Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2021/Summer/105/Section 08/Conyers Elliott Frasier

Overview
Conyers Elliott Frasier was an African American teacher, preacher, and farmer from Columbia, South Carolina born in 1891. Frasier was interviewed by L.E. Cogburn on December 6, 1938 as a part of the Federal Writers' Project. Frasier was 47 years old at the time of the interview.

Childhood and Education
Conyers Elliott Frasier was born on a farm in Clarendon County, South Carolina in 1891. He was a member of a family of ten children headed by his father, a farmer. Frasier became accustomed to farming and was drawn to the practice for the duration of his life. Frasier’s father died when he was in the fifth grade, leaving his mother, in ill health, to bring up the family. Showing early promise in his speech-giving abilities in school, Frasier was noticed by his school's principal, Professor Baumgardner. The Professor offered to take Frasier to high school to achieve a higher level of education. The opportunity of continuing education through high school was uncommon for students attending the area's African American school. The professor played a significant role in Frasier's education; he lived in Baumgardner’s house for the four years necessary to complete high school and the summer afterwards to pass the teacher’s examination. Frasier then returned to his hometown to teach for twenty dollars a month.

Further Education and Career
Not long after Professor Baumgardner began a new job teaching at Allen University in Columbia, Frasier felt the need for a college education. For a second time, Frasier returned to Baumgardner’s home to live with him as he began his pursuit of higher education at Allen. After completing his college education, Frasier quickly became promoted from teacher to principal of his own school in Jenkinsville, SC. He kept occupied by also becoming a preacher for multiple churches on the weekends after three additional years of studying at Allen University. Frasier met his wife, a young widow and mother of two children, near where he was teaching and preaching in Little Mountain, SC, when he was 40 years old. Since marriage, Frasier bought 12 acres of land near his home and would farm on it as often as possible to spend time outside and benefit his health. Frasier expressed gratitude for his ability to pursue his passion of farming. Additionally, he remarked on his decision to not be involved in politics. Frasier mentioned how people would often try to persuade him to vote a certain way.

African American Life in the Early 20th Century
From the early 1900’s to the Great Depression and New Deal, African American life went through a continuous series of changes. Despite African Americans gaining the right to vote after the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870, many still faced voting implications and unequal treatment. The Grandfather Clause, effective in many states until as late as 1915, still restricted many African Americans from voting; the clause allowed only men whose ancestors could vote before 1867 voting rights.

Christianity often played a significant role in the lives of African Americans during this time period. Organizing religious communities was an element of larger need to create new lives. Establishing religious centers was often crucial among the tasks of reuniting families, finding jobs, and figuring out what it would mean to live in the United States as citizens rather than property. Black religious leaders became involved in institutions such as the YMCA and Sunday School movement to help establish roots of evangelical life.

The Great Depression of the 1930s worsened the bleak economic situation of African Americans. The first to be laid off from jobs, they suffered from an unemployment rate two to three times that of whites. In early public assistance programs African Americans often received substantially less aid than whites, and some charitable organizations even excluded Blacks from their soup kitchens. The New Deal beginning in 1933 came during a great time of need; low-cost public housing was made available and The Works Progress Administration gave jobs to many African Americans.

Education's Civil Rights Journey
During the mid-1930’s the NAACP launched a legal campaign against de jure (according to law) segregation, focusing on inequalities in public education. By 1936, the majority of Black voters had abandoned their historic allegiance to the Republican Party and joined with labor unions, farmers, progressives, and ethnic minorities in assuring President Roosevelt’s landslide re-election.

The New Deal was in full effect in the 1930’s, with efforts from The National Youth Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps enabling African American youths to continue their education. The major Supreme Court ruling of 1954, in Brown v. Board of Education, concluded unanimously that racial segregation in public schools violated the 14th Amendment’s mandate of equal protection of the laws of the U.S. Constitution. This landmark verdict reversed the “separate but equal” doctrine the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case had established.