Demanding Dignity: The 1881 Atlanta Washerwomen Strike

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Welcome to Civics and Coffee, a history podcast. The show all about United States history, delivered to you and the time it takes to enjoy your morning cup of coffee. I'm your host, Alicia, a historian trained in United States history with a passion for telling both the known and unknown parts of America's past. So grab your coffee and get ready for some bite-sized history. Hey everyone. Welcome back. If you lived in the city of Atlanta, Georgia in 1881, you might have been making last-minute preparations for the upcoming International Cotton Exposition. A fair meant to announce to the country and, by extension, the world, the arrival of the New South. Busy with a long list of tasks, you may have been one of the many residents who sent their laundry off for washing and ironing by the local group of washerwomen. Comprised almost entirely of black women, clothes requiring cleaning were generally picked up early in the week and taken off site, and were returned fresh by week's end. This time-saving chore undoubtedly gave you peace of mind, and so it would have been a surprise to learn that the washerwomen in the area had suddenly announced their intention to go on strike. For a few tense weeks in the summer of 1881, women laundry workers in Atlanta created waves for the city's white elite and banded together to demand greater respect for their labor in the form of higher pay for services rendered. The Atlanta Washerwoman's Strike of 1881 helped inspire service workers throughout the city to recognize their worth and proved that they were fully capable of forcing the white residents to the negotiating table. So what exactly happened that summer in Atlanta? This week I'm diving into the Atlanta Washer Woman's Strike of 1881. What prompted the strike? How did it begin? What were they asking for? And what is its legacy? Grab your cup of coffee, peeps. Let's do this. Like so many places throughout the South, the city of Atlanta was obliterated during the Civil War. While the city hall and a few churches survived, almost everything else, including the city's railroad tracks, were decimated. In rebuilding the city in the aftermath of the war, a tension existed over the vision of exactly what the new Atlanta might look like. There were some who wanted nothing more than to return the city to its antebellum roots, mirroring its slave past as much as possible. For others, namely the newly freed black Americans, access to education with institutions like Atlanta University gave them hope that perhaps there was possibility for change. Given the level of destruction, most economic recovery efforts were initially focused on rebuilding the railroad, and by 1881, Atlanta, still a new version of itself, was preparing to host the International Cotton Exposition. The fair was intended to attract investors by demonstrating the potential of the quote unquote New South, with Atlanta serving as the model city. Residents and city officials alike knew that if done right, the exposition was a perfect opportunity to rebound and reshape public opinion. Yet for all of their desire to showcase a quote unquote New South, there remained scars and remnants of the Confederate slave past. Black Americans were largely locked into unskilled jobs, limiting their economic mobility. Many worked as domestics, farmers, and of course, laundresses. As historian Tara Hunter has documented, what was most critical for black families was that their work did not replicate their previous condition of servitude. Black Americans in the South wanted to have autonomy and dignity, even if the work itself looked the same, like the tasks they performed during the time of slavery. It was most important to them to have agency, to control things like pay, hours, and to have some control to redefine what their labor looked like in a post-slave society. With this in mind, it makes sense that many black women took up washing. Despite the hard work, washerwomen had the most flexibility. First, the work was performed outside of the home of their employer. And as I mentioned in the beginning of the episode, clothes were generally picked up at the beginning of the week and taken to their home, where they could gather with fellow washerwomen in a communal setting to wash the clothes with soap and starch that they made from scratch in washing bins that were crafted from old beer barrels. This shared washing space gave women the opportunity to engage with their neighbors while providing maximum flexibility for them to engage in other activities of their choosing. Washerwomen had, up to a point, a choice in exactly how much they wanted to work. They controlled when they worked and could tap into their immediate family, such as their spouse or children, for assistance as needed. Having this autonomy meant that washerwomen could also enjoy non-work activities, like church or political meetings, or could perform other household chores in between the various stages of washing. With these benefits, it's easy to understand why women perhaps preferred being a washerwoman over the other main job of a domestic. The city had such a high demand for washerwomen that there were more laundresses than male common laborers. Almost everyone used laundry services, including those who would be considered poor. The pay, however, was not great, with most making between four and eight dollars per month. Because there were so many washerwomen and because everyone wanted their service, the industry was primed for exploitation to get the lowest possible price. Now, details about the strike and specific actors remain a bit murky, but one can imagine that during one of their many communal washing sessions, the topic of pay came to the forefront, and perhaps upon hearing of the unfair wages, the seeds of collective action were planted. According to the Encyclopedia of U.S. Labor and Working Class History, the women first mobilized to address pay issues in 1877 before meeting again in 1879 and 1880 to form a protective association. But tensions bubbled over and women finally came together over the spring and summer of 1881, when their collective action inspired thousands to band together in demanding better pay for their work. On May 14, 1881, the Atlanta Constitution newspaper published an article documenting how one washerwoman had been arrested for refusing to return clothes she'd taken for washing. What the article fails to mention is whether the woman, Anna Peters, was holding the clothes in an attempt to extract higher wages. The newspaper, described by historian Tara Hunter as having very little sympathy for the washerwoman, wrote several articles over the summer dismissing the efforts of these women, even suggesting that they were being supported by a mysterious white man, even though there was never any evidence to support this. What is known is that in July of 1881, 20 laundresses met in a black church to form the Washing Society, a trade union of sorts, which they hoped could be leveraged to command higher pay and greater autonomy over their work. Likely learning from the days of Reconstruction