African American Depression Research Paper

Depression is a major issue in the United States, yet some people still have to suffer. They suffer because the issue of depression is not taken serious and they have no help or support to get through their hard times. People of color are usually the ones to suffer. Mental health is stigmatized in the black community. Depression can impact all kinds of people that come from different paths of life, but it is expressed and addressed differently in the black community. According to the Center for Disease Control, in 2011, 7.6% of African-Americans sought treatment for depression compared to 13.6% of the general population (Mental Health: Culture, Race, and Ethnicity: A Supplement to Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General 2011). Why

Depression is a feeling of severe despondency and dejection according to the google dictionary. It first appeared in Mesopotamia, where they believed that depression was a demonic possession and often used priest to attend to patients with depression. The original word for depression was melancholia and it was seen as a mental or spiritual illness rather than a physical one. With the help of great psychologists and psychiatrists such as Emil Kraepelin, Kurt Schneider, and Sigmund Freud, the science and research of depression was able to advance over time. In terms of African American women, they have higher rates of depression and anxiety compared to White American women. This could be due to many problems such as poverty, resources, emotional resilience, and social support.

DEPRESSION: A SILENT EPIDEMIC AMONG BLACK MEN by Calvin R. Greene First of all it is important to understand what really constitutes depression. All of us feel down from time to time perhaps based on having a "bad day". However when feelings of sadness last for several weeks, months, or years, and are accompanied by other symptoms such as change of appetite, isolation from family and friends, sleeplessness, etc. these are symptoms of depression.

The New Deal was thought up by none other than president Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt’s intentions were meant to help with the current depression at the time which lasted, for about three years. The new deal was meant to make “colored” and whites equal, but that was not the case.

The Great depression caused many problems for black people and they were greatly affected by it. Problems of the Great Depression affected every American, however, African Americans were the most affected. By 1932 half of Black Americans were out of work. In some Northern cities, blacks were fired so that a white person could take their job. But yet again, racial violence became more common, especially in the South. Even when President Roosevelt was trying to end the Great Depression there was still a conflict between the blacks and whites in the New Deal Housing and employment projects. This just goes to show that once everything has been set in motion that it can't really become a non-normal thing. Everyone was mostly worrying about themselves and their own people that they didn't bother

African Americans didn’t know that is was a Great Depression. African Americans have always been poor and knew how to survive. By 1932, approximately half of black Americans were unemployed, blacks always felt unemployed and under paid. Whites attempted to keep blacks out of work by not hiring African Americans. They used racial violence, and discrimination tactics to keep an underprivileged population depressed.

The 1930’s started off with a huge economic crash which left the U.S. startled and in the Great Depression. The stock market had just crashed on October 24, 1929, also known as the Wall Street Crash. The “Jazz Age” had just ended and new musicians and artists were slowly rising up to their fame. African American’s were being discriminated against in the south. Many African Americans were farmers who had to suffer from the Great Depression as well as the Dust Bowl. As a result of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl many African Americans had to go through the struggles of losing their jobs and having to move north in search for a new life. Many Americans had this problem as well, but the racism that was used against Africans, added to the severeness of the situation. African Americans weren’t able to get jobs, homes, or opportunities as easily as African Americans. Many African Americans were in terrible condition and most of it was because of the way that African Americans were treated. After President Roosevelt was elected a new hope had arisen through the country and Africans Americans were given another chance.

