n, 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, one of the first racial hiring quota systems was introduced into government. Secretary of Interior Harold Ickes directed the hiring of black workers on PWA projects in proportion to their presence in the local workforce. Other milestones occurred. In 1937 President Roosevelt appointed NAACP attorney William Hastie as the first black federal judge in American history. Two years later, in 1939, President Roosevelt’s Attorney General Frank Murphy established the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Section.
The Civilian Conservation Corps, created in 1933 to work on public projects, expanded the number of black workers from 6 percent in 1936 to 11 percent by 1939. Photography sessions of President Roosevelt with black leaders began to occur, and civil rights delegations visited the White House. Still, racial discrimination was widespread in New Deal programs. The rise of black ghettos was in part a result of New Deal public housing policies that did not go far enough to help blacks.
Activism within the Black Community
Organization within the U.S. black community itself increased. In 1936 Ralph Bunche and John Davis formed the National Negro Congress (NNC). The organization brought together all existing black political groups to press for economic recovery. Representatives of nearly six hundred participating organizations elected A. Philip Randolph its first president.
In 1937 the Carnegie Corporation hired Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal to study race relations in the United States. A number of scholars assisted in the study. In reporting his findings, Myrdal wrote the influential 1944 publication An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy. The problem, as Myrdal concluded, was not the natural capabilities of black Americans. The problem was white racism and policies promoting racial inequality.
Blacks and the Arts
Some WPA programs not only provided employment to black Americans, but promoted social justice as well. The Federal Theater Project introduced new ideas to America, including racial equality. 