Great Depression impact on Women and Minorities

What are some issues Minorities may have faced that others did not have to deal with during the G D?

White Boards

Life improved in 1920’s North EastHarlem renaissance- literature, education, and

pride NY1920’s Southern Blacks economic stagnation

½ of all blacks lived in the SouthCompromised many low wage high labor jobs

African Americans

Lost farms as cotton prices and other crops dropped

Blacks would be fired from low pay jobs to open the job for white men

Black women would lose domestic servant jobs to white women

1932 General Pop 25% unemployment African American 75%

40% of Black workers lost their jobs

The Great Depression Hits African Americans Severely

How could the government solve this inequality?

Discuss

Did benefit from Federal aid programsPublic Works Administration &Works Progress

Administrations A stipulation in these programs was to hire

minoritiesBlacks made ¼ of residents in Fed Housing

Project

New Deal and African Americans

FDR forced nondiscrimination in hiring of Fed jobs

Black Cabinet- Group of African American leaders under Roosevelt.Advised President on race issues and getting

New Deal support to BlacksPushed by Eleanor Roosevelt

William Hastie and Mary McLeod Bethune Key members of the cabinet

FDR and Black Cabinet

AAA- Denied support to tenant farms because they did not own land

Federal programs at the local level would deny relief for blacksRacist managers at the local level made this

choice and would not be caughtIntimidations and lynching increased during

the Great Dep

Federal Programs Denying Blacks support

What was the goal of the Black Cabinet?

White Board

NAACP pushed Federal Law outlawing lynching but did not passWhite southern Democrats did not allow it to

passSouth was unsafe for many blacks

Fighting Racism

What would you do if you were a Black Southerner during the Great Depression?

White Board

Worsening social and economic inequality in the South forced ½ million to move to northern cites to find work.

factories and business began closing down and unemployment continued.

Over all Blacks suffered More during the Great Depression

Moving North

NAACP supported striking white union workers

IN Return White Unions began allowing blacks in

500,000 blacks joined labor unions

Entering Unions

There was about 2 million Latinos in the US most in the South West

Most Latinos worked low wage labor jobs in agriculture or industryFamilies would follow the crops working in

various areas yearly

Hispanic Americans

Jobs went to migrant whitesMany relocated to cities Creating ethnic

neighborhoods “Barrios

Great Depression hit Latinos were first fired and last hired

New Deal Program Managers denied giving Latinos benefits and jobs claiming they were not citizensMany were citizens and still

were denied rightsSome areas Mexican Americans

were denied access to school or service at hospitals

Seen as unwanted immigrants and competition for jobs(despite many being citizens)

Denied Basic Rights

What is a similarity and a difference between the struggles of Blacks and Latinos during the Great Dep.

White Boards

With influx of Latinos entering cities in search of jobs like LALocal governments to clear cities out of new migrants via forced

DeportationsRaids would gather up Mexican Americans and deport to MexicoThousands of those deported were American Born US citizens Intimidations and deportations caused 500,000 to voluntarily return

to Mexico.Nearly half of all Latinos were forced to relocate during the Great

Dep

Deportations and Relocations

Increased responsibility- fend for themselves and family when men went out to find work

The View was jobs should go to men women should remain at home take care of

familyWomen made up only 25% of the work force  Men, unions, and government were not

ready to accept working women, and this bias caused females intense hardship

during the Great Depression.

Women During the Great Depression

How have opinions changed in today's society

Discuss

Poorest- need to keep food n the table for family

Middle Class- women worked to maintain level of life.Standard of living went up in the 1920’s

families had to work harder to keep that standard

Consumerism and material comforts of the 1920’s

Working wives also expected to maintain the household

Working Married women increase by 50% 1930’s

Economic necessity to work-

Women were pushed out traditional jobs like teaching and into clerical , retail jobs, and domestic workMany educated women took positions well

below their training

What jobs did women have

What group of women would have the hardest time finding jobs?

White Board

Those who could not find jobs created their own small business- Need to keep family financially in tact

Survivalist Entrepreneurship

Black women lost jobs as cooks, maids, nurses, and laundresses

Created small business with Boarding houses and Beauty parlorsSince so many Blacks migrated north Women

opened homes to migrantsWhite owned salons did not cater to blacks

open up beauty shops in homesThese business helped generate income for

families and needed little investment

Survivalist Entrepreneurs- Create a small business to maintain the family

Eleanor Roosevelt championed women's rights

1st Female cabinet member –Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins

New Deal programs also hired many womenProblem -New Deal policies targeted at Men

and primary bread winnersMany jobs were labor intensiveWomen were hired in clerical needs in various

New Deal Agencies

New Deal and Women