The Great Depression. The worst financial crisis to ever hit America. Unemployment rates of over 25%. A 50% decrease in national income. Billions of dollars lost in a single day. (Trotter, pg.8) The Depression affected everyone in America. Young and old, rich and poor, black and white, none were spared. However, for America’s 12 million African Americans (Encyclopedia of Race and Racism) the Depression didn’t just start in 1929.(Africa to America: From the Middle Passage Through the 1930s) African Americans were a subjugated minority. Racism wasn’t only present in America, it was accepted by many. In the South, Democrats fought to keep African Americans under harsh segregation and oppressive laws. (Trotter, pg. 9) Efforts to relieve

Even though africans americans did not have jobs before the war, their economic situation still changed very little. This was because of a system called sharecropping. Sharecropping was where southern plantation owners would hire African Americans (often their former slaves) and give them pay to work the land. The workers would accept the pay and then the plantation owner says well you need this, this, and this to harvest or plant the crop, then the plantation owner says, “Well i have those things but to use them I’ll take a little bit out of our salary”. The owners did this with everything from tools to food to housing so that eventually the worker was actually in debt to the plantation owner. This then made it so that the worker had no way to leave the plantation and were essentially stuck there almost as if they were still slaves. And sadly this was probably the preferable route for African Americans because the other option was to be homeless. All industrial and white collar jobs were given immediately to white people. Even in the north it was extremely difficult for African Americans to find a steady job that could support a family. Due to this embarrassing amount of economic gains African Americans did not make great strides economically for over 50

For African American in 1939, segregation was still running high, especially in the South. With the Great Depression coming nearly to end, World War 2 beginning, and the Jim Crow Laws still in full effect, times were even harder than they were before. Blacks attempted to get employment to help their families, but the odds were against them since unemployment for blacks were twice as high as other races. African American juveniles who had jobs were either downgraded or fired altogether to give white people

Not only would companies hire white workers before they would black workers, but they would oftentimes fire black workers before they would the white workers. This put a strain on the racism of the south, and many white americans would look down upon blacks (The 1930s: Lifestyle and Social Trends: Overview). Not only were the blacks paid poorly during the 1930s, but the whites treat them unfairly; in 1877 the government put up a system known as the Jim Crow Laws, these laws would stay in place for decades until the 1950s. The Jim Crow laws were put in place to segregate the blacks from the whites. Blacks during this time could not walk into the same restaurant as a white man or drink from the same water fountain because the black man did not match the white man’s skin (Racism in the 1920s &

As a whole the African American community became fed up with the way they were treated. Here was a race that was "free and equal" but continuously discriminated against. The Great Depression hit the African Community hard and this was evident with the lack of action and government involvement under the control of President Hoover. The work done with FDRs New Deal was all but voided by Hoover, and this was expressed in the reading which stated, "Hoover's reluctance to use the federal government to intervene in the economy extended to the provisions of relief" (Odyssey P479). All of this rolled over into the service during World War II and the continuous poor treatment of indiviuals who wanted to fight for a country even though they weren't

Once the depression took full effect it was nearly impossible to find jobs and work. It grew so bad that the whites that were so desperate had to scare the African Americans into giving them their jobs whether it be through violence or threats. "’The shotgun, the whip, the noose, and Ku Klux Klan practices were being resumed in the certainty that dead men not only tell no tales, but create vacancies’" (Trotter). Even the jobs that were mostly done by African Americans that were usually found undesirable by whites were wanted by the unemployed caucasians.

Right after World War II, many Americans were encouraged by the steady and significant economic progress, including for Blacks. In 1950, many big factories just start up and need workers So, many African-American were offered the steady wages with higher than the pay earned by there parents. But, still, under Jim Crow, African Americans were relegated to the status of second-class citizens. African Americans were not allowed to run machinery or promote it. So, even though they were offered

    African-Americans had long before the 1940’s been taken advantage of in the United States. Beginning with colonization in the early 1600s when Natives were deemed prone to illness and too weak to endure the work of slavery, Africans were brought to the colonies from Africa to be sold in slave auctions. Many times there was hope for the Africans and later African-Americans that there would one day equality between their races and their superior white owners. Beginning with the American Revolution, slaves were promised freedom with British success and supporting the British troops. As the British lost, the grasping hope of freedom diminished. In 1808, the slave trade to the United States ended, but with millions of slaves in North America, slavery continued to thrive. The Civil War brought about another hope for slaves that