art of state government, their actions were not restricted by the Constitution. White-only primaries would continue into the 1940s.
Another common barrier to black voters and to poor whites was the poll tax. The poll tax was simply a fee charged at the polling (voting) place. Since many black Americans could not afford to pay the tax, by the early twentieth century some states began to see poll taxes as a means to exclude blacks from the political process. The Court in Breedlove v. Suttles(1937) upheld the poll tax as constitutionally valid because it was applied to both black and white voters. The poll tax persisted until 1964 when the Twenty-fourth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, abolishing the poll tax in federal elections.
Those black Americans who were able to exercise their right to vote, voted overwhelmingly Republican from the 1870s through the 1920s. They were voting for the party of Abraham Lincoln who had finally given black slaves their freedom. Given their recent emergence from slavery and extensive discrimination by whites, which maintained political control, the black population held little political power. Taking the black vote for granted through the years, the Republican Party actually offered little to black Americans. The Democratic Party, however, offered even less. A black had never been seated at a Democratic National Convention prior to the 1930s. In 1928, when the Democratic convention was held in Houston, Texas, several black alternates were seated behind chicken wire, separated from the white delegates. This lack of political power, in addition to low economic status, left black Americans particularly vulnerable to the impacts of the Depression.
Black Americans entered the Great Depression already economically deprived.
The introduction of New Deal work relief programs in 1933 raised some hope for federal assistance. But because local governments dominated by white supremacists guided politics administered many New Deal programs, little help arrived.
The combination of longstanding racism and increased competition over jobs led to considerable hard feelings. This situation was especially strong in the South. In many areas black Americans were excluded from federally sponsored work programs. In fact, some relief programs such as those led by the AAA actually contributed to a further decline in the black condition. The AAA programs favored the large farmer who had enough land that he could cut back production on in order to qualify for government payments. These payments greatly supplemented farmers’ incomes. The small farmers found it even more difficult to compete in the marketplace. In addition, sharecroppers were kicked off lands that were taken out of production. As a result, the programs ran many small black farmers and sharecroppers out of business.
With little relief coming from the New Deal, blacks soon lost confidence in the programs. For example, black newspapers characterized the National Recovery Act (NRA) as standing for “Negro Run Around” and “Negroes Rarely Allowed.” Wage standards developed by the NRA setting wage rates did not meet the needs of black Americans. Most black occupations, such as farm workers and domestic help, were excluded from the program. Wage rates were also set according to region. Most blacks lived in the rural South where pay rates were low. Even if a black person did have a job favorably affected by the wage rates, they likely lost the job to unemployed whites. In many cases the NRA codes were ignored as employers paid lower wages to blacks than to whites. Some relief started coming in the mid-1930s as President Roosevelt became more sensitive to the criticisms of advocates for the needy. Still, hopes were largely unanswered, as it took World War II to bring relief on a larger scale.
Realizing little help was coming from the federal government, local efforts seeking better economic conditions rose in both the South and North. In the South sharecroppers and tenant farmers formed local organizations such as the Southern Tenant Farmers Union. The u