Racial Injustice In The Proliferation Of New Deal Agencies

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. Many citizens of the south did not believe “Negros” should get paid minimum wage, but expected them to be paid a lower amount. Many whites opposed any thought of equality between them and African American’s, but that did not stop the (NRA)National Recovery Act. A work program produced from the NRA the (CCC) Civilian Conservation Corps helped many “colored” American’s, benefit from the New Deal. The United States also needed an escape from their current depression, so Roosevelt creates the Work-Relief Bill with equality as his goal.

The relief effort that I chose, the Civilian Conservation Corps, was an effort to both conserve our natural resources as well as put young men between the ages of 18 and 25 back in work. The act employed 2.5 million—primarily white—men into

The Civilian Conservation Corps accomplishments included the restoration of resources, recreational opportunities, and the building of national state’s parks. The failures of this program were that Civilian Conservation Corps was that it gave money to a small segment of the population, it took taxpayers money ,and it was only for young white men. According to experts of the Digital History Online Textbook, many New Deal Programs discriminated against African Americans. The document said “Roosevelt feared that conservative southern Democrats, who had seniority in Congress and controlled many committee chairmanships, would block his bills if he tried to fight them on the race question.(Document B)” This is why the Civilian Conservation Corps is labeled as a success and a fail. It helps citizens but not many. The second New Deal program that had accomplishment and failures was the Tennessee Valley. The accomplishments that the Tennessee Valley made was it provided cheap electrical power to rural areas, and it provided employment in rural areas. The failures that this program had was that since they provided lots with electricity, they had to build a lot of dams, which is bad for the ecosystem. The Tennessee Valley also had many long term failures. The long-term effect is that it generates power through coal fire plants, which causes pollution that generates global

Following his inauguration, Roosevelt's attitude toward African Americans changed little. He not only opposed vital civil rights legislation like the anti-lynching bill, designed to make lynching a federal offense, but showed little interest in challenging even the most blatant manifestations of racial injustice in the proliferation of New Deal agencies. The National Recovery Administration (NRA), Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA), the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), and the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), to name only a few, all failed to protect blacks against discriminatory employers, agency officials, and local

Not all whites were against hindering blacks in getting benefits from the New Deal. There were whites that help African Americans they created groups like the anti-racist movement and the interracial united groups. Even with all these helps African Americans wanted too relied on themselves to fight to change the New Deal. They developed strategies for social change to help create the New Deal. They use the community and other institution like churches to establish there needs. One of the ideas they used was towards labor movement. One of the labor unions called CIO unions help African American expended the labor. There were many battles for blacks had to face in the New Deal to get any jobs. One battle that was won was called the Brotherhood

Another program created by FDR was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) which paid young men for their work in fixing things in communities where it was needed. While the money they were

The Great Depression, pulled the American economy to its all-time low. The government mitigated the depression with several methods. When the stock market collapsed, people started losing their jobs and then their homes to the banks. People were desperately searching for jobs even if it’s terrible, until the government formed the CCC. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was formed to provide hope and dignity to young American citizens and their future generations.

We can eliminate to some extent at least the threat that enforced idleness brings to spiritual and moral stability,” in his message to Congress. On March 31, 1933 Roosevelt signed the bill into law and just six days later, the CCC was formed. His ultimate goal was to have 250,000 men in the forest in just three short months. (www.sos...) The CCC administration consisted of a director, Robert Fechner, and an advisory board of representatives from the Departments of War, Agriculture, Interior, and Labor. With the help of local boards, the Department of Labor selected the enrollees. The War Department housed, clothed, and fed the men, and organized and administered the camps. The Department of Agriculture and Interior planned the work projects. (Smith)

The New Deal was a set of federal programs with the principle of social-welfare liberalism. President Roosevelt was deeply compromised to help the most vulnerable in the ongoing crisis. In second inaugural address he outlines the progress of the New Deal “We have always known that heedless self-interest was bed morals…. Out of the collapse of a prosperity whose builders boasted their practicality has come to the conviction that in the long run economy morality pays.” At some extend President Roosevelt proudly tell the Nation that he was heading to the right direction to progress. Some of the New Deal successful programs that brought relief and dignify living to many Americans were Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) a direct governmental regulation of farm economy to resolve the overproduction problem. In the unemployment relief, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) that provided federal funds for state relief programs. Public Works Administration (PWA) a construction program that lead to Civil Works Administration (CWA) that provide work for more than 4 million Americans repairing, building, and constructing America's infrastructure. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) that mobilized young men to do reforestation and conservation work helping their family’s income and the country reservation. In 1935 in housing issues Works Progress Administration (WPA) Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) that help many Americans keep their

