Sunday, November 19, 2017

The New Deal for People of Color

As we might have known, the Great Depression is time where many people have been affected financially, but have they ever mentioned the outcomes for people of different skin colors. Even though it is agreed that everybody has suffered, but is the suffering equally distributed?

Turns out, black citizens were usually the first to be fired or the last to be hired. The black population faced poverty 50% of the time compared to 30% of the white population. But due to the discrimination that they constantly faced during the time, being fired or hired is just a norm for them. This in turn made the blacks organize their own union, however, they were usually lynched for the uplifting act both in the North and South.

Everything changed by the year of 1934 as the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO) aim of unionizing auto, steel and other industries. To add to their success, they also have an organization that brought the CIO together with civil rights organizations previously hostile to organized labor. But with their past experience with racism, the black population where slow on the uptake for the union, but they gradually warmed up to it, and by 1940, about half a million joined in the union. This shows that the fight against racism and poverty may be tough, but without giving up, they will reap the rewards that they have worked hard for. Even if it meant 20 years of criticism, lynching, and even threats.

http://www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-by-another-name/themes/fdr/
https://socialistworker.org/2012/06/28/blacks-and-the-great-depression

1 comment:

  1. Thank you for your interesting post. Your post really highlighted how racism affected workers, and it also showed the struggle against this racism. I found it interesting that people were lynched in both the north and the south, since that was something that was mostly common in the south.

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