Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US black) a washer-up (in a restaurant).

1920		Dly Advocate (Victoria, TX) 23 Apr. 1/2: ‘I don’t propose to be called no sud bustin’ nigger jus’ because I am a respectable wash woman’.
1936		‘Hectic Harlem’ in N.Y. Amsterdam News 8 Feb. section 2: SUD BUSTERS. – laundresses.
1941		F. Swados House of Fury (1959) 46: I wasn’t cut out to be no sud-buster.
1967		(con. 1925–9) Ottley & Weatherby Negro in N.Y. 249: The house-rent party [...] blossomed in the 1920s. Mostly employed as ‘pot rasslers,’ [...] ‘sud busters,’ and ‘ham heavers’, Negroes found their small salaries inadequate for Cotton Clubs.
1980		S.F. Examiner 18 Dec. 33/1: He began as what was called a ‘sudbuster,’ scrubbing out giant pots in the kitchen.