Chapter 7 Early Days in Washington DC
Emma continued talking with Missy as she remembered her early days in Washington DC. She told her of the first time she saw a Colored doctor at the hospital and how she saw Colored nurses. She then went on to talk about her first weeks in DC. She and her cousin would catch the trolley and go to different parts of the city. She was able to see the White House where the president supposedly lived. She was never sure that he really lived there because she never saw him sitting on the porch like she saw others at home in Mississippi. She remembered hearing about that thing called the Depression and seeing people in lines looking for food and jobs. She felt sorry for them and she was glad that she lived with her aunt and uncle in a house and she did not have to worry about what and when she was going to eat. While she knew that she should work, her aunt told her not to worry about working until she had the baby. Until which time, she spent her time just cleaning around the house while her aunt and uncle were at work. She never was sure where her aunt worked but her uncle worked for the railroad on the trains. However this all was soon going to change.
One afternoon, she overheard her uncle and aunt talking in low tones around the kitchen table. Her uncle was holding a pink piece of paper and appeared to be crying. Her aunt was just holding her uncle. She later found out that evening that he had lost his job. Just like that he no longer worked for the railroad. He was a victim of that thing called the Great Depression, Of course at that time the only thing that she knew was that her uncle no longer went to work but stayed home for there were no jobs in Washington or no other place according to the radio. Her uncle had worked for the Pullman Company as a sleeping car porter. He had lost his job because there was a White person who needed a job. She had heard of him talking about someone call A Philip Randolph and the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. She later found out that this was one of the first Colored labor unions. However her aunt continued to work so they had food to eat but nothing like they had before.
How quickly things had changed. Her uncle began to drink daily and her aunt could barely make ends meet with her now 2 Days a week job. Emma found herself standing in the same lines as those other people that she had seen just weeks before. Searching for handouts and wondering what was happening to her. As she stood in line, she heard talk about people loosing all their money and jumping out of windows. She did not know why people would do such a thing. She heard talk about President Hoover and how he caused all this trouble and people said he lived right there on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Emma remembered the day that she came home to find out that there was no more home. Her aunt and uncle had not been able to make the rent payments and the owner was unable to make the mortgage payments and thus the bank foreclosed on their house. By this time, she was about 8 months pregnant and they were left to live in the church mission. There were more people living on the streets then in their own houses. Many people built outside makeshift shelters called "Hoovervilles” after President Hoover. Other people used newspapers to cover themselves and these newspapers were call “Hoover blankets”.
Her aunt and uncle decided to do like so many others and go to California for they were told that things were better there in California. This was a problem for Emma because she was then 8 months pregnant and could not go on such a long journey. Also an even bigger problem what was she going to do with the new baby. The plan was for her to give the baby to her aunt and return home to Riverside. A decision was made for Emma to enter the mission of St. Marys. This church home accepted girls who were unwed mothers and allowed them to stay there until the baby was born. The baby would then be put up for adoption and the girl could then go on with her life. While Emma was unsure of this arrangement her aunt and uncle told her that it was her only option or to just live on the streets where she did not know anyone. She could not go home to Mississippi and she could not go to California. She understood that there was no other alternative then to go to St Marys.
A little tear came into the corner of the eye of Emma as she told this story to Missy. But while she talked she knew that there was so much more to tell Missy for Missy never knew her mother and further more Emma never wanted her to know of her mother. Emma began again and before she could start talking she laid back on the pillow turned her head from Missy and went fast to sleep.