politics, the women took the society seriously and used their first meeting to elect officers, create committees, and agree on a uniform rate of pay for their labor, $1 for every 12 pounds of wash. They also decided to create visiting committees, basically establishing a canvassing network that would go door to door and try to entice anyone who wasn't a member to sign up and support their cause. Working in communal spaces likely helped their efforts and further enabled their mobilization. And within just a few weeks, their membership grew from 20 to 3,000. The Washing Society did not limit their membership to just black women either. Creating an interracial alliance, the women actively recruited the small number of white women working as lodges, encouraging them to join the society to reap the benefits of higher wages. Their inclusion is significant as it represents one of the few examples of interracial labor solidarity, and is especially incredible considering it was achieved in a southern city. Members of the society coordinated with the black ministers of the area to hold a meeting where they finally called for a strike on July 19th to ensure their demands were met. The Atlanta Constitution newspaper recognized the Society was making headway, publishing an article two days later that said partially, quote, the women have a thoroughly organized association, and additions to the membership are being made each day, end quote. The article went on to document how some women had returned clothes to their clients sopping wet after joining the society midweek. This was the highlight of positive coverage of the strike from the Constitution. The rest was overwhelmingly dismissive or condescending. In an article about a week after the strike began, the paper highlighted how inconvenient the strike was for the white residents of the area, but that instead of paying the requested increase in fees, they were sending their clothing off to the neighboring town of Marietta to be washed, preferring to deal with any extra delays than to pay the demanded rate in the hopes that the lack of income would break the strike and force the women to resume their work at the original prices. But the women did not budge and continued to hold firm. And while the movement was popular, not everyone was on board with joining the society and participating in the strike. This created tension and led to more than one confrontation. Police were frequently brought in and accused visiting committee members, those responsible for canvassing and trying to increase membership, with using violent tactics, and several members were arrested. The charges were usually something vague like disorderly conduct, and those arrested were generally issued fines that, if they couldn't pay, were then sent to work on the city's chain gang. Stories about the violent outbursts were perfect fodder for the newspaper, and they loved nothing more than to publish stories claiming that the people who refused to participate were being threatened by women's spouses, including one such article that appeared on July 30th. According to that article, in rendering his judgment, the judge indicated that while he had been issuing fines before, moving forward, he'd be sending violators straight to the chain gang. The city's white residents announced that they were going to invest at a steam laundry and were going to employ, quote, smart Yankee girls, end quote, to run it, completely bypassing the washer women. Alas, nothing came of this plan. As the threats mounted, the strike spread to other industries, and soon cooks, house servants, and nurses all began pushing for increases in pay. There were also discussions about potentially withholding the winter assistance given to strikers if they didn't get back to work, worth roughly $25. Yet, the women stood firm. In perhaps a final act of desperation, residents also threatened to impose a license fee for any washerwoman who was part of an organization, again as an economic carrot to convince members to withdraw from the society and also lose the benefit of the bargaining power that came with membership. This did not elicit the response they anticipated. Not only did women not withdraw from the washing society, but they threw down a challenge of their own. They issued a statement on August 3rd to the city council, indicating that they'd be willing to pay a $25 protection fee to maintain autonomy over their work and enjoy the higher rate of $1 per 12 pounds of laundry washed. These were big gambles being wagered by the washer women. While their strike was impacting the entire city, laundry work was sometimes the only source of income for these households. These women participated in this strike not knowing whether they would be successful, whether they'd have an industry to return to. They went on strike knowing full well that they were the only providers for the household, and that the local police were itching for a reason to arrest them and put them in jail, thereby putting them in further economic jeopardy. Calculating all of those risks, they went forward anyway. And while the elite initially tried to play down the impact of the strike, and then tried to play down the women behind it, as if they couldn't strategize and commit to these actions on their own without the assistance of a white benefactor, they eventually came to realize that they'd been beat. But by how much remains unclear. The historical record remains murky as to the exact outcome of the strike. The Atlanta Constitution, which had been so vocal in their condemnation of the strike and critical of the participants, goes quiet, leaving historians left to interpret, based on the remaining record, what might have happened. According to historian Tara Hunter, at least some employers agreed to pay the higher rates, but many remained steadfast in their refusal, leaving the issue of poverty to continue to be a source of tension for the black community in Atlanta for generations. Hunter also highlights that the Washerwomen threatened another strike just before the International Cotton Exposition that seemed to put fear in the hearts of the city's white residents, who perhaps took lessons from the fights over the summer. The brief summer strike of washerwomen in Atlanta in the summer of 1881 represented the largest strike up to that point in the city's history. It created economic disruption and demonstrated that black women were willing to go to great lengths to maintain their agency and that they knew their worth and were willing to take great risks to obtain it. While the strike may not have secured full wins for everyone, it showed the power of solidarity and community. And now before I sign off, I do want to give a big, heartfelt thank you to each and every one of you who came out to Boston a few weeks ago to hear me give my first public talk at History Camp. It was truly a magical weekend, and your support meant the world to me. The folks behind the conference indicated they recorded the sessions, so anyone who wanted to make the trip but was unable to attend, stay tuned. I may just have news for you in the next few weeks. Thanks, peeps. I'll see you next time.