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Week 12A: The Great Depression — Transcript

by Andrew Perkins · 3,366 words · 607 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:02Hello and welcome back. In the last few
0:05weeks, we've examined the causes, the
0:07outbreak of World War I and the
0:10engagement of black servicemen in that
0:12conflict, such as the Harlem Hell
0:14Fighters who del delivered distinguished
0:17service. We also turned our attention to
0:20the movements of the post-war world
0:22where we saw how the post-war uh period
0:26spawned black nationalist movements uh
0:29like that of Marcus Garvey and
0:31Panaffricanism
0:32as well as the growth of new
0:34intellectual movements in race capitals
0:37like Chicago and New York especially
0:40which countered ongoing racial violence
0:43across the Red Summer. So, we especially
0:46took notice of the New Negro Movement
0:49and the Harlem Renaissance, which each
0:51saw a renewal of black American art
0:54forms, literature, scientific research,
0:58and music.
1:00And today, we are going to shift our
1:01attention to how everyday American life
1:04came to a screeching halt, the Great
1:08Depression. to do. So, I want to begin
1:11with this week's case study who I feel
1:13fits many of the themes this week. Um,
1:16Arthur Mitchell. So, Representative
1:18Arthur Worgs Mitchell was born in
1:21Alabama in 1883 and was educated at
1:25historically black institutions such as
1:27Tuskegee Institute and Colombia
1:30University.
1:32And before entering politics, he worked
1:34as a teacher and lawyer in both the
1:37South and later in Chicago.
1:40And Arthur Mitchell was initially a
1:42Republican. Like many African-Americans,
1:45he had been a loyal uh member of the
1:48party of Lincoln, but Mitchell would
1:50grow disillusioned with the GOP's
1:53neglect of black concerns as they
1:55shifted from being the party of civil
1:57rights to the party of big business.
2:01And as the Democratic Party led uh under
2:04Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his New
2:07Deal be as they began to court
2:09workingclass and marginalized Americans,
2:13Arthur Mitchell switched parties seeing
2:15new political opportunities aligned with
2:18the shipping shifting landscape of the
2:211930s.
2:23And by 1932,
2:25unemployment among African-Ameans was as
2:28high as 50% in the South. And in cities
2:31like Detroit and Harlem, the situation
2:34was even more dire. So traditional
2:37sources of relief failed and the
2:40Republican party offered little response
2:42to the widespread economic downturn of
2:45the period of the Great Depression.
2:48This created space for Roosevelt's New
2:51Deal coalition to appeal to black
2:53voters. And through advocates like
2:56Elellanar Roosevelt and appointees such
2:59as Mary Miklad Bethun, who we'll talk
3:01about later, doors began to open for
3:04black political participation.
3:06And it was within this context that
3:09Mitchell emerged as a symbol of changing
3:12political tides.
3:15In 1934, Arthur Mitchell ran for
3:18Congress in Illinois's first district,
3:21which included much of Chicago's
3:23Southside, which was a growing hub of
3:26black political power. And his opponent
3:29was Oscar Depri, the last remaining
3:32black Republican in Congress and a
3:34respected figure in his own right. But
3:37Mitchell's victory was historically
3:40significant.
3:41Arthur Mitchell became the first
3:43African-American Democrat elected to
3:46Congress and his win reflected the
3:49growing alignment of black urban voters
3:52with the Democratic party.
3:55And this signaled the decline of
3:58unquestioned black loyalty to the
4:00Republican party, a trend which had
4:02lasted since reconstruction.
4:05and his campaign was boosted by the
4:08widespread perception that the Roosevelt
4:11administration, however flawed,
4:13recognized black suffering in ways
4:16Republicans no longer did.
4:20After winning this election, Mitchell
4:22would go on to serve for four terms from
4:241935 through 1943.
4:27And though he was not known for uh
4:30radical politics, he still advocated for
4:34anti-ynching legislation. He supported
4:37New Deal measures that he believed could
4:39aid black constituents, and he worked
4:42within the Democratic Party to build
4:44legitimacy for black political
4:46participation.
4:49Mitchell's political style was therefore
4:51moderate and institutionally loyal
4:53contrasting with the more radical
4:55contemporaries uh like a Philip Randolph
4:58who we'll talk more about later.
5:00Nevertheless, his presence in the
5:03Democratic ranks gave visibility to
5:06black political demands within a party
5:09that was dominated by white southern
5:12segregationalists.
