New Deal Dbq

For John, everyday living like a depression that he had to adjust daily. His livelihood began to spiral downward following the stock market crash, which was the beginning of the Great Depression of 1929. People were feeling what John had felt for years as a person struggling to survive. Black workers in the city begin to experience increasing difficulties in keeping their current jobs. Unemployment Blacks in the city reached well over 50 percent, more than twice the rate of whites. John was laid off from his porter job due to increased threats from desperate unemployed whites. Some charities refused to provide food to needy Blacks. To make matters worse, violence rose against blacks during the 1930s, carried out by whites competing for the

same jobs. As a result, black Americans suffered more than any other group during the Great Depression. The jobs that Blacks had come north to obtain were given to white workers or eliminated entirely. The word on the streets was that no Blacks can have a job until every white man has a job. John had to find odd labor jobs throughout the city for minimal pay to provide for his growing family.

The election on the democratic president Roosevelt that promise a New Deal to the American people began to take shape immediately after his inauguration in March 1933.

Based on the assumption that the power of the federal government was needed to get the country out of the depression, the first days of Roosevelt's administration saw the passage of banking reform laws, emergency relief programs, work relief programs, and agricultural programs. Following his inauguration, Roosevelt's attitude toward Blacks displayed little change. He showed little interest in challenging even the most obvious manifestations of racial injustice in the proliferation of New Deal agencies. The National Recovery Administration (NRA), Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA), the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), and the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), to name only a few, all failed to protect blacks against discriminatory employers, agency officials, and local whites. Many of the programs did not accept

Blacks.

The great depression showed no signs of relief for the Black family. It was not until after the President issued an executive order in 1935, prohibiting discrimination in new Works Progress Administration projects, one of the first anti-discrimination measures in U.S. history. After reelection in 1936 the President’s “New Deal” program begin to open doors for Blacks to participate in existing federal programs. This second New Deal evolved to include union protection programs, the Social Security Act, and programs to aid tenant farmers and migrant workers. John was fortune enough to become a part of one of the Relief Work programs which helped him support his family.

Although most Blacks traditionally voted Republican because of the Emancipation by former President Lincoln , the election of President Roosevelt featuring the “New Deal” began to change voting patterns for Blacks.

Although Blacks in the south did not vote due Jim Crow laws and intimidation, they began to show favoritism toward the Democratic party. Roosevelt entertained African-American visitors at the White House and was known to have a number of Black advisors. Many Blacks were excited by the energy with which Roosevelt began tackling the problems of the Depression. This gave Blacks a sense of belonging they had never experienced before. Still, discrimination occurred in New Deal housing and employment projects, and the President did not support all of the legislation favored by Black organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). This was the results of his Republican’s party political platform was still

pro-segregation.

Urban blacks developed their own strategies for social change and helped to create their own "new deal”, even before the President’s “New Deal” was extended to Blacks. The community cared for each other's children, offered emotional support, and pooled family’s resources. They also feed more than just their family, rented out sleeping space, and did odd jobs. The barber system was fully in force within the community where money was not the currency; flour for cornmeal, labor for meals, food for needed services and swapped children cloths for different sizes are just a few examples. Vegetable gardens were maintained throughout the area where the people could come. The local churches and other organizations had collections and fund raiser to expand the efforts to feed the poor. Now it was the young caring for the old and the able helping the unable.

The Great Flood of 1937