Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2021/Spring/105/Section 60/Will Mason

Overview
Will Mason owned a funeral home in Athens, Georgia at the time of this interview. He was interviewed by Miss Grace McCune for the Federal Writers Project in 1939.

Early Days
Will Mason was raised on a farm in Georgia, but moved to Athens to start a funeral home with his business partner Frank Phillips. Mason does not talk about his early life on the farm, or how he met his business partner, his backstory focuses on how they started the business. To finance their business, each partner borrowed $100 dollars from the bank and they rented a small room. It took six months until they got a call to prepare a body, but it was for an extremely poor person, which did not generate them a great deal of revenue. It was difficult for them to get started, but they finally got a call from the police to take care of a body. They answered promptly and had stiff competition from another funeral home, however Mason and Phillips were able to secure their first real client. By building good relationships with the police and white morticians, their business became successful and received calls from all over the United States. They would answer calls from poor and wealthy people to balance their business and Mason emphasized a message of treating everyone with respect. He also noted that establishing a reputation of timely service was key to their success. Not long after starting, Phillips decided to move to California and left the business. They never saw each other again because Frank died in California.

Changing Times
The funeral home went under many changes during Mason’s lifetime. Firstly, the funeral homes used to be called “undertaking places” and the morticians were called “undertakers”. The burial procedures also changed during Mason’s lifetime. Mostly plain coffins, or “toothpick coffins”, were used when they started, but they became more elaborate and differentiated as the business grew. When Mason started, his first hearse was drawn by horse and buggy, but laws were passed regulating the business so that bodies could only be transported in sealed automobiles. Through all of these changes and the Great Depression, Mason claims that his business is still successful and almost put a competing undertaker out of business, however only with their Black clientele.

Race and Black-Owned Businesses
During the time of the Great Depression Black-Owned businesses in the South were typically less resilient to the economic downturn than businesses in the North. This meant that it was even more difficult for Black People in the South to get through the Great Depression. Coupled with higher unemployment rates compared to White People, Black People and business owners had the difficult task of combatting the Great Depression. However, in years prior to the Great Depression, some researchers believed that ethnic neighborhoods of Black People helped shield their businesses from extreme racial tensions and provided a space to grow their communities and businesses. It appears that these ethnic neighborhoods were not as protected as was conventionally thought, and there was “mixed evidence that Black Metropolises in nationally dominant urban centers are extraordinarily resilient when the business cycle turns downward”. There was much financial hardship for the Black Community during this time and racism exacerbated the economic conditions of the Great Depression.

The Role of Black Funeral Homes
During The Civil War, Black People were allowed to fight as free men in the Northern Divisions, but were often assigned to the worst and most difficult tasks, one of them being cleaning up battlefields and embalming fallen soldiers. From these beginnings, many members of the Black Community had a great amount of experience and training in funeral techniques. Cann also argues that Black Funeral Homes developed as community centers because it was one of the few times enslaved people were allowed to gather and feel a sense of community. There is a special and important sense of community that formed during the period of slavery and civil war in the United States that continued during the Great Depression and the Jim Crow eras.

From this history, Black Funeral homes became a center for their community “because they offered both safe gathering spaces and access to liquid assets, were one of the primary providers of resources for the community—whether it was a phone to call family and friends, a place to stay (and money to stay there), information on the local community (such as safe restaurants or hotels) for travelers, or money, the funeral home could be counted on to be a community resource”. The role of Black Funeral directors in these funeral spaces became “to give their loved ones respectful burials, as Jim Crow deepened racial divisions”. These centers of community were extremely vital for Black People, not only as places to bury loved ones, but an important resource for the living.