Topic 3 - Impact of the New Deal and WWII Flashcards
Assimilation and Allotment
Assimilation → Expected N. Americans to live like whites
Allotment → Communal land sold off to smaller holdings of 160 acres → some sold off to whites or business
Indian Reorganization Act 1934
Gave Native Americans autonomy and self-government
Each reservation could have its own legal system & police
Tribal corporations set up to manage tribal resources
The New Deal and Native Americans
Very little done for Native Americans
No specific measures aimed at relief like CCC and PWA
1939 → average salary was only $500 vs $2,300 nationally
Native Americans in the war
Big impact → 25,000 Native Americans in the army
In the Pacific, they transmitted messages in their own language as the Japanese had no way to translate them
Depression and New Deal
400,000 deported to Mexico by 1935
Southwestern states banned Hispanic Americans from public work schemes
New Deal Agencies
Few Hispanic Americans benefited from welfare programmes as they lacked residency qualifications or were living in the US illegally
Impact of war
500,000 Hispanic Americans joined the military
17,000 found work in Los Angeles shipyards
1942 Bracero Program → hired Mexicans to work on railroads
Zoot Suit Riots 1943
Zoot suits → loosely hanging suits with lots of chains and jewellery → became linked with lawlessness and immorality
Los Angeles → Clashes between naval recruits & zoot suiter
WPA support for writers
Federal Writers’ Project (FWP) → employed 6,000 authors → compiled local and oral history, including 2300 slave narratives
WPA support for musicians
Federal Music Project → employed musicians to give concerns and hold festivals
Radio
Became most important source of up-to-date news
Music
Played a vital role in maintaining morale
Popular songs → Hats off to MacArthur; God Bless America
Bobby Soxers
Described girls who developed their own fashions and leisure activities around cinema and dance
Frank Sinatra → became a teenage idol
