depth study: new deal Flashcards
background
- outbreak of great depression in 1929 = widespread suffering/despair in black communities
- AA men & women faced staggering rates of unemployment/poverty
- Franklin D. Roosevelt (democrat) inaugurated as president in 1933
- ^^he launched ‘new deal’ (ambitious government programs to save USA from economic crisis)
what did the majority of AA work as in the late 1920s and what were the problems with these jobs
- domestic servants, farmers or service workers
- low wages, weak job security & dangerous conditions
how many black southeners migrated to northern/midwest cities between 1915-30
1.5 million
how many AA lived in the south (approx.)
11 million
what did the AA living in the south do for labour/jobs
sharecroppers, tenant farmers & wage workers
how any black southerners owned land (approx.)
10%
what was sharecropping
- white landowners allowed former AA slaves to use their land in return for a large share of the produce
- led to state of debt peonage (unofficial slavery)
what did AA face in places other than the deep south
the philosophy of the Jim Crow laws - racial segregation, interracial police violence & labour separation
the price of cotton dropped from 18 cents to 6 cents between when? - what did this cause
1929-33
- caused number of black sharecroppers to fall
how many AA were out of work in Chicago, NY and Pittsburgh (during great depression)
50%
how many black workers were jobless in Philadelphia and Detroit (during great depression)
60%
how many sweeping programs did FDR create in his first 100 days
5
name the 5 sweeping programmes
- agricultural adjustment administration (AAA)
- civilian conservation corps (CCC)
- federal emergency relief administration (FERA)
- national industrial recovery act (NIRA)
- tenessee valley authority (TVA)
define the agricultural adjustment act (AAA) and negative impacts on AA
(1933) = aimed to help farmers by cutting farm production & forcing up food prices
- aimed at the south where easy to deny AA benefits
- evicted black sharecroppers/tenant farmers from land they were cultivating
- less production meant less work for thousands of poor sharecroppers
- AA among 100 million consumers forced to pay higher prices
define the civilian conservation corps (CCC) and negative impacts on AA
= work relief program that gave millions of young men employment on environmental projects during the great depression
- admitted fewer black men
- housed them in segregated dormitories
- barred black CCC workers from most administrative positions
define the tenessee valley authority (TVA) and negative impacts on AA
= provided jobs/tenessee to rural south (tenessee river valley - spans 7 states in south)
- strict practices of racial segregation limited black participation
define the federal emergency relief administration (FERA)
= distributed federal aid to states for relief
define the national industrial recovery act (NIRA) and negative impacts on AA
= supervised fair trade codes & guaranteed laborers a right to collective bargaining
- cotton industry hours regulation excluded central positions where black male workers laboured
- southern lumber industries wages were far lower than those paid in north
- even when AA workers were eligible for higher wages, this money was paid to white workers
what did the social security act epitomise
the negligence towards AA employment
what was the social security act (1935)
created social security - federal safety net for elderly, unemployed and disadvantaged americans
who were ineligible from the social security act (1935) and what did this mean
farmers and domestics
- 87% of (all) black women were ineligible
- so were 55& of all AA workers
what was the one new deal agency that took decisive action against racial discrimination
public works administration (PWA)
what was the public works administration (PWA)
aimed to create jobs whilst improving nation’s infrastructure
how much did the PWA spend on thousands of construction projects across the USA in the 1930s - give examples
$6 billion
- schools
- hospitals
- public housing
interior secretary of PWA
Harold Ickes
what did Ickes do regarding AA - examples (eg. names)
- sought advice from black advisors (esp. economist robert weaver & attorney william hastie) –> counselled him on how AA can benefit from the PWA
one of most important PWA projects
= construction of 51 housing projects - 1/3 (19) for AA –> 1st time US gov provided housing for low income citizens
- in cities with large AA populations (eg. NY & philadelphia) families moved into new, affordable housing = life-changing