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African Americans In The 1930's

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The daily lives in the early part of the twentieth century contained countless changes. Social reform and significant technological advancements had major effects on daily life, including the invention of the radio, talkies and the passage of the nineteenth amendment. Although social and technological changes played major roles in the development of the overall growing society, there were many other areas of change. Specifically, voting records among minorities changed throughout this era, especially among blacks and women. This great change in the political realm still affects elections today, among other things from the era of the early twentieth century. In the past few election cycles, minority voters have played an important role in the …show more content…

While men were able to leave their families in hopes to find work, just abandon their home and family, women were not so fortunate to get away. While women continued to support the family, often times they had to rely on the assistance of the programs made available through the new deal. Through this struggle, the help received by way of government assistance programs may have altered women’s votes, which gave way to increased support of the Democratic Party in the 1936 …show more content…

In the twenties black’s faced discrimination and segregation from whites and, primarily in the south, were still disenfranchised under continued Republican rule. It is in this decade that Ku-Klux-Klan membership soared, “during the 1920s estimates for national membership in the KKK ran from 3 million to as high as 8 million. The klan devised a plan called the ‘decade’ in which every member of the klan was responsible for recruiting 10 people to vote for klan candidates in elections” (Haddock, “The Not So”). While having complete control of the legislatures throughout the twenties, the Republicans did not accomplish or push for any major legislation that would benefit the situation blacks were placed in. This discrimination followed in the Depression era, where black workers were discriminated against more often than not, finding themselves unable to find work. “In 1932 approximately 25 percent of all white workers in the urban North reported themselves unable to find work. For black workers the figures ran significantly higher throughout the decade. In Pittsburgh and Chicago, half reported they had no work. In Philidelphia and Detroit, black unemployment approached 60 percent” (Greensberg 27). These sorts of hardships likely contributed to the major voting changes in the election of 1936 and

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The most crucial change that occurred in the 1920s was the passing of the 19th Amendment. The 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote. Continuing the chain reaction, women found more opportunities for employment. For example, advertisers exploited sexual allure to sell everything, which many “old-timers” regarded as a veritable errotic eruption. Although a women’s lifestyle took a giant leap forward, African Americans were still in the same spot.

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This investigation will explore the question: How successfully did the New Deal programs, Social Security Act(SSA) and Public Works Administration(PWA), resolve the economic crisis caused by the Great Depression during 1933-1938? The years 1933 to 1938 will be the focus of this investigation, to allow for an analysis of how successful the new deals were, as well as its evolution in the post-Great Depression. The first source which will be evaluated in depth is Eric Arnesen’s Article “A new deal for Americans”, written in 2005. The origin of this source is valuable because Eric Arnesen is professor of history and African-American studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

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With the KKK at large again, this was detrimental to black communities. This showed the government’s ignorance of minority groups. A quote from a document about the Great Depression illustrates this neglection from President Roosevelt himself, “Roosevelt not only rejected such proposals as abolishing the poll tax and declaring lynching a federal crime, but he also refused to specifically target African American needs in any of his larger relief and reform packages.” With blacks finding themselves in such deep poverty in the

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Although the movement did significantly increase black voter registration, the movement eventually weakened due to fear of Communism during the Cold War and a lot of backlash from segregationists. Nonetheless, the story of this movement helps people understand the opportunities and limitations that shaped the struggle for racial democracy in America during that time period. This essay will discuss the emergence of the New Deal, the effects of World War II, poll tax, and the fight for equality. The New Deal was launched as a solution for the Great Depression in the South. This New Deal came with President Franklin D. Roosevelt's first term in office.

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Drawing Backgrounds in Red The turn of the 1930s was the Nadir of the Reconstruction, the end of the economic boom of the roaring twenties, and the beginning of the great depression. Meanwhile, America as a hegemon was gearing up for an economic and violent battle with the Soviet Union in a war that would be called World War II and simmer into what is known as the Cold War. At the turn of the 1930s, the reconstruction-era was nearing its end because the force that made up the bulk of its political power and presence President Abraham Lincoln had long since gone and had been replaced by President Hoover who had a much weaker resolve on the racial issues and goals of reconstruction. At its end, only the reintegration of the south out of Reconstruction’s three goals was achieved, the goals of integration of black people into the economic and political framework of the South had failed.

