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Essay On African Americans In The 1930s

583 Words3 Pages

What Has Changed for Blacks in the 1930’s The Emancipation proclamation has released the African Americans from slavery. Whites and Blacks now walk the streets together, but this is not an easy transition for the whites. The whites found many ways that excluded the blacks and kept them feeling like unequals. Despite the fact that the slaves were “free”, they worked long hours doing the same task they had as slaves for extremely low wages. Truly nothing has changed for them. The African Americans worked all day everyday just to earn a small amount of money. “Often whole families worked all day, every day, to eke out a living. They raised cotton and different types of food…”(Sherrow). This is very similar to how they worked as slaves. For the amount of work they did they should have been able to receive a higher pay. “White sharecroppers received an average income of $417 a year compared to $295 for blacks. Not surprisingly with such low wages, living conditions were deplorable” (“Black Americans 1929-1941”). A black man could have worked the same job as a white man for the same amount of time, and be paid half the earnings of the white man. Even if the black man put more effort into the job, and got more done than the white …show more content…

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”). Even when they tried to find better jobs and make more money the whites had a problem. The whites refused them their rights and forced them to accept “lower class” jobs. They aren’t slaves anymore, but they are still living like

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