African Americans and the New Deal

By Moses Kamuiru

 Roosevelt’s Era

Americans have come a long way to secure a distinct place into the mainstream of American life. It is only fair to ask what effect, if any, the New Deal had during President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s era to secure rights for the Blacks during the hard ti9mes of the 1930s and beyond. Judges from the today’s standards, there is much we can criticize about the New Deal/Roosevelt era. It never ceased the tremendous injustices that African Americans had to suffer daily. Some of the New Deal initiatives such the work of the Federal Housing Administration served to segregate African Americans more in Jim Crow America. It was during the height of the New Deal that the formerly invisible hand of racism was fully exposed as an issue on a national level.

Hope

This shift in attitude helped propel the issue of racial segregation into the national arena. It also ushered in a new political climate in which African Americans and their allies could begin a struggle at least this time with a hope of success. In other words, the New Deal and the rhetorical support given to the cause of civil rights by both Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt gave some hope to the Black community. This hope brought the chance to dream of a better future, regardless of how the struggle would be along the way. However, this hope was not based on empty promises of change, but on the actual deeds and words spoken by the two Roosevelt’s and taken by the federal government at a time when racism was deeply seared into the American way of life.

Blacks Progress Administrations

By 1935, WPA was employing over 350,000 Africans Americans yearly which was only 155 of its total workforces. The percentage of Blacks who took part in the Civilian Conservative Corps went up from 3 to 11% between 1933 and 1938. There was a total of more than 350,000 Blacks who had been enrolled in the program by the time of its termination in 1942. The National Youth Administration hired more African American Administrators than any other agency of the New Deal. It employed Black supervisors to oversee the agency’s work on behalf of Black youth for each estate in the south.

Continued segregation

President Roosevelt had to choose his battles wisely as a leader of the Democratic Party that was heavily represented in Congress by the racist southerners. The southern whites supported segregation and even opposed the adoption of an anti-lynching law by the federal government as an infringement of state rights. However, this was the president who appointed the greatest number of Blacks to powerful positions in his administration more than any other president before him. The new deal was not perfect either. It was not able to eliminate segregation, or the discrimination of Blacks in employment, working conditions and wages. Moreover, discrimination practices among neighborhood relief agencies persisted despite the best efforts by federal officials, especially in the south.

 

About Carma Henry 24481 Articles
Carma Lynn Henry Westside Gazette Newspaper 545 N.W. 7th Terrace, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33311 Office: (954) 525-1489 Fax: (954) 525-1861

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