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African Americans and the New Deal: History
During the Great Depression, the unemployment rate rose to 25% in 1933. Employers would fire their African American staff before white people, which meant that there was no job security. The work program created by the New Deal, designed to tackle the high unemployment rates, would hire white people before black people.
Some programs limited the amount of African Americans who could work with them. Welfare programs often excluded African Americans, preventing them from receiving the benefits that their white counterparts did. Let's look at African American employment during the Great Depression.
African Americans and the New Deal: Employment
The goal of the New Deal was to recover from the Great Depression by getting white men back to work. This task was accomplished, whilst harming minority groups and women. To pass the New Deal programs, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) needed the support of Southern Democrats. Southern Democrats understood that they needed the New Deal, but did not want it to assist African Americans.
Fig. 1 - President Roosevelt announced the New Deal in 1933.
To appease them, many New Deal work programs were controlled at the state level. This meant that the local governments controlled who did and who didn't have access to the programs. Southern Democrats made sure that the boards in charge of distribution consisted of Southern white Democratic men. These men preferred to give benefits to other white men, so people of color didn't have the same access to New Deal programs.
African Americans and the New Deal: Work Programs
The New Deal created work programs like the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and Public Works Administration (PWA) in 1933. The CCC worked to improve the conditions of America's public parks, lands, and forests, thus creating jobs for unemployed Americans. Men would earn thirty dollars a month and had to send at least twenty-five dollars back home. They were taught to read, write, and other life skills.
Fig. 2 - PWA Housing Project.
However, the director of the CCC and residents of the local communities would rather not provide jobs for African Americans. Of the 3 million jobs created by the CCC, only a quarter of a million of these jobs employed African Americans, when over 30% of the black community required jobs. When African Americans were hired, they were limited to unskilled labor and faced harsher treatment than their colleagues.
The PWA built hospitals, housing, and more. Its director, Harold Ickes, was a supporter of civil rights and allocated 28 of the 60 Federal housing projects to African American communities, spending around 30 million dollars. Ickes worked to enforce a quota for African Americans within the PWA so that African Americans were employed and their communities benefitted from the projects.
African Americans and the New Deals: Legislature
Welfare programs created during the New Deal often excluded African Americans. The 1935 Wagner Act, which gave people more access to Unions and workplace protection, excluded sharecroppers and tenant farmers. The 1935 Social Security Act also excluded sharecroppers and domestic workers. These roles were primarily filled by African Americans. It was a common tactic to exclude specific jobs in an attempt to keep African Americans from benefiting.
Social Security Act of 1935
A program created by the New Deal that would pay retired workers over 65 years old a specific amount of money.
The Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 paid big farmers to stop planting specific plants. While it was sharecroppers and tenant farmers who worked the land, they received none of the money. The sharecroppers owed half of their crop to the landowner. When the landowner prohibited them from planting, the sharecropper received nothing.
Agricultural Adjustment Act:A New Deal program meant to increase the value of farm goods by creating an artificial scarcity.
In 1939, when the Agricultural Adjustment Act was revised, big farmers were given money to disperse to their sharecroppers and tenant farmers. They evicted the farmers and hired daily wage labor. As a result, African Americans had no job security, and even their housing could be taken from them.
African Americans and the New Deal: Social Division
Race-related tensions in America were already high, but the Great Depression increased those tensions. As we discussed earlier, African Americans were hit the hardest by the Great Depression, but helped the least. Black people understood this and felt that strain, and it was particularly evident in Harlem.
Harlem Renaissance
A cultural movement bought to life at the beginning of the 20th century that focused on creating art, works of literature, and scholarly studies to uplift the African American community.
Many African American Harlemites lost their jobs because of the Great Depression, police brutality was a serious issue, and white store owners refused to hire black people. The New Deal increased racial tension by prioritizing white Southern Democrats and white people over African Americans, as was seen in the Harlem Riot in 1935.
The Harlem Riot in 1935
On March 19, 1935, a young Puerto Rican boy named Lino Rivera was accused of attempting to steal a ten-cent pocket knife. Police arrived while crowds gathered outside the store. Rivera was taken out through the back entrance while police tried to manage the growing crowds.
