Blacks and the New Deal

The Ramifications on Black Society and Psychology

Class Objectives

• TSW learn the background behind the New Deal

• TSW get an unbiased description of both the negative and positive effects of the New Deal on blacks

• TSW take notes to use for a class debate on the topic

Do Now

• Summarize the handout you read last night• Say one thing you learned from your reading

Overview of the New Deal

• The New Deal was a series of economic legislation designed to get the country out of the Great Depression

• It was passed between 1933 and 1936• It was created by the Democrat President Roosevelt• It included the creation of social security and numerous

government organizations to regulate the economy

Blacks during Great Depression

• During the Great Depression, lynching and other forms of racism was rampant down south

• When the job market crashed, blacks had an even harder time getting employed

• Racist Southerners made up considerable percentage of the democratic party

Roosevelt’s view on Blacks• Roosevelt often tried to avoid the issue of race

• Roosevelt needed support of southerners and was afraid supporting civil rights would alienate them

• Refused to support an anti-lynching bill in 1938 saying “I've got to get legislation passed by Congress to save America. The Southerners... occupy strategic places on most of the Senate and House committees. If I come out for the antilynching bill now, they will block every bill I ask Congress to pass to keep America from collapsing. I just can't take that risk."

Positive Impacts• The New Deal acknowledged black poverty on a large scale • Roosevelt appointed a white civil rights crusader named

Clark Foreman and a black professor named Robert Weaver• Blacks benefited from work relief programs in northern

areas

Eleanor Roosevelt • The First Lady was one

of the first white women to publicly support civil rights

• (going to add more once internet works)

Negative Impacts • Roosevelt conceded to racist southern Democrats to gain

political support-does not support bills outlawing lynching and poll taxes

• Blacks denied social security• Federal Housing Authority refuses to give many mortgages

out to blacks trying to buy property in white areas• Government authorizes lower salaries for blacks• Excluded from most worker unions• Agricultural Adjustment Administration policies cause

many blacks working on farms to lose jobs