New Deal * Flashcards
What was the Depression’s impact?
25% of American labour force unemployed. 12,000 black sharecroppers lost jobs by 1933 as prices fell + mechanisation. In cities black unemployment hit 50%, black firemen attacked by white union members, a dozen lost jobs. Black women employed by white working class on $5 a week. Herbert Hoover issued the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to relieve credit problems for banks, but in 1932 elections African Americans supported him as Republicans supported emancipation.
What was the background of the Scottsboro trial?
On a train to Alabama in March 1931, there were 20 hobos. White men got into a fight with African Americans. At Paint Rock, Scottsboro, white men had heard about the fight.
Victoria Price and Ruby Bates claimed they were raped, so the 9 men were taken by Sheriff Wann to Jackson County Jail, Scottsboro.
Willie Robertson suffered severe syphilis and could hardly walk, while Olin Montgomery was almost blind.
What were the results of the first and second Scottsboro trials?
The parents raised money for a Chattanooga real estate attorney, who convinced the boys to plead guilty. Victoria Price’s story resulted in 8 being sentenced to death, they were sent to Kilby, a high security prison.
The International Labour Department, ILD, with the Communist Party, met the boys in June 1931 and by November Samuel Liebowitz managed to convince the Supreme Court to overrule the result. In the second trial, Haywood Patterson’s, Ruby Bates was used as a witness against Price. The all white jury were not impressed, and Liebowitz was a Jew. In June 1933, Judge Horton was convinced to set aside the verdict and demand a retrial.
What was the impact of the Scottsboro trials?
Patterson was quickly found guilty, but in February 1935, Liebowitz appealed to the Supreme Court, claiming that the trial was unfairly executed with no black members on the jury.
Four of the Scottsboro boys were reconvicted, but charges were dropped against the rest. They remained on death row, and between 1943-6 all but one of the pruisoners were released. Haywood Patterson escaped in 1948 after 17 years in jail.
The boys could have been lynched on the spot but received trials instead, showing a kind of progress. However, many led troubled lives.
What were de jure segregation and de facto segregation?
De jure segregation; segregation by law in state and city government.
De facto segregation; segregation by private corporations.
Alabama was central to the Confederacy. Railway carriages were divided by race and black patients couldn’t be served by white nurses. In the armed forces there was segregation until 1948.
Even in Wyoming, interracial marriage was banned.
What anti lynching bills were passed in Congress but failed?
In May 1934, Walter White, secretary of the NAACP, was told by FD Roosevelt that legislation wouldn’t be passed to protect from lynching. On 4 January 1934 Edward Costigan, a Democrat, tried to pass a bill in the Senate but a 2 month Southern Democrat filibuster led to the bill not getting passed in June 1934. In 1937-8 Joseph A Gavagan read the story of the lynching of two black men at Duck Hill, Mississippi, but the Senate rejected the bill. It failed again in 1940.
How did the AAA impact African Americans?
12 May 1935 – the Agricultural Adjustment Act passed, AAA, with the Agricultural Adjustment Administration under Henry Wallace. $100 million put aside for farmers who had surplus production, stabilising farmer income. By 1940 200,000 African American tenant farmers were thrown off their land, as white farmers dominated the finances.
1936 – declared unconstitutional.
1937 – Farm Security Administration, FSA, set up to give black tenant farmers a voice. Representation forced to withdraw.
How did the CCC impact African Americans?
Civilian Conservation Corps, CCC, set on 31 March 1933. Men aged 17-25 would live on army-ran camps earning $30 a month, $25 went to families. By 1942, 3 million men had benefitted from the CCC.
275,000 black men were employed by the CCC but in Georgia black Americans were only allowed to take part in the CCC when funding was threatened to be withheld, and in Mississippi only 1.7% of black men were in the CCC. CCC director Robert Fechter quickly segregated the CCC when receiving complaints from white Democrats.
What was the NRA?
June 1933, National Industrial Recovery Act, NIRA, set up, under National Recovery Act, NRA. Created Public Works Administration, PWA, allocated $3.3 billion to construct highways, railway buildings etc, while NRA under General Hugh Johnson. Established minimum wage of $13 a week and 40 hour working week, and no child labour.
How did the NRA affect African Americans?
NRA codes discriminated in cotton textile industry + flat percentage increases, black bell boys received 20% for a wage half that of white clerks at hotels.
The NRA and 1935 Wagner Act meant that unions received protection. Only 50,000 African Americans were in trade unions, with mot in the American Brotherhood of Sleeping Porters. It was proposed one union represent the workers of an industry. The SSA, Social Security Act, providing pensions, excluded African Americans.
What were positive effects of the ND?
In 1934, Robert Weaver, an African American, was appointed as special adviser on the Economic Status of the Negro. Harold Ickes, secretary of the Interior, promoted him and within the PWA set a racial quota on housing under the US Housing Authority.
The WPA under Harry Hopkins provided 350,000 jobs for African Americans each year, with Mary McLeod Bethune of the National Youth Administration providing skills for 500,000 African Americans.
The Resettlement Administration in 1935, though shut down in 1938, was a colour blind administration, with 115 all white projects, 9 all black, and 26 mixed race.
