Verified Document

New Deal Term Paper

¶ … New Deal is often studied as a set of policies targeted towards welfare relief and economic development. However, the New Deal had a very important social justice component as well, particularly with regards to racial justice. Eleanor Roosevelt was leading crusader for human rights and racial equality, while President Roosevelt had an informal network of African-American appointees who were known as the "Black Cabinet." Part of the goals of the New Deal was thus to promote racial equality by creating federal agencies to help ease discrimination against African-Americans and creating economic opportunities for the advancement of black citizens. This paper examines two scholarly articles examining the New Deal's effects on discrimination against black people. The first article, written by Robert C. Weaver in 1935, reveals a cautious support and optimism regarding the New Deal's relief efforts for black factory workers and black farmers in the South. By 1992, however, Dona Cooper Hamilton and Charles V. Hamilton make it clear that the New Deal fell far short of its goals, and that economic and social discrimination persist to this day.

As FDR's brilliant and charismatic Adviser on Negro Affairs, Weaver was in a good position to articulate the economic needs of the black community, both in the rural and urban areas. Also, while Eleanor Roosevelt spoke eloquently and frequently regarding the "Negro problem," Weaver provided the FDR administration an invaluable opportunity to raise support for the Democratic Party among the black Americans.

It should be noted that unlike today, many black Americans were not Democrats. After all, it was President Lincoln's Republican government that passed the 13th Amendment, which dealt the death blow to slavery and extended citizenship to black Americans. Towards the beginning of the 20th century, the Republicans had also pushed for legislation extending the concept of civil...

Weaver focuses on how the New Deal would stimulate industry and farming, the two industries in which most black citizens were employed. In Weaver's analysis, the New Deal allows the federal government to help black Americans by creating more employment opportunities. He also stresses that while the economic depression has caused many black families to suffer from unemployment, relief programs are in place to helps alleviate the needs of those who were "greatly victimized by the economic developments."
Weaver's article was written in 1935, at the advent of the Second New Deal. Roosevelt was breaking up monopoly companies and was creating federal agencies to monitor labor standards. The National Labor Relations Board, for example, was given the mandate to compel employers to conduct talks with legitimate workers unions. Based on this climate, Weaver thus had reason to believe that Roosevelt's concessions for labor in general would extend to black laborers as well, both in urban factories as well as farms in the Southern states.

Weaver's article, however, conspicuously omits any mention of social programs needed to combat the discrimination that continued to prevail against black Americans. Indeed, despite his wife's efforts, President Roosevelt did little to create social and educational programs to address other issues pertaining to the African-American community. Most notable among President Roosevelt's failures was his refusal to sign the federal Anti-Lynching Bill into law, for fear of alienating the Southern Democrats. Weaver also does not address the poll tax issue, which many in the South use wielded successfully to keep black citizens from voting.

Thus,…

Sources used in this document:
Works Cited

Hamilton, Dona Cooper and Hamilton, Charles. "The Dual Agenda of African-American Organizations Since the New Deal." Political Science Quarterly. Fall 1992. 107(3): 435-453.

Weaver, Robert C.. "New Deal and the Negro: A Look at the Facts." Opportunity, Journal of Negro Life July 1935. October 17, 2003 http://newdeal.feri.org/opp/opp35200.htm.
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

New Deal
Words: 1895 Length: 6 Document Type: Term Paper

New Deal Philosophy and economy of new Deal The government of the United States became greatly involved in economic issues after the stock market had crashed in 1929. This crash visited most serious economic dislocation on America's economy. It lasted 1929-1940. This prompted President Franklin D. Roosevelt to launch the New Deal to alleviate the emergency. Very important legislations were and institutions were set up during the New Deal Era. These legislations

New Deal
Words: 1358 Length: 4 Document Type: Essay

New Deal Politically-motived objections to President Roosevelt's "New Deal" would long outlive FDR himself. In 2003, when Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman was looking for a term to describe the ideologically-driven motivations of President George W. Bush and his administration, the phrase he selected was "the great unraveling" -- Krugman's image saw Roosevelt's New Deal programs (above all Social Security) as having become the very fabric of the society in which

New Deal
Words: 674 Length: 2 Document Type: Term Paper

New Deal The Great Crash of 1929 and the Depression that followed paved the way to the American Presidency for Franklin D. Roosevelt, who won the elections in 1932 pledging "...to a new deal for the American people" 1. The Deal's application began in March 1933 and consisted of a series of banking reforms, work relief programs, emergency relief programs and agricultural programs. The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) was drafted in 1933

New Deal
Words: 664 Length: 2 Document Type: Term Paper

New Deal Repercussions for America's Public And Private Sectors Indisputably, the Great Depression, which began with October 29, 1929 stock market crash and created a need for the subsequent extensive New Deal legislation of the 1930's, changed America's public and private sectors, and American citizens' expectations of their government, for the rest of the 20th century and beyond. Thus New Deal legislation and programs greatly altered the existing relationship between American

New Deal Era and the
Words: 628 Length: 2 Document Type: Term Paper

The American government has since steered clear of measures like price regulations and has instead promoted a model that trusts the elasticity of the market. However, New Deal measures like unemployment insurance and social security have remained in place. World War Two, rather than any direct effects of the New Deal, helped stimulate the American economy. Since the Reagan administration, the American government has followed a trajectory nearly opposite to

New Deal Program the Great Depression Hit
Words: 670 Length: 2 Document Type: Essay

New Deal Program The Great Depression hit America in ways that affected everyone, from the richest of the country's society, to the poorest of the urban and rural inhabitants. The stock market crashing left many rich society folk with no wealth, the farmers found themselves without any consumers to buy their overabundance of too-expensive products, and the urban families found themselves precariously scrounging for means of survival, oftentimes going hungry for

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now