Gussie White

Gussie White (30 January 1889 – 23 January 1953)[1] was an American archaeologist, civil rights activist, and Works Progress Administration employee,[2][3] who in that role was one of the few named Black women (of at least 87 total)[4] involved in the excavation of the Irene Mound (a significant site of Georgia prehistory).[5][4][6] Her son, John White, was the first Black police officer in Georgia.[2]

Gussie White
Born(1889-01-30)January 30, 1889
Alabama, USA
DiedJanuary 23, 1953(1953-01-23) (aged 63)
Chatham County, Georgia, USA
Burial placeLaurel Grove Cemetery
Occupation(s)Archaeologist; civil rights activist
EmployerWorks Progress Administration
SpouseBonaparte White
ChildrenJohn White (first Black police officer in Georgia)

Life

Gussie White was born in Alabama in 1889.[7][1] She attended the Tuskegee Normal School for Women, and trained as an educator and clerical worker.[8][6] After her husband was disabled in a workplace accident, she found work at the Irene Mound project.[8] This project was initiated in 1937, under the Works Progress Administration.[5] The site lay five miles northwest of downtown Savannah, and the project - undertaken between 1937 and 1940 - led to its becoming the most completely excavated mound site in Georgia.[9]

Despite the manual labour undertaken, the women were not provided with overalls, and White's son later recalled that she wore "her own "brogans", gloves, and an old cotton dress" to work at the Mound.[8] The Irene Mound project was led by a series of trained archaeologists, but records also state "the high quality of the excavations by a workforce of all African American women,"[9][10] of which White was one of the few named.[5] A report of the work written by Joseph Caldwell and Catherine McCann, published in 1941, noted in its preface that:

Most credit is due... to the continuous efforts of the personnel of the project, both in the field and in the laboratory. The actual digging was done by Negro women, and their work was eminently satisfactory.[11]

Scholars such as Cheryl Claassen have noted that the employment of African American women in physical archaeological work by the WPA rested "on a racist definition of womanhood and femininity", and left a mixed legacy of "benevolence and malevolence".[4]

White's son, John White, became one of Savannah's "Original Nine" - the city's first Black police officers - in 1947.[12] John White credited his mother with encouraging him to apply, telling a reporter that: "60 of us applied. My mother was really active in the political arena, and she put my name in, along with several other young men."[13]

Gussie White died on 23 January 1953, and was buried at Laurel Grove Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia.[1]

Legacy

In a 2022 article exploring how the "development of early archaeological method and thought was deeply affected by White supremacy", anthropologist Matthew C. Reilly asked:

What alternative histories of the field might we present to our students and the public if instead of Montroville Dickeson and Flinders Petrie, we prioritize the lives of Gussie White and the other Black and White women who excavated at Irene Mound in Georgia... or the labourers who unearthed countless sites throughout North Africa and the Middle East?[5]

Project such as TrowelBlazers have also highlighted Gussie White, and other women in the history of archaeology, geology, and palaeontology, as deserving of more recognition and further study.[6][14]

References
  1. "Gussie White (1889-1953)". Find a Grave Memorial. Retrieved 2023-03-12.
  2. Knox, Margaret L. (23 Sep 1984). "State's First Black Officer Waged Two Wars". The Atlanta Journal and Constitution. p. 102.
  3. Whalen, Gail; Price, Michael E. (1998). "The Elusive Women of Irene: The WPA Excavation of a Savannah Indian Mound". The Georgia Historical Quarterly. 82 (3): 608–626. ISSN 0016-8297. JSTOR 40583952.
  4. Claassen, Cheryl (1993). "Black and White Women at Irene Mound". Southeastern Archaeology. 12 (2): 137–147. ISSN 0734-578X. JSTOR 40713002.
  5. Reilly, Matthew C. (2022). "Archaeologies of whiteness". Archaeological Dialogues. 29 (1): 51–66. doi:10.1017/S1380203822000174. ISSN 1380-2038. S2CID 248467504.
  6. "Gussie White". Trowelblazers. 26 July 2020. Retrieved 2023-03-12.
  7. "1950 United States Federal Census". Ancestry. 1950.
  8. Whalen, Gail (2019-10-23). "Elusive Women of Irene: the WPA Excavation of Irene Mound". Archived from the original on 2019-10-23. Retrieved 2023-03-12.
  9. "Irene Mounds". New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2023-03-12.
  10. The Negro Motorist Green Book 1940.
  11. Caldwell, Joseph R.; Hulse, Frederick Seymour; McCann, Catherine; Archaeological Project (1941). Irene mound site, Chatham County, Georgia. Athens: The University of Georgia Press.
  12. Bryant, Maxine L. "Listen to an elder: At 96, one of Savannah's first Black policemen has something to say". Savannah Morning News. Retrieved 2023-03-12.
  13. Thomas, Cody (2021-02-18). "Last living member of". WTGS. Retrieved 2023-03-12.
  14. "About Trowelblazers - Trowelblazers". 2021-10-21. Retrieved 2023-03-12.
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