5:14His
5:15election showed that African-Americans
5:17were not just voters but potential
5:20political leaders within the New Deal
5:23coalition in this new world created by
5:25the Great Depression and that their
5:28votes mattered enough to influence
5:30national policy.
5:32In the context of today's class, which
5:34will be focused on the Great Depression,
5:36Mitchell marks many of the shifts that
5:39we see from traditional institutions to
5:42more direct action, reflecting the
5:46promises of increased political leverage
5:49for black Americans, but also
5:51representing the limits of that
5:53representation as Arthur Mitchell stood
5:56as the lone black Democrat with little
6:00ability to push for sweeping reform.
6:02born.
6:03But to understand the rise of Arthur
6:05Mitchell and these shifts that I've
6:07hinted at, we need to begin with the
6:09broader context of the Great Depression.
6:13The stock market crash of October 1929
6:16did not single-handedly cause the Great
6:19Depression, but it triggered a collapse
6:21that exposed deep flaws in the American
6:24economy.
6:26These included unchecked financial
6:29speculation,
6:31massive corporate debt, an immense
6:34decline in consumer demand, agricultural
6:37overp production, and a staggering
6:40economic inequality between the upper
6:42classes and the lower classes. And by
6:451932, national income had plummeted from
6:4981 billion to 40 billion. So
6:52unemployment as a result of this stock
6:54market crash which triggered the Great
6:56Depression,
6:58unemployment is going to go from 4
7:00million people in 1930 to over double
7:03that to 11 million by 1932.
7:06And roughly one quarter of the American
7:09workforce was jobless. And for
7:11African-Ameans that toll was far worse.
7:17Black Americans were consistently the
7:20last hired and the first fired. This is
7:24a grim reality that long predated the
7:27crash but was magnified during the Great
7:29Depression. In the South, black
7:32unemployment reached 33% in 1931 and
7:36within a year that had climbed to 50%.
7:39So one in two black southern Americans
7:41were unemployed.
7:43In major northern cities, the figures
7:45were equally stark. In Harlem, uh, black
7:49unemployment stood at 50%, in
7:51Philadelphia, it was more at 56.
7:55Detroit, which was still reeling from
7:58layoffs and auto plants, uh, saw black
8:01unemployment sore to 60%.
8:04So, why was there such a disparity
8:07between uh, black Americans and white
8:10Americans and these unemployment rates?
8:12The reasons were systemic.
8:15Black workers were over represented in
8:19low-wage, lowskilled positions,
8:23especially in agriculture and domestic
8:26service. And they were under represented
8:29in jobs where there were protections,
8:32jobs with which were uh unionized
8:35um or those in industrial positions that
8:39offered marginal protections. So when
8:42the economy collapsed, black Americans
8:44were among the first to go.
8:48And the depression decimated black
8:51businesses and professionals. In the
8:531920s, the number of blackowned
8:55businesses had nearly doubled from
8:5740,000 to 70,000. 70,000 blackowned
9:01businesses. It was a testament to that
9:03rising racial pride, the success of
9:05racial uplift, and economic ambitions,
9:08community support. all of this together.
9:11But between 1929 and 1934,
9:15black businesses, their revenue fell
9:17from 99 million to half that at 48
9:21million. And by the end of the decade,
9:23even blackowned banks had nearly
9:26disappeared, shrinking from 134 black
9:30banks in 1929 to only six by World War
9:34II.
9:36This is a massive shift.
9:39middleclass black professionals such as
9:41dentists, lawyers, doctors, all of
9:44these, they lost their clients as
9:46widespread poverty wiped out disposable
9:49income in black communities. And for
9:51blackowned institutions, which were
9:53relying on now impoverished clientele,
9:57these were no longer sustainable.
10:01In the rural south, the economic
10:03devastation was compounded by
10:05agricultural collapse. Cotton prices
10:09plummeted from 18 cents per pound in
10:121929 to just 6 cents in 1933.
10:17So you can imagine that this had a
10:19massive effect on the black workforce
10:21that was involved in the cotton
10:23industry.
10:25And mechanization also displaced black
10:28sharecroppers and tenant farmers,
10:31leaving them without land, income, or
10:34any kind of recourse to losing their
10:36jobs to an increasingly mechanized
10:40um uh agricultural
10:43um arena.
10:45And the 1927 Mississippi River flood had
10:49already forced many off the land. Now
10:52they flocked to southern cities like
10:54Memphis and New Orleans only to find
10:58urban job markets were equally
11:00inhospitable.
