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Chapter 18 Black Protest, the Great Depression and the New Deal

Chapter 18 Black Protest, the Great Depression and the New Deal. The American Dream.

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Chapter 18 Black Protest, the Great Depression and the New Deal

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  1. Chapter 18 Black Protest, the Great Depression and the New Deal

  2. The American Dream • Photographer Margaret Bourke White captured the contrast between the American dream of prosperity—for white families—and the harsh realities of life for black Americans during the Depression. The collapse of the economy spurred the search for radical critiques and solutions to deal with the desperate conditions millions of African Americans endured. Separate economic development and the creation of parallel institutions and organizations was one option. But was it practicable?

  3. The Cataclysm, 1929-1933 • The Great Depression • Stock market crash • Speculation • Lack of federal regulation • Inequality of wealth and income

  4. Unemployment, 1925–1945 • With the collapse of the American economy, unemployment soared in the 1930s. New Deal programs alleviated some of the suffering, but full recovery did not come until the defense industries swung into action with the U.S. entry into World War II.

  5. Harder Times for Black America • Catastrophe • Falling consumer demand for cotton and sugar • Lowered prices • Black sharecroppers and tenant farmers reduced • High unemployment levels • Last hired, first fired • 38%-65%

  6. Black Business in the Depression • Collapse and Survival • Binga Bank - Jesse Binga • Symbol of black capitalism, by 1930 valued over $1.5 million • Assests tied to home mortgages • Binga refused to seize home and was closed by Illinios State bank auditors. • Atlanta Life Insurance Company • Alonzo Franklin Herndon – former Ga. slave. • Adapted and thrived through the depression along with other insurance companies • North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company

  7. Median Income of Black Families Compared to the Median Income of White Families for Selected Cities, 1935–1936

  8. The Failure of Relief • Over 250 black hospitals, clinics and nursing training schools were closed • Relief • Charitable organizations • Problem was too big • Local and state governments • Lowered tax receipts made relief efforts difficult • Government reluctance • Rigid ideology • Aid to businesses

  9. II. Black Protest during the Great Depression • NAACP • Campaigned against: • Educational discrimination • Political disfranchisement • Charles Houston • Thurgood Marshall • Critical of American democracy

  10. The NAACP and Civil Rights Struggles • Leadership • Walter White • Refused to be silent • NAACP pressed government to protect rights • Du Bois ignites a controversy • Criticized NAACP focus on political right • Resigns from The Crisis

  11. Challenging Racial Discrimination in the Courts • Charles Hamilton Houston and Thurgood Marshall • Lead NAACP campaign • State programs • Disparities in expenditures • Inspired community support • Attempted to equalize facilities • Education • Made separate but equal too costly

  12. Graduate schools • Many southern states had no separate facilities • Gaines v. Canada, 1938 • Missouri: a state-supported law school for black citizens • Sipuel v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma, 1947 • Oklahoma granted out-of-state tuition awards to blacks • Court ordered Oklahoma to provide facilities in home states • Sweatt v. Painter, 1950 • Separate but not equal • Texas law school for black students was not equal

  13. Disfranchised • Terrell Law, 1923 • “In no event shall a Negro be eligible to participate in a Democratic primary election in Texas” • The equivalent of being disfranchised • Smith v. Allwright, 1944 • Ended white primary • NAACP greatest legal victory to date

  14. Black Women and Community Organizing • Contributions • Fundraising, membership drives • Daisy Adams Lampkin – President of the Negro Women’s Franchise League. Fought for voting rights. • Juanita Mitchell – NAACP national youth director. Fought against unemployment, segregation and lynching. • Ella Baker – One of the most important women in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. • Started grassroots movement against segregation • Detroit Housewives League • Pledge to support black businesses, buy black products, and support black professionals. • 10,000 members, 1934

  15. Cool Down • How do you think blacks coped with the poverty of the Great Depression compared to their white peers? • What impact did court victories have on creating a civil rights movement?

