FP 3 - The New Deal and Race Relations (1933-51)

Southern White influence in Dem Party - affect on BA - (general)

• southern influence so strong - ND couldn’t pass without consent

• ‘Solid South’ (1877-1964) - result of Rep CW legacy, black disenfranchisement, white primaries, gerrymandering

• Committees - chairpersons based on seniority (so SDs), 1933 27/49 in House and 13/33 in Senate were SDs, chairmans able to block legislation

Southern White influence in Dem Party - affect on BA - (limit ND)

• Decentralisation of Responsibility over to States’ Rights:

+ AAA 1933 limited opposition of Southern white landowners

+ FSA 1937 was opposed by SDs in Congress → BA representation on FSA committees withdrawn

+ Wagner Act 1935 + Fair Labor Standards Act 1938 (both re wages) only accepted by SDs and passed by including exemptions

• FDR unable to prevent this due to need for SD support

Southern White influence in Dem Party - affect on BA - (informal coalition + no anti-lynching)

• 1937-42 informal SD and Rep conservative coalition - end of progressive 1933-37 radicalism, SDs mean no civil rights legislation for Southern BP in New Deal years (Jim Crow continued)

• no anti-lynching laws

+1919 Rep controlled House doesn't debate

+ Dyer Bill passed 1922 but SDs in Senate + filibuster kill it off

+ 1934 Constigan-Wagner anti-lynching bill but SD Senate filibuster killed it off

+ 1935 CW reintroduced after high-profile lynchings (1934/35), no FDR support

+ 1937 Gavagan Bill passed House but defeated in Senate - 1940 another failed attempt

Impact of Great Depression on AA

• Great Depression - started 1929 post Wall Street Crash

• AAs ‘last hired, first fired’ - disproportionately impacted

• unemployment - high as 60%, 40% in Chicago

• 1929-33 20m Americans starving (~16% pop) - big proportions are AA

FDR’s promises on becoming President (nominated Dem candidate 1932)

• unemployment in 1932 - 25%

• ‘I pledge you (Dem Party), I pledge myself to a new deal for the American people.’

• ND aims (out of depression) - subsidies for farmers, help for unemployed, welfare payment

Failure to address Black grievances - JC, voting, Congress/legislation

• JC - de jure in South, de facto in North

• voting - exclusion continued, 1941 3% eligible black voters registered in south

• Congress - SDs dominate (seniority principle inhibits progress), ND policies pass only if had exceptions/loopholes/delegation to states

• legislation - no anti-lynching (FDR doesn’t support), defeated by filibuster by SDs

Failure to address Black grievances - Black Cabinet, FEPC, Eleanor R

• Black Cabinet - limited power, NAACP also limited power

• FEPC - limited impact

• Eleanor Roosevelt - mainly symbolic, highly criticised in South

Failure to address Black grievances - the limitations of the ND Agencies

• Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) - complete failure to help AAs

• Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) - limited positive impact given limited involvement + segregated camps 1935 on, Fechner’s role

• National Recovery Administration (NRA) - famous for inequality towards AA in wage differentiations

• Works Progress Administration (WPA) - few supervisory roles for AA, accepted segregation

• National Youth Administration (NYA) - accepted segregation

• Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) - limited funds

• Social Security Act (1935) - low payments so limited impact

• Wagner Act (1935) - disadvantaged BP as proposed 1 union to represent all workers in particular factory

• Fair Labour Standards Act (1938) - expanded scope of original agricultural exemption

Failure to address lynching in the 1920s

• 1919 Republican Congress unable to debate bills as quorum not reached

• Dyer Bill (1922) - passed in House, filibuster in Senate kills it off (SDs), Dyer reintroduces it (1922/23/24) but it is rejected

Continued Exclusion of Black Voters - primaries, KKK, Breedlove v Shuttles, attempt 1941

• white primaries - 1927 and 1932 Texas SC cases, SC ruled white primaries violated 14th, but Grovey v Townsend 1935 SC rules this is unconstitutional as Dem Party was private (not state) institution

• KKK - continued threat of violence + intimidation

• Breedlove v Shuttles (1937) - Breedlove tries to get SC to outlaw poll tax in Georgia, SC rules in Georgia’s favour

• National Committee to Abolish the Poll Tax (1941) - sponsored by NAACP + trade unions + National Negro Congress (1936 El had endorsed legislation)

• FDR - criticised polll tax but did nothing, 1938 some liberal and Dem candidates lost in Dem primaries → FDR backs down

Continuation of Jim Crow - confederate and non-confed states

• de jure segregation (confed) - e.g. Alabama = no white female nurses working on wards where black men placed, separate waiting rooms and railway carriages

• de jure segregation (non confed) - Wyoming outlawed interracial marriage, Oklahoma had segregated telephone booths

Failure of anti-lynching - in New Deal era

• 1934 Costigan-Wagner anti-lynching bill - killed off by Senate filibuster

• 1935 Constigan-Wagner reintroduced - post high-profile lynchings, no FDR support, another filibustr

• 1937 Gavagan Bill - passes House, defeated in Senate, fails again in 1940

Positive Impact of New Deal on BP - changing attitudes, access to ND social programs, success of relief programs

• Changing attitudes - 1935 Harlem riot (1 AA died, 200 injured in police clash), commission blamed Harlem’s poverty and discrimination, racist officials were transferred away + more relief given

