NEW DEAL AFRICAN AMERICANS

Question 1

Give context statement

Answer 1

• Period where the govt showed willingness to tackle social and economic problems and began to move away from their earlier laissez faire approach

Question 2

Ways federal govt positively impacted rights

Answer 2

• Duke Ellington got federal govt support, boosting black culture and cementing influence of 1920s Harlem
• 1933 - civilian conservation corps provided work experience for unemployed people -> pledged to not discriminate based on race
• 1941 - fair employment practices commission attempted to end racial discrimination in war time industries
• Roosevelt promoted some black American women - Mary Bethune put on advisory committee of national youth administration
• Second new deal - ccc increased black workers from 6% in 1936 to 11% in 1939
• Second new deal - Roosevelt created resettlement administration to deal with black American poverty and end sharecropping
• 1935 - works progress administration established, taught 250000 black Americans to read and write, established 16 black theatre groups across country

Question 3

Ways African Americans themselves positively impacted rights

Answer 3

• Some black Americans benefitted from higher wages and shorter hours
• Jesse owens won 4 gold medals in 1936 olympics - challenged ideas of racial superiority
  -1940 - Hattie McDaniel first black American to win Oscar
• Depression - organisations like coloured merchants association in New York were set up to help black Americans who travelled north for work to survive

Question 4

Ways white people positively impacted rights

Answer 4

• Eleanor Roosevelt was sympathetic - gave up membership to ‘daughters of the American revolution’ as they didn’t let Marian Anderson sing in their hall as she was black -> large public protests
• Second new deal - mid 1930s Eleanor Roosevelt increased pressure to help black Americans

Question 5

Other ways rights were positively impacted

Answer 5

• Benefitted from relief programs offered in the new deal - eg public housing projects
• By 1935 - 30% of black families were on relief compared to 10% of white

Question 6

Ways federal govt negatively impacted rights

Answer 6

• Govt pursued legal action, harassing 150 employers to stop domination of large industrial trusts - disrupted private sector when it was necessary to increase jobs, 17% unemployment
• 1933 agricultural adjustment act - help farmers by cutting production to raise prices but led to less work for black sharecroppers -> black Americans had to pay more for food despite having fewer jobs
• 1935 Wagner act - originally had provision banning discrimination based on race but afl lobbies against
• Most funding went to east and west (not south) - where Roosevelt needed political support
• No civil rights act or desegregation - black Americans rights not priority
• Fair labour standards act - didn’t cover agriculture/domestic work which excluded many black Americans -> Southern Democrats fought to ensure social security act and nlra didn’t apply to black sharecroppers
• Black American women suffered as new deal legislation allowed employers to pay women less
• Roosevelt did care about rights but was preoccupied with saving America and needed southern Democrat support to get legislation passed
• Nra gave whites priority with jobs and authorised lower pay scales for black Americans
• Federal housing authority refused to guarantee mortgages to black Americans who tries to buy in white areas
• Roosevelt refused to support anti lynching bill or bill to abolish poll tax - worried that southern democrats will block his bills
• First new deal - initial legislation harmful to black Americans, willing to sacrifice this is in order to get it passed

Question 7

Ways African Americans themselves negatively impacted rights

Answer 7

• 500000 black americans lose jobs especially in south - not skilled, minimum wage meant that employers only hired people who had skills worth this higher wage
• Unskilled black Americans needed expanding economy in order to get jobs - higher federal taxes made it difficult for businesses to hire more
• Many sharecroppers entitled to benefits of social security act
• Black urban unemployment was high
• Depression - families of sharecroppers lived in shacks with no electricity/running water, attempts to from unions were met with resistance in south

Question 8

Ways white people negatively impacted rights

Answer 8

• Depression - no jobs for blacks until every white man has a job, common slogan in Atlanta
• Depression - white took good jobs that black women had eg maids, housekeepers, leaving low paid dirty jobs
• Lynching increased from 8 in 1932 to 20 in 1935

Question 9

Other ways rights were negatively impacted

Answer 9

• African Americans part of the lower groups that felt the depression most severely
• Although they gained from aspects of new deal -> little political interest in extending their civil rights
• Women in rural areas suffered due to policy of limiting farm production to maintain prices