Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2020/Summer II/Section 07/Ida Mae Hiram

Overview
Ida Mae Hiram was a mixed African and Native American female dentist who lived in Athens, Georgia during the Jim Crow era in the 20th century. As an educated woman of color, Hiram faced adversities due to her race and gender. She was interviewed by Grace McCune and Sarah H. Hall for the Federal Writers' Project.

Early Life
Ida Mae Hiram was born sometime around the fall of 1895 in Athens, Georgia. Her father was a slave who ran away from his bondage when he was very young, and her mother died when she was six. To fill the void left by her mother, Hiram’s father worked very hard to provide his daughter the opportunity to attend school and have a normal childhood. She attended Knox Institute, a private, segregated school for African Americans in Athens, Georgia. Hiram claimed that her childhood was ordinary with the exception of her family’s unknown history. Due to the lack of physical records and her mother’s early passing, her great-great grandmother’s Native American heritage was largely unknown. As people rarely documented the lives of colored minorities, vivid memories and stories from her ancestors were the only sources of her ethnic and racial background.

Career
Growing up, Hiram aspired to become a teacher. However, this all changed when she married a dentist, Lace Hiram. The couple had a daughter named Alice. To help her husband with his profession while also taking care of her child, Hiram attended Meharry College in Nashville, Tennessee to receive her dentistry degree. She graduated dental school in 1910 and was one of the two females in her graduating class who passed the State Board Dental Examination. In 1917, Hiram began her work in her husband’s office, located in the Morton Building. However, as business slowed down due to the Great Depression, Lace Hiram was forced to open another dental office in another country. Their daughter, Alice, became a laboratory technician and worked alongside her mother. Since many patients did not have enough money to pay for their needed treatments, Hiram mostly performed extractions. Several patients underestimated Hiram’s knowledge and potential due to both her race and gender. To prove that she was just as capable as other dentists, she worked hard to improve her technique and practice. From her knowledge, she was the only colored woman that practiced dentistry in the state of Georgia. On her days off, she spent time with her family and was involved in her church choir called the “Champion Choir,” frequently performing in white churches.

Jim Crow and Racism in Athens
Racist ideologies spread by the Jim Crow laws segregated public accommodations in the Southern United States. Jim Crow laws were enforced during the post-Reconstruction era and contributed to "various forms of violent protest, racial tension, and social ferment” in the 1950s. Throughout the state of Georgia, interactions between black and white people were forbidden. Black Georgians were prohibited from using the same water fountains, parks, and public areas as the white people in their community. Athens, Georgia was no different. Although “at first glance” it appeared that Athens was an “improbable setting for the triumph of moderation over racial extremism,” the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) stimulated intense hatred against people of color. “Even with an almost equal proportion of black and white people in Athens,” Jim Crow laws mistreated black Athenians with lynching terror and white supremacist groups threatened their safety. Therefore, racism and prejudice against people of color was normalized in Athens, Georgia.

Racism during the Jim Crow era greatly affected the historical documentation of minority groups in the early 20th century. During this time, racial minorities were oftentimes neglected and were not considered citizens. As archivists and historians tended to document “prominent people and institutions,” the stories of African Americans and other people of color were oftentimes not recorded. Consequently, several colored minorities are missing aspects of their historical, ancestral, and cultural backgrounds.

Women in the World War I era
During the 1910s and 1920s, women gained social status and were granted more political rights. Prior to this time period, women were expected to fulfill their traditional roles of taking care of their children and providing for their husbands. The emergence of World War I gave women opportunities in the workforce as they occupied the jobs that were once employed by men. By raising funds, crafting war materials, and cultivating food for society, women played a crucial role in supporting the war effort. Women were forced to manage work and family life simultaneously. As women became an integral aspect of society, they used their acts of volunteerism “to stake their claim in suffrage and full citizenship.” Organizations such as the General Federation of Women’s Club and the Young Women’s Christian Association were publicized through war-related volunteerism, shedding light to the issue of gender inequality in American society. This heightened activism would grant women the right to vote in 1920 and contributed to the larger equal rights movement for all genders.

Although women’s roles drastically changed in the 1920s, discrimination against black females and women in the workplace remained. Racial minorities and people of color were not given the same recognition and opportunities as their white counterparts. In the early 20th century, black women were only employed in “jobs that involve[d] cooking, cleaning, and caregiving.” These women received small income for long hours of arduous work and were oftentimes only offered domestic service jobs. As educational facilities segregated black and white students, opportunities to graduate with a degree and secure a professional job were very limited for black women. Their skill and qualifications were overlooked due to their skin color and gender. In addition, women who worked in professional workspaces in the 20th century were undermined by gender stereotypes that questioned their potential. Women in healthcare professions, for instance, were considered incapable “of performing in the increasingly technological aspects of the [medical] field.” As more women began to earn degrees for white-collar jobs, the increased competition in the job market led to the presumption that women could not complete tasks as effectively as men.