An ambulance arrived to assist the store owners. After the ambulance left, a hearse was parked nearby. The hearse was a coincidence, but the crowd believed that Rivera was killed. Protests began and eventually evolved into riots across the city. Over two hundred million dollars worth of damage was done, seventy-five people were arrested, and three African Americans died.
An investigation launched by the governor found that tensions were high before the riot because of the New Deal's lack of support for the African American community.
African Americans and the New Deal: Segregation
Segregation was legal in the South because of Jim Crow Laws, but was present throughout America.
Fig. 3 - Segregated Water Fountain.
Lots of housing was created by New Deal programs, but banks refused mortgages to African Americans attempting to move into white neighborhoods. The CCC had different living quarters for African Americans than it had for white people. The head of the CCC, Robert Fechner, was known for his discrimination.
Jim Crow Laws
Laws that legalized segregation, which is the separation of people of different races.
The New Deal was a balancing act, the CCC enforced segregation and hired as few African Americans as possible. On the other side, the Work Progress Administration (WPA) hired far more African Americans than other New Deal programs. They also paid African Americans more than private employers did.
Public parks built during the New Deal were open to everyone, regardless of race. Since anyone could enjoy the parks, African Americans and white people did so side by side. The pools were even desegregated! This was a huge accomplishment at the time.
Marian Anderson
In 1939, renowned African American singer, Marian Anderson, was to perform for the Daughters of the American Revolution, but they would not allow her in. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt quit the group and assisted in organizing Anderson's performance in front of the Lincoln Memorial instead. The performance became an iconic piece of African American history with a crowd of 75,000.
Fig. 4 - Marian Anderson's Lincoln Memorial performance.
Eleanor Roosevelt often pushed for her husband to do more for the African American community. Roosevelt was in a difficult position because Southern Democrats held more seats in Congress than Northern ones. The president attempted to assist African Americans while still appeasing the Southern Democrats. One of the most notable ways that Roosevelt was able to accomplish this was by putting anti-racists in positions of power.
African Americans and the New Deal: Impact
The New Deal was good for the African American community because without it the Great Depression would have been worse. The issue was that the New Deal did not target the Black community and actively excluded African Americans. After the New Deal, African Americans began to vote Democrat instead of Republican. The New Deal programs did assist them, so switching parties was a logical choice.
By giving in to Southern Democrats, Franklin Roosevelt limited access to benefits for a group of people who desperately needed them. This caused tensions between the African American community and white people that were exacerbated by police brutality. Though the New Deal was good for the black community, it could have done a lot more.
African Americans and the New Deal - Key Takeaways
- The New Deal prioritized white men over African Americans
- The New Deal assisted African Americans but could have done a lot more
- Certain New Deal programs excluded African Americans completely
- The New Deal worsened racial tensions
- Harlem Riot was caused by the New Deal's lack of assistance for the African American community, police brutality, and white business owner's refusal to hire black workers
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Frequently Asked Questions about African Americans and the New Deal
How did the New Deal affect African American citizens?
The New Deal affected African Americans by giving them access to jobs and welfare programs. Even though African Americans were the most affected group by the Great Depression, they had less access to programs than white people.
How many African Americans were employed by the New Deal ?
Through programs like the Civilian Conservation Corps and Work Progress Administration, around two million African Americans found employment.
What did the New Deal do for segregation?
The New Deal reinforced segregation. The Civilian Conservation Corps would only allow ten percent of its employees to be African American. That ten percent had to live separately from the white employees.
How did New Deal policies affect ethnic and social divisions?
A lot of the New Deal administration was done at a state level. This means that racist Southern Democrats controlled the distribution of jobs and benefits. They primarily assisted white people while limiting the resources that African Americans had access to. This reinforced white supremacy, segregation, and racism in America.
What were the criticisms of the New Deal?
Some critics of the New Deal, like Huey Long, believed that it didn't do enough. African Americans were the most affected by the Great Depression yet they received less benefits than white people.
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