The Big City

 

Sunday December 11, 1913

Today is finally the day that we’ve been waiting on, or I guess you could assume. For me, I’m not so sure. My husband thinks it’ll be a great idea for us to just up and go, all the way to Detroit in hopes of finding work with the new motor company Ford. I’m pretty nervous though, ‘cause we don’t have much family out there, actually none at all. I think he’s just in a rush to make some quick cash and become free from family members naggin’ em. He says that we’ll be living in the black bottom, which is the area that is reserved for blacks.

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Oh, by the way my name is Helen and my husband’s name is George. We got married just about two years ago, right down near the barn next to Ms. May’s house. It was a small wedding with just our close family there. I’m 19 and George is 23, his birthday is coming up on September 29. Hopefully he’ll be working by then, that way we can celebrate. Anyways, we’ll be boarding our bus soon, I heard it’s a 17 hour drive from Georgia to Detroit. Can you believe that? We’ll be cramped up in a bus for about day. I know I’m not looking forward to it.

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An Hour Later- Departing

So, we finally said our goodbyes to our families and friends. I know I’m going to miss them, my little sister Anna isn’t too happy about me moving either. I promised that I was going to write her as soon as I got to Detroit.

As soon I stepped foot on the bus, I noted how crammed it was. I finally ended up making my way to the back, as usual, since the blacks had to sit behind the whites of course. When I got there, I realized that there was only one seat in the back that was available, and about 4 in the “Whites only” section. My husband decided to stand, and gave me the seat. I put our luggage on the floor next to us, there weren’t many belongings to begin with. Then, the bus started moving and our journey began.

 

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Tuesday, December 13, 1913 – Arrived

We made it to Detroit. The city is so huge, and it’s so packed with people runnin’ round everywhere. There’s plenty stores and places to go too. But it seems like it mostly for the whites. The blacks, where we had to live, live in this area called the black bottom. It’s near a street called Gratiot and Brush street on the east side of the city. So after a day of searching for somewhere to lay our heads, my husband found a small apartment for us that cost ‘bout $40 a month. We came her with $80, now we with $40. My husband didn’t waste much time, as soon as the sun rose up the next day, he went out looking for work, that’s when I decided that I would go out and search for a babysittin’ job or somethin’. Until then, I decided to do some laundry, but found it difficult to hang the clothes to dry, since there wasn’t much land like how it was back home in the country.
 

George eventually came home and said that he’d got an interview with the Ford company, they told him that he could start after they inspect our house for whatever reason and said that there was some rules to be met. He said that they’ll have him workin’ some heavy machinery’ and painting the metal in some form of a line. He said that the pay was okay at $5 for an eight hour work day, which was a large raise from 2.25 for a 9 hour work day. Meanwhile, I decided to take a walk through the city, well the Black Bottom. There many little clothing shops as well as some bars. The people were pretty friendly too. One thing I did notice was the segregation. At first, I thought that the north would be much different from the south but it really wasn’t, its just a bit less violence. The areas were very much so segregated, the Black bottom being the only area for blacks, with the rest of Detroit, for the whites.

 

Thursday, December 15, 1913 –“Inspector Ford”

The Inspector arrived at our house at about 11:20 a.m. I made sure everything was nice and tidy, although there wasn’t much furniture anyway. The inspector was frail ole man, with wispy hair and rounded glasses. He asked for our marriage documents, looked at them, and then wrote something on his notepaper. After sometime of looking though our home, he said that George

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had got the job and could begin working at the Ford Highland Park Factory in about two weeks, which is a small city inside of Detroit. His job was to basically paint the metal and send it down the conveyor belt to be someone else’s duty of attaching the newly painted piece to the actual car. Until then, we lived off of the extra money we came with, and the babysittin’ job that I had just got.

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1 Month Later – January 12, 1913

George is doing pretty well at Ford, but he says that many people are trying to get a job at Ford.

Today, a large mob of people, about 10 thousand, rallied outside of the company. They were real angry, trying to get through the gates and all. That when the security got out their water hoses and started spraying them. The mob, of course left, because December in Detroit is real cold and nothing like Georgia, and havin’ water on you in this weather will surely freeze you quick.