The New Deal's Failure to Aid African Americans
President Roosevelt's New Deal program during the 1930's failed to aid impoverished African-American citizens. The New Deal followed a long, historical chronology of American failures in attempts to ensure economic prosperity and racial equality. During the nearly seventy years after the conclusion of the Civil War, the United States faced a series of economic depressions, unmotivated Congress,' and a series of mediocre presidents. With the exception of Teddy Roosevelt, few presidents were able to enact anti-depression mechanisms and minimize unemployment. The America of the 1920's was a country at its lowest economic and social stature facing a terrible depression and increasing racial turmoil. Author and historian Harvey Wish described the situation as follows:
The decade of the 1920's was an era of intolerance. Labor strife, government repression of political radicals, anti-foreign paranoia, intensified by war and legalized in the racial quotas of the 1924 Immigration Act, were only a few examples of this intolerance. For American blacks, it was axiomatic that any measurable shift to the right in social and political opinion, would bring with it increased difficulties for their race. The 20's were no exception.
Lingering and pervasive racism found in FDR's Cabinet, Congress, and New Deal administrators, contributed to a failure of the Administration's grand scheme to raise America's poor, particularly African-Americans, from the depths of despair. Harold Ickes, President Roosevelt's powerful Secretary of the Interior and the Administration's leading advocate for African-American relief, believed that the problems faced by poor blacks were inseparable from the pro...
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...d up to the New Deal and the issues that Roosevelt failed to address with his programs.
Schwarz, Jordan A. The New Dealers: Power Politics in the Age of Roosevelt. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993.
A biography of Roosevelt's cabinet members and how they contributed to the New Deal. Also, the views of many (white) Americans who praised the New Deal for its unbiased programs.
Watkins, T.H. The Great Depression: America in the 1930's. Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1993.
An overview of the 1930's and how many Americans' lives were adversely impacted by the New Deal.
Videos
"The New Deal and New York," The Great Depression, prod. Henry Hampton, 57
minutes, PBS video, 1993, videocassette.
A video focusing on the effects of New Deal programs in the city and a comparison of how both black and white industrial workers fared during the 1930's.
Amity Shlaes tells the story of the Great Depression and the New Deal through the eyes of some of the more influential figures of the period—Roosevelt’s men like Rexford Tugwell, David Lilienthal, Felix Frankfurter, Harold Ickes, and Henry Morgenthau; businessmen and bankers like Wendell Willkie, Samuel Insull, Andrew Mellon, and the Schechter family. What arises from these stories is a New Deal that was hostile to business, very experimental in its policies, and failed in reviving the economy making the depression last longer than it should. The reason for some of the New Deal policies was due to the President’s need to punish businessmen for their alleged role in bringing the stock market crash of October 1929 and therefore, the Great Depression.
Franklin D. Roosevelt once asserted “I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people,” in belief for a change, for a better nation, and for guidance to those who have lost all faith in humanity. During the Great Depression, the United States faced many different scenarios in which it caused people to doubt and question the “American Dream.” The Great Depression began in 1929 and ended in 1939. In these ten years, people went through unemployment, poverty, banks failed and people lost hope. President Herbert Hoover thought it wasn’t his responsibility to try and fix such issues in the nation.
New Deal programs, such as the W.P.A., were supposed to provide work equally, but this was not the case. Jobs in the south were often given to whites over blacks making it nearly impossible for blacks to make a living. One writer criticizes the Works Progress Administration, a large part of the New Deal, and asks, “do the government insist on Jim Crow on the W.P.A. projects?” (McElvaine, 89). The Great Depression impacted everyone but the african-americans had to face poverty and discrimination
During the 1920’s, America was a prosperous nation going through the “Big Boom” and loving every second of it. However, this fortune didn’t last long, because with the 1930’s came a period of serious economic recession, a period called the Great Depression. By 1933, a quarter of the nation’s workers (about 40 million) were without jobs. The weekly income rate dropped from $24.76 per week in 1929 to $16.65 per week in 1933 (McElvaine, 8). After President Hoover failed to rectify the recession situation, Franklin D. Roosevelt began his term with the hopeful New Deal. In two installments, Roosevelt hoped to relieve short term suffering with the first, and redistribution of money amongst the poor with the second. Throughout these years of the depression, many Americans spoke their minds through pen and paper. Many criticized Hoover’s policies of the early Depression and praised the Roosevelts’ efforts. Each opinion about the causes and solutions of the Great Depression are based upon economic, racial and social standing in America.
