Fred W. Martin, while serving as manager of the Pythian Bathhouse.
Courtesy of PIX Publishing
From Bathhouse to the Ballot Box
Hot Springs’ bathhouse attendants used their important roles in the bathing industry to fight for fairer business practices, equal treatment, and safer working conditions. These men and women became leaders in the community and some worked to improve the lives of all citizens in Hot Springs. Fred W. Martin was one of those influential individuals.
Born in 1894, Fred Martin began work in the bathhouses in 1913. Unlike many bath attendants in town who hopped from bathhouse to bathhouse in search of the best opportunity, Martin worked in the Arlington Hotel and its bathhouse for over 40 years. This stability gave coworkers confidence in Martin’s ability and character. He became president of the Bath Attendants’ Association in the 1950s.
But Fred Martin believed he could help more than just his fellow bathhouse workers. Assisted by his wife, Mary, who was a former reporter for the Chicago Defender, the most circulated African American newspaper in the country at the time, Fred Martin ran for Hot Springs city alderman, or councilman, in 1954. Martin won the seat and became, according to the Chattanooga Daily Times, “probably the first member of his race to gain elective office in Arkansas since Reconstruction Days” in the 1870s. While this claim was not entirely accurate, news of Martin’s historic win appeared in Black newspapers all across the country. In the aftermath of his victory, Martin said, “I think it is wonderful for the people to elect a Negro to have a part in the city government not because of my race, but because of the recognition as a citizen.” Fred Martin only served one term as Hot Springs city alderman. Upon his defeat in 1956, he returned to the Arlington Hotel and assumed the skilled work he had mastered in the previous decades.
The work of a bathhouse attendant in Hot Springs National Park was essential not only to provide visitors with the park’s thermal waters. The jobs also became launchpads for African Americans to improve their economic, social, and political place in the world.
