th only 4,441 families eventually relocated. The RA also sought to relocate the poor from urban slums into planned towns in the suburbs. This program met the strong resistance of real estate developers. Though the initial goal was the creation of 25 towns, only three were actually constructed and settled.
The New Democratic Coalition
The humanitarian interests of Eleanor Roosevelt and others, in addition to Franklin Roosevelt’s increasing recognition of the growing importance of the black vote in national politics, led President Roosevelt to include blacks in the new Democratic coalition he was building. American attitudes toward race were changing, and blacks were becoming more politically organized. Even before Roosevelt began to take steps for inclusion, the black vote had begun swinging away from Republican candidates for the first time in the 75-odd years since the Civil War (1861-1865). In the 1934 midterm elections, Arthur Mitchell became the first black Democrat to win a seat in Congress, upsetting a black Republican incumbent in Chicago.
The 1936 presidential election marked a historic turnaround in party allegiance by black voters. Whereas Hoover won 66 percent of the black vote in 1932, Roosevelt won 76 percent of the black vote only four years later. Many blacks voted for the first time, encouraged by Roosevelt’s actions. Just as President Roosevelt had earlier anticipated, however, in reaction to his increasing support of civil rights issues, the southern Democrat support of New Deal programs waned. Many feared that not only was Roosevelt introducing socialism to America but racial equality as well. Some charged Roosevelt with instituting a second Reconstruction period. The first Reconstruction was when the Federal government had tried to force social and economic change on the South following the Civil War. Actually the “second Reconstruction” would not happen until the 1960s, three decades later. But President Roosevelt was beginning to lay the foundation for increased activism.
Following reelection, President Roosevelt began taking more assertive steps for racial equality. At the time when no blacks were in high enough positions in government to advise the president, Roosevelt appointed forty-five blacks to various federal positions. In 1936 Roosevelt informally assembled a group of black leaders who held mid-level government positions to advise him on black issues. Such a group had never before existed. They called themselves the Federal Council on Negro Affairs, but soon the press began calling the group the “Black Cabinet.” The group would periodically visit the White House to meet with the president.
The Black Cabinet included: William H. Hastie, an attorney in the Interior Department; Robert C. Weaver, an economist in the Interior Department; Edgar Brown of Civilian Conservation Corps; Robert L. Vann, editor of the Pittsburgh Courier and special assistant in the Justice Department; Lawrence A. Oxley, a social worker in the Department of Labor; and, key organizer Mary McLeod Bethune, administrator in the National Youth Administration. This advisory group was one way in which President Roosevelt reached out to black Americans. As a result the Democratic Party gained the support of black Americans across the nation, but few tangible results came from the cabinet’s activities.
The president resisted the push for anti-lynching laws and prohibitions against the poll tax, two major civil rights goals of the 1930s. He feared losing critical support of the southern Democrats for his New Deal programs. Still the cabinet represented political access to the White House never before enjoyed by black Americans.
Despite the lack of significant promotion of civil rights by the Roosevelt administration, New Deal programs did begin increasing their assistance to blacks. The Public Works Administration (PWA) provided some public housing for black tenants. The PWA even constructed several racially integrated housing projects. In addition 31 percent of PWA wages went to black workers in 1936. In another historic move, on