3. The impact of the New Deal on voting patterns + the work of Eleanor Roosevelt Flashcards
How did the New Deal cause a voting revolution?
- Black voters in the North switched to the Democrats - 1932 - around 70% of black voters supported Republican candidate Herbert Hoover
- 1936 - 76% of black Americans assured polsters they planned to vote for FDR
- 1936, 40 and 44 - majority of black voters supported Roosevelt - 1940, won 85% of the vote in Harlem
How did FDR and the Democrats recognise the increasing importance of the black vote?
1936 - FDR addressed an all-black audience for the first time, and promised ‘no forgotten man and no forgotten races’ in his term
Why were many black Americans changing their voting allegiance?
1) Many benefitted from New Deal - believed FDR cared about them
2) Many New Deal administrations notably keen to assist AAs - e.g. FERA and PWA - over 100 AAs held quite important administrative posts in these agencies
- NYA - black officials usually appointed in predominantly black areas - FDR increased no. of black employees in federal bureaucracy - 50,000 in 1932 to 150,000 in 1941
3) Democrats responded to growing important of AA vote - e.g. - 1936 Convention - 30 AA delegates - 1 of whom - Arthur Mitchell - granted honour of delivering opening address
4) Eleanor Roosevelt devoted much time to assisting AAs
What role did Eleanor Roosevelt have in getting New Deal legislation through?
- FDR left it to his wife to take a very public interest in black affairs - Roosevelt needed Southern white congressional votes
- Ensured that prominent AAs such as NAACP chief Walter White frequently met with her husband
- Regularly met and was photographed with black Americans, attended black functions, and made her own position clear on countless occasions
What and when was the Southern Conference of Human Welfare (SCHW)
1938:
- Eleanor Roosevelt attended in Birmingham, Alabama
- Biracial group - wanted meeting to be integrated - racist police chief Eugene ‘Bull’ Connor tried to enforce local segregation laws at meeting - but couldn’t stop First Lady sitting next to AA delegates (particularly wanted to sit alongside friend Mary MacLeod Bethune)
- Meeting didn’t condemn Jim Crow outright - but declared support for equality before the law, voter registration for the poor, and funding for AA graduate students
Who was Marian Anderson?
Black singer:
- Was invited to sing at White House in 1936 by Eleanor Roosevelt
1939 - the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused to allow Anderson to sing before an integrated audience at their Constitution Hall in DC
- Walter White lobbied Eleanor and Harold Ickes - arranged for Anderson to perform before integrated crowd of 75,000 at Lincoln Memorial
- Eleanor resigned from DAR
What was the overall significance of Eleanor Roosevelt?
- Revolutionary in her activism - that aroused considerable criticism
- She was ‘the eyes and ears’ of FDR’s New Deal - worked particularly hard to promote equality of opportunity for AAs
- After FDR’s death - important in the early years of the UN and its commitment to human rights
What, in the 1940s, did Eleanor Roosevelt achieve?
1940 alone - promote National Sharecroppers Week and the National Committee to Abolish the Poll Tax
During WWII - made clear support for black Tuskegee airmen, whose aerial prowess was doubted by white racists
Repeatedly publicised contrast between the American myth of freedom and equality and the situation of AAs - e.g., in an 1942 article in the New Republic - said Americans needed to acknowledge that ‘one of the main destroyers of freedom is our attitude toward the colour race’
What impact did Eleanor Roosevelt have on pushing New Deal legislation?
- Privately - tried to persuade FDR to endorse anti-lynching legislation, and urged New Deal officials to provide non-discriminatory aid for blacks, especially in the South
1934 - read an article ‘NRA Codifies Wage Slavery’ - pointedly passed it on to NRA
- She didn’t go as far as to advocated integration
