Civil Rights - FP3 - New Deal

Question 1

AAA(Agricultural Adjustment Administration) - Overview

Answer 1

Agriculture = lack of prosperity due to over production which kept prices low
May 1933 AAA farmers invited to reduce acreage and production for govt subsidies - $100m compensation for farmers who slaughtered pigs, ploughed surplus corn etc to stabislise farm prices
1932-35 incomes rose 58%

Question 2

AAA(Agricultural Adjustment Administration) - Impact

Answer 2

40% of AA workers made a living from sharecropping during New Deal - only 13% AA owned land
Crunching of farms leads to laying off of sharecroppers/tenants - 200,000 driven off by 1940
1936 SC declare AAA unconstitutional - stating federal exceeded power - second act 1938 but also little help to farmers
Study of 600 cotton counties found net income of $295 for black sharecroppers compared to $417 for white croppers, $175 for black wage hand and $232 for whites

Question 3

CCC(Civilian Conservation Corps) - Aims

Answer 3

Set up Mar 1933 - deals with high level of unemployment (25% workforce unemployed 1933)
Work in conservation projects, accomodation, road access etc

Question 4

CCC(Civilian Conservation Corps) - Effects

Answer 4

250,000 working on projects 1933-4, 500,000 1935 - 10% reserved for AA and 200,000 worked for CCC but restricted to low skilled jobs
Segregation in housing camps
Discrimination Director of CCC Fechner did nothing to encourage black recruitment until FDR intervened
Blacks constituted 5% of those enrolled by CCC 1933, and only 6% a year later
Clarke county Georgia, not one black resident chosen to attend camps though AA 60% of pop
Fort Dix May 1933 - black recruits strike after scarcity of food, white recruits replace black clerks and moved away because of local white pops nerves

Question 5

NRA(National Recovery Administration) - Aims

Answer 5

Created June 1933 and aimed to help business and industry recover by creating jobs and raising wages - set codes of fair practice and safety standards included 40 hr working week, minimum wages, and prohibition on child labour under 16

Question 6

NRA(National Recovery Administration) - Effects

Answer 6

NRA codes excluded workers in agrictulture and domestic servide where 75% of black workers were employed
Wages not increased proportionally - eg bellboys who were predominantly black recieved and 20% increase on $51 monthly wages compared to white hotel clerks who recived a 20% increase on $100 monthly

Question 7

PWA(Public Works Administration)

Answer 7

Created by National Industrial Recovery Act June 1933
Gave $3.3bn to fund construction of hospitals, roads, public buildings etc and gave work to the unemployed
AA were given equal pay and Ickes was particularly influential in introducing racial quotas for construction projects and in the housing division

Question 8

WPA(Works Progress Administration)

Answer 8

Established Apr 1935 to create jobs through public works programmes
Given $45.5bn to spend on works and employed 2m workers, built 8000 schools and hospitals, 1000 airport landing fields, 12000 playgrounds
Only 5% supervisory roles given to AA - in the South just 11/10344
By 300,000 to 350,000 AA employed anually - and illegal to discriminate racially
Educational progreammes employed 5000 teachers and taught 250,000 AA hwo to read and write
Artists programme

Question 9

NYA(National Youth Administration)

Answer 9

500,000 unemployed youth got aid and were taught skills - established 1935
Exceptionally fair in its distribution of money

Question 10

FERA (Federal Emergency Relief Administration)

Answer 10

Spend $4 billion to help unemployed through relief/work projects
1/4 AA benefitted Uneven distribution - $32.66 a month to whites but $19.29 to blacks in Atlanta. In Georgia and Mississippi black relief payments were 30% lower than those of whites
Closed down 1935

Question 11

Social Security Act 1935

Answer 11

Replaced FERA Insurance for unemployed, pensions for elderly - payments were low unemployment benefit max $18 a week and for 16 weeks only
Excluded domestic service and farm workers - 65% of work for AA in these areas

Question 12

National Labor Relations or Wagner Act

Answer 12

1935 - gave trade unions right to bargain with employers for better wages/conditions
Most jobs occupied by AA excluded and 19 major trade unions excluded AA 1930

Question 13

Fair Labor Standards Act 1938

Answer 13

Fixed minimum wage at 25 cents per hour and max number of hours weekly at 44hr
300,000 workers had an immediate wage increase, 1.3m had their work hours reduced
Again excluded most of the jobs of AA

Question 14

Tennessee Valley Authority

Answer 14

Aimed to provide employment, electricity, improved farming methods
Black workers not allowed to live next to white workers at TVA camp Norris Tennessee

Question 15

FHA(Federal Housing Administration)

Answer 15

Established 1934 to help homeowners pay lower-interest long term mortgages
Little help to impoverished inner-city areas where black families lived
Federal housing loands deliberatel preserved the racial composition of neighbourhoods
Black neighbourhoods redlined as high risk so would never recieve loans

Question 16

Wagner-Steagall National Housing Act

Answer 16

Sep 1937 - aimed to build new low rent housing to replace slums - Congress underfunded it and only 160,000 homes built 1641