  16. African Americans and the New Deal • FDR, democrat - 1932 • African Americans support Republican party • Last election black voters could be ignored • New Deal programs shift black allegiance • Agricultural Adjustment Act – farmer protection • NRA – National Recovery Administration • Inadequate and unfairly administered but beneficial • Prompted social change

  17. Roosevelt and the First New Deal, 1933-1935 • One hundred days • No predetermined plan • Experimentation • Emergency federal relief • Benefited black and white people • Unevenly administered in the South

  18. Black Officials in the New Deal • Roosevelt administration • Hired black professionals • “Black Cabinet” • Mary McLeod Bethune • Blacks gained allies and new influence • Potential voters • Eleanor Roosevelt • Commitment to racial justice

  19. Roosevelt’s “Black Cabinet” • Roosevelt’s “Black Cabinet” in a 1938 photograph. Mary McLeod Bethune is in the center of the front row. The advisers included Robert Weaver, Eugene Kinckle Jones, Ambrose Caliver, and William H. Hastie, among many others.

  20. African Americans and the Second New Deal • Second New Deal – needed due to slow progress of the first New Deal • More radical than the first • Role of federal government grows • 1936 election • FDR leftward shift • Helped gain black allegiance to party • Rejected racial discrimination

  21. IV. The Communist Party and African Americans • Communist party • Attractive to some African Americans • Antiracist and interracial • Expelled racist members • Gave black men key leadership positions • Few joined but many sympathetic to left-wing ideas

  22. Scottsboro Boys • Open to page 657 – first 2 paragraphs. • Ages 13 to 20 • Accused of raping two white women • Jurors found them guilty • 8 received death sentence

  23. The International Labor Defense and the “Scottsboro Boys” • ILD – International Labor Defense – Communist party law firm • ILD appealed the conviction and death sentence • Two important Supreme Court decisions • Powell v. Alabama, 1932 • Inadequate legal counsel • Hostile and volatile atmosphere • Norris v. Alabama, 1935 • Defendants’ right to a jury of their peers • Exclusion of black jurors denied equal protection

  24. Scottsboro boys • Evidence proved the boys were falsely convicted • One of the girls admitted that the rape was a hoax • Alabama pursues the case • After public pleasure, Alabama decided to drop case.

  25. The “Scottsboro Boys” • The “Scottsboro Boys,” a case of southern justice gone awry, attracted international attention and fueled competition between the NAACP and the Communist Party. In this 1937 photograph the NAACP’s Juanita E. Jackson Mitchell visits with the Scottsboro Boys. Nine unemployed black young men accused of raping two white women mill workers on a Southern Railroad freight car on March 25, 1931, were sentenced to death, with one exception. Eugene Williams’s life was spared because he was only thirteen. Victoria Price and Ruby Bates recanted their stories, but it made no difference. The United States Supreme Court overturned the death convictions and sentences in two landmark cases, one of which established the right of the accused to competent legal counsel.

  26. Debating Communist Leadership • NAACP and Communist party • Open hostility • Communist party staged marches and protests • NAACP sought respectability • Questioned the sincerity of Communist party

  27. The Tuskegee Study • One of the worst manifestations of racism in American science. • 1932-1972 • US public health service initiated a study on syphilis • Known to cause paralysis, insanity and heart failure • USPHS recruited 622 poor illiterate black men • 431 had advanced cases of syphilis

  28. The Tuskegee Study cont. • The Tuskegee Study was called a treatment program • In reality, it was an experiment, designed to chart the progression and development of the fatal disease • Doctors hired a black nurse and convinced the patients they had “bad blood” • Penicillin became available in the 1940s, but they were given a placebo and told it would cure them

  29. The Tuskegee Study cont. • Intended to last 6-12 months • Regular exams, including a needle inserted into the spinal cord to draw fluids • Several cases of paralysis and death • Never treated for syphilis • Subjects felt fortunate to receive medical assistance and a hot lunch on exam day • Not discovered until 1972 • Attorney Fred Gray of Alabama sued the US government • Before trial, government paid $9 million settlement to survivors and descendants of those who died.

  30. Tuskegee Experiment • Tuskegee Experiment patients (1932–1972) From 1932 to 1972, the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) conducted an experiment on approximately 400 black Alabama sharecroppers to trace the evolution of untreated syphilis. The men were never informed that they had the disease, nor were they given penicillin when it became available. The men died. On May 16, 1997, President Bill Clinton on behalf of the U.S. government finally apologized for this cruel and clearly racist experiment on human subjects.

  31. Cool Down • Give your opinion of the Tuskegee study.

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