11:04Even so-called negro jobs, jobs which
11:07were less um desirable, those like
11:11garbage collection, janitorial work and
11:14domestic service. All of these were
11:16increasingly taken over by unemployed
11:19whites.
11:22And um in these cities like Atlanta,
11:25white vigilantes known as the black
11:27shirts rallied under the slogan um no
11:32jobs for and the slur until every white
11:35man has a job.
11:38Racial violence and intimidation were
11:40often unemployed to displace black
11:44workers from positions that they had
11:46long held.
11:49Black women in this were doubly
11:52disadvantaged
11:53in northern cities like New York. They
11:56were often uh working as domestic
11:58workers uh laboring in unregulated and
12:02abusive environments. And in 1935,
12:05activists Ella Baker and Marvel Cook
12:09published a scathing expose on the quote
12:12on what was called the uh Bronx slave
12:16market where black women stood on the
12:18street corners hoping to be picked up
12:20for day labor.
12:23Many of the women who were engaged in
12:25this economy were never paid. And the
12:28system was exploitative. It was
12:30unmonitored and this was born of
12:32desperation.
12:35This was a period of great great crisis.
12:39And at the height of this crisis, 34ths
12:43of black families relied on public
12:46relief or some kind of aid from the
12:48government. Yeah, even this was
12:50inadequate. Relief opportunities under
12:53the Republican government of Herbert
12:55Hoover were shrinking as local and
12:58federal revenues dried up. hunger,
13:01malnutrition, and homelessness surged.
13:04And Carl Martin, uh, he was a blues
13:07musician. He captured the mood in a song
13:10which went, "Everyone's crying. Let's
13:12have a new deal, cuz I've got to make a
13:15living, even if I have to rob and
13:17steal."
13:20The situation was especially dire in
13:23black neighborhoods where thousands
13:25lived in seller apartments and
13:27ratinfested basement.
13:30Harlem social worker uh Anna Arnold
13:33Hedgeman um described these living
13:35conditions as resembling the squalor of
13:38Arkansas sharecroers.
13:41A powerful comparison that underscored
13:43the national scope of black suffering
13:46both in the cities and in rural society.
13:53This period is also going to see a
13:55racialization of medicinal practices.
13:59Um so the Tuskegee syphilis study which
14:01began in 1932 so at the peak of the
14:04great depression and then continued for
14:0640 years was a collaboration between the
14:09US public health service and the
14:11Tuskegee Institute and Tuskegee Veterans
14:14Hospital which were both black uh
14:17institutions to study the effects of
14:20untreated syphilis.
14:23And over 600 black men um were promised
14:27some form of uh health care
14:31if they were to join in this study, but
14:34they were unable to receive treatment
14:36for their syphilis due to this study. Um
14:41despite a treatment being widespread by
14:44the 1940s, these men believed that they
14:46were the recipients of a free healthc
14:48care program. But the truth of this
14:50study was the usage of black bodies as
14:53medicinal experience, as medical
14:57experiments.
14:59Um, marking an especially dark chapter
15:02in science in America. Um, taking these
15:07black bodies and using them as lab rats
15:10to test the effects of a particularly
15:14devastating uh disease like syphilis.
15:19In 1932, Franklin Delano Roosevelt
15:24rose to the presidential office,
15:26replacing Herbert Hoover, uh, the
15:28Republican, whose philosophy of
15:31non-intervention had catastrophic
15:33consequences on daily life. Roosevelt's
15:36response was the New Deal. The New Deal.
15:40an ambitious set of programs,
15:42regulations, and reforms which were
15:44aimed at economic recovery, job
15:47creation, and social welfare programs.
15:50And historians often divide the New Deal
15:53into two phases. the first New Deal
15:56which was the earlier era from 1933 to
15:591934 which focused on immediate relief
16:02and economic recovery
16:04and then the second New Deal from 1935
16:07to 1938 which prioritized long-term
16:11reforms things like job programs and the
16:14beginnings of a social safety net uh
16:17funded through spending
16:21for millions of Americans. The New Deal
16:23offered jobs, housing, and hope. But for
16:28black Americans, the benefits of the New
16:30Deal were far from equitable.
16:35New Deal legislation often failed to
16:37protect black workers, not by accident,
16:40but by design.
16:43White supremacist lawmakers, especially
16:45those from the South, wielded enormous
16:48influence in Congress and demanded
16:50racial concessions in return for their
16:53support of those bills.
