New Deal for African Americans

what was it basically

The New Deal was a series of programs and reforms implemented by President FDR in response to the Great Depression 1929, aimed at economic recovery, job creation, and social welfare.

factors influencing the New Deal

• the Great Depression (1929–33) caused mass unemployment, bank failures, and economic stagnation.

• banking crisis: By 1933, thousands of banks had collapsed, destroying savings and public confidence.

• social unrest: Rising poverty and unemployment created pressure for government action to prevent instability or radical movements.

• failure of Hoover’s policies: Limited government intervention under President Hoover was seen as ineffective, prompting demand for a new approach.

• progressive tradition: Earlier reform ideas from the Progressive Era (1900s–1910s) shaped Roosevelt’s belief in government responsibility for welfare and regulation.

• political pressure: FDR needed to restore public faith in democracy and capitalism to prevent extremism (e.g., socialism, fascism)

did the New Deal help AA’s or make the bad Situation even worse? NO

• Slum clearances, public housing projects, efforts to end rural tenancy (sharecropping - RA) Resettlemendministration

• Eleanor Roosevelt resigns membership from the DAR

• Harold Ickes invites Marian Anderson to sing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday

• Gave federal support to AA Culture, intellectuals, writers and musicians

• Lena Horne, Duke Ellington, Richard Wright were al aided by the federal arts projects and cemented the influence of the 'Harlem Renaissance'

• Numbers out of work fell steadily after FDR took over - agencies did restore confidence and help alleviate poverty

• no other president before appointed as many black officials to his administration

• Black Cabinet— a group of black experts and professionals who, analogically to Roosevelt's white advisers who formed his Brain Trust-gathered to advise the president on matters relevant to black communities.

• The New Deal agenda stipulated that up to 10% of all the programs' beneficiaries must be African
  Americans (approximately equal to the rate of black population in the U.S.)
  Black workers participated in all the major programs that created employment, including the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Public Works Administration, and the Works Progress Administration

• Around 10% of youth program beneficiaries were black

• The Farm Security Administration, the major New Deal agency established to combat rural poverty, reached out to a substantial number of black farmers, tens of thousands of whom received agricultural loans

• many black voters changed their political loyalty and shifted toward Democrats

• FDR surrounded himself with white government officials who endorsed interracial civil rights initiatives (e.g., Harold Ickes, Secretary of the Interior, who battled segregation in the areas under his control, previously served as the president of the Chicago NAACP)

• a higher number of African Americans in government jobs

• Eleanor Roosevelt continued to urge her husband to pay more attention to black leaders and needs of African Americans

• Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes directed local public works administrators to hire black workers on public projects in proportion to their presence in the local workforce

• The CCC 1933 increased its black enrolees from 6 % in 1936 to 11% by 1939

• President Roosevelt created the Resettlement Administration 1935 (RA) and appointed as its head Will Alexander, who was highly knowledgeable about black poverty issues

• The RA sought to end sharecrop-ping and migratory labour by promoting land ownership. The agency's initial goal was to resettle thousands of poor farm families on productive land

• The Works Progress Administration (WPA), established in 1935, taught almost 250,000 blacks how to read and write The WPA arts programs established sixteen black theatre groups around the country, staged concerts showcasing works of black composers, employed hundreds of black artists, and provided opportunities and training for young black writers and scholars

• Roosevelt created the National Youth Administration
  (NYA) in june 1935 to assist youth
  He appointed Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955) as director of Negro affairs within the NYA

• She was the first black American to head a government agency

• The NYA became a model of government assistance for blacks, helping six thousand black youths complete their education

• In 1932 ¾ blacks had vote Republican, in 1936 ¾ voted democrat

• By 1935 nearly 30% of black families were on relief (three times that of whites)

• By 1939 over a million blacks held WPA jobs

• 1/3 of all federal housing went to blacks

• Federal funding for black schools, colleges and hospitals

• Prominent black leaders like Bethune, William H Hastie and Robert C Weaver were given important administration roles

• A Phillip Randolph threatens a massive march on
  Washington - opens up millions of jobs to black workers

• Also pushes for the creation of the Fair Employment Practices Commission in 1941 was an attempt eliminate racial and ethnic discrimination in war-time industries

• Black workers and other ethnic groups benefited from the opportunity to join the CIO, as did many women's unions

• The ClO's consistent support for equality of labour gave
  African Americans the confidence to take part in strikes

• 1937 Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters led by
  Randolph forced the Pullman Company into recognition
  Eleanor Roosevelt used her position as First Lady to gain publicity for groups on the margins of society, such as women, unemployed and black people

did the New Deal help AA’s or make the bad Situation even worse? YES

• Triple federal taxes between 1933 and 1940

• AAA less production meant less work for 1000s of sharecroppers

• Blacks were among 100 million consumers forced to pay higher food prices due to the AAA 1933

• Wagner act arguably harmed black people as excluded those not unionised

• Number of AA's on relief remined high in the 1930s

• Social Security Act did not apply to the mas of AA sharecroppers in the south

• The New Deal did not include a Civil
  Rights Act

• Little was done to aid the vote or end segregation which remained, even in the armed forces

• Roosevelts administration was too conscious of the southern democrats to pass measures to help African Americans
  In 1938 unemployment increased again to more than 10 million after
  FDR reduced government spending (only the war ended this)
  Racial inequalities deepened during the depression and the New Deal did little to counteract it

• Most new deal programs targeted generally at Americans and in fact benefitted predominantly white males

• As the 1932 presidential candidate, Franklin Delano Roosevelt embraced the segregationist stand of the Democratic Party

• He repeatedly refused to support anti-lynching legislation and ignored the black civil rights struggle

• Neither Roosevelt nor the New Deal agenda attempted to battle segregation, particularly in the South

• The Black Cabinet, as a body segregated from their white counterparts, demonstrates a tragic ambiguity in Roosevelt's approach to African Americans; he did make some effort to improve their situation but the effort was hardly radical and always curbed by racism existing in American society

• Some of the First New Deal flagship programs either excluded or even hurt African Americans. For example, the 1933 Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) drove many black farmers from the land

• As subsidies were paid to (usually white) landlords for not growing certain crops on a part of their land, black (and white) sharecroppers and other tenants were the first victims of the new policy

• Neither farm nor domestic labour, two sectors where African Americans constituted substantial labour force, were covered under NIRA

• the original version (later amended) of the 1935 Social Security Act did not provide old-age pensions for farm and domestic workers

• This stipulation affected many
  Americans but no other group more than African Americans and particularly African American women

• the 1938 Fair Labour Standards Act, which established federal minimum wage and maximum working hours, excluded agricultural and domestic labour
  The Agricultural Adjustment
  Administration (AAA), created to bring economic relief to the nation's farmers, paid farmers to cut back crop production in hopes of increasing market prices. This policy only decreased jobs for black sharecroppers and tenant farmers

• Because of discrimination by local administrators, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) 1933 enrolled few young black men to work on conservation projects.

• The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) barred blacks from skilled positions, management, and higher-paying construction jobs

• 1933 CCC operated segregated camps

• TVA set up all-white towns

• 1933 AAA displaced many black tenant farmers

• NRA all but excluded them from skilled jobs and adopted discriminatory wage rates