The Effect Of The Great Depression On The African Community

Why was the Great Depression such a hard time for Americans? In 1929 the stock market crashed in America. Which resulted in massive amounts of disarray, and caused Nine Thousand U.S. Banks to Fail. During the Great Depression of the 1930’s, African Americans were hit the hardest by the scarcity of jobs and money. During the Great Depression almost all of the blacks were fired from their jobs and had no way to sustain themselves or their families due to the loss of food and money. After being fired it was nearly impossible for them to get another job, and if they did happen to be hired they received almost no pay. John Hardman wrote, “The Great Depression of the 1930s worsened the already black economic situation of black Americans. African

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 lifestyle did not see much change from before the depression and during the depression in the sense of the capital dollar. They assumed the New Deal brought up by president Roosevelt at the time would bring change to their life, but the white public would not stand to be on equal terms with a person of color. “Unemployment was rampant, and many whites felt that any available jobs belonged to the whites first.”i Many white Americans did not want African Americans to be paid minimum wage, but be paid lower than minimum wage. Industry’s also wanted to pay their employers a different wage depending on the color of their skin. “Negro unskilled labor,

After the war, laws were passed that defended the rights of African Americans, but that all changed with the Klu Klux Klan. Originally, “The Constitutional amendments were passed, the laws for racial equality were passed, and the black man began to vote and to hold office,” but, “The violence mounted through the late 1860s and early 1870s as the Ku Klux Klan organized raids, lynchings, beatings, burnings… As white violence rose in the 1870s, the national government, even under President Grant, became less enthusiastic about defending blacks, and certainly not prepared to arm them” (Zinn Ch. 9). Africans Americans were granted the equal rights that they wanted, but with the actions of the Klu Klux Klan, a white supremacy group, the US government began to back off from supporting the African American due to fear of more attacks (possibly becoming more violent). The African American also lived in poverty, “The average wage of Negro farm laborers in the South was about fifty cents a day, Fortune said” (Zinn Ch. 9). Not only were the newly freed blacks being hunted down by white supremacy groups, but also they lived in poverty. Yes, they life of some approved greatly and they were able to receive an education, but for the majority of African Americans, they were still living in the shadow and fear of whites.

In this time period, life was extremely hard for African Americans simply because they were slaves and even though they were emaciated in 1863 by the Emancipation Proclamation. They were still treated with such disrespect...to the point where they were considered not to be humans. They were instilled with so much fear that the thought

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

at education and so on. African Americans had grown tired of living in an unjust world

The New Deal left a lot of African Americans behind and made it worse for some, this is because they were not given the same opportunities as whites in the New Deal. One thing that seperated blacks opportunities from whites is the fact that the Recovery Administration

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

They were treated differently. Many could not get a good job and if they did they were payed less. Any african americans moved to the city to get a job but never could. This not only was bad for the economy but it was bad for the city. The city was filled with the homeless. The word ghetto originated from this time because of the dirty streets filled with the homeless. There were many protest so president Lyndon B. Johnson passed the policy known as the war on poverty. The government started more job training and hired more black people on purpose to ease racial tension. From there on African Americans found many jobs with a decent wage to hold their own. Many of these changes were thanks to the many who stood day and night to protest for their rights as an American

Many African Americans were tenant farmers or sharecroppers during this time. The price of cotton fell and farmers were growing too much product to match up with demand. Famers were also battling nature. Many areas in the Midwest and Plains were struggling with lack of water and dust storms. All of these issues caused many farmers, white and black, to up and leave their land to move to the city. African Americans were often excluded from government programs that were established to help farmers recover. It was not until many years later that President Franklin Roosevelt would acknowledge the plight of African Americans. My second picture below depicts an African American couple who are sharecroppers in Mississippi. It is easy to see their home is in need of repair, they are barefoot and disheveled. I feel it is safe to say the African Americans of this time were in a great depression long before and after the whites

The stock market crash of October 1929 was the prelude to the Great Depression. It was a time of hardship and sorrow for many people. American morale was low, and money and food were scarce. Poverty and despair, however, were not foreign to the Black Americans; poverty had been common to them since their days of captivity. To many Black Americans who lived in the south, it was the return of old times.

During the reconstruction years, many changes occurred to give blacks more rights and a place in American society. First, blacks were given many opportunities to learn through the Freedmen’s Bureau and other organizations. Secondly, the government helped blacks acquire jobs, so they could provide for themselves. Lastly, blacks were able to vote for a while. This caused the election of blacks into government positions up to state level. Unfortunately, many people, especially southerners, did not approve of this.

African americans couldn't justify having higher jobs on plantations as their desire to occupy land was no longer surfacing. Their plight for land became only similarly faded as Andrew Jackson in 1865 ordered all land formerly dispensed through the Bureau to be back to its authentic proprietors inflicting many African americans to be evicted and instilling a deep experience of betrayal as it might seem that any efforts to rise within the social ladder might be

Finally after a long time the war ended and the Union won, which meant that the slaves had won their freedom. They finally were set free and didn’t have to be treated as slaves anymore. Unfortunately, that was not the end of their journey to freedom. There was still many obstacles in their way. For starters, they didn’t know how to read or write because of the slave codes. Job Opportunities were extremely limited for them, and they didn’t have money or clothes (4). Even after the end of the war many people who favored slavery were angered and didn’t want African Americans to be treated equally like every other American. That is when groups like the Ku Klux Klan and The Knights of the White Camelia began to form (4). They would terrorize African