The Great Depression
FDR’s “New Deal”
The New Deal Affects
Many Groups
ND represents an important opportunity for
women/minorities
gains were limited, however. patterns of
prejudice and discrimination were hard to break
The New Deal Affects
Many Groups
Francis Perkins – 1st female cabinet
member
• Secretary of labor
• Played a major role in creating Social
•
Security system
Supervised labor legislation
FDR also appt 3 female diplomats & 1
female federal judge
WOMEN STILL FACED WORKPLACE
DISCRIMINATION
The New Deal Affects
Many
Groups
National Recovery Administration – set wages;
some were lower for women
Federal Emergency Relief Administration & Civil
Works Admin hired fewer women than men
CCC hired only men
Despite these problems, women made small gains
Gains: 11.7% in 1930 to 15.6% in 1940!
WIDESPREAD CRITICISM OF WOMEN WORKING
DID NOT CHANGE THE PROGRESSION OF
WOMEN GETTING JOBS
The New Deal Affects
Many Groups
Growth of activism by AAs
A. Phillip Randolph
Established 1st all-black labor union –
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
Laid the groundwork for the civil rights movement
The New Deal Affects
Many Groups
Mary McLeod Bethune – educator
appointed to head Division of
Negro Affairs of the NYA
Her job:
• To make sure they hired AAs as
administrators
To provide job training to AAs
•
Organized “Black Cabinet” –
advisors on racial affairs
• William Hastie and Robert Weaver appt
to Department of Interior
NEVER BEFORE SO MANY AA
VOICES HEARD IN GOVT!
The New Deal Affects
Many Groups
FDR failed to support civil
rights
Feared upsetting
Southern white Dems
Refused to pass
anti-lynching law
Refused to end poll tax
The New Deal Affects Many
Groups
Mexican Americans
Supported ND, though they
benefited less than AAs!
•
•
CCC and TVA helped some, but
disqualified many migrants as they
had no permanent address
They had come to US during
‘20s. Mainly in Southwest
Farm laborers – not governed by state or federal work law
Wages – fell to $.09/hr!
Attempts at unionization –
violence from employers & govt authorities!
The New Deal Affects Many
Groups
Native Americans
Strong support by federal govt
John Collier -Commissioner of Indian
Affairs– appt by FDR in ‘34
helped create Indian Reorganization
Act
* change govt policy from assimilation to NA
autonomy!
* Restored some lands to tribal ownership
The New Deal Affects Many
Groups
Native Americans
Economic changes: lands belong to whole
tribe
Govt can’t take over unoccupied lands & sell them to nonIndians
Cultural changes: # of boarding schools for
NAs reduced; attend school on reservation
Political changes: elect tribal councils on
reservations
PROS: those who valued tribal traditions.
OBJECTIONS: from those who owned land individually under
Dawes Act – tired of whites telling them what was good for
them (the more “Americanized”)
[* Dawes Act: broke up reservations; gave land to
individual Indians 1887]
The New Deal Affects Many Groups
Summary:
ND had huge impact on
women, AAs, Mexican-Amercans, and
workers and a huge impact on American
society and culture
1936 Election showed:
Class warfare was an issue in American politics
third party declined
FDR won due to his appeal to the “forgotten man”
(Al Smith said, “no one shoots Santa Claus”)
Forged powerful coalition of South, blacks,
urbanites, and the poor, immigrants, Catholics, and
Jews
Democrats will dominate national politics through
Bankers and Big Business
Federal Securities Act
which creates the
Securities and
Exchange
Commission
TVA- Tennessee Valley Authority
“Creeping
Socialism in
Concrete”
“It was the presence of
cheap electricity, lower
interest rates, water
projects that laid the
foundation of the New
South”
Atlanta Mayor Andrew
Young
Housing Reform and Social
Security
Social Security Act
Federal
Housing
Administration
Social Security
largely inspired by
highly industrialized
European models. In
the agricultural U.S.
this was
unimaginable but
America had become
increasingly
urbanized
Twilight of the New
Deal
• Fact: FDR’s term from 1933-1937 did
not end the Great Depression. Only
modest recovery
• 1937 another economic dip - Roosevelt
Recession due to Social Security taxes
biting into payrolls
• Here he embraces British economist
John Maynard Keynes - Keynsenian
Economics - planned deficit spending is
ok. *major turning point in American gov’t
•
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
Critics and Praise
Critics
• waste, confusion, graft
• too communist: “Rooseveltski”
• business shocked by the leap before you look
spirit
• bureaucratic interference and regimentation
• national debt huge - now we are a handout state people will expect it!
• caused greater class strife
• private enterprise stifled by planned economy
• FDR too aggressive against Supreme Court
• * New Deal did not cure the Great Depression!
Critics and Praise
• yes some waste but it was relief not recovery that was the aim
and relief was granted
• philosophy of balancing the human budget didn’t exist in
federal gov’t before this time and it needed to be added to the
American process
• He may have saved American free enterprise - he was not
against capitalism but against overly strong capitalists - he
purged the American system of some of its worse abuses
•Socialist party actually died at this time
• Roosevelt, like Jefferson, provided bold reform without a
bloody revolution - at a time when Europe was struggling with
uprisings and communism or fascism
•Choosing the middle road he is called the greatest
conservative since Hamilton
•Hamilton in his support of big gov’t but Jeffersonian in his
support of the fogotten man