New Deal, Great Depression, and World War

¶ … New Deal, Great Depression, and World War II's Impact

The New Deal, the Great Depression, and World War II had an immense impact on American history and African-Americans and women in particular. The New Deal was the largest, most concerted, most blatant spending venture by the federal government to date. It was unprecedented both in its scope and in its effect on working-class Americans.

Some of the revolutionary acts of the New Deal were the Emergency Banking Act, which gave the president the power to regulate banking affairs, the Economy Act, which balanced the budget, the Federal Emergency Relief Act, which helped out the states, the National Employment System Act, which helped states place people in jobs, and the National Industrial Recovery Act, which regulated labor, eliminated child labor and instituted a minimum wage. (http://www.nv.cc.va.us/home/nvsageh/Hist122/Part3/NewDealSummary.htm)

The New Deal allowed America to pick itself up the bootstraps and recover from the Great Depression. African-Americans benefited from the acts as jobs were created for all levels of society. Even though African-Americans still could not shoot for the most challenging and rewarding of jobs, the socio-economic position was still strengthened immensely by Roosevelt's efforts.

The Great Depression, on the other hand, affected whites, African-Americans and women alike. All suffered, all lost jobs, and all clamored for change. After the stock market crash of 1929, the Great Depression set in as corporate stock prices proved inflated, and the economy lagged. Production faltered, and demand all but disappeared. The New Deal's Federal Securities Act worked to reverse some of that damage, but the loss in jobs was absolutely unprecedented. (http://www.nv.cc.va.us/home/nvsageh/Hist122/Part3/NewDealSummary.htm)

World War II, though, had the hugest impact on both African-Americans and women. Suddenly, the economy was back on its feet, with millions of dollars being devoted to plans such as Lend-Lease to help the British out. And then after Pearl Harbor, American spending truly reached a peak. The New Deal set the stage for the economy's recovery after the Great Depression, but World War II actually revived the economy. Suddenly, the role of women in the workforce was paramount. With men away at war, women had to do all the work - including building warships, for instance - that men previously did. This exposure to other fields of employment changes the face of the female labor market forever. (http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/WWII_Women/WomenInWWII.html)

Government intervention during the Great Depression (the New Deal) had given jobs mainly to men. Women were discriminated against, especially in the higher-paying job sectors such as secretarial work and teaching. Men and women had different types of jobs. Men worked in high-paying manufacturing jobs and dominated the professions. Women did clerical or janitorial work, or worked on the lower pay scale in a factory, or worked as nannies or maids in other people's homes. Overall, more married women were at work in the 1930's than in the 1920's, but they were concentrated in the lowest paying jobs. Rhode Island, with its textile mills, jewelry shops, and factories, had always been a place where married women worked. (http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/WWII_Women/WomenInWWII.html)

The war brought a huge shortage of labor. Not only was there great demand for labor to build up the war machines necessary to fight the war, but the men were leaving civilian employment for military service in huge numbers. To fill the shortage, society could have gone back to child labor as in the preceding century. Instead, society asked women to fill the jobs and they of course jumped to take them. True, patriotism motivated women to take these jobs and excel, but truly, the lure of financial and emotional independence was the prime motivating factor. (http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/WWII_Women/WomenInWWII.html)

African-Americans, too, de facto became involved in professions that were before only white professions. (ibid) This experience also has helped African-Americans expand their economic clout across the economy. Essentially, Roosevelt successfully parlayed a negative event (the war) into a positive economic force: economic recovery. American, the sleeping giant, awoke from its Great Depression doldrums to shake off its unemployment jitters and power a war machine that liberated the world, and laid the foundation for liberating its own women and African-Americans.

The Great Society and the War On Poverty

Lyndon B. Johnson introduced the Great Society to America in his 1965 State of the Union speech. Johnson wanted to be remembered as the best president for the poor and the African-Americans, and the Great Society at least cemented his desire to change the socio-economic system of the poor and the minorities.

The Great Society encompassed both an economic and a political agenda. Johnson sought civil rights for African-American while at the same time seeking job rights and better wages for the poor in general.

Under the Civil Rights Bill of 1964 and the Voting Rights Bill of 1965, integration and non-violence were stressed by African-American leaders who were suddenly accorded power under the Great Society. (http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/lectures/lecture27.html)

But the Great Society also included the dubious War on Poverty, which may not have been as successful as some of its other elements. The advancement of civil rights for African-Americans was only one item on Johnson's ambitious domestic agenda.

In 1963, shortly before he was assassinated, President Kennedy had asked his economic advisors and top staff to draw up some proposals to address the problem of rampant American poverty. Johnson took over after he succeeded Kennedy as President. In Johnson's first State of the Union address on June 8, 1964, he called for an all-out and successful war to defeat poverty. (http://gi.grolier.com/presidents/aae/side/greatsoc.html) He expanded and revised the proposals given to Kennedy and developed the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. The act included a variety of initiatives: (http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/lectures/lecture27.html)

Head Start

Job Corps

Work-Study program for university students

VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) - a domestic version of the Peace Corps

Neighborhood Youth Corps

Basic education and adult job training

CAPS (Community Action Programs) (http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/lectures/lecture27.html)

In essence, Johnson failed where President Jimmy Carter failed several years later: He tried to accomplish too much good in too little time with too little money. And the Vietnam War threw a huge monkey wrench into Johnson's plans for the War on Poverty.