her game face on no matter what she felt inside . Much of the time she was doing what she could just to hold back the tears : to show any vulnerability , any pain , was out of the question . How did she go from being a law professor to this ?
There were times when it was hard to keep her composure , when the humiliation cut her to the core . Because she had nothing to do , and everyone knew it , sometimes she was sent out onto the trading floor — a place populated , in her mind , by “ uncouth , ill-bred , uneducated people making boohoo money ”— to get a quote . The traders would make the women ( and anyone else they wanted to torment ) stand there for 15 or 20 minutes before they even acknowledged them . She was on the floor being yelled at by one of the traders after having already done her time waiting for his attention when suddenly she heard , “ Oh , Professor Spraggins !”
Marianne turned around . Standing there was one of her former law students , who turned out to be the sister- in -law of one of the senior partners . Marianne excused herself after a bit and went to the bathroom , where she broke down in tears . She had been reduced to nothing by these people , and now her former student had been a witness to her humiliation .
What made it worse was that she was having to answer to a man who was “ a total racist ” with “ steel-blue eyes , like a beetle .” One day he sent her to interview at one of the departments , and when she got there , she saw that here were the people of color . They were working in either money markets or municipal bonds . It didn ’ t take having an MBA to work it out . Money markets were the sector in which you made the least money . As for municipals , Black mayors were starting to be elected all around the country , and it was in every firm ’ s interest now to have minorities sitting at the table representing them in meetings with these newly elected Black officials in charge of investing large sums of public money .
Marianne made a quick calculation : these Black employees were going to be pitted against other Black people hired at the other firms for the same reason , all of them chasing after Black business . This is where he thought she belonged . She did the interview , saying everything she was supposed to say about how she wanted to make bundles of money . The man then looked up , pointed to the secretary ’ s desk , and said that she ’ d have to sit “ there ,” with the secretary , because there was no desk space “ here .” She thanked him politely and left , her anger building .
By the time she reached her supervisor , she was yelling , screaming , crying . “ Let me tell you one thing ,” she said , planting herself in front of his desk . “ You can subject me to anything you subject everybody else around here to . That , and no more . Because you don ’ t understand who I am . I am Roy Spraggins ’ daughter . That means nothing to you , but it means everything to me , and it means everything to everybody who ever put anything into trying to make something out of me in this life . I will do that and no more , do you understand ?”
He stood up , apoplectic , turning various shades of purple . He pointed to a desk outside his office as if he were putting her in detention , shouting that if she hadn ’ t liked it “ up there ” then she was just going to have to sit down here in that chair .
She sat down . She did what he ordered . She tried to compose herself . And as she sat out the rest of the day on that chair outside his office , she made up her mind that either she ’ d be a huge success or else she ’ d be “ carried out feet first .” The next day , she gathered up her things and moved to the cafeteria .
Salomon Brothers had private dining rooms , where partners invited clients and
The Salomon Brothers trading floor in the 1980s .
guests , but the company cafeteria was where everyone usually went to grab some food , even the partners , especially in the mornings . Marianne parked herself at a table right near the cash register so that everyone who came in would have to see her . She sat there from the time she came in until it was time to go home , reading the financial papers , busying herself . She made it her office because “ one day , somebody is going to have to say , ‘ Who is that Black woman ? Why is she sitting there every day reading the papers ,’ right ?” Deciding it was better to be glaringly visible than conveniently invisible , to put herself on view , to make a spectacle of herself no matter how awkward it was for her or anyone else , brought its own kind of liberation .
Sitting at her cafeteria table , if anyone so much as made eye contact with her , she found out who they were , went to their office and introduced herself . A new “ class ” of analysts had since started up , and she did not hesitate putting that out there : “ I was in the previous class and I didn ’ t get placed . Do you have any work you need done ?” Some , taking pity on her , or feeling so awkward that they just wanted to make her disappear , gave her work . She was handed small tasks here and there , and after she was asked to write a paper on European floating rates , she
Allan Tannenbaum
18 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Winter 2025 | www . MoAF . org