America in the 1930's
America in the 1930'sRacism | The Great Depression | Economic failure In the early 1930's, more than 15 million Americans were unemployed. President Herbert Hoover did not do much to ease the predicament. He challenged that patience and independence were all Americans required to aid them through this “passing incident in our national lives.” But in 1932, American citizens nominated a new president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who vowed to utilize the authority of the federal government to make Americans’ lives better. For nine years, Roosevelt’s New Deal produced an original role for government in American life. Despite the fact that the New Deal single-handedly did not end the Depression, it did offer an unparalleled protection net to millions of distressed Americans. Everyday life was a challenge for black people in the 1930's due to racism. As racial discrimination was legal at the time so racism was still evident at the time. Black people had lower wages than white at the time and their jobs and they always required more hardships than the jobs of the white. The lynching (hanging) of black people were common at the time. For the black Americans to challenge their misfortunes was practically impossible. For them to do so, there was the risk of serious violence of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), the most well-known racist organisation which by the mid-1920's, had over 100,000 members throughout the South and had began to spread out to the Northern and Western estates. "To unite native-born white Americans in the preservation of American institutions, and the supremacy of white race." - From a KKK newsletter |