s more than many party traditionalists could stand. Though popular with the public, he lost the support of the southern Democrats in Congress for his programs. Just as he had feared in 1933 when he dodged civil rights issues for fear of losing key support for his economic recovery programs, his initiatives steadily lost the support of the more conservative congressmen through 1937 and 1938 with his inclusion of black Americans. As a result the New Deal era drew to a close.
Racism was not unique to the United States in the 1930s. Preaching racial and religious hatred, Adolf Hitler gained political power in Germany in the late 1920s and became the leader of Germany in 1933. Hitler claimed the Germans formed a “master race” that would rule the world. He considered blacks an inferior race. As a result, the Nazi Party in Germany most vigorously promoted the rise of racism in Europe through the 1930s. Black Americans were among the first Americans to condemn Hitler and Nazism. The Summer Olympics were held in the German capital of Berlin in 1936. When black American track star Jesse Owens won four gold medals, Hitler walked out of the stadium.
Black Americans were outraged when Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935, one of the few independent black nations in the world at the time. Black Americans raised funds for medical supplies for Ethiopia and some even traveled to Ethiopia to help defend it.
U.S. Senator Theodore Bilbo of Mississippi once noted that race consciousness was growing in various countries around the world. He called racial values “the only hope for future civilization” and commended the Germans for the importance they placed on it. Bilbo so strongly supported racial values that, in 1938, he sought a $1 billion congressional appropriation to deport all black Americans to Africa. Such were the hurdles black Americans faced in their quest for economic relief and racial equality.
The historic civil rights movement of the 1950s resulted in major legal gains in the 1960s. It clearly owed part of its success to the gains made in the 1930s. Black Americans had been appointed to the highest public offices in U.S. history. A key group, the Black Cabinet, personally advised the president on a regular basis. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt personally promoted black issues. Segregation was banned in federal office buildings. Many blacks received federal relief to cope with the Depression.
Yet despite these gains during the 1930s, black Americans were still dependent on whites in government to speak on their behalf. Some black leaders, such as Ralph Bunche, argued that the New Deal sustained an inferior attitude in blacks. The New Deal had not challenged existing patterns of black and white relations. For example, liberal whites assumed lead positions in seeking social change. Black leaders were kept in the background. Secretary of Interior Harold Ickes was one of those white leaders. He firmly believed that black Americans were part of the larger group of citizens the “New Democracy” was intended to aid through the welfare state. As a result, actions by blacks on their own behalf were stalled until the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. What the New Deal did offer was a rebirth of the ideal of racial equality in American public life. That notion had earlier died at the end of Reconstruction in the late 1870s.
Changes in American Politics and Law
The Depression era created lasting political associations in America. These included the link between liberalism and the quest for social justice, and the link between economic conservatism and racism. Perhaps most importantly, beginning in the 1930s the federal government became a key factor in civil rights issues. The Black Cabinet and President Roosevelt’s appointees, including Ickes, Hopkins, Alexander, and Williams, brought the recognition of civil rights issues into the New Deal.
One of the lasting legacies of Roosevelt to the black cause was the appointment of eight Supreme Court justices during his lengthy tenure as president. Seven of these justices became advocates for c