Goetz, Edward G.. New Deal ruins: race, economic justice, and public housing policy. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2013. Print.
The New Deal was a set of acts that effectively gave Americans a new sense of hope after the Great Depression. The New Deal advocated for women’s rights, worked towards ending discrimination in the workplace, offered various jobs to African Americans, and employed millions through new relief programs. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), made it his duty to ensure that something was being done. This helped restore the public's confidence and showed that relief was possible. The New Deal helped serve American’s interest, specifically helping women, african american, and the unemployed and proved to them that something was being done to help them.
Watkins, T.H.. The Great Depression: America in the 1930s. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1993.
"The Depression, The New Deal, and World War II." African American Odyssey: (Part 1). N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2014.
The 1930’s were a decade plagued by the colossus economic downturn known as the Great Depression. With unemployment levels surpassing 20%, people did anything to earn money. This included riding the rail lines in order to look for work in other cities. In the American South, the problems of economic downturn and the problems of racial tension met in 1931 during the court case of the Scottsboro Boys.
In addition, The intolerance caused by the depression limited president Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s ability to help the African-American community. Source 41 show how the New Deal did help many people including ‘the most destitute and poor’ but FDR’s elderly racist southern Democrats made many adjustments to his plans such as Agricultural Adjustment Act so it only supports the farmers who owned their own land while African-Americans who mainly were labourers on these farms suffered, showing intolerance limited FDR’s ability to help
Coming into the 1930’s, the United States underwent a severe economic recession, referred to as the Great Depression. Resulting in high unemployment and poverty rates, deflation, and an unstable economy, the Great Depression considerably hindered American society. In 1932, Franklin Roosevelt was nominated to succeed the spot of presidency, making his main priority to revamp and rebuild the United States, telling American citizens “I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people," (“New” 2). The purpose of the New Deal was to expand the Federal Government, implementing authority over big businesses, the banking system, the stock market, and agricultural production. Through the New Deal, acts were passed to stimulate the economy, aid banks, alleviate environmental problems, eliminate poverty, and create a stronger central government (“New”1).
During the last three chapters of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, Leuchtenburg writes on the radicalization of the New Deal, its benefits, its downfalls, and what made Roosevelt a great President in the 1930’s. Over the course of these chapters the presidents defectors and opposers come to light. Some thought his government was turning to socialism, but in fact it was destroying it due to progressive reforms which fought for the everyday man and legislation that advocated in favor of social security for persons 65 and older. The 30’s were great in the aspect that long needed reform took place giving the common man privileges that they had never had before. It is evident that Roosevelt's policies were trying to better the everyday man
In his presidential acceptance speech in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed to the citizens of the United States, “I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people.” The New Deal, beginning in 1933, was a series of federal programs designed to provide relief, recovery, and reform to the fragile nation. The U.S. had been both economically and psychologically buffeted by the Great Depression. Many citizens looked up to FDR and his New Deal for help. However, there is much skepticism and controversy on whether these work projects significantly abated the dangerously high employment rates and pulled the U.S. out of the Great Depression. The New Deal was a bad deal for America because it only provided opportunities for a few and required too much government spending.
The New Deal period has generally - but not unanimously - been seen as a turning point in American politics, with the states relinquishing much of their autonomy, the President acquiring new authority and importance, and the role of government in citizens' lives increasing. The extent to which this was planned by the architect of the New Deal, Franklin D. Roosevelt, has been greatly contested, however. Yet, while it is instructive to note the limitations of Roosevelt's leadership, there is not much sense in the claims that the New Deal was haphazard, a jumble of expedient and populist schemes, or as W. Williams has put it, "undirected". FDR had a clear overarching vision of what he wanted to do to America, and was prepared to drive through the structural changes required to achieve this vision.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal was a package of economic programs that were made and proposed from 1933 up to 1936. The goals of the package were to give relief to farmers, reform to business and finance, and recovery to the economy during the Great Depression.