How Did The Great Depression Affect African Americans In The 1930's

During the 1920s, the lifestyle of the ordinary American citizen had drastically taken a turn in comparison to prior years. Before World War I, Americans were careful to be frugal with their money; however, a new age of consumerism resulted in rash forms of spending in rising businesses and stocks. Although, life changed once again when the stock market crashed on March 21, 1929. The distinction in living conditions between the classes was extremely vast. While thousands of the working class and non-whites lost their jobs, the members of the upper ranks of society looked down upon them, believing it wasn’t their responsibility to provide for the less fortunate. The ways the upper class, working class, and non-whites had to change their ways

By the 1930s, half of the African American population was unemployed. Race Relations in the 1930s and 1940s states, “In some Northern cities, whites called for African Americans to be fired from any jobs as long as there were whites out of work.” Unite 11 1930s: The Great Depression adds, “....in spring 1933 while the general unemployment rate was 25 percent, for blacks it was 50 percent. Also, the percentage of African Americans receiving welfare was higher than that of whites.” Racial violence become more common as well, mainly in the South. “Lynchings, which had declined to eight in 1932, surged to 28 in 1933”, says Race and Relations. Discrimination in New Deal labor and housing acts wasn’t unusual to see. This provoked labor leader A. Philip Randolph to organize a march protesting against job discrimination. The protest would lead President Frederick Roosevelt to enact Executive Order 8802, stating all people, regardless of race, nationality, etc., would be permitted to fully engage in the defense of the United States. Although African Americans were a part of the working and lower class, they were still excluded and discriminated against because of an ideology that they were inferior and wouldn’t amount to anything, unlike the white race. This displays how despite it being a dire time for the lower classes to unite and support one another during the economic crisis,

They viewed New Deal programs as hand-outs to the lower class, whom they resented. The programs were financed out of the taxes sourced from those that still had an income and their interest felt ignored by Roosevelt who was focused on the impoverished and unemployed. These frustrations increased tensions between the classes due to their differences that weren’t understood. According to Relation of Class, "Upper-class Americans, sensitized by the Russian Revolution not two decades before, feared that a class war might be on the horizon as a number of workers joined the Communist party.” However, such a large scale of violence never occurred. The upper class wasn’t affected by the rise in unemployment and homelessness, unlike most other Americans. It is said by Relation of Class that, “While many of the richest people in America lost money when the stock market crashed, the upper classes as a whole still retained much of the wealth which they had held before the Great