Depth studies: New Deal Flashcards
Positive impacts of the New Deal on African Americans (5).
1) Appointment of African American Robert Weaver as Special Adviser on the Economic Status of the Negro in 1934 led to grants of $45 million to build schools, hospitals and homes for African Americans. There was also provision made for a number of African American workers in federal projects for house building.
2) Over a quarter of a million African Americans were given literacy help via federal aid projects.
3) Employment training was also provided by the National Youth Administration.
4) Eleanor Roosevelt openly supported African American organisations; the New Deal can be seen as responsible for a change in atmosphere with regard to civil rights as opposed to groundbreaking legislation.
5) Farm Security Administrators gave help to Southern African Americans who were hit particularly hard by the drop in food and raw material prices after 1929.
Positive impacts of the New Deal on Trade Union and labour. (5)
1) NIRA 1933 – Established NRA which aimed to develop agreed codes of practice about issues such as wages and working hours.
2) Wagner Act 1935 – This gave workers the right to elect their own representatives to take part in collective bargaining and gave workers the right to join unions.
3) National Labor Relations Board – had the power to bargain on behalf of workers.
4) Union membership grew from 3.7 million in 1933 to 9 million in 1938.
5) Minimum weekly wage created by the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.
Positive impacts of the New Deal on Women. (4)
1) Reforming organisations seeking to develop women’s rights had access to a sympathetic administration.
2) Roosevelt appointed a number of women to leading positions such as the first female Appeal Court Judge, Florence Allen. Nellie Taylor Ross became the first female director of the US mint.
3) Women benefited indirectly from legislation such as the Fair Labor Standards Act 1938 and the National Recovery Administrations limit on hours and its minimum wage.
4) Between 1930 and 1940, there was a 300% rise in female unionised labour.
Positive impacts of the New Deal on Native Americans. (7)
1) Indian Reorganisation Act of 1934 gave the NAI a greater role in administering the reservations and the management of resources on reservations.
2) The Act also allowed the NAI to practice their own religion and this helped them to assert their cultural identity.
3) The Act stopped the sale of NAI land and recovered unallocated land which was used to create or expand reservations.
4) NAI children attended local schools where they could learn about their own culture and history.
5) Tribes on reservations were once again allowed to be ruled by tribal councils.
6) Training was provided to NAI to help them farm.
7) Allotment policy was abandoned and loss of land was prevented.
Limitations to the impacts of the New Deal on Native Americans. (5)
1) Any benefits from the Indian Reogranisation Act were short-lived because of the introduction of the termination policy after WWII.
2) Although Native Americans were organised into self-governing bodies, 75 out of 245 tribes rejected the measures.
3) The idea of a separate federal court for NAI was abandoned.
4) There were insufficient funds to buy back former reservation land that had been sold.
5) Any gains were short term and often were limited by the financial demand of WWII.
Limitations to the impacts of the New Deal on Women. (4)
1) During the Great Depression, women were put under pressure not to take the jobs of men and also suffered from falling wages.
2) The National Recovery Administration established lower pay for women and in public services and federal employment, there were lower rates of pay for women.
3) New deal agencies focused on getting men back to work because they were seen as the stability and breadwinner in the family.
4) Female advisers in the New Deal were often restricted to traditional female issues such as advising on social policy and family matters.
Limitations to the impacts of the New Deal on trade union and labour. (3)
1) Many employers including Henry Ford, did not recognise the NIRA or Wagner Act.
2) 1935 – The supreme court declared the NIRA unconstitutional.
3) Unskilled workers and agricultural workers as well as women did not benefit from the NIRA and the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.
Limitations to the impacts of the New Deal on African Americans. (8)
1) Many sharecroppers struggled to pay their rent and little was done to support the 200,000 that were evicted from their homes.
2) The government reduced crop production by paying farmers for not producing crops, however very little of this money was received by black farmers.
3) African-Americans suffered disproportionately from unemployment
4) Industries in which many African-Americans worked such as agriculture and domestic service were unaffected by attempts improve working conditions.
5) The Wagner Act meant that many employers began to use almost exclusively unionised labour, which for the most part excluded African-American workers who were excluded from unions.
6) Segregation remained prevalent in many institutions including the armed forces in the Second World War.
7) Although African Americans did benefit from work provided by the Civilian Conservation Corps, they would often receive the worst and most poorly paid work.
8) Roosevelt did nothing to increase African American voting rights.
