Bobby Thrush-Louis

AMH2020

Depression and New Deal Minorities

4/14/15

At the end of the 1920s, the United States was the largest economy in the world. With the

destruction brought by World War I, Europeans struggled while Americans flourished. Then, in the

flash of darkness, everything went downfall. The stock market crash of 1929 was a snowball effect that

put us into the worst crisis in history. But then, President Franklin D. Roosevelt sparked an idea, the

New Deal, it was the set of federal programs launched by President Franklin D. Roosevelt after taking

office in 1933, in response to the calamity of the Great Depression. The new deal had four major goals

and achievements: Job creation, investment in public works, civic uplift, and obviously economic

recovery. The new deal stabilized banks and all the financial mess from the stock market crash. One in

four Americans, were out of work by 1933. The new deal created agencies that would aid jobs to

millions of people and this also organized the rights for workers to organize unions. The New Deal

built transportation landmarks and public landmarks that would help to bring back America. There was

more positives than anything in the new deal; in addition, the new deal improved the lives of ordinary

people and reshaped the public outlook. New Dealers and the men and women who worked on New

Deal programs believed they were not only serving their families and communities, but building the

foundation for a great and caring society. In less than a decade, the New Deal changed the face of

America and laid the foundation for success in World War II and the prosperity of the postwar era, the

greatest and fairest era in American history.

When the depression started all segments of society where hurt. It is said that those at the

bottom are the worst off when this type of collapse occurs. In America's case this meant African

Americans, Native Americans and Women. African Americans were definitely in trouble with the

Economic deterioration of cities and it led to Black workers being pushed out in favor of White

workers or just plain being the first to be fired. Since African Americans had moved to the cities later

they were the "last hired, first fired." Many things were not in this minorities favor as there was an

Agricultural slump in the South following to near destruction of the tenant farming system. In addition,

Ghettos turned into slums as funding stopped coming into inner city Black communities. Harlem, an

upcoming ethnic center in the twenties, was destroyed. Even education hit the blacks when black

colleges stopped receiving white philanthropy. Continuing discrimination, Jim Crow as well as

segregation in the North, led to Blacks being fired and generally horrible conditions. Educational and

economic opportunities were even more limited than they were before. The new deal, had a handful of

problems for African Americans and made it difficult for them from the start of the new deal. Federal

Housing Agency stopped black from moving into white neighborhoods and some public works projects

refused to hire blacks. Furthermore, AAA, did not let blacks work on farms because it was hurting the

white mans money. When they received this money they dismissed many tenant farmers and workers.

Recipients of AAA money were supposed to share with their Black workers but the reality is that this

wasn't done. Lastly, Social Security left out blacks because it was only those who worked and paid

FICA tax into the system would get out of the system. Since many African Americans either worked

"off the books" or for cash they never paid in and thus never received Social Security. Even, with all

these harsh conditions, the African Americans had to go through they were another handful of

positives. Federal relief programs provided massive amounts of aid to Blacks and Whites alike. WPA

developed a non discrimination policy, which created a bright light to keep the African Americans to

keep on going on there feet and not to give up. Even though, the blacks were affected, Indians and

Mexicans were in effect also. Mexicans came to America for a search of urgency and hope for their

futures that will change until 365,000 people returned to Mexico (75,000 of them departed from the

Los Angeles area between 1930 and 1932). An additional 90,000 left for Mexico between 1933 and

1937.The forced migration and decline in opportunities led to Mexicans leaving America. Those who

migrated to America was coming to live with their families in America. Mexican Americans who

stayed in America during the Depression suffered economically. Unemployment rates in Mexican

American communities averaged 50 percent. Farm wages fell from an average daily wage of $2.55 in

1930 to only $1.40 a day in 1933. Shockingly, they were cases that there was wages of 15 cents an

hour. Mexican Americans couldn’t deal with racial discrimination, low pay, and poor working and

living conditions, so, Mexican American farm laborers expanded their efforts to organize unions, this

was to begin in the late 1920s. In 1933, the Mexican Farm Labor Union led an extensive strike in

southern California; union members were demanding 25 cents an hour. The Confederation of Mexican

