The Great Depression and its impact on the Black community

On the 29th October 1929, there was a sharp decline in the U.S stock market. This day became known as 'Black Tuesday' and the situation as 'The Wall Street Crash'. However, this day marked what would be the start of what we now know as the 'The Great Depression.' The Great Depression had an impact on absolutely everyone, regardless of who you were. Whilst it was long lasting and rather severe in the US itself as well as Europe, it also affect places like Japan and Latin America but just in milder form. It had worldwide impacts and took over America itself for roughly ten years.

Unfortunately, for one group of people the Great Depression was particularly harder to live through. One group of people who were very much affected were African Americans. African Americans , who were just gaining their rights and being made 'equal' again, even under the remorseless Jim Crow laws, suddenly seemed to have a reminder of their overall position in society and how much they seemed to really matter.

Racism, which had been decreasing, increased more and more as the economy fell. Lynchings, which had fell to numbers of roughly 8 in the year of 1932 increased to about 28 by 1933. A dramatic change. Black Americans were not allowed and not given as much aid as their white counterparts and they were sometimes not even allowed in places such as soup kitchens. However, it would be unfair to not state that one fifth of African - Americans were on federal relief during this time, but a social security act in 1935 did not include the farm and domestic sector of work, two areas in which black people made up high percentages of. This meant that most black people could not be assisted and be given any support. Instead of being fired by the companies that black people worked for, it was often the case that their pay would be lowered quite drastically but there were no legal repercussions. On average, the wages of black workers were 30% lower than the white workers. Bearing in mind that the wages of white workers during the Great Depression were barely able to support a person and especially their family's livelihood and so in a country which seemed to be ambitious on what a person living there could achieve and the big 'American Dream', they were practically left to fend for themselves.  

By 1932, more than 50% of African - Americans living in the United States were unemployed. This was much higher than the unemployment rates of white Americans at about 25% at roughly the same time. It turns out that with getting jobs being hard enough, white citizens ( especially in the Northern States ) were calling for the unemployment of African- American workers and for them to be fired so that they could have these jobs instead. By 1934, 50% of black workers in Chicago, this went up to 70% of black workers residing in Atlanta being jobless and these numbers seemed to almost only climb.

In the midst of the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt took over the U.S Presidency from Herbert Hoover and took on the responsibly of getting the country, effectively, back on its feet. Roosevelt introduced an act to attempt doing exactly this. The National Recovery act of 1933 aimed to supervise fair trade codes as well as guarantee workers a right to collective bargaining. It gave the president permission to restrict and regulate industries on the call of fair pay in order to restore economic stability. The NRA was deemed unconstitutional in 1935 and not continued after it apparently did not follow certain rules the country had in place.  Although banned later on, it could be argued that there was some effectiveness to this act. Roosevelt's energy to restore the country actually led to a shift in the common vote choice of African - Americans and saw a change of voting Republican to voting Democratic.However the NRA of 1933 has also been called the 'Negro removal act of 1933' by lots of African - Americans. The act was supposedly meant to be non-discriminatory yet NRA projects did not have a very good front when it came to hiring blacks and when they did, there were clear differences in the wages of black and white workers. 

The Great Depression would affect African - Americans for decades to follow. It even helped to power the civil rights movement in the 50s and 60s and help aid a staggering rise in African - American activism. The Great Migration was also a big event to take place seeing a supposed million black people move from the South to the North.

When America was back on its feet, a new challenge quickly faced it: World War II. Upon the U.S entering war, Roosevelt ( who black voters played a massive part in re-electing) issued an executive order to make sure that all persons 'regardless of race, creed, colour or national origin' would be able to participate and defend America. The amount of black people working in the cabinet even manage to triple its previous number under Mary Mcleod Bethune.

Today, we can look back at times like this history and remember how important it is to educate ourselves on things like this and also how we can use this to shape an even better future.

'Hired last yet Fired first' . Hopefully, never again.

Sources:

• https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/united-states-history-primary-source-timeline/great-depression-and-world-war-ii-1929-1945/race-relations-in-1930s-and-1940s/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Recovery_Administration
• https://www.history.com/news/last-hired-first-fired-how-the-great-depression-affected-african-americans
• https://socialistworker.org/2012/06/28/blacks-and-the-great-depression
• https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/great-depression-history