New Deal

Question 1

Northern black grievances

Answer 1

• Lack of protection under the law + police brutality
• De facto segregation (many living in ghetto)
• Blacks could vote but never won state offices
• Most blacks were poor and disproportionately affected by the depression

Question 2

Southern black grievances

Answer 2

• De jure segregation (Jim Crow)
• Lynching not uncommon
• Lack of protection under the law + police brutality
• Poor education - prohibited economic advancement (most did unskilled work e.g. sharecropping)
• Most excluded from voting

Question 3

Seniority rules

Answer 3

Solid South invariably voted Democrat = same Democrat senators and representatives continually reelected = gained disproportionate influence under seniority rules

Question 4

Impact of seniority rules

Answer 4

Southern Democrats had control over key committees, and their influence enabled them to block legislation that would help blacks

Question 5

Defeat of anti-lynching bills

Answer 5

• Southern Democrat filibusters

- Roosevelt reluctant to support anti-lynching bills

Question 6

WPA (positive)

Answer 6

Harry Hopkins

• Provided work for 350,000 blacks every year
• Employed 5,000 teachers and taught 250,000 blacks to read and write

Question 7

NYA (positive)

Answer 7

Mary Bethune

- Provided skills to 500,000 young blacks

Question 8

Racial quotas

Answer 8

Allocated a proportionate amount of work to black Americans

e.g. PWA had racial quotas for its constructions projects

Question 9

FERA spending

Answer 9

FERA spent over $14 billion in relief for the poor

Question 10

FERA negative

Answer 10

Distribution of FERA relief at a local level was discriminatory

Question 11

FERA positive

Answer 11

Despite discrimination, 1 in 3 blacks were aided by FERA

Question 12

AAA distribution of relief

Answer 12

Rich white farmers dominated the county committees set up to distribute AAA relief; the vast majority of money went to rich white farmers

Question 13

Number of blacks sharecropping

Answer 13

40% of black workers made their living through sharecropping

Question 14

AAA blacks driven off

Answer 14

200,000 black farmers were driven off sharecropping land by 1940, as white owners reduced their acreage to qualify for AAA relief

Question 15

CCC Clarke County

Answer 15

In Clarke County, not one black resident was chosen to attend CCC camps, despite making up 60% of the population

Question 16

NRA negative

Answer 16

In the NRA, black workers were limited to lower paying unskilled jobs

Question 17

Voting patterns shift

Answer 17

In 1936 elections, Democrats got the majority of the black vote for the first time

Question 18

Eleanor Roosevelt anti-lynching

Answer 18

Openly support NAACP anti-lynching bill

Question 19

Eleanor Roosevelt letters

Answer 19

Forwarded on letters of racial violence and discrimination to Harry Hopkins

Question 20

Who was Harry Hopkins?

Answer 20

Oversaw many of the New Deal programs

Question 21

Eleanor Roosevelt singer

Answer 21

Invited black opera singer Marion Anderson to sing on the steps of Lincoln Memorial (after being refused by the Daughters of the American Revolution)