Historic Events for Students: The Great Depression. Editor: Richard C Hanes & Sharon M Hanes. Volume 1. Detroit: Gale, 2002.
“Let Jesus lead you and Roosevelt feed you” (quoted in Robert S. McElvaine. The Great Depression: America, 1929-1941,1993). These words were spoken by a black minister to his congregation shortly before the 1936 presidential election.
Hard times were nothing new for black Americans. After all, Southern slavery had ended only a few generations earlier. Nonetheless, the Great Depression made things worse. Black workers were normally the first to lose jobs at a business or on a farm. Often they were denied public works employment supposedly available to all needy citizens. Individuals were even threatened at relief centers when applying for work. In deep frustration many blacks called President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s programs a “raw deal” instead of a “new deal.” Some charities refused to provide needy black persons food, particularly in the South. To make matters worse, violence rose against blacks during the 1930s, carried out by whites competing for the same jobs. As a result, black Americans suffered more than any other group during the Great Depression.
Racial discrimination was seen in federal housing, social security, and youth programs. Labor unions, including the American Federal of Labor (AFL), actively pursued discriminatory practices. These activities included exclusion of blacks from union membership, lobbying Congress to keep anti-discrimination clauses out of New Deal laws, and striking against companies that employed blacks in jobs desired by whites.
With First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt personally taking up the cause of racial equality, initial steps were directed toward racial harmony by the mid-1930s. The Roosevelt administration ended racial discrimination in some federal programs in 1935. In addition, significant amounts of relief were targeted for black Americans. Consequences of these changes appeared in the 1936 presidential election. The majority of black voters voted for Roosevelt, bringing to an end a 75-year period of black allegiance to Republican candidates. Shortly after the elections, a Black Cabinet, composed of black American government employees, was formed to advise the president. But the president’s and Mrs. Roosevelt’s support did not come without controversy and loss of political support for the New Deal programs, particularly among Southern Democrats. World War II (1939-1945) finally brought economic relief to black Americans. But significant advances in racial equality would not come until the civil rights movement pressed for changes in the 1950s and 1960s. The New Deal was a period of great economic suffering, small political gains, and lost social opportunities.
Tough Times Turn Harder
Racism in the 1920s invaded every aspect of life in the United States. Many people outwardly expressed such feelings in public with few reservations. Given this longstanding social atmosphere, black Americans naturally suffered greatly when the economy declined in 1929. Those employed were often the first to be laid off when company fortunes fell. The slogan “Last Hired, First Fired” became well known. By 1932 black Americans had a 50 percent unemployment rate compared to 25 percent in the U.S. population in general. With unemployment escalating, jobs previously considered “Negro occupations” suddenly became attractive to the larger population. These jobs included domestic help, elevator operators, street cleaners, garbage collectors, waiters, and bellhops. Blacks were considered fit for only low paying dirty jobs no one else wanted. In Atlanta the slogan “No Jobs for Niggers Until Every White Man Has a Job” became popular among whites. Those blacks able to keep their jobs sometimes had their wages cut in half. The Pulitzer Prize winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, written years later in 1960, was based on the racial prejudices of the 1930s. The story focuses on the courtroom trial of an unjustly accused black man. It examined the ignorance, prejudice, and hate tha