The Misfitted Administrations

Before WWI, most black people had been dehumanized, effectively stripping them of the feeling to vote and were bereft from protection from police. “I am in the darkness of the south and I am trying my best to get out,” an inspirational migrant from Alabama wrote to the Chicago Defender. New opportunities for the urban part of the North blos-somed when the war reared its ugly head. The American industrial economy grew vigorously, and as existing European immigrants and white women were unable to meet demand, northern businesses leaned to black southerners to fill their place. When the word of higher wages and ameliorated working conditions spread around, northern businesses were met with positive feed-back as black men, in significant numbers came flocking, thus sprouting a social movement out of urban misery. The War, unknowingly, set the par for work for African Americans and the North became a liberating meadow for all those who sought equality and wanted to avoid the ‘racist menace’.

They contributed to society with innovations in music and literature that promoted the cultural growth of America in the 1920s. Also, this helped feed the “Harlem Renaissance”, a cultural movement that spanned the 1920s in which black art, literature, and music experienced renewal and growth, originating in New York City 's Harlem district. It was a period of great achievement by African American writers, poets, artists, and performers. Similarly, the 1930s was occupied by the ability of African Americans to get jobs on Works Progress Administration projects because discrimination was banned by Executive Order 7046. During this time, a multitude of African Americans received wages from the WPA twice as much as their prior earnings. Another program that aided African Americans was Harold Icke’s Public Works Administration. This program provided to black tenants a more than fair share of the public housing it built. Additionally, Ickes utilized the quota system by Public Works Administration to hire African Americans in proportion to their numbers in local workforce (Document 8b). All in all, the two decades emphasized how there was an encouragement of minorities.

Civil rights leaders such as A. Philip Randolph saw the unique situation created by World War II and the acute need for workers as an opportunity to demand equality. In 1941 Randolph threatened President Roosevelt with a 100,000-person march on Washington, D.C., to protest job discrimination. In response, Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802, prohibiting discrimination in defense jobs or the government.

When World War I began African Americans citizens saw it as an opportunity to gain more respect and equal treatment. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case, when the war ended on November 11, 1918, African Americans optimistically hoped that their patriotic sacrifices would have a positive impact on race relations and expand the boundaries of civil rights, but instead when they returned home they were subjected to increased racism and discrimination. After World War I African American men weren’t the only people who had to face discrimination in Cleveland. In Cleveland: A Metropolitan Reader (pp. 192) it stated that, “The city’s African American population grew from approximately 10,000 before World War I to 34,451 people by 1920.” The greatest effect of World War 1 on African American life was the triggering of the first phase of the Great Migration, the unprecedented movement of southern blacks moving towards the north. Which led to African Americans attempting to escape the legacy of slavery and the economic injustices of the South by migrating to Northern cities such as Cleveland, in hope to led a different life. There was a rise in hostility towards blacks because the white community of Cleveland became fearful and surprised as the pace of the migration quickened and the black community was increasing

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

This paper explains a very important moment in the history of our government that took place in Illinois in 1917. As World War I was beginning for the United States things were heating up in East St. Louis, Illinois. Anti-black riots killed or injured over one hundred black civilians. Then a Silent Parade of over ten thousand black citizens from New York broke out. Civil rights have always been an issue in our government, and according to www.kidzworld.com, after these anti black riots, things eventually led to the development of the The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and from that, Rosa Parks did not give up her seat on the bus. The creation of the NAACP also influenced the Little Rock, Arkansas incident, Martin L. King’s “I Have a Dream” Speech, and many other things which eventually led to equal rights for everyone with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This paper will explain the riots and how it shaped our government into providing equal jobs for all races.

Blacks in the depression were among the hardest hit and the opening market of jobs in the years of the war replaced that poverty with livable reality for many. Some joined the military, hoping to fight their way to respect and acceptance in the nation they called home. But in Document B we see the continuing discrimination upon the Black population selflessly serving the country. It wasn’t until posters. like the one shown in Document A, showed people around the United States how respectable and equal these black soldiers were. At home in the work force many would be turned away because of their color. In Document F and H President Roosevelt demands the employment of blacks under Executive Order 8802, as they will help lead the nation to a war power from their dedication and hard work. As employment rose for the African Americans so did their life style, they could be cars, homes and support their families

Although there was a lot of opposition to FDR's new legislation, it was also given a lot of support by others. In "The Roosevelt Record," editorial in The Crisis, the FDR administration is praised for being the first administration to pay attention to African Americans and to include them in the government's plans. [Document I].

