New Deal Interpretations Flashcards
(8 cards)
What did African Americans gain during the New Deal?
African American Robert Weaver became Special Advisor on the Economic Status of the Negro in 1934 and later the head of the influential Public Works Administration. His appointment led to grants of $45 million to build schools, hospitals and homes for African Americans. Usually, there was provision made for a certain number of African American workers in federal projects for house building.
African Americans benefited from poor relief and job creation projects administered by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration from 1933-35 and then the World Progress Administration which followed in 1936. Over a quarter of a million African Americans were given literacy help via federal aid projects. Employment training was provided by the National Youth Administration which was advised by the influential African American reformer, Mary McLeod Bethune.
Farm Security Administrators gave help to Southern African Americans who were hit badly by the drop in food and raw material prices after 1929.
Roosevelt spoke out against lynchings, though no law was passed against them. There were also some appointments of African Americans to New Deal offices.
Defenders of the New Deal’s contributions to better race relations point to more of a change in atmosphere towards civil rights legislation. Eleanor Roosevelt supported African American organisations and openly disapproved of segregation. Additionally, the NAACP grew in membership in the late 1930s.
What did African American limitations during the New Deal?
Many poor sharecroppers could not pay rents and little was done for the 200,000 who were evicted. When federal programmes reduced crop production and paid farmers for not producing crops to maintain prices with reduced supply, there was often non money paid directly to poorer African American tenants. African Americans suffered disproportionately from unemployment. The attempts to improve working conditions excluded groups where African American labour was most common- agricultural work and domestic service.
The National Recovery Administration attempted to establish fair rates of pay and better conditions, but did not encourage similar requirements in the industrial North. Its regulations were evaded by many employers in the South.
The strengthening of the unions by the Wagner Act ensured big employers used unionised labour which acted against the interests of African Americans who were causal workers and not members of unions in large numbers.
Social Security Act provisions did not apply to the bulk of the work done by African Americans.
Segregation remained prevalent in most institutions and in the armed forces throughout WW2.
The provision of work by the CCC to help the unemployed did offer some relief to African Americans but the labour camps were segregated and the type of work offered was not the same, African American workers received the worst and most poorly paid work. Where African American and white workers were employed in federal projects like the Tennessee Valle Dam, they were segregated to avoid racial tensions.
Roosevelt did not increase African American voting rights.
What did organised labour gain during the New Deal?
The government passed a number of acts, including the National Industry Recovery Act in 1933 and the National Recovery Administration which helped improve relations between employers and employees with a series of codes concerning production, wages and hours.
The Wagner Act of 1935 gave workers the right to elect their own representatives to take part in collective bargaining and the right to join unions.
A minimum weekly wage was established by the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.
A National Labor Relations Board was established, which had the power to bargain on behalf of workers.
Industries that had resisted recognising unions changed their position- General Motors recognised the United Automobile Workers’ union in 1936 and US Steel recognised the Steel Workers Organising Committee in 1937.
Recognition of unions encouraged a growth in union membership, which rose from 3.7 million in 1933 to 9 million in 1938.
The nature of unions also changed with the establishment of the Committee of Industrial Organisations in 1935, which became the Congress of Industrial Organisations in 1937. This encouraged ethnic groups to join unions.
What challenged the position of organised labour during the New Deal?
Henry Ford did not recognise the NIRA or the Wagner Act
The NIRA was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1935
Some employers intimidated the workers and used violence against them, taking action to break strikes
Unskilled workers in agriculture or domestic work and at the lower pay of the pay range did not benefit from the improvements
Women did not make gains in pay due to the NIRA and Fair Labor Standards Act which upheld pay differentials
Welfare reforms were not always successful in helping the position of those on lower pay because of conflicts between state and federal rights
What did Native Americans gain during the New Deal?
Indian Reorganisation Act or the Wheeler Howard Act of 1934. This gave Native Americans a greater role in administering their reservations and saw the establishment of corporations on the reservations to ensure resources were better managed.
The Act also allowed Native Americans to practice their own religion and this helped them assert their own cultural identity. This included using the hallucinatory drug peyote, which was used for religious visions.
This Act stopped the sale of Native American lands and recovered unallocated lands, which was used to either create or expand reservations.
Native American children were to attend local schools and would learn about Native American culture, rather than having modern culture forced on them.
These reforms resulted in greater respect being shown to Native American culture.
Tribes on the reservations were again to be led by tribal councils- encouraging tribal loyalty and ending government attempts to break it up.
Training was provided for Native Americans to help improve farming and better medical facilities were provided.
The allotment policy, brought in by the 1887 Dawes Act, which led to poverty and hardship, was abandoned and further loss of land prevented.
What were the failings of the New Deal for Native Americans?
The Act continued the assimilation policy which was not what Native Americans wanted.The policy of termination further undermined their position in 1953 thus any benefits from the Wheeler-Howard Act were often short lived.
Voting to decide whether to accept the Wheeler-Howard Act was by secret ballot among the tribes. This idea of ‘democracy’ was alien to the Native Americans, who preferred to use their traditional ritual councils where matters were discussed openly and no vote was taken.They saw the process as part of the ‘white man’s culture’ being forced on them.
Although the Native American tribes were organised into self-governing bodies, 75 out of 245 tribes rejected the measures.
The idea of a separate federal court for Native Americans was abandoned.
There were insufficient funds available to buy back former reservation lands that had been sold.
Any gains are limited by financial demands of WW2.
What did women gain during the New Deal?
Defenders of the New Deal’s policies towards women have pointed out that reforming organisations, seeking to develop women’s rights, had access to a sympathetic administration. Eleanor Roosevelt spoke for women’s groups, as did Molly Dewson, the head of the Democratic women’s organisations. Frances Perkins became Secretary for Labor and the influential African American reformer Mary McLeod Bethune was director of the National Youth Administration.
Roosevelt appointed women to leading positions, such as the first female Appeal Court judge, Florence Allen, and the first female ambassador, Ruth Bryan Owen. Nellie Taylor Ross became the first female director of the US Mint.
Reforms, such as the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 and the National Recovery Administration’s limits on hours and its minimum wages policy, indirectly benefited women. The welfare benefits of the Social Security Act of 1935 helped married women struggling with bringing up children during the depression. Aid to dependent children helped mothers with no male head of the household. While a lot of this legislation was not specifically targeted at women, much of it emerged from proposals by female social workers and reformers of the 1920s.
Women were confident enough to participate in political activity and also to unionise. Between 1930 and 1940 there was a 300% rise in unionised female labour. There were more married women working in 1940 than there had been in 1930 but this may have reflected a need for employers to keep costs down as female labour was cheaper.
What were limitations for women during the New Deal?
Traditional belief that pay should not be equal between men and women. The National Recovery Administration established lower pay for women workers in 1933. In public service and federal employment there were lower pay rates.
Women in domestic work did not benefit from a lot of the New Deal legislation. The women who worked in the industries of the South were disadvantaged by legislation, which often raised costs. Agricultural policies were often unhelpful for African American women who worked as sharecroppers, either independently or alongside their partners.
The priority of the recovery aspect of the New Deal was to get men back to work. Roosevelt and his administration, including new female advisers, felt that stability of the family depended on the model of the male breadwinner, rather than necessarily the independent woman worker.
Much was made of the women advisers but they were often restricted to traditional women’s roles, advising on social policy and family matters. The number of women who took part in active roles in general political life and national decision making did not radically improve in the Roosevelt era.
