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Impact of the great depression on black people
Poverty in african american community
Poverty in african american community
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To begin, the Great Depression took a great toll on the typical American man. Many got fired from their jobs causing unemployment. It was almost impossible to get another job so they were stuck living with no money at all. Not having money caused most men to struggle with bills. Because they couldn’t pay bills they went into debt.
If Blacks were allowed a factory job, they were mainly likely to be paid less than the regular white man. This is only one of the many of the ways, black man was segregated. African Americans were not paid normal wages. This hurt the African American families. This made it so that they couldn’t always provide food, shelter, clothes, and the other basic necessities for life.
During the 1929 - 1939 many people were in debt and a lot of jobs were lost. The Great Depression was bad it affected the whole world, the hoover dam was created and the welfare system was also a result of the Depression. The Great depression had alot of effects on people and the world. The trading routes with other countries to America stopped.
This led to continued to tensions between not only the north and south but also the blacks and the whites in America. According to The Unfinished Nation, the per capita income of African Americans increase from about one-quarter to about one-half of the per capita income of White citizens (365). Sadly certain
The experience that the majority of urban and rural Americans shared together during the depression was a flat out lack of income. The differences were very few, but in the cities, the depression was more prominently visible because of a higher percentage of the population (Schultz 2014). Besides the lack of income and employment, most Americans underwent periods of time being extremely hungry. In the cities, people spent hours waiting in breadlines and were losing their homes to only end up living on the streets in communities referred to as "Hoovervilles" nicknamed after the president (Schultz 2014). In the country, families suffered because of unusual droughts of the 1930 's that caused crops to fail miserably meant the already indebted farmers commonly lost their properties.
The percentage of Americans that were losing jobs was outrageous “25 percent of all workers and 37 percent of all nonfarm workers were completely out of work. ”(Great Depression) and that only increased. The people moved and were kicked out of their lands feed to find work elsewhere but work was scarce and was no where to be found. The african americans also had a harder time finding work as the whites were given unfair priority. Their was a substantial gap between the rich and the poor and the poor was the lowest percentage of people in the Americas.
As the stock market plummeted and banks failed, millions of Americans found themselves out of work and struggling. Mexican Americans especially felt this era of economic struggle. The Great Depression negatively impacted Mexican Americans in several ways, as they faced increased discrimination which limited economic opportunities, furthermore worsening economic hardships, compounded by the vulnerability of migrant workers to deportation and exclusion from New Deal benefits. Mexican Americans faced increased discrimination which limited economic opportunities and worsened financial struggles during the Great Depression, when many businesses failed and less work was available. Since everyone in the U.S. was looking for work, it was seen as
1931 was perhaps the hardest years of depression. The unique convergence gence of personalities and institutions responsible for a luminous decade of African American creative expression centered in New York was quickly unraveling. "The Depression, Arna Bontemps, recalled, "brought instant havoc to the Harlem Renaissance of the twenties .The Depression had devastated the South Side and made a distant, painful memory of the employment boom that had fueled the Great Migration. " Last hired, first fired," black workers suffered the ravages of joblessness sooner and longer than whites.
The banking system was near collapse, a quarter of the labor force was unemployed, and prices and production were down by a third from their 1929 levels. The effects of the Great Depression on the American people were brutal and the many people that lived through it had many stories
More job opportunities began to open up therefore, there was an increased need for skilled workers. Companies thought it was a great idea to hire African Americans who would be more than willing to work, grant them a smaller pay and have their business continue to thrive in the prosperous decade. The white leaders of the industry often took advantage of policies to ensure that African Americans would be confined to the least desirable jobs with the lowest wages (Phillips 33). Within the jobs, workers would also be faced with discrimination. The African Americans would receive death threats in their place of work almost daily and were made to feel as if they were only there to benefit the economy (Phillips 39) For many years in American History, African Americans only received training to be skilled workers, as it didn 't seem necessary for them to receive any further education (Blanton 1).
In the 1930s, many white farm owners would pull black students out of school to work for them even if they did not need them. They did this because they did not think they deserved an education. Many students had to drop out of school to work for their family, because the family was not making enough money to live off of. Many of the African Americans that attended school never got past the fourth grade.
Throughout that time period, African Americans experienced many injustices as a result of racism and were viewed as inferior. When it came to jobs, “African Americans were the first to see hours and jobs cut, and they experienced the highest unemployment rate during the 1930s''(Klien). This illustrates the injustices African Americans faced during that time period. While White Americans also experienced employment issues due to the great depression, African Americans took a much larger hit during that era. According to the Novel To Ask for an Equal Chance, Cherryl Greenberg explains, black unemployment rates in the South were double or even triple that of the white population.
In 1930, 4 million Americans could not find work, and by 1933 thirteen million people were unemployed (“The Great Depression,” History.com). The unemployment rate rose from 3% to 25% by 1933 (DeGrace). People stopped spending money, and this led businesses to slow down production and to start firing workers (“The Great Depression,” History.com). For the lucky ones who managed to keep their job, wages fell. With the trouble of finding jobs, sometimes children would work when their parents couldn’t (“The Great Depression,” American Express).
As of late there have been some promising signs for African Americans. The unemployment rate for Blacks has been slanting down since summer 2011. In January 2012, the unemployment rate for Blacks was 13.6 percent; down 3.1 rate focuses from the top of 16.7 percent in August 2011.10 Continuing business picks up in private division social insurance occupations since the end of the retreat have brought the unemployment rate down for Blacks, as this industry has a substantial offer of African-American specialists. Over the previous year finishing in January 2012, Blacks have seen solid occupation development in a various scope of commercial ventures, including monetary exercises, proficient and business administrations, and instruction and wellbeing
After a troublesome and torrid time, the black people or what so called slaves, were entering the 20th century with hope of not being discriminated after the slavery had been abolished in the late 19th century. The beginning of 20th century had overseen the stampede of worldwide immigrants to America as they seek for a better life. As for African-Americans, they were entering the phase where they found themselves almost identical with the past century despite the slavery being abolished. Though the abolishment of slavery was written in the 13th Amendment, some of the states still legalized it. They were still in the same position as they were before in some of the states in America.