Farmers and Workers Unions (Confederación de Uniones de Campesinos y Obreros Mexicanos, or

CUCOM) became the most active farmworker union in California, with ten thousand members by

1935. A colossal strike brought garment production in Los Angeles to a stop and led to an influx of

wages. New Deal programs had both positive and negative effects on Mexican Americans. The system

offered them balanced relief assistance, because many Mexican American families did not have a a

settled place to live in, which was a requirement in the system. The crop reduction program promoted

by the Agricultural Adjustment Administration had many Mexican American’s jobs gone. On the

positive side, the Civilian Conservation Corps and the National Youth Administration employed a

plethora of Mexican American youths. To help with employment of the Mexicans, The Resettlement

Administration strived to bring small maintenance farming among Mexican American farmers in the

Southwest. In some regions, Works Progress Administration (WPA) programs hired workers to

document and preserve traditional music, art, folklore, and social customs. American Indians were

another of the minority groups affected significantly by the Depression and New Deal. Given that most

Indians were now restricted to secluded reservations or had lost the majority of reservation land

beginning with the 1887 Dawes Act, the American Indian had one of if not the worst set of negative

numbers for all social indicators: poverty, crime, education, suicide, etc. When FDR came into office,

he decided that the time had come for the United States to give what he believed the American Indian

was owed. He appointed John Collier as commissioner of Indian Affairs, who then went on to that he

created the plan "Indian New Deal." After reading it, Roosevelt loved the plan and ordered its

immediate implementation. And while many Indian nations signed on to what was called the "Indian

Reorganization Act," some still resisted. The Navajo was nation that refused to go along with the plan,

demanding that they have full sovereignty over their land and have complete say over their future

without interference from the government. All in all, there has been some long term effects that we

have seen today and short term effects that we have seen already from the new plan and depression. In

the short term, the New Deal helped to make the Depression less of a problem. It did not really end the

Depression, but it helped. But the most important lasting effects of the New Deal was to develop a

frame of reference where government could be seen as a source of help to its citizens in time of need.

Prior to the New Deal, government had been seen as an instrument of foreign policy and whose

intervention in the domestic realm was not one prone to wide expansion and influence. Even the

Progressive Presidents worked on a model where government's role was limited in comparison to the

scope and depth of Roosevelt's vision. Upon the passage and implementation of the elements of the

New Deal, Americans came to believe that government could be used as a method of equalizing the

playing field, an instrument to help its citizens in times of needs and distress, and as a source of refuge

for all. This is definitely a good choice by Franklin D. Roosevelt and can't elaborate more on that. The

new deal dramatically lowered the unemployment rate, bank and business failures.In addition, FDR

new deal programs still exist that benefit the economy like the: national pension system, Federal

Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Agricultural price support, Securities and Exchange commission,

and National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) He made the right choices which helped shaped our

country today and who knows what America would have been without the new deal added to America.

Works Cited:

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http://www.socialstudieshelp.com/lesson_89_notes.htm

Trowbridge, D. (n.d.). A History of the United States, Volume 2, v. 1.0. Retrieved April 15, 2015, from

http://catalog.flatworldknowledge.com/bookhub/2044?e=trowbridge2_1.0-ch07_s02

Woolner, D. (n.d.). African Americans and the New Deal: A Look Back in History. Retrieved April 15,

2015, from http://www.rooseveltinstitute.org/new-roosevelt/african-americans-and-new-deal-look-

back-history

"Minority Groups and the Great Depression." Great Depression and the New Deal Reference Library.

Ed. Allison McNeill, Richard C. Hanes, and Sharon M. Hanes. Vol. 1: Almanac. Detroit: UXL, 2003.

172-186. U.S. History in Context. Web. 15 Apr. 2015.