16:56The result was a federal system that
16:58either explicitly excluded
17:00African-Americans
17:02or allowed local administrations to
17:04discriminate freely. So, we're going to
17:07examine a few uh key programs here,
17:09especially the National Recovery
17:12Administration or NRA, the Agricultural
17:14Adjustment Administration or the AAA,
17:17and the Social Security Act of 1935.
17:20These bills were key uh key pieces of
17:25legislation to try to uh remove the
17:29problems of the New Deal.
17:33So the first that we will talk about is
17:35the National Recovery Administration or
17:37the NRA. This was established in 1933
17:41and was meant to regulate wages, hours,
17:44and prices to serve as protections for
17:46everyday workers.
17:48But in practice, the NRA allowed what
17:51was called job shifting or the
17:54replacement of black v uh workers with
17:57white workers. Rather than enforcing
18:00fair wages for African-Ameans, they
18:02could be removed altogether.
18:06And many black workers um derisively
18:10called the NRA the Negro Removal Act or
18:14Negroes Robbed Again. These were terms
18:17used by them at the time to say that
18:20this program had helped the raise
18:23perhaps the national economy but did so
18:26with little regard for the lives and
18:29welfare of black Americans.
18:33Another instance of inequality that we
18:35should discuss is the Agricultural
18:37Adjustment Administration or the AAA and
18:40you can see an advertisement for that uh
18:42list um pictured here on the screen.
18:46This program poured millions into aiding
18:50American farmers, but almost none of
18:52this reached black sharecroers or tenant
18:55farmers.
18:57Land owners who were overwhelmingly
18:59white, which you may have guessed
19:01judging by the advertisement, received
19:03subsidies and were supposed to pass
19:06benefits onto their laborers. Instead,
19:09many evicted black farmers or simply
19:12pocketed the funds.
19:15And this further entrenched rural
19:18economic inequalities and displaced tens
19:21of thousands of African-Ameans
19:24from the land that they had once worked.
19:30A third instance that we will talk about
19:32is the Social Security Act of 1935. This
19:35is of course still with us today and is
19:37one of the foundational social welfare
19:41programs of the United States.
19:44This program created a safety net, an
19:49old age pension and disability benefits.
19:53So what this means is that effectively
19:55um this was sold as a program to ensure
19:58that the elderly would not be left out
20:00in the streets in periods of economic
20:02instability like the great depression.
20:04This would provide money um for those
20:08most likely to be affected by an
20:11economic downturn.
20:14But this program excluded explicitly
20:18excluded agricultural, domestic workers,
20:21and day laborers from coverage, the very
20:24types of work that most African-Ameans
20:27held.
20:28And this exclusion was not incidental.
20:32This was a calculated move to preserve
20:35Jim Crow labor in the South and to
20:38appease southern lawmakers.
20:42So outside of these three acts which
20:44were regulating commerce and business,
20:46the New Deal also put in place
20:48institutionalized housing segregation
20:51which is a damaging legacy of this
20:53period.
20:55So it did so through the Federal Housing
20:58Administration or the FHA and the
21:01Homeowners Loan Corporation or HOLC
21:05which were designed to stabilize and
21:07expand home ownership.
21:09But both agencies explicitly promoted
21:11racial segregation through policies like
21:14redlinining, refusing to ensure
21:17mortgages in or near black
21:19neighborhoods.
21:20And even in integrated or middlecl class
21:23black areas, mortgage applications could
21:27be denied.
21:29The FHA also endorsed what were called
21:32restrictive covenants, which allowed
21:35white homeowners to legally bar sales to
21:38African-Ameans to try to produce all
21:41white neighborhoods.
21:43These policies would have long
21:47long-standing effects.
21:49They locked black families out of
21:51wealth-b buildinging opportunities and
21:54home ownership became the primary
21:56vehicle for accumulating generational
21:58wealth in the 20th century. Throughout
22:00the 1900s, owning a home was the easiest
22:03way to build wealth for you and your
22:05family.
22:07But African-Ameans were deliberately and
22:09systematically denied access.
22:12So, we see the effects of this today.
22:14Home ownership rates taken from 2019
22:17show that 73% of white families owned or
22:20were working towards owning a home
22:23compared to 42% for black Americans who
22:27had the lowest percentile of any of the
22:30racial groups taken for this study.
22:34This has long-standing effects well into
22:36the present.
