AA depth studies Flashcards
Roosevelt New Deal (Depth study 2) reason why?
- 1929 New York stock market crashed triggering several years of economic depression - 1932 - 30-60% unemployment overall urban black - always higher than whites, economic slowdown - being pushed away in favour of white workers - ‘last hired, first fired’.
New Deal political improvements
- 1937 Wagner Act secured legal right of trade unions to engage in free collective bargaining - led to the establishment of the Congress of Industrial Organisations in mid 1930s - labour unions for black workers for the 1st time, 1940 - 200K in CIO - raised political consciousness of black workers
- 1936 - abandoned historic allegiance to Republicans to Democrats, the part of FDR. WEB Du Bois said that Roosevelt ‘gave the American Negro a kind of recognition in political life which the Negro never before recieved’. 1936, 70% of voters supported democrats: by contrast in 1932 2/3 of AA backed Republicans
New Deal social improvements
- FDR spoke out against lynching - first incumbent President since 1870s to do so publicly, found the poll tax reprehensible and met in the white house with AA civil rights leaders
- Eleanor Roosevelt supported the black civil rights movement
- 30% of black families on relief compared to 10% of whites - fair application of policy, indicated greater poverty, FERA spent 4000M$ on poor relief projects
- Harold Ickes, a strong supporter of civil rights and had several black staff poured fedral funds into black community in the south though the PWA, spent over $45M on construction of black schools, hospitals and housing
New Deal economic improvements
- Gave AA 1M jobs, 50K public housing units, financial assistance and skilled occupation training for half a million black youths
- Attempted to encourage raising wages and cutting of work hours
- WPA colourblind, AA benefitted from work relief in northern cities - 1936-40 WPA provided work for 350K AA each year, mainly construction projects, and education projects with 5000 black teachers teaching 250K AA to read and write
New Deal social and economic improvements
- FDR created a Black Cabinet which included Mary McLeod Bethune who got a fair share of National Youth Administration funds to continue education
- Works Progress Administration, Public Works Administration and Farm Security Administration grew more sensitive throughout 1930s to the needs of AA
New Deal political failures
- Little was done to increase AA voting or end segregation - not the aims of the New Deal, too conscious of the need to appease Southern democrats to pass direct measures improving rights for AA
- 1933 Roosevelt told his NAACP secretary Walter White to get the New Deal through Congress relied on southern democratic support and that if he insisted on federal action on black civil rights he would lose support - inaction on anti-lynching bill and a bill to abolish poll tax
New Deal social failures
- Federal programs were administered through local authorities or community leaders with racial biases - aid did not always reach people
New Deal economic failures
- South black sharecroppers hit hard by depression and not covered by Social Security Act - excluded traditional jobs AA filled like domestic farm workers - south democrats refused to vote to help AA
- Most New Deal programs discriminated against blacks - National Recovery Administration - offered whites first crack at jobs and authorised separate and lower pay
- Most AAs excluded from minimum wage provisions of Fair Labour Standards Act
- Agricultural Adjustment Administration offered white landowners cash for leaving their fields fallow - these crop reduction programs fired black tenants and wage labourers - 1933-40 200K black sharecroppers evicted and federal compensation for reduced crop quotas not paid to tenant farmers but planters to oversee the distribution, opening up to wholesale abuse
New Deal social and economic failures
- Federal house authority refused to guarantee mortgages for blacks who tried to buy in white neighbourhoods
- Tennessee Valley Authority gave black workers segregated facilities and accommodation and restricted to most unskilled jobs despite seeking for cheap hydro electric power and create long term jobs
How far did Roosevelt and the New Deal improve the lives of AA?
- Hoover failed to alleviate the worst of the effects of the Wall Street Crash and lost confidence
- 1932 elected Roosevelt - promised this to stimulate economic growth and employment during the Depression
Malcolm X, Black power and the radicalisation of the civil rights movement (Depth study 3) reasons
The late 1960s saw a change in emphasis for the civil rights movement: an increasing force of de facto problems of entrenched poverty, a geographical shift from the southern states to the north and a move away from King’s philosophy of non violence
By 1965 - GREAT for political and legal rights - peaceful protests led by MLK drew national attention and forced fed gov to action - eradicated legal segregation in 1964 Civil Rights Act and voting restrictions in 1965 Voting Rights Act
But did little for economic and social challenges - northern cities ghettoes formed from bad employment, housing and education
Radicalisation of the civil rights movement - why were social and economic problems going to be harder to tackle than legal and political ones? (5 reasons)
- Cost more money, white taxpayers resented it
- Problems were deep-seated, would take a long time to solve from entrenched racism and would not be solved by passing legislation
- These problems were serious all over the USA - from Watts in LA to Harlem in NYC
- Most whites unsympathetic - blamed black poverty and unemployment on idleness and blamed blacks for high crime rate
- President Johnson less interested in relieving black poverty than in giving civil rights - didn’t even read the Moynihan report on black poverty which he commissioned in 1965
Radicalisation of the civil rights movement - what were the main social and economic problems facing black Americans? (5 problems)
- 50% of black males aged 16-25 had criminal records
- Less than 16% of black children attended schools with white pupils and their educational attainment was less
- Poverty trap - slum ghettos infested with rats (bad health standards) to poor education tp unemployment in cities like Washington, NY, Detroit, Chicago and LA
- 1950s x2 as many blacks likely to be unemployed, rose 1960s because the number of unskilled jobs fell
- 1 in 3 blacks earned less than 5000 per year compared with 1 in 10 americans overall - 53% of the national average
Radicalisation of the civil rights movement - the riots of 1965-68
- Riots in Watts 1965 provoked by policy brutally beating black youth arrested by a drink driving charge - 34 killed in riots, $40M damage to property
- Further riots in ‘long hot summers’ of 1966-7 - worst in 1967 in Newark - population was 50% black but 89% of police were white - 43% died in Newark
- Violence erupted in over 100 cities after assassination
What did the riots of 1965-68 show?
That black youth were becoming increasingly impatient both with social and economic deprivation they suffered and the non violent tactics of the civil rights movement. Police brutality, bad housing and unemployment were the main issues.
