Mary Johnson Sprow: Migrant, Commuter

In 1898, at age 12, Mary Johnson, like many young rural southern African American women, was sent by her family to work in Washington, D.C., as a live-in domestic. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, thousands of African Americans migrated north, fleeing poverty and violence for the promise of economic opportunity and greater equality. While Johnson traveled north by train, others made the journey by bus, boat, or automobile.

For more on African American experiences, see the A Streetcar City: Washington, D.C., and Lives on the Railroad: Salisbury, North Carolina sections of this exhibition.

Out of the House

Like many other African American women in the rural South, Mary Johnson was “trained up” to domestic work out of necessity. Even as a young child in Catalpha, Virginia, Johnson had worked in white households to help support her large family and to learn the trade of domestic work. According to Johnson, “Your people all trained you to do service work. It was what they all knew you had to learn—period.”

“Then I Was Sent North to Work”

When Mary Johnson went north, her work didn’t change. After arriving in the city, she helped look after her brothers’ children and then became a live-in maid in three different households—including a senator’s house. As part of the household staff, she traveled with the family to their summer house. This photograph shows the staff at Senator John Spooner’s summer house, with Mary Johnson on the far left.

Working Out

In the 1920s, like many others, Mary Johnson became a day worker and moved into a boardinghouse with other young domestics. Traveling to work by foot, trolley, or bus, day workers enjoyed greater independence than live-in maids. They carried their maid’s uniform, a hated symbol of domination, in a “freedom bag.”