President Franklin Delano Roosevelt came into the White House in 1932 promising a ¨New Deal¨ for the American public. Unfortunately, the government did not extend that offer in equal measure to all United States citizens.
Beneficial New Deal Programs, such as the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), did indeed employ blacks, but only in limited numbers, especially in the early years. Furthermore, many CCC camps were segregated. Eleanor Roosevelt led a passionate campaign intended to help but her husband feared advocating legislative change for political reasons. And in perhaps the most appalling of the racial injustice hidden within the framework of the New Deal, the Federal Housing Administration's practice of keeping blacks out of better neighborhoods solidified a system of unequal segregation that persists today. The New Deal may have been a groundbreaking expansion of government that demonstrated the power a society has to lift itself up in a time of struggle, but it also reinforced horrific truths regarding race relations in the United States.
Beneficial New Deal Programs, such as the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), did indeed employ blacks, but only in limited numbers, especially in the early years. Furthermore, many CCC camps were segregated. Eleanor Roosevelt led a passionate campaign intended to help but her husband feared advocating legislative change for political reasons. And in perhaps the most appalling of the racial injustice hidden within the framework of the New Deal, the Federal Housing Administration's practice of keeping blacks out of better neighborhoods solidified a system of unequal segregation that persists today. The New Deal may have been a groundbreaking expansion of government that demonstrated the power a society has to lift itself up in a time of struggle, but it also reinforced horrific truths regarding race relations in the United States.
Perhaps the most interesting dynamic of the New Deal as it relates to race is the conflict between the Roosevelts’ evident good intentions and the political landscape that kept these intentions from becoming a reality. Indeed, both the President and his First Lady made genuine overtures towards improvements that had never happened before in the White House. Eleanor Roosevelt campaigned earnestly for New Deal programs to allocate resources equally to whites and blacks. She petitioned for blacks to be allowed in Arthurdale, A West Virginian New Deal-created town, and urged Congress to pass an anti-lynching bill.
As historian Havard Sitkoff notes, the administration forced race relations into the public consciousness and may have given some black folks a voice they might not otherwise have had. In 1936 Eleanor invited Marian Anderson, a black singer, to perform in the White House, a move Paul Buhle describes as ¨one of the most surprising symbols of changes taking place at the highest levels of American life¨ (p.88).
Symbolic changes in the White House, however, do not always trickle down to mean anything for average people struggling against the intersecting forces of economic depression and institutional racism. In fact, the Roosevelt administration never managed to pass anti-lynching legislation, and aid was often unevenly distributed, especially in the South. Apparently good intentions went unmanifested because of political pressure in Washington reflecting an American populace still steeped in overt racism. Seventeen states mandated segregation in the 1930s, and Southern whites were insistent that the government protect their racial superiority. These same Southern whites made up a large portion of the the electoral base for Roosevelt's Democratic Party. This meant he had to take politics into account in backing measures like the anti-lynching act.
Furthermore, many of Eleanor Roosevelt´s pleas to fairly distribute aid were simply ignored at the local level, where white bureaucrats had no intention of leveling the playing field. The administration also created the Federal Housing Administration only to allow it to completely reinforce the wealth gap between whites and people of color by blatantly considering ¨racial homogeneity¨ as a major factor in granting assistance to neighborhoods and refusing people of color access to white areas out of concern for property values.
As historian Havard Sitkoff notes, the administration forced race relations into the public consciousness and may have given some black folks a voice they might not otherwise have had. In 1936 Eleanor invited Marian Anderson, a black singer, to perform in the White House, a move Paul Buhle describes as ¨one of the most surprising symbols of changes taking place at the highest levels of American life¨ (p.88).
Symbolic changes in the White House, however, do not always trickle down to mean anything for average people struggling against the intersecting forces of economic depression and institutional racism. In fact, the Roosevelt administration never managed to pass anti-lynching legislation, and aid was often unevenly distributed, especially in the South. Apparently good intentions went unmanifested because of political pressure in Washington reflecting an American populace still steeped in overt racism. Seventeen states mandated segregation in the 1930s, and Southern whites were insistent that the government protect their racial superiority. These same Southern whites made up a large portion of the the electoral base for Roosevelt's Democratic Party. This meant he had to take politics into account in backing measures like the anti-lynching act.
Furthermore, many of Eleanor Roosevelt´s pleas to fairly distribute aid were simply ignored at the local level, where white bureaucrats had no intention of leveling the playing field. The administration also created the Federal Housing Administration only to allow it to completely reinforce the wealth gap between whites and people of color by blatantly considering ¨racial homogeneity¨ as a major factor in granting assistance to neighborhoods and refusing people of color access to white areas out of concern for property values.
I found this topic interesting because of the parallels evident with today´s political reality. The issues of illegal immigration and persistent racism have given rise to circumstances not unlike those of the 1930s. President Obama has tried unsuccessfully to enact comprehensive immigration reform, but is largely blocked by a gridlocked Congress. Republican representatives know their support base, and, like the southern legislators of the 1930s who knew they had to stick up for their racist constituencies, they are aware of how important it is for them politically to defend an intolerant viewpoint to reassure voters scared of a change in the social order.
In another parallel, having the first ever black president in the Oval Office has done little done change the racial divide in the nation. The efforts of the Black Lives Matter movement demonstrate that many blacks do feel that the largely symbolic reality of a black president does little to change their actual place in society, just as blacks in the 1930s would have noted that a black singer performing in the White House did not place food on the table. Symbolic measures, whether they be a black singer or a black president in the white house, cannot transform the landscape of American society. Only an engaged and dynamic public can do that.
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