New Deal (Lack of progress)

Question 1

Where was there a lack of progress for African Americans in the New Deal

Answer 1

• Many of the gains were countered with setbacks
• Many poor share croppers could not pay rents
• Many were then evicted (200,000) and little was
  done to help them
• Federal programmes reducing crop reduction, farm structure was designed to benefit only farmers,
  not the share croppers.
• African Americans suffered disproportionally from unemployment, ‘last employed first fired’
• Attempts to improve working conditions was excluded where African American jobs were most
  common
• National Recovery Administration (NRA) attempted to establish better rates of pay and working
  conditions, but it did not necessarily require similar requirements in the industrial north. States
  desperately tried to evade the policy anyhow.
• Strengthening of the unions Wagner Act, but most African Americans were not in a union
• Social Security Act (equivalent of national insurance number) provisions did not apply to African
  Americans, not applied to common African American jobs
• Segregation has remained prevalent in most institutions and the army
• Civilian conservation corps, public work relief programme that operated from 1933-1942,
  unemployed, unmarried men, camps were segregated, African Americans received the worst and
  most poorly paid jobs
• Roosevelt did not increase African American voting rights

Question 2

What lack of progress was there for NAI in the New Deal

Answer 2

• Policy of assimilation did continue
• Native Americans did not want to assimilate
• Policy of termination in the latter part of the period
• Poverty among Native Americans still very high
• Idea of democracy was alien to Native Americans, they saw this as the white man policy forced upon them
• Although tribes were allowed to form self-governing bodies, 75 out of the 240 tribes rejected it – worried
  it would chip away at their cultural heritage
• In-sufficient government funds to buy back reservation lands, what was promised didn’t match reality
• Idea of a separate court for NAI was abandoned – could reject and support laws with effect
• Many critics argue that the gains were simply short term
• When the second world war came around, the financial demands of the New Deal were rapidly dropped

Question 3

What lack of progress was there for Trade Unions and workers rights in the New Deal

Answer 3

• Henry Ford did not recognise the NIRA or the Wagner Act
• The NIRA was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1935
• Some employers, taking advantage of the available workforce, intimidated workers, used violence against
  workers and took action to break strikes
• Unskilled workers, particularly those in agriculture or domestic work and at the lower end of the pay range,
  did not benefit from the improvements
• Women did not make gains in pay, as pay differentials were upheld by the NIRA and the Fair Labor Standards
  Act
• Welfare reforms were not always successful in helping the position of those on lower pay because of conflicts
  between state and federal rights

Question 4

What lack of progress was there for women in the New Deal

Answer 4

• Women usually amongst the first to lose jobs following the Wall Street Crash
• Those who maintain positions faced falling wages – especially in domestic sector who were unprotected
by labour legislation and included many non-white/immigrant workers.

• Agencies often prioritized male workers. E.g PWA – set up large scale construction projects aimed at men.
• Regulations of wages often confirmed the wage gap

• Married women prevented from taking employment

• Women brought to Washington to advise and help run the New Deal agencies
 All major decision taken by men. Women who were involved seemed to accept priority of getting men
back to work in the hope of improving and stabilizing home/family life.