards her as an individual. There was certainly a lot of prejudice against hiring black women for certain jobs. In ‘America’s Women’ Gail Collins writes: ‘African American women in the north had approximately the same literacy rate as white women their age and were just as likely to send their children to school. But the payoff was much lower for black students. Even those with high school degrees were shut o