The Great DepressionFDR’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

GroupsFrancis Perkins – 1st female cabinet

member • Secretary of labor• Played a major role in creating Social

Security system • Supervised labor legislationFDR also appt 3 female diplomats & 1

female federal judgeWOMEN 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

GroupsGrowth of activism by AAsA. Phillip RandolphEstablished 1st all-black labor union –

Brotherhood of Sleeping Car PortersLaid the groundwork for the civil rights movement

The New Deal Affects Many

GroupsMary McLeod Bethune – educator appointed to head Division of

Negro Affairs of the NYAHer 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

GroupsFDR failed to support civil

rightsFeared upsetting Southern white DemsRefused to pass anti-lynching lawRefused to end poll tax

The New Deal Affects Many GroupsMexican 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 lawsWages – fell to $.09/hr!Attempts at unionization – violence from employers & govt authorities!

The New Deal Affects Many Groups

Native AmericansStrong support by federal govtJohn Collier -Commissioner of Indian

Affairs– appt by FDR in ‘34helped 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 AmericansEconomic changes: lands belong to whole

tribeGovt can’t take over unoccupied lands & sell them to non-

Indians

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 declinedFDR 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 30s and 40s

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

Federal Housing Administration

Social Security ActSocial 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 PraiseCritics• 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