35) As Hoovers administration continued its business backing policies African Americans drifted towards Democrats. This accompanied a rapid urbanization that rose the percentage of African Americans living in cities from forty four percent to fifty percent in just 9 years, from 1930 to 1939. (Trotter, pg. 11) Seventy five percent of African Americans lived in the South, where Southern Democrats had oppressed and opposed African Americans since the end of the Reconstruction in the early 1870’s. (Americans at War) Despite the bad blood between African Americans and Democrats, they drifted in large numbers towards ‘the left’ as Roosevelt and his administration began to administer the “New Deal”. The New Deal was a series of programs and agencies set up to help the United States recover from the Depression. Over 20 million Americans sought assistance from agencies and programs such as Social Service. (Trotter, pg. 8) Many of these were African Americans, but over sixty percent of African Americans received no benefits from the New Deal due to a propensity towards racism in many of the local distributers of aid. (Trotter, pg. 11) According to labor laws supported by Roosevelt and the Democrats, it was not required to pay African Americans minimum wage. Roosevelt also refused to sign an anti-lynching bill into law, allowing lynching to remain legal in many Southern states, due to Roosevelts need of the Southern Democrats to maintain power in the Senate and

The New Deal provided employment for 3 million young men. Through the Civilian Conservation Act, uniformed young men were recruited to work in various employment such as reforestation, fire fighting, flood control and swamp drainage. These jobs not only helped the people financially, but also gave a sense of accomplishment and prevented them from committing crimes.

The New Deal was significant to many different societies. One of which being the unemployed. Roosevelt created a bunch of agencies to help aid this group. The CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) helped provide conservation work for unemployed young men. 100,000 people joined in 1933.

Government jobs and political rights were a goal for the new deal to let more Americans have access to the pleasures that any white man could have. The Shocking "grand father" laws were passed and forced Americans to take tests for the eligibility to vote. For certain minority groups, the tests would be made especially hard and a black person would almost never pass these tests. FDR spoke out against blacks being segregated from government jobs. "Black cabinets" or "black brain trust" became advisors of the president. William Hastie and Mary Leod Bethune were of the top names in this group of African Americans. They helped thousands to stay in school and learn new trades. With the help of Eleanor Roosevelt, many women took jobs at the White House. In 1936 the democratic convention declared that every platform should have an alternate of the opposite sex. The WPA hosted top jobs for women who worked in government. The most important of the women was Francis Perkins who became the first female cabinet member in the position of secretary of labor, and Florence Allen who was a judge of the circuit court of appeals.

By 1933 millions of Americans were out of work. Hundreds of thousand of men, women, and children roamed the country in search of food and shelter. Bead lines were not an uncommon sight. One of the earliest steps to aid the unemployed was the CCC, the Civilian Conservation Corps. This program designed to bring relief to the young men of America ages 18 to 25. In this program the CCC would enroll these men in camps across the country for around $30 a month. This was a semi-military style job almost two million men took place in the CCC. They took part in conservation projects such as planting trees to maintain national forest, eliminating steam pollution, creating fish, animal sanctuaries, and conserving coal, petroleum, shale, gas, sodium and helium deposits. Jobs also came from the Civil Works Administration with jobs such as teaching to highway repairs. The National Recovery Administration established with the national industrial recovery act practiced generating more jobs so more buying would come. The NRA was declared unconstitutional in 1935 because of over regulation as recovery began to come into play. Also through the NIRA workers were given the right to Bargain with their employers through unions their own choice.

By July of 1933, 1,433 working camps had been established and more than 300,000 men put to work. Under the guidance of the U.S. Forest Service, the National Parks Service and the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture, CCC employees fought forest fires, planted trees, cleared and maintained access roads, re-seeded grazing lands and implemented soil-erosion controls. Additionally, they built wildlife refuges, fish-rearing facilities, water storage basins and animal shelters. To encourage citizens to get out and enjoy America’s natural resources, FDR authorized the CCC to build bridges and campground facilities. During the Great Depression