22:40As I mentioned uh with our case study,
22:42this was a period of immense political
22:44shifts.
22:46Traditionally, African-Americans had
22:48been staunchly loyal to the Republican
22:50party since Abraham Lincoln and the
22:52Emancipation Proclamation
22:54Reconstruction.
22:56But by the 1920s, the Republicans had
22:58increasingly been interested in business
23:01and commerce, offering little support to
23:04black Americans who continued to suffer
23:06under Jim Crow laws and systemic
23:09economic marginalization.
23:12So, the Great Depression forced
23:14African-Americans to reconsider their
23:16political allegiances as Herbert
23:18Hoover's non-intervention left them out
23:20to dry.
23:22The Roosevelt administration, though
23:25deeply flawed in its delivery of racial
23:27justice, which we've talked about in the
23:29last couple of um slides, presented a
23:32government that appeared to care about
23:34the poor and the unemployed, including
23:37black Americans. And despite their
23:40exclusionary policies, many
23:42African-Americans saw the Democratic
23:44Party as a vehicle for hope and
23:46inclusion. And if you look at the slide
23:49here, this is a map of how people voted
23:51in the 1932 election which brought um uh
23:56FDR into power. And you can see the
24:00massive swath of blue across the United
24:03States. You don't see electoral maps
24:05like this anymore, but FDR was brought
24:08in with immense support from across all
24:12races and forms of life.
24:15different backgrounds, different
24:17experiences
24:19came together and formed a massive
24:21coalition of support for FDR.
24:28And a pivotal figure in bridging the gap
24:30between African-Americans and the
24:33Roosevelt administration was First Lady
24:35Eleanor Roosevelt. More than a
24:38ceremonial spouse, Eleanor Roosevelt
24:40emerged as a powerful advocate for
24:42racial equality by speaking out publicly
24:45on behalf of black Americans, by
24:47building close relationships with
24:49African-American leaders and
24:51organizations, and also lobbying uh her
24:54husband directly uh and other officials
24:57to consider black concerns in policym.
25:02And her efforts were not symbolic.
25:05Eleanor Roosevelt's influence led to the
25:07appointment of African-Americans to
25:10various government positions and opened
25:13channels of communication between black
25:15activists and the federal government.
25:18Her work allowed for black Americans to
25:21uh gain access to government jobs. And
25:24by 1941,
25:27over 150,000 black Americans served in
25:29political appointments to government
25:31agencies, including Mary Miklo Bethun,
25:35who's pictured here on the slide, who
25:37led the division of Negro Affairs of the
25:40National Youth Administration.
25:42um she was able to use this position as
25:45a launchpad for vocational training or
25:48unemployed black youths and this was a
25:51vital outreach program to counteract the
25:54desperation of the depression era.
26:00Bthoon also organized the federal
26:02council on Negro Affairs informally
26:05known as the black cabinet. Every
26:08president has a cabinet. These people
26:11were considered the black cabinet or
26:13those who were uh invested in pushing
26:17for um policym which benefited uh black
26:21life. This was a group of
26:23African-American policy makers who
26:26regularly met at um uh together to
26:30coordinate strategy and to influence
26:33federal policy. And members included uh
26:36individuals like Robert Weaver who was
26:38an economist, an economist uh and
26:41housing expert, William Hasty who was
26:44the Interior Department legal adviser,
26:46Eugene Jones who had become a commerce
26:49department official and labor leaders
26:52and activists like a Phip Randolph and
26:54Walter White.
26:57And though unofficial, the black cabinet
27:00hel uh helped to shape federal responses
27:03to issues affecting African-Americans
27:06and provided a space where racial
27:09equality was openly discussed in
27:12relation to public policy.
27:15This was the first time since
27:16reconstruction that black people
27:19received support directly from the
27:21federal government. And in 1936,
27:2575%
27:27of African-Americans voted for
27:30Roosevelt's reelection, establishing
27:33black Americans as a vital constituency
27:36in the Democratic Party, even to this
27:38day. Um, black Americans are a vital
27:41voting block that cannot be ignored by,
27:43well, by any politician who wants to win
27:46their election.
27:48And so it was in 1934, in the face of
27:51these shifts, that Arthur Mitchell
27:53became the first black Democrat elected
27:55to Congress, defeating black Republican
27:58Oscar Depri.
28:00And we're going to continue talking
28:02about uh the economic and social
28:04devastations of the Great Depression um
28:07in the second half of this lecture.

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