New deal 1933-41

context

• ‘29 Wall Street Crash ⭢ Great Depression

• Roosevelt ‘33 (demo) ⭢ 25% unemployed ⭢ New Deal

  • n demos (liberals), s demos (mostly Wa)

• over period = Ba voting swing from reps to demos

issue of s demos

• challenged R admin law making capacity - blocked leg

• congress committees - chairpersons (power) - seniority principle (longest service) = mostly s demos

• eg Theodore Bilbo - used New Deal for poor Wa, Greater Liberia Act (Africa), state vs fed

New Deal

• 1930s reforms, fed intervention

• ⭡ employment (recovery), immediate relief, improve production/agriculture/econ (reform)

• ‘100 days’ policies

• Alphabet agencies - CCC, WPA, AAA, NRA, SSA

CCC

• Civilian Conservation Corps ‘33

• work experience camps (army) - 1,300 Aug

  • men 17-25

• $30 month

• skills/conservation - built parks, roads

• segregated (opp)

• Pennsylvania petition - cancel Ba camp (fear white girls date recruits)

• geo disparity - limited access (x in S)

  • Clarke County - 60% pop

AAA

• Agricultural Adjustment Admin ‘33

• supply ⭡ than demand

• $100m - compensate farmers to cut back production

  • culling pigs

• Wallace

• FCA (Farm), CCA (Consumer) - money, loans, farmers’ mortgages

• stabilised prices + thus farm income by ‘34

• policies targeted landowners

  • 40% Ba = sharecroppers/tenant farmers

• rich white landowners dominated county committees

  • administered funds

  • policy undermined by state implementation

• loans, certain size land, landowners ⭣ acreage (ba farmers forced off land)

What happened to AAA ‘36?

• sc declared unconstitutional

  • fed govt power over individual’s land

• ‘37 - FSA (Farm Security Admin)

  • tenant farmers

  • ba appointed to agency committees - allocated funds s

  • later withdrawn (wa backlash)

NRA

• National Recovery Admin ‘33

• general Hugh Johnson

• create jobs, ⭡ wages, fair employment codes

  • banned child labour

  • $13 minimum weekly wage

• companies abiding by standards = Blue Eagle logo

• est PWA (Public Works Admin)

  • $3.3b, construction projects (highways), immediate relief

• ⭡ ba action (trade unions)

• racial discrimination

• excluded unskilled jobs (cleaners) - disproportionately held by ba

• some codes ⭡ wage differences

WPA

• Works Progress Admin ‘35

• employed 8.5m

• Hopkins

• ‘Divisions’ (Art, Engineering)

SSA

• Social Sec Act ‘35

• fed funding for old age pensions (1st time)

• excluded domestic servants, agricultural workers

  • 65% of the work done by ba

Resettlement Admin

• coordinate New Deal programmes to help rural poor

• Rexford Tugwell

• ‘colourblind’ - 115 projects = exclusively white

• ‘37 closed down (lost fed funding)

Work of individuals - Robert Weaver + Ickes

• weaver appointed special advisor on econ status of ba

  • ba placed in real pol power

• supported by ickes - former naacp president

  • intro racial quotas for PWA housing construction projects

    • helped ba get houses

Eleanor Roosevelt

• unofficial member of R’s advisory team

• Mary Bethune - R’s special advisor on minority affairs

  • chairperson of ‘informal black cabinet’ (mirrored The Brains Trust)

• ba events

• pressured - husband (to support Costigan-Wagner leg), New Deal officials (non discriminatory aid)

• supported NAACP campaign, anti lynching laws

• 348 conferences, letters (oft forwarded to Hopkins)

• ‘39 organised concert for Marian Anderson (ba opera singer) on steps of Lincoln Memorial

  • post DAR x let her sing at Constitution Hall Washington DC Easter Sunday

⭡ black nationalism, protest, Chicago

• continued activism - NAACP, Dubois

• ⭡ black nationalism - unity/pol self determination for Ba

  • led by marcus garvey

Chicago - South Side

• ‘39 = 1/2 black fams relied govt aid for subsistence

• communists - mobilised unemployed, equal rights ba (became prominent in movment - forum for voice)

• hunger marches - lots ba (disproportionately affected by unemployment)

  • drew attention to civil rights

Chicago press

• Chicago Defender - x lynching, integrated sports

• Chicago Bee - Bronzeville, women, Ida B. Wells

• Chicago Whip - campaign boycott white store owners using racist hiring practices - obtained jobs for ba

Trade Unions

• era ⭡ trade union movment + unionisation of ba

• section 7(a) - no. acts recognised trade union right to collectively bargain for better wage/conditions for members

• ba encouraged to join by orgs (naacp), ⭡ rights = ⭡ legitimate

  • ops, confidence, rights awareness

• underrepresented - ‘30 19 maj unions excl ba

  • half ba union members in 1 union (Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters)

• disparity - ba unions = probs less power/rights granted

• naacp - closed shop (where employer agrees to hire only union members) = ‘white shop’

continued Jim Crow Laws

• R did little to stop de jure/de facto seg

  • s dems, civil rights = x priority

• s states cut back ba schl funding

• Alabama - female wa nurses, ba male patient rooms

• Wyoming ‘The Equality State’ - outlawed intermarriage

• Oklahoma - telephone booths

• Georgia - recreation (amateur baseball matches)

• job creation schemes - preferential treatment of wa

continued voting exclusion

• ‘41 - 3% eligible ba voters = registered s

• literacy tests

  • read state constitution, white county clerk bias

  • Rosa Parks (pol aware) ‘failed’ test

• poll tax

  • ‘37 Nolan Breedlove (wa) campaign - sc, Georgia, $1

    • despite naacp + R criticism

• intimidation

  • ‘20s ⭡ KKK support

  • sc, 1915, grandfather clause, little impact bc threat of violence

• disenfranchisement

  • demo party states - all white primary elections

    • ⭢ 1 party rule s

failure to est anti-lynching leg

• ⭡ lynching ‘30s (possibly bc depression)

• campaign, lynching = against const (right to life, vigilantism)

S dems

• repeatedly defeat anti lynching bills in congress

• ‘bill wld encourage black men to rape white women’

• ‘ba responsible for more crime - strong measures needed to deter this’

• filibusters, beds, freedom of speech

  • x vote taken place by end session = reintroduced at later date

• R - silent on issue

‘35 Costigan-Wagner Bill

• NAACP recruited 2 liberal demo senators

• 2 month filibuster

• N demos x push issue - fear split party (‘36 election)

‘37 Gavagan bill

• lynching = mob rule (rule of law x being respected)

• Duck Hill - high profile, 2 Ba, white mob, gasoline blow torches

  • story read HoR - passed - defeated senate

New Deal impact on voting patterns

• post ‘33 Ba rep ⭢ demo

• Chicago - Mitchell became 1^st black demo elected to congress

• appeal of R’s policies - jobs, hope

• ‘36 elections - 1st time demo got maj Ba votes

• even tho racist s demos R put tgther coalition of supporters

  • Irish, Caths, Jews, Ba, trade unionists

‘37 events

Court Packing Plan

• sc had declared NRA, AAA = unconstitutional

• R plan - add new Justice for every member over 70 to politicise court in his favour

  • criticised, x passed

Conservative Manifesto

• led by Josiah Bailey demo senator

• limit high fed spending, maj reforms, fed power + make sc independent

• supported - coalition, s dems/reps

• ‘37-41 - ensured radicalism x continue + reforms x benefit ba