Conclusion

Summary

In December 1921, a twenty-nine-year-old black woman named Adelaine (sometimes spelled Adeline) Payne appeared before the Baltimore City Criminal Court on charges related to prostitution. At the time of her trial, Payne was living on North Dallas Street, a narrow road running up from Fells Point. She rented a house between the Washington Hill and Dunbar neighborhoods, not far from the old Orleans Street vice district. Payne was a divorced, single mother to her four-year-old daughter, Iona. Though she may have been fortunate enough to enjoy some family support, Payne almost certainly struggled with the burdens of raising a young child on only her own earnings. As a black woman living in a city that was increasingly segregated and rife with anti-black racism, she had limited options for well-compensated work, and at the time of the 1920 census she had no legitimate employment. Prostitution, if indeed she participated in it, probably helped her to pay her bills.