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Essay On African Americans During The Great Depression

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The problems of the Great Depression affected every group of Americans. In 1933 the unemployment rate in the U.S. was over twenty-five percent. At the same time, unemployment rates for a variety of American minorities exceeded up to 50 percent. (Race During the Great Depression) As much as the Great Depression caused suffering for white Americans, the hardships skyrocketed for racial minorities, including African Americans, Mexican Americans, Native Americans, and Asian Americans.
No one grieved more than African Americans. By 1932, approximately half of black Americans experienced unemployment. (Race During the Great Depression) African Americans were the first to be fired from jobs when the economy lolled and was the last to be hired. (Women …show more content…

(FlatWorld) In June 1934, John Collier of the U.S. Office of Indian Affairs introduced the Indian New Deal. This program changed the course of the U.S. Indian policy. Instead of forcing Native Americans into U.S. society, the policy payed for the economic development of tribes, advocated for Native traditions, and promoted independent governments. (Minority Groups and the Great Depression) Secretary of the Interior, Harold Ickes, participated in the American Indian Defense Association. This was a group formed by John Collier in the 1920's to protect the property and culture of Native tribes. Ickes appointed Collier as the Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian affairs. (FlatWorld) The reforms that emerged in the 1930's stood on the notion that Native culture belongs in twentieth-century America. John Collier launched a policy to reinstitute the spirit of Native-American governments through the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. The IRA repudiated the previous allocation system and coaxed tribes to design their own constitutions. New Deal reforms also seeked to create secular schools on reservations, rather than sponsor religious schools that disrespected Native traditions. (Native Americans, Impact of the Great Depression on) Unlike most of America, the 1930's was regarded as a progressive time in Native American Civil

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In the 1930s the federal government had put in place a set of policies know as the Indian New Deal. Natives of the Northwest Coast were encouraged to adopt governmental forms and constitutions to establish relations. The government had the final say in how tribes were coordinated, they controlled who sat in chairs of power and how things would be running. Following the 1950s federal policies towards the Indian people continue to vacillate. During the last past two decades of the twentieth century the tribes of Washington have been still making attempts to have the terms of the 1850 honored by the state and federal governments mostly in regards to fishing rights, to bring economic stability to the Native community through the utilization of

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57 Words | 1 Pages

The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 ended the allocation of lands to individual Native Americans, encouraged them to preserve their culture, and to develop their own governments. It allowed tribes become sovereign nations. This act created a cultural resurgence but halted economic progress for the tribes. The political structure of the tribes were also unstable and

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927 Words | 4 Pages

But unfortunately the reality was that the minorities had much harder times than white Americans. In 1933, the general unemployment rate in the United States was over 25 percent; at the same time, unemployment rates for various American minorities ranged up to 50 percent or more (“Great Depression and the New Deal Reference Library”1). Racial discrimination was high and minorities were the first to loose their jobs during the Great Depression. They were denied to work. They were often denied employment in public works programs, they were sometimes threatened at relief centers when applying for work or assistance, and even some charities refused to provide food to needy minorities, especially to blacks in the South.

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949 Words | 4 Pages

In the 1930’s a group of government programs and policies were established under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, they were created with the intention to help the American people during The Great Depression. The Great Depression was a time were many banks failed, many businesses and factories went bankrupt, and millions of Americans are out of work, homeless, and hungry. Most New Deal programs gave American citizens economic relief, chances for employment and helped for the general good. The New Deal’s intention was to help Americans during these troubling times filled with economic uncertainty, and in that aspect, it was a success. After the New Deal was implemented, unemployment rates were gradually lowered.

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742 Words | 3 Pages

The Red Progressives, who were influenced by pan-tribalism ideology, called for the abolition of the BIA to free the Indians from federal control. They persuaded many tribes of the lack of meaningful Indian input in the New Deal, and that ending land allotment and restricting land purchase were in violation of the United States Constitution. They further promoted to remove excessive federal wardship in reservations, and urged federal government to settle Indian

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1230 Words | 5 Pages

Although in 1968, President Johnson created the National Council on Indian

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1899 Words | 8 Pages

During the mid-nineteenth century, the United States and the Navajo did not get along, causing many issues. The arrival of fortune-seekers from the eastern United States brought an even more devastating clash of cultures (Aaseng, 1992). Neither the fortune-seekers nor the Navajo trusted each other. The fortune-seekers assumed that the Navajo people had leaders who governed the entire tribe and would command the Navajo to hurt them (Aaseng, 1992). The fortune-seekers got a few of the Navajo to sign treaties expecting all of them to follow, but that was not the case considering many Navajo tribes consisted of widely scattered clans operating independently (Aaseng, 1992).

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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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Crop production dried up during this time due to lack of rain and the dust storms that would plow through their cities. Without any crops farmers struggled to try and keep their farms. The African Americans’ experienced the great depression before the stock market crashed, when it did crash, they were hit much harder

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301 Words | 2 Pages

By Nevaeh Gray 7A. Do you know about the Great Depression and how it affected African Americans? This event affected people crucially and especially African Americans. At this time the economy was already very bleak, but when this terrible event happened it just made it worse for African Americans. For example, black people were the first to get laid off and some people even excluded black people from their soup kitchens. Black people would shop at stores but they would only hire white people.

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519 Words | 3 Pages

In general, most Americans see the New Deal as one of the most important events in American history. Passed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, the New Deal was a response to the Great Depression, aiming to provide relief, reform, and recovery for the American people. While the New Deal was successful in some areas, it also had some drawbacks. This essay will explain how the New Deal was both good and bad.

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771 Words | 4 Pages

During this time “Hoovervilles” were on the rise and they were little raggedy shacks that American citizens began living in. Franklin Delano Roosevelt ended up beating Hoover in the 1932 election and began proposing New Deal plans such as, Agricultural Adjustment Administration, Social Security Act, and Fair Labor Standards Act (Zeide 10/31). Less than ten years later,

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639 Words | 3 Pages

The Indian Relocation policy of 1948 was aimed at modernizing the common Indian. It was created by the Bureau of Indian affairs and the motion carried by the government. The program was designed to transform the rural native population into an assimilated urban workforce. The policy was framed to sell the many job possibilities that were present in the urban areas as and as such Relocation offices were set up in Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Dallas. Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) employees were supposed to orient new arrivals and manage financial and job training programs for them.

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1777 Words | 8 Pages

To contend with our state’s greatest economic fall in history, FDR’s New Deal revolutionized both American’s sentiment towards the federal government’s duty to its people and its role. The importance of which fortified a variety of interest groups as well as the executive branch, it also initiated social change for African-Americans and farmers alike. Nonetheless, and quite significantly, the New Deal, while emphasizing on individual character was able to uphold America’s two-party system. The United States of America would not be what it is today if it were not for the endeavors and memory of the New

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764 Words | 4 Pages

African Americans were the hardest hit during the Great Depression, and were often the first to get laid off. The unemployment rate rose above 25%, which meant less spending on goods. When people lost their jobs they couldn’t pay for items they had bought through installment, therefore, their items were repossessed. The people who had lost their jobs and had no money would ride on railroad cars to travel. It was estimated nearly 50% of children during the Great Depression did not have food, shelter, or medical care.

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