African American Life During the Great Depression The Great Depression lasted from 1929 until 1939, which is arguably the hardest ten years in American History. The Great Depression saw the highest unemployment rates, and all of America suffered together. Although all of America felt the stings of the Great Depression, African Americans felt it worse, because they had even lower unemployment rates, were facing racial discrimination, and received little help from the New Deal. These problems made life for African Americans during the Great Depression as well as after that much harder. While the unemployment rate in America dropped to almost 16% in 1932, and would later drop even lower, African Americans unemployment rate dropped to 50%.
Roosevelt was elected to office in the fall of 1932, and throughout his campaign promised the American people a New Deal to help them out of the Great Depression. This New Deal began to take shape in 1933 immediately following his inauguration. In this New Deal were reforms for banking, emergency relief programs, work relief programs, and agricultural programs. Following this first New Deal, was a second New Deal. The second New Deal included union protection programs, the Social Security Act, and programs to aid tenant farmers and migrant workers. The promise of these programs began to give hope to African Americans, they believed that finally they had a president who was also willing to help them as well, which Roosevelt had promised to do. Despite his promises there were still major problems in the New Deal for African
This gave many Americans jobs whether it was becoming soldiers or building supplies to help with the war effort. African Americans were even discriminated against during this effort. This caused President Roosevelt to issue Executive Order 8802, “stating that all persons, regardless of race, creed, color or national origin, would be allowed to participate fully in the defense of the United States.” (Race Relations in the 1930s and 1940s 1) This later led to African Americans to gain the respect of many White Americans. This was the single way to received a way out of the Great Depression, the African Americans had to fight for a country that had previously held them
The era of the Great Depression was by far the worst shape the United States had ever been in, both economically and physically. Franklin Roosevelt was elected in 1932 and began to bring relief with his New Deal. In his first 100 days as President, sixteen pieces of legislation were passed by Congress, the most to be passed in a short amount of time. Roosevelt was re-elected twice, and quickly gained the trust of the American people. Many of the New Deal policies helped the United States economy greatly, but some did not. One particularly contradictory act was the Agricultural Adjustment Act, which was later declared unconstitutional by Congress. Many things also stayed very consistent in the New Deal. For example, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and Social Security, since Americans were looking for any help they could get, these acts weren't seen as a detrimental at first. Overall, Roosevelt's New Deal was a success, but it also hit its stumbling points.
In the 1929, The Great Depression was a worldwide depression that lasted for 10 years. The stock market crash of the 1929 causes the Depression, when loans were given out and people couldn’t repay the loan. It affect many American lives, the unemployment had skyrocketed from 3% to 25%. Work wages fell 42% for those who still had a job. The Great Depression lasted so long was because it affect a nationwide and people didn’t have money to spend to recover the economy
The traditional view of Franklin D. Roosevelt is that he motivated and helped the United States during the “Great Depression” and was a great president, however, as time has passed, economist historians have begun analyzing Roosevelt’s presidency. Many have concluded that he did not help America during the Great Depression but instead amplified and prolonged the depression. Jim Powell wrote about FDR economic policies and did an excellent job explaining Roosevelt’s incompetent initiatives. Roosevelt did not know anything about economics and his advisors made everything worse by admiring the Soviet Union.
This lead to in whites moving blacks out of jobs, they conventionally engaged. Racial wage differences (wages for black’s averaged 30 percent less than for whites) caused African Americans to participate in the Great Depression in stricter terms than whites. Finally, New Deal policies had tragic penalties for blacks. Because the Great Depression significantly reduced employment occasions in the North for blacks, the step of Southern black emigration slowed significantly during the 1930s. The Great depression though, increase the number of African Americans migrant workers. “The Great Depression also witnessed the entry of African Americans into the ranks of organized labor in unprecedented numbers. The formation in 1938of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, an outgrowth of the American Federation of Labors Committee for Industrial Organization established in 1935, was crucial to this development”
The Great Depression, beginning in the last few months of 1929, impacted the vast majority of people nationwide and worldwide. With millions of Americans unemployed and many in danger of losing their homes, they could no longer support their families. Children, if they were lucky, wore torn up ragged clothing to school and those who were not lucky remained without clothes. The food supply was scarce, and bread was the most that families could afford. Households would receive very limited rations of food, or small amounts of money to buy food. This led to the starvation of families, including children. African-americans faced tougher challenges than most during the Depression due to discrimination. The classes hit hardest were middle-class
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.
