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Summary Civil Rights in the USA: In-depth studies: New Deal
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All key information pertaining to women, native Americans, African Americans, and trade unions during the New Deal.
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New Deal, 1933-39:African Americans:
Lack of Progress:
- Many poor sharecroppers could not pay rent and little was done for the 200,000 who were
evicted. When federal programmes reduced crop production and paid farmers for not
producing crops to maintain prices with reduced supply, there was often no money paid
directly to African American tenants.
- African Americans suffered disproportionately from unemployment.
- The attempts to improve working conditions excluded groups where African American
labour was most common - agricultural work and domestic service.
- The National Recovery Administration (NRA) attempted to establish fair rates of pay and
better conditions, but did not encourage similar requirements in the industrial North. Its
regulations were evaded by many employers in the South.
- The strengthening of the unions by the Wagner Act tended to ensure that big employers
used unionised labour - which acted against the interests of African Americans, who were
often merely casual workers and were not members of unions in large numbers.
- Social Security Act provisions did not apply to the bulk of the work done by African
Americans.
- Segregation remained prevalent in most institutions and in the armed forces throughout the
Second World War.
- The provision of work by the Civilian Conservation Corps to help the unemployed did offer
some relief to African Americans, but the labour camps were segregated and the type of
work offered was not the same- African American workers received the worst and most
poorly paid work.
- Roosevelt did not increase African American voting rights.
Gains in Progress:
- African American Robert Weaver became the Special Adviser on the Economic Status of
the Negro in 1934 and later the head of the influential Public Works Administration. His
appointment led to the grants of $45 million to build schools, hospitals and homes for
African Americans. Unusually, there was provision made for a certain number of African
American workers in federal projects for house building.
- African Americans benefited from poor relief and job creation projects administered by the
Federal Emergency Relief Administration from 1933-35 and then the World Progress
Administration, which followed in 1936.
- Over a quarter of a million African Americans were given literacy help via federal aid
projects. Employment training was also provided by the National Youth Administration,
which was advised by the influential African American reformer, Mary McLeod Bethune.
- Farm Security Administrations gave help to Southern African Americans who were hit hard
by the drop in food and raw material prices after 1929.
- Roosevelt spoke out against lynchings, though no law was passed against them. There
were also some appointments of African Americans to New Deal offices.
Trade Unions + Labour Rights:
Lack of Progress:
- Henry Ford did not recognise the NIRA or the Wagner Act.
- The NIRA was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1935.
- Some employers, taking advantage of the available workforce, intimidated workers, used
violence against workers, and took action to break strikes.
- Unskilled workers, particularly those in agriculture or domestic work and at the lower end of
the pay range, did not benefit from the improvements.
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