Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2019/Fall/Section 1/Dr. Ida Mae Hiram

Ida Mae Hiram (Fall 1882 - ) was an African American dentist who lived and worked in Athens, Georgia. Ida married Lam Hiram, a dentist in her town, and the two eventually had a child Alice Hiram. She was the only female African American dentist in the state of Georgia upon her graduation from dental school in 1910 and one of only two female graduates. Ida and her husband ran a practice in Athens until the Great Depression, when Lam founded a second practice up north, leaving Ida in charge of the Athens practice. Ida would eventually buy a house after the Great Depression just north of the University of Georgia's campus and proceded to live there later on in her life.

Early Life
Ida Mae Hiram was born in the fall of 1882 to Fayette and Short Johnson in Athens, Georgia. Her father was a former slave, who ran away from his bondage at a young age and established himself in Athens. At the young age of six, Ida lost her mother, leading to her father raising her by himself. Fayette put a large emphasis on education during Ida’s childhood, making her attend the Knox Institute, which was a segregated black school in downtown Athens. When she wasn’t in school her relatives would tell her stories of her grandfather and rarely her great great grandmother. Her grandfather was brought from Africa as part of the slave trade and was described as “a tall, broad-shouldered man” who frequently ran away from the plantation. Her great great grandmother was a Native American, but due to her mother's early death, much about her Native American ancestry is unknown.

Secondary Education
Upon graduating from the Knox Institute, Ida looked to become a teacher. However, she ended up falling in love and marrying Lam Hiram, a dentist who worked in Athens. The couple had a child Alice, but Ida never forgot her dream of a secondary education and wanted to pursue dentistry “to help [her husband] in his profession.” After her two year hiatus from education, Ida decided to attend Meharry college in Nashville, Tennessee, which was the largest historically black medical education institution in the nation. Ida spent four years acquiring first her bachelor's and then her dentistry degree, visiting her family during the holidays. During her time at the university Ida met many other black female doctors, but no dentists. When she graduated from dental school in 1910, she was one of two women who passed the State Board Dental Examination.

Career
After receiving her dental license Ida returned home to Athens and joined her husband’s practice located on the second floor of an office built by a black insurance company. During the economic decline of the Great Depression, her husband decided to open a second practice up north. This led to Ida running the practice in Athens with the help of her daughter, Alice, who had taken dentistry classes while in school in Brooklyn and Igget, Ida’s assistant. During the aftermath of the Great Depression, Alice married Z T Hubert Jr in 1935 and formed her own insurance business. Due to the family’s two practices and frugal living, Ida and Lam were able to buy a house in a suburb just north of the University of Georgia.

Segregation in Athens
Georgia was one of the most racially divided states in the United States, with “more African American Georgians died at the hands of lynch mobs than any other state between 1877 and 1950.” Athens was no different from the rest of Georgia with every public building being segregated and blacks being constantly harassed and humiliated. For the vast majority of Ida’s life in Athens, there was no racial justice progress. “The commercial-civic elite in Athens and other southern cities had long abided racial segregation.” Black businesses and individuals had struggles getting loans and struggled to compete with white-owned businesses. The first large step towards the Civil Rights Movement came after the return of black troops from World War 2. The soldiers found it strange that they spent years fighting for the freedom of people abroad and then had to return to segregation in the South, Jim Crow. The dissatisfaction with racial injustice led to many landmark movements and decisions, but the one that affected Athens the most was Brown v Board which made segregation of educational institutions illegal. Then governor Talmadge made a public statement after the release of the decision that “as long as [he was] Governor, Negros will not be admitted to white schools. '' After a long legal battle, the University of Georgia located in Athens became desegregated in 1961. Mary Frances Early would become the first black graduate from UGA the following year earning a master’s in music education.

Black Professionals during the Great Depression.
According to the 1930 US census, there were 10,110 black professionals in Georgia, the majority being clergymen and teachers, accounting for just under one percent of the population. While everyone experienced the economic downturn of the Great Depression, professionals were, in general, more sheltered due to them having a higher job retention rate and more stable income. However, black communities were especially vulnerable during the Great Depression due to the black farmers being primarily sharecroppers and as such not being eligible to benefit from the government aid offered the farmers. This led to the Great Migration in which a large portion of the black population in the south moved north to try to get jobs in factories. The fewer black customers in the South led to many professionals moving too, seen in how Lam Hiram opened a second practice up North. Research has found that “African American women were the most significantly and harshly affected” group by the Great Depression, but Ida was an outlier being one of the few black female professionals, most of them being maids or sharecroppers. As such she was able to live through the period relatively unscathed, eventually buying a house soon after.