AA New Deal

Question 1

Leftist/ Marxist View + Quote

Answer 1

• New Deal ignored AAs who were already in a worse state following the Great depression

Nicholas Santoro- “The Southern bloc had been transformed into a bastion of white supremacy”

Question 2

Mixed View

Answer 2

• Limited impact

- Intended as an economic package, not a civil rights one

Question 3

Positive View + Quote + Historian view

Answer 3

• FDR and Eleanor were hugely favourable to civil rights and the New Deal massively helped AAs. One of the most forward-looking policies of American history.

Cook argues for the development of a biracial union movement- tying together the workers and AA rights.
- Cook highlights “growing black political influence that ensured Washington could no longer discount African Americans”

Question 4

Impact on Voting patterns

Answer 4

-W.E. Davies argued in 1964 that the New Deal meant blacks “turned en masse from being Republican..to voting Democrat”
1928 - 27% of blacks voted Democrat
1936 - 78% of blacks voted Democrat

Question 5

Role of Robert Weaver

Answer 5

• AA Robert Weaver appointed as FDR’s special advisor on the Economic Status of the Negro - this led to $45 million being spent on schools, hospitals and homes for blacks

Question 6

Role of PWA

Answer 6

• PWA a “colour-blind” agency - gave 350,000 AA’s jobs annually between 1936-40
• Resettlement Administration (established 1935) went out of its way to support blacks - had 9 black and 26 mixed-race projects out of 150 in total and gave $122,000 of land to the all-black Gee’s Bend Community in Alabama and divided it amongst the people

Question 7

How many recieved literacy aid?

Answer 7

-250,000 blacks received literacy help via federal aid projects

Question 8

How many were employed on federal relief projects

Answer 8

• By January 1935 over 3 million African Americans (1/5 of the black labour force) are employed on Federal relief projects which made up 30% of black families compared to 10% of whites, illustrating their greater poverty but also the equality of the scheme.

Question 9

Number of Public housing units provided

Answer 9

50,000

Question 10

Number of black youths provided with financial assistance and training

Answer 10

500,000

Question 11

Role of CCC and which AA was responsible for its set up

Answer 11

Benefits:
- The Civilian Conservation Corps was set up to provide jobs for the young African Americans whilst providing army work experience. In 1933, roughly 3% of blacks enrolled and by 1938, over 11% enrolled with more than 350,000 members when it was shut down in 1942. They received $30 a month and sent $25 home to their families Eval: this was not due to the administration, but because of a black congressman (Oscar de Priest). On the ground, labour camps were segregated

Segregation:

• John Salmond highlighted the ethnic segregation in the CCC- From July 1935 they were fully segregated- In Clarke County, Georgia, not a single AA was chosen to be in a camp even though the state was 60% black
• CCC was established March 1933
• CCC camps were initially racially integrated, but this was disbanded in July 1935 in response to numerous white complaints being sent in.
• Eval: around 200,000 black Americans worked for the CCC during its 9-year existence. But they were restricted to lower paid jobs,

Question 12

Role of NYA (+ve)

Answer 12

• The National Youth Administration hired more black administrators than any other New Deal agency. It also employed AA supervisors to oversee its work in each state in the south and assisted more than 500,000 AA youths during the depression.

Question 13

Role of AAA (-ve)

Answer 13

• AAA (Agricultural Adjustment Act) subsidized farmers who had lost out due to the depression and set aside $100 million in an effort to stabilize prices. However funds were distributed by whites leading to 192,000 AA sharecroppers being evicted from their land and an NAACP report in 1936 showed 6 million AA’s got no assistance from the AAA.
• AAA subsidies were sometimes used to buy machinery that replaced black workers
• In 1933, 87% of the 800,000 black American farmers were tenants or sharecroppers

Question 14

Role of NRA (-ve)

Answer 14

• The NRA (National Recovery Administration), which set codes for fair labour practices, ignored the professions of cleaners and manual labourers in the cotton industry, disproportionately held by blacks- 75% of AA’s were employed in these areas

Question 15

Impact of Social security act (-ve)

Answer 15

• Social Security Act 1935- Provided unemployment insurance and other welfare benefits but ignored dominant black jobs

Question 16

Black Trade Unionism in this period

Inc. Wagner Act, NIRA

Answer 16

• Black trade unionism made little progress, and in 1934 only 50,000 belonged to a union (half of them in the BSCP)
• The strengthening of Unions under the Wagner act tended to ensure big employers used unionised labour which acted against African Americans
• 1933 NIRA gone by 1935 and discriminated against AAs. By restricting employer’s use of unskilled labour, the act cost 500,000 AA jobs
• NLRA 1935 was specifically designed to help workers who were unionised - given that the majority of AAs were not, this led to a hindrance of many of their rights
• BUT: Due to the Wagner Act in 1935, the BSCP was able to establish recognition by the National Mediation Board (NMB) and signed its first collective bargaining agreement with the Pullman Company in 1937

Question 17

Role of Federal Housing Authority (-ve)

Answer 17

• Federal Housing Authority (FHA) refuses to guarantee loans to AA’s who buy in white areas

Question 18

Politcial gains from the New Deal

Answer 18

• Mary McLeod Bethune became Director of the Division of Negro Affairs
• By mid-1935, there were 45 AAs working in federal executive departments and New Deal agencies.
• Roosevelt increased the number of black federal employees from 50,000 in 1932 to 150,000 in 1941 (with over 100 AAs working in significant administrative positions in New Deal agencies)
• 1938 - FDR creates the Civil Rights section of the Justice Department (Government agency designed to support Black in their efforts towards integration into the South). They focus on black right to vote and combating police brutality and later becomes a major ally of the NAACP in its legal challenges to segregation
• The Progression of Roosevelt’s black cabinet increased African Americans rights to political representation.

Question 19

Social gains from the New Deal

Answer 19

• Federal sponsorship of culture (e.g. Federal writers project (African American oral history collected), biracial dramatic productions
• The New Deal investigatory commission on the Harlem Riots refuses to blame communist agitators and instead blames the frequent discrimination and poverty as the cause. As a result, racist officers are transferred out of Harlem and more local blacks were employed to administer relief.
• As a result in the increasing number of jobs in the entertainment industry, blacks were able to publicise the hardships they face in day to day life to a larger audience
• Harold Ickes was a key New Dealer and also a leader of NAACP

Question 20

Role of the Tennessee Valley Authority

Answer 20

• Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) built white-only towns, enforcing segregation

Question 21

Roosevelt and lynching

Answer 21

Roosevelt refused to speak out in favour of an anti-lynching bill in 1935 arguing that white voters in the South would never forgive him

Question 22

What would black workers make jokes about

Answer 22

• NRA’s discriminatory policies with wages led to many black workers making jokes about what it stood for. E.g. ‘Negroes Roasted Again’

Question 23

Overall

Answer 23

• African Americans benefited from some of the general measures of President Roosevelt’s New Deal but no specific reforms aimed at ending racial discrimination
• A mismatch between rhetoric and reality - many AAs swung to Democrats as a result as they promised to change. However, agricultural south gained the least as a result of federal relief
• Sits slightly on the more negative side of the wider historical debate
• Economic improvements hindered by the de facto discrimination that still remains integral in every level of government as well as the general public
• Common view that the New Deal did help but did not have any legislation specifically aimed at improving AACR’s