• broader access to ND social programs (mid-1930s on)

+ WPA - employed 350,000 BP annually (15% tot workforce)

+ CCC - AAs 3% (1933) → 11% (1938), 350,000 enrolled by closure 1942

+ NYA - hired more black administrators than any other agency, assisted 300,000+ youth during depression

+ PWA - 1934 inserted clause meaning more skilled employment for AA

+ overall - provided millions of jobs, 50,000 public housing units, financial assistance, skilled occupations training for ½ mil, welfare payments helpful

• relief programs - 1939 relief nearly matched AA income from private employment, AA occupied 1/3 fed low-income housing

Positive Impact of New Deal on BP - Black workers, government, CIO, overall

• Black Workers

+ 1937 Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters - defeated company union, won right to represent porters vs management

+ 1933 Joint Committee on National Recovery (JCNR) - organisations (NAACP/Urban League etc) formed it, helped publicise racial inequalities in ND programs

• perceived growing assertiveness of AAs

• government

+ Civil Service x3 number of AAs in employment 1932-41 (150,000)

+ some positive discrimination eg in NYA
+ FDR employed more AAs in gov (eg Mary McLeod Bethune), tripled no. working in fed gov

+ FDR first president to appoint AA as fed judge + call lynching murder

• Congress of Industrial Organisations (CIO) (1935) - committed to workers of both races

• National Negro Congress (NNC) (1936) - A. Philip Randolph first President

• overall - fed involvement = colour-blind, jobs, inclusion in fed offices, relief/welfare, greater activism = unions, housing

Negative Impact of New Deal on BP - depression’s negative impact, failure of programmes, dissatisfaction

• Depression’s negative impact

+ AAs already entered a Depression pre-crash of 1929

+ jobs - 1933 impossible for AA to find any

+ Southern agriculture - 1933 12,000 black sharecroppers lost footing + moved towards cities

+ urban unemployment - >50% (more than 2x that of whites)

+ protests - in southern cities whites protest against AAs

• failure of programs

+ FDR opposition - no civil rights legislation (eg anti-lynching bill)

+ ND discrimination - AAA, CCC< tvA all discriminate (eg TVA built all-white towns)

+ social security issues - AA typical jobs (waiters, janitors etc) excluded from coverage and the minimum wage provisions of the Fair Labour Standards Act (1938)

+ pay - v bad, also even menial jobs now taken by whites

+ NRA codes - allowed AAs to be paid less for same job

+ Agriculture - 1936 NAACP report 6m BP engaging in agricultural received no Fed support

• complaints - throughout New Deal, Petition seeking fed aid for those wanting to emigrate to Africa = 2m signatures

Negative Impact of New Deal on BP - culture, mortgages, local level issues, day-to-day, overall

• culture - gov sponsorship was controversial, funded biracial theatre criticised by Congressional Committee for encouraging interracial relationships

• mortgages - Fed refused to guarantee them for houses purchased in white neighbourhoods

• local level issues - ND programs operated by local officials, local sentiment dominates → racial discrimination perpetuated

• day-to-day - didn’t end injustices, built up walls of segregation, NRA/AAA/WPA/TVA/CCC/FERA fail to protect AAs from discrimination, NRA + social security programs eliminated 60% AAs from their benefits

• overall - discrimination (in legislation + distribution of relief + local-level), gap between races remained and arguably increased, some AA lives perhaps made worse

effects of the AAA on black farmers - land retirement and layoffs

• context - AAA (1933) to tackle falling farm prices linked with overproduction, planters given fed subsidies ($100m tot) to cut back production → end 1934 production declined + prices and incomes stabilised + 1932-35 farm incomes rose 58%, BUT compensation paid to planters not black tenant farmers

• layoffs - both races, also large white landlords reduced acreage to qualify for AAA payments → 1933-34 100,000 black tenant farmers evicted (1940 = 200,000), money used to buy machines replacing black workers

the CCC - the impact of segregation

• context - CCC (1933) to deal with high unemployment (13m / 25% workforce unemployed 1933), work experience for young en 17-24, work in conservation projects + road access, housed in camps (run by US army under direction of Min of Int), $30/month ($25 to families)

• general involvement - 250,000 (1933-34), 500,00 (1935),

• AA limitations - 10% CCC reserved for AA (tot 200,000) but restricted to low-skilled jobs, 1933 still only 5% of CCC (11% in 19438), Dallas County (3/4+ black pop) had 2:1 white:black, Washington counties (60% black) had no AAs in CCC

• opposition to AAs in CCC - opposition to all-black CCC camps in North, Penn local white community petitioned CCC to cancel black camps

• Fort Dix, New Jersey (May 1933) - 100 black recruits striked (poor quality work, scarcity of food, evicted from barracks for white workers), 180 (co 235C) strikes when white major brought 20 white recruits to replace black clerks, 34 sent home + 6 arrested by police

• overall - initially racially integrated, then ‘coloured’ camps set up, 1935 national office ordered all companies segregated, CCC director Fechner (from AFL, racist org) did nothing to encourage black recruitment

the NRA - differential wages

• context - (1933) to help businesses/industry recover by creating jobs and raising wages, fair practice codes (40hr/week + min wages varying by industry and region + prohibition of U16 child labour)

• regionally differentiated wages -