Meany and the AFL-CIO also used their considerable political influence in helping to shape the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965.Union activists were a key part of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom as well. The Industrial Union Department of the AFL-CIO endorsed the march, as did 11 international unions and several state and local labor councils. A. Philip Randolph, then-president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, was a key organizer of the event. UAW President Walter Reuther was a speaker at the march, condemning the fact that African Americans were treated as second-class economic citizens.King's final act in pursuit of social and economic justice was in support of the sanitation strike in Memphis, Tennessee. After his death, then-President Lyndon B. Johnson sent the undersecretary of labor to settle the strike, and the city acceded to the demands of the working people, leading to the creation of AFSCME Local 1733, which still represents sanitation workers in Memphis.In 1964, Meany sent a letter to all AFL-CIO affiliates outlining a new pathway that would directly support housing construction and homeownership.

Many minorities and women were given the opportunity to take jobs that were left behind by men who fought in World War II, but after the war was over, all of those opportunities that many had, vanished. As a result of this issue, many problems started arising, and people began to be more involved. Citizens of the United States resisted the social conformity of the 1950’s by creating organizations, starting strikes, and attempting to put segregation to an end.

“Black New Deal administrator, housing expert, and economist Robert C. Weaver was placed in charge of Negro employment and training in the Office of Production Management (OPM) and on June 12 the president made a public memorandum sent by William Knudsen and Sidney Hillman, the heads of OPM, to defense contractors requiring to use black workers fully.” In the civil rights movement this was a huge step for African Americans. They were slowly beginning to be treated as equals. After a threat of one hundred thousand African Americans marching on the capital protesting full involvement in the military and defensive industries without discrimination the president had basically no choice but to pass Executive Order 8802. “The executive order declared that U.S. government policy mandated full participation in the defensive industries without discrimination on grounds of ‘race, creed, color, or national origin.’ It also prohibited discrimination in employment in the federal government and defense industires and established a Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC) to receive and investigate complaints and redress grievances.” The issue of full involvement in the military as equals

The most documented period in the history of the African American search for racial equality comes during the Cold War period, where issues of equality were thrust into international politics. Debatably one of the greatest aids to civil rights was the USA’s promotion of freedom regarding the fight against communism. The intensity of this argument aided the civil rights movement significantly, Dudziak hypothesizing that ‘the fight against communism forced American leaders to introduce key social reforms… including desegregation, because they were embarrassed about racial relations at home’, reinforced by Fairclough, arguing that ‘racial segregation… became an embarrassment to Washington’. However, much of the desegregation legislation that was passed during this period was prioritized toward the fight against communism, rather than civil rights. This resulted in a blanketing effect, where virtually any political voice who spoke out against the government would have their passports revoked, being unable to speak out against the US government on a national stage, occurring notably to civil rights activist DuBois, Layton commenting that this level of protectionism was ‘the single most costly act of propaganda America had taken’, in regards to its black citizens. Participation in the Vietnam conflict saw the highest enrollment of blacks in American history, 12.6% (Butler, 1999), and was the first fully integrated war unit in combat. However, akin to the Second World War, the

Political and economic inequality of African American citizens caused two marches in Washington to be planned. A. Philip Randolph, president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, planned the first march in 1941. During the Great Depression, the “New Deal” was formed. The African American citizens had the least amount of benefits from these deals, as well as racial discrimination growing against them, and any jobs dealing with defense were denied from them. When President Franklin D. Roosevelt did not try to take action and stop these discrimination problems Randolph did. Randolph called for fifty thousand people to help him start a March on Washington. In June of 1941, Roosevelt issued the Executive Order 8802 to stop Randolph’s March

This momentum was caused due to various reasons and one of those reasons was also the steady growth of achievements in legislation of blacks due to all the campaigns and marches carried out by black leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Philip Randolph. Their efforts brought rapid progress in the civil rights movement. In 1941, an executive order 8802 was issued by the FDR which stated the prohibition of racial discrimination among people in the industries. Another main reason was Brown v. Board of Education (1954) which made the civil rights momentum to be persistent. The Supreme Court ruled that desegregation in public school was not constitutional. This brought new motivation to the civil rights movement. In 1948, the EO 10730 was encouraged to unify the black and white schools after the armed forces were desegregated by Truman. The Civil Rights Act gained more importance in 1957 after Eisenhower got nine black students to their classes at Little Rock Central High

In Perils of Presidentialism, Linz argues more in favor of parliamentary, stating that presidentialism has more disadvantages. In criticism of Linz’s article Horowitz compared his article of Comparing Democratic System. They both did have strong arguments, and also had weaknesses. First Linz argument was that legitimacy both are popularly elected, and the origin and survival of each are independent from the other. Since both the president and legislature derive their power from the vote of the people in a free competition among well-defined alternatives, a conflict is always latent and sometimes likely to erupt dramatically; there is no democratic principle to resolve it. Linz argues that parliamentarism obviates this problem because the executive is not independent of the assembly. If the majority of the assembly favors a change in policy direction, it can replace the government by exercising its no confidence vote (128).