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How BA were effected by great depression
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- 1Key statistics- great depression• Gross national product had fallen from $104 million to $59 million.
• 24.9% of the labour force was unemployed.
• Average earnings had dropped from $25 to $17 a week from those still in work.
• Industrial and agricultural production had more than halved.
• Massive cutbacks had been made in public spending, particularly on such things as education.
• The big cities in particular had large unemployment; in Chicago, for example, 40% of the population was unemployed. - 2North effects- great depressionIn some northern cities, the rate of black
unemployment reached 60%. Unemployment rates for African Americans were often twice those
among white Americans.
The black population of the cities increased even more during the Depression paradoxically, as more
and more people moved away from the agricultural south, where the cotton economy had collapsed, in
search of jobs.
During the Depression years there were, however, signs of stronger African American resistance to
the discrimination they had suffered. The work of the NAACP, the ideas of Marcus Garvey and the
impact of African American culture all played a part in the development. In Chicago, boycotts of retail
stores which had refused to employ African Americans started in 1929. These boycotts proved an
effective tactic in ensuring African American employment, spreading to 35 cities during the 1930’s. - 3South effects- great depressionRural areas were being devastated by the Depression. Farmers were already struggling before the
Depression hit. Cotton planters in the south were some of the worst hit.
• 2 million farmers were ejected from their lands. - 4All areas effects- great depressionThe resulting poverty and deprivation also affected the African American lower middle class, whose
businesses suffered from fewer and poorer customers.
A reduction in the spending on education particularly hit African Americans. This was especially true in
the south, where states cut back on spending on black schools. On the other hand, the number of black
students entering higher education grew steadily throughout the period after 1918. By 1933, there
were 38,000 black students in colleges. The majority of these (97%) were in the south. So the impact
of educational cuts may not have effected African American education greatly. - 5All areas effects- great depression pt2• President Hoover did nothing to help with the Depression, believing in rugged individualism.
Competition for work remained desperate, as unemployed white people were now prepared to do any
job, including those that previously only black people had done. Blatant racist employment practices
often gave preference to white workers during the Depression.
• Large sections of the American population suffered as a result of hunger and disease, particularly
between 1929 and 1933 when it was claimed that about 20 million people were starving. A significant
proportion of these were African Americans. - 6Brief summary of some effectsBlack America hit hardest.
Southern states devastated, before the crash they struggled.
Cotton prices fell - 2.5 million were forced off the land.
Local black businesses hit - their customers could not afford their produce.
Competition for jobs and survival.
All classes impacted.
Vigilant groups emerged e.g. Black shirts of Atlanta were a white vigilante group who tried to stop black Americans getting jobs. - 7Roosevelt electedPresident Roosevelt fought the presidential election campaign for the Democrats- became President - March 1933, his New Deal proposals included subsidies for farmers, help for the unemployed, and welfare payments for the poor and elderly. He obtained from Congress unprecedented powers and money necessary to implement his programmes. The result was the ‘Alphabet Agencies’. Most agencies were administered at local level.
- 8The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)Set up in May 1933.
-Benefit Made dams to control flooding and generate electricity - developing agriculture, commerce and industry in the valley; and operating the hydroelectric Wilson Dam.- many black Americans in south worked agricultural jobs- benefit
Improved when the NAACP published and exposed this. It prompted a congressional committee to call for the improved treatment of black workers. The TVA proceeded a little more carefully. - 9TVA weakenessesLimitations- Black TVA workers had segregated facilities and accommodation, restricted to unskilled jobs, given limited access to new housing, and excluded from model farm programmes.
- 10Works Progress Administration (WPA)- benefitsThe National Industry Recovery Act also set up Public Works Administration.
With $3.3 billion of federal funding, the PWA employed hundreds of thousands of workers who constructed roads, schools, hospitals and dams. It was particularly helpful to black Americans;
It spend over $65 million on the construction and improvement of black schools, homes and hospitals- better education- better future jobs, better care- can work longer
Its housing division used quotas to ensure construction jobs for black workers, and by 1940, black Americans occupied over 30% of PWA constructed housing- good home able to appear employable. - 11Works Progress Administration (WPA)- weakenessesThe $52 monthly wage was greater than relief, although a lower wage than in industry.
Some employers protested that the WPA wage was so high that black Americans were no longer willing to pick cotton at the normal rate- more likely to act against this agency
Only 5% of black workers had supervisory roles on the North and in May 1940 only 11 of the 10,3444 WPA supervisors in the South were black. - 12The National Youth Administration (NYA)- benefitsMary McLeod Bethune, the NYA’s Director of the Division of Negro Affairs, had her own fund for black students and encouraged state officials to ensure black youths signed up for programmes.
The NYA gave aid and taught skills to 500,00 black Americans- more likely to get jobs
Bethune worked at the NYA until its demise in 1943, and was one of the highest ranking black Americans in the Roosevelt administration- black Americans getting recognition from president- may help convince in future to make changes to agencies/ possibly legal changes - 13The National Youth Administration (NYA)- weakenessesIt was exceptionally fair in its distribution of money, but it accepted segregation.
- 14The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)- benefitsSpent over $4000 million to help the unemployed through relief work and projects.
One third of black Americans benefited from FERA. In 1935, 3.5 million received help from it. - 15The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)-weakenessesDistribution of FERA relief reflected society. Handed out locally so subject to discrimination.
Whites in the South made it harder for the black unemployed to get on the welfare rolls and paid black welfare recipients less than whites, arguing that as black people had a lower standard of living, they could survive on less money.