People continue to argue whether the New Deal is radical or conservative today using many programs and outcomes as their support. The government imposed new radical programs influencing American society with changes in political and social reform. Conservatives at the time felt threatened by government interference feeling the changes led them toward a socialist style of government. Today, historians view the New Deal as more conservative, completely opposite of what conservatives felt at the time. With programs challenging economic, social, and political standards, the New Deal imposed both radical and conservative ideals into the American society causing Franklin D. Roosevelt to leave his lasting stamp and legacy on all presidents and generations to come.
all the good things that the New Deal has done for the country such as
During the great depression, then President, Herbert Hoover disappointed Americans. America was therefore ready for a change. In 1932, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected as President. He pledged a “New Deal” for the country. According to Exploring American Histories, this New Deal would eventually “provide relief, put millions of people to work, raise price for farmers, extend conservation projects, revitalize America’s financial system and restore capitalism.”
Many African Americans gained new jobs and opportunities through the New Deals policies, “2,117,000 Negroes were in families receiving relief in the United States”(doc 16). Low-cost public housing was made available to black families, as well as other minorities who needed the economic relief. The National Youth Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps permitted black youths to continue schooling and The Work Projects Administration gave jobs to many African Americans. The executive order of 8802 (doc 15) stated, “it is the policy of the United States to encourage full participation in the national defense program by all citizens of the United States, regardless of race, creed, color, or national origin, in the firm belief that the democratic way of life within the Nation can be defended successfully only with the help and support of all groups within its borders.” This order ensured African Americans that everything possible was being done to end discrimination in the workplace. Therefore, the willingness of the Roosevelt Administration to recognize the existence of a racial problem in American and how they managed to ameliorate that problem, was unprecedented. It made it clear that the federal government had a duty to ensure something was being done to end racial
The Great Depression hit America hard in the 1930s. Money was scarce and jobs were difficult to find. Franklin Roosevelt (FDR) was elected into office and took charge, leading the drive towards building America up again; he created the New Deal programs which aimed at improving the lives of citizens. These acts were successful but created controversy, some for and some against. Despite these disagreements, the New Deal was neither conservative nor liberal; it did just what was needed to help the country pull out of this Great Depression.
The Great Depression was a major historical event that affected thousands of Americans during the 1930s. It was a time in which economic decline left people without jobs while struggling to keep a family and home together. It certainly was a devastating time for everyone. For African Americans, it was even more of a struggle as segregation and the oppression of blacks were just as strong as when the Jim Crow laws were initially established. “African Americans were only 64 years beyond enslavement, with de jure segregation relegating them to second-class citizenship and generally only the meanest, dirtiest employment.” (Bilal) During the Great Depression, music and jobs were taken by whites and African Americans struggled greatly. Holiday faced racial challenges in which her social status, as a young black woman, left her with only a few options for work. Occupations such as a washwoman or a prostitute were such jobs expected out of a young woman of her time.
The Great Depression was the beginning of a new movement in the lives of Black Americans. The seeds of equality were sprouting, and Black Americans were hoping for a day when they would receive full civil rights without discrimination. The bud of the civil rights movement was forming.
Throughout the long years of the depression there became two types of employees. One was the “Industrial Worker” and the other was the “Tenant Farmer”. Within these two groups there were white men and women and there were black men and women. During this time there was a lot of racial and gender segregation within the work place. As hard as it was for a white man to get a job in either of these fields it was four times as hard for a white women or black women/man to get a job, but life began to grow even harder as the “New Deal” began. To help give you a better idea of life during the “Great Depression” I am going to begin with explaining to you the differences between industrial workers and tenant farmers. I will then go into more depth as I analyze the segregation that occurred within these two jobs and how the “New...
The Great Depression struck the United States in 1929, and devastated the country for 12 years (Potter). Filled with hardships and poverties, these 12 years seemed like a lifetime to most people, especially to the lower and middle class. American society during the 1930s was split into three main classes: Lower class, Middle class, and the Upper class. While the majority of the upper class continued to live lavishly, the lower class, consisting of mainly struggling laborers and almost all African Americans, definitely suffered the most. The Middle class was also heading down a dangerous path. Not being able to maintain their small fortunes, most were forced to lower levels of society. The effects of the Great Depression in the 1930s on the social classes in the south caused many people to move to the lower class.