New Deal Dbq

Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal (1933) was a major turning point as it ‘helped make Civil Rights a political issue’. It aimed to help the poor and stimulate the economy and it was somewhat successful as AAs got ‘more help and attention’. DePennington however, emphasises that it was ‘indifferent to the needs of AAs’ with PW revealing that ‘aid to minorities was diluted by the racist attitudes of the administrators’. The majority of black employment (domestic and agricultural workers) were excluded from social security with over 6 million farmers having no help from the federal government. Roosevelt didn’t enforce any anti-lynching bills and introduced little Civil Rights legislation. WW2 however, made it ‘difficult for FDR to ignore black demands’

This ‘complex’ attitude is affirmed by LP who suggests that the first 2 years of his administration seemed to be an ‘extension of Eisenhower’s regime’. He was ‘not committed to it heart and soul’ and gave ‘less than full support’ to the movement as it was politically risky and he didn’t want to alienate southern white democrats due to his narrow victory in the election. DePennington states he was ‘slow to respond to the demands of the Civil Rights movement’ being hesitant to support the freedom rides or force the issue of desegregation, as despite condemning white attacks on AAs, he was ‘reluctant to interfere in Southern justice’. Indeed, activists felt he was a ‘great disappointment’ and had to be ‘activated’ by the disorder the movement provided e.g. the violence of spring 1963. LP writes that he ‘responded to extraordinary circumstances’ such as the James Meredith case where he sent federal troops to Mississippi University to force integration. MC argues he ‘played an important role’ in the advancement of Civil Rights as he put pressure on the Civil Service to employ AAs, continued to support social welfare, and orchestrated the creation of the Voter Education Project. He may have genuinely believed he ‘couldn’t stand idle with such violence’ and that it was a ‘moral issue’ but when he did act it was undoubtedly because he was forced to respond to the ‘growing demands of the Civil Rights movement’ By his death, he had begun to take, as MC interprets, an ‘active role’ and that his actions ‘benefitted the Civil Rights movement’. Prompted by Birmingham and the March on Washington, he drafted the 1963 Civil Rights bill that paved the way for the 1964 Act. Despite ‘the movement’ being ‘more important in promoting change’, ‘for the first time in years, the initiative in Civil Rights was to come from the