Great Depression impact on African Americans and Women Ms. De La O English 9

African Americans African Americans in the Northeast African Americans in the South Harlem renaissance- literature, education, and pride NY Southern Blacks economic stagnation- ½ of all blacks lived in the South Compromised many low wage high labor jobs

The Great Depression Hits African Americans Severely Lost farms as cotton prices and other crops dropped African American Men African American Women 1932: General Pop 25% unemployment African American 75% Men: would be fired from low pay jobs to open the job for white men Women: would lose domestic servant jobs to white women 40% of workers lost their jobs

New Deal and African Americans African Americans benefited from Federal aid programs FDR forced nondiscrimination in hiring of Fed jobs Black Cabinet African Americans benefited from Federal aid programs Public Works Administration &Works Progress Administrations A stipulation in these programs was to hire minorities Blacks made ¼ of residents in Fed Housing Project Black Cabinet- Group of African American leaders under Roosevelt. Advised President on race issues and getting New Deal support to Blacks Pushed by Eleanor Roosevelt

Federal Programs Denying Blacks support Agricultural Adjustment Act Federal programs at the local level would deny relief for African Americans Intimidations and lynching increased NAACP South was unsafe for many blacks Agricultural Adjustment Act- Denied support to tenant farms because they did not own land blacks Racist managers at the local level made this choice and would not be caught NAACP pushed Federal Law outlawing lynching but did not pass White southern Democrats did not allow it to pass South was unsafe for many blacks

Moving North Worsening social and economic inequality in the South forced ½ million to move to northern cites to find work. factories and business began closing down and unemployment continued. Over all Blacks suffered More during the Great Depression

Women During the Great Depression The View was jobs should go to men women should remain at home take care of family Increased responsibility Women made up only 25% of the work force Increased responsibility- fend for themselves and family when men went out to find work Men, unions, and government were not ready to accept working women, and this bias caused females intense hardship during the Great Depression.

Economic necessity for women to work Lower Class Middle Class Working wives also expected to maintain the household Working Married women increase by 50% 1930’s Women were pushed out traditional jobs like teaching and into clerical , retail jobs, and domestic work Poorest- need to keep food n the table for family Middle Class-women worked to maintain level of life. Standard of living went up in the 1920’s families had to work harder to keep that standard Many educated women took positions well below their training Consumerism and material comforts of the 1920’s

New Deal and Women Eleanor Roosevelt championed women's rights 1st Female cabinet member –Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins New Deal programs also hired many women Problems -New Deal policies targeted at Men and primary bread winners Many jobs were labor intensive Women were hired in clerical needs in various New Deal Agencies