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 civil rights. They set the stage for the Warren Court of the 1950s and 1960s that made landmark decisions directly affecting racial equality.
Social Progress Stalled
Despite important gains made in public attitudes and positions of blacks in government, some viewed the New Deal era as a setback in the struggle for civil rights. The growing momentum within the black community of the early twentieth century was sidetracked by the country’s urgent pursuit of economic recovery programs. As a result, blacks would have to wait until after World War II to pursue racial justice. Changes in public attitude translated to little concrete change in New Deal programs. Black sharecroppers, unskilled laborers, and domestic helpers still had twice the unemployment rate as whites. Jim Crow laws and public segregation continued for twenty more years.
The onset of World War II forced President Roosevelt and the federal government to confront race issues more directly. The hiring quota system Secretary Ickes introduced in the WPA set a precedent for the wartime Fair Employment Practices Commission. It also served as a model for civil rights legislation and court decisions of the 1960s and 1970s. Job opportunities for blacks boomed through the war years, only to decline afterwards.
Despite the stalled momentum for sweeping social change, two lasting changes brought by the New Deal era were the increase in black expectations of racial equality and the decrease in open white hostility. White supremacy was far less tolerated in public.
Civil Rights Movement
The civil rights movement grew following World War II, building on the factors of increased public awareness of black issues, increased black expectations, and the role of the federal government. The movement became a “freedom struggle” by black Americans in the 1950s and 1960s. The goal was equality with white Americans. Equality meant freedom from discrimination in employment, education, and housing, the right to vote, and equal access to public facilities such as theaters, inns, an