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1297 Words | 6 Pages

Even black workers who displayed a strong loyalty to the republicans in the 1920s, voted more democratic than ever before in the election of 1936 (Cohen, p. 258 – 259). After getting elected, Roosevelt proposed many acts and laws later passed by the congress in his New deal to help economic recovery during the Great Depression. Laws such as Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA, 1933) which helped with funds for workers, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC, 1933) which guaranteed deposits up to a certain, Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA, 1933) which was designed to boost agricultural prices by increasing surpluses, National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA, 1933) which is to help stimulate economic recovery by regulating industries for fair wages and prices, Social Security Act (1933) which helped create pension payments to retired workers, and much more. Many people praised Roosevelt for this New Deal; for example, a hundredth anniversary book celebrating Polish contributions to Chicago, praised Roosevelt saying “with the aid of our splendid President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whose humanitarian interests resulted in HOLC – Home Owners’ Loan Corporation -, and other security laws pertaining to homes, investments, and savings, many

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1236 Words | 5 Pages

African Americans face a struggle with racism which has been present in our country before the Civil War began in 1861. America still faces racism today however, around the 1920’s the daily life of an African American slowly began to improve. Thus, this time period was known by many, as the “Negro Fad” (O’Neill). The quality of life and freedom of African Americans that lived in the United States was constantly evolving and never completely considered ‘equal’. From being enslaved, to fighting for their freedom, African Americans were greatly changing the status quo and beginning to make their mark in the United States.

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Of these over 835,000 black farmers and laborers faced particularly difficult times in the rural South” (“Black Americans 1929-1941”). Blacks made up more than half of the farming population. Without them the production of products would have a significant decline. “Often they were denied public works employment supposedly available to all needy citizens. Individuals were even threatened at relief centers when applying for work” (“Black Americans 1929-1941”).

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The 1930’s was a time of many tensions in America. Race relations in the ‘30s presented unfair treatment and perception of African Americans. The effects of the Great Depression and their migration to southern cities led to increased segregation and discrimination of African Americans. Race relations are forms of behavior which arise from the contacts and resulting interaction of people with varied and cultural characteristics. During the 1930’s there were many races in America who craved their individual rights.

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Many Americans were now unemployed, and if someone was lucky enough to still have work, their schedules were usually cut down to part-time reducing the amount of income they received heavily. After 1933, the expansion of the New Deal meant that the government now intervened much more evidently in people’s daily lives, employing them and giving them aid, as well as providing new forms of social insurance. A wave of labor strikes and unionization allowed for a new way of thinking about the power of ordinary people and racial and gender divisions. During the Depression racial discrimination was very common, for people were trying to find someone to blame and take their anger out on. Minority workers were normally the first to lose jobs at a business or on a farm.

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398 Words | 2 Pages

The United States in the 1960's showed many changes in the civil rights area for African Americans by voting, putting the word out of injustice, and protesting to make the movement known in the world. During the fight for civil rights, it was broadcasted over the world, The only obligations weren't only done in Birmingham, Al, it was everywhere. African Americans decided it was time to take a stand and change the way that they were treated just because of their skin color. During 1960, the goals for the African Americans were to send out a message that they just want to be treated equally. Martin Luther king jr was invited to fight injustice in Birmingham, (A) and trying to bring African Americans together with a nonviolent protest.(B)The African American were always betrayed as dangerous or as a bad image.

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533 Words | 3 Pages

From the 1950s through the 1970s blacks were among the most liberal Americans, in fact, more liberal than whites on most issues. In the 1980s, a shift began as African Americans moved toward the center. Blacks have continued to moderate their views, as they have become more affluent and have elected more blacks to political office. A growing political clout has prompted African Americans to take on more mainstream views.

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645 Words | 3 Pages

Democrats polices of modern liberalism that promotes social and economic equality is the driving factor of why African Americans continuously vote Democrat. In the 1930’s Franklin D. Roosevelt introduced the New Deal during the Great Depression which gave relief to African American regarding wages and work equality. “Beginning in the 1940’s, however, deep demographic and economic change, accompanied by a marked shift in white racial attitudes, started blacks down the road to much greater equality. New Deal legislation, which set minimum wages and hours and eliminated the incentive of southern employers to hire low-wage black workers put a damper on further industrial development in the region (Thernstrom and Thernstrom 1998).”

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1471 Words | 6 Pages

As Barton Bernstein focuses on in his piece “The New Deal: The Conservative Achievements of Liberal Reform,” the New Deal left individuals including poor workers of most/all races, nearly all African-Americans and women of all races behind. As Bernstein says of the New Deal, “Its efforts on behalf of humane reform were generally faltering and shallow, of more value to the middle classes, of less value to organized workers, of even less to the marginal men. ”(Bernstein 14). And, as previously mentioned, these ‘marginal men’ included various groups of people, all of which sharing a common necessity for government assistance. Despite the often-heralded progressiveness of the New Deal, one cannot dispute that any help that the New Deal did provide them proved insufficient.

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1154 Words | 5 Pages

Lynching was a serious problem in the early 1900’s and blacks made many efforts in order to secure an anti-lynching law. Shortly after, The Great Depression led African Americans out of work, and the jobs formally known as “negro” jobs became “white” jobs because they were the only jobs available. “By the 1932 election, the national unemployment rate was about 24 percent, and the black unemployment rate was around 50 percent” (Brooker). As well as not being able to find work, blacks received lower welfare payments and starvation was a constant

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