The New Deal’s Effect: Did All Types of People Have the Opportunity to Benefit Fully From the New Deal?

Effect on Women Women appointed to government positions Frances Perkins = America’s 1st female cabinet member (Sec. of Labor, helped develop SSA). Mary McLeod Bethune

Effect on African-Americans - A. Phillip Randolph: organized the country’s 1st all-black trade union Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters - 100+ African Americans appointed to key positions in the Fed. Gov’t * Mary McLeod Bethune: Headed the Division of Negro Affairs of the NYA * “Black Cabinet”: influential African- Americans who advised FDR’s administration on racial issues

Effect on Mexican-Americans CCC and WPA helped, if you had a permanent address

John Collier’s Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 - Government policy changed from assimilation to Native American autonomy. There were three changes: 1. economic: Native American land would belong to the entire tribe 2. cultural: Native American children could now attend schools on reservations (boarding schools closed) 3. political: Tribes given permission to elect their own members for their own tribal government

Result: Democrats dominate national politics New Deal Coalition Coalition of diverse groups dedicated to supporting the Democratic Party, including: Southern whites, various urban groups, African Americans, unionized industrial workers. Result: Democrats dominate national politics through 1930s and 1940s

Minorities Generally Support FDR. However... ● NRA sets lower minimum wage for women than men ● FERA & CWA hire fewer women then men CCC hires only men refused to approve a federal anti-lynching law or put an end to the poll tax allowed the NRA, CCC, and TVA to pay African Americans lower wages Mexican Americans disqualified from CCC and WPA if they were migrant workers (no permanent address) (worried he’d lose Southern Democrats) Is FDR fully committed to the Civil Rights Movement?

The Organized Labor Situation Labor Unions flourish: * from 1933 to 1941, union membership increases from 3 million to more than 10 million New Tactic: Sit Down Strike workers went to work, but didn’t actually work disallowed scabs to be brought in AFL (Amer. Federation of Labor) & CIO (Congress of Industrial Org.’s) Split: AFL rep. skilled labor unions (carpenters, electricians, etc.) CIO rep. semi- and unskilled- labor unions (automobile manufacturing). 1955: The two org.’s come together