Amidst the nationwide economic insecurity of the 1929 Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt implemented the New Deal for all Americans, policies whose general success yet uncomprehensive nature created lasting disparities that are visible today. Broken into three legislative periods, the New Deal Order was comprised of the New Deal, Fair Deal, and Great Society plans, all of which were intended to hinder the drastic effects of the depression and improve the lives of those in the larger impoverished classes. With Black Americans being most affected by the skyrocketing unemployment and poverty rates, the policies’ effectivity can be partially measured by how much aid was provided to them. During the first two parts of the New Deal, …show more content…
Following his presidency, President Truman’s “Fair Society” and President Johnson’s “Great Society” programs continued to seek economic security and successfully raised the middle class of all groups, yet Liberals had limited political power, making discrimination and poverty still weighing on the backs of Black men and women. Though generally successful in ending the Depression and offering aid for most Americans, in the face of conservatism, sexism, and racism, Black men and women were disproportionately held back from reaping the benefits of the New Deal …show more content…
With many unable to purchase homes, the 1933 Home Owners’ Loan Corporation purchased mortgages and issued new ones with extended repayment periods. To assess the risks of buying such mortgages, the HOLC would not only look at the wealth of the neighborhood but also made decisions of aid based on racial biases; Black Americans were seen to be high risk. Additionally, President Roosevelt’s 1934 Federal Housing Administration issued a requirement that only encouraged banks to make loans to suburbs due to the “risks” associated with “adverse influences,… including prevention of the infiltration of… lower class occupancy, and inharmonious racial groups (65).” Though the specific language of the requirement changed to “compatibility among the neighborhood occupants” in 1952, the racist nature of the policy stood with a white man being blacklisted from FHA insurance just six years later for renting his mortgaged home to a Black man. In the building of suburban districts during and after World War II, the FHA would refuse to subsidize developments that were racially integrated or had African Americans in nearby neighborhoods that threatened the uniform racial composition. This made builders have no discretion in whether they would sell to Black Americans, as the FHA’s biases