Franklin D Roosevelt's Influence On America
Beginning in 1929 with the Great Crash, Americans suffered greatly from financial instability during the Great Depression. In 1933, after Herbert Hoover’s failed laissez faire approach to the economy, President Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in the depths of economic despair. As opposed to Hoover, Roosevelt believed that the government had to step up and take an active role in the American economy because he saw the damage that a free and unregulated stock market could cause. In response to the middle class’s desperation, Roosevelt created many relief, recovery and reform programs to help Americans get back on their feet and prepare for the future, and which became the backbone of Roosevelt’s presidency. Roosevelt’s signature program was
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the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) which employed young men to work for the public benefit on projects such as planting trees, building roads, and finding new water sources. In order to have as strong of a backing as Roosevelt did to create these programs, he developed a strategic approach to balancing the wants of his supporters with the needs of the American people.
While the CCC was beneficial to many Americans because it gave previously unemployed men a stable income, it fell short in social issues of racism and discrimination due to Roosevelt’s reluctance to defy his Dixiecrat supporters. While FDR believed the government should help bring Americans out of the poverty of the Great Depression, the racist attitudes present in his voter base limited his power to help racial minorities as equally as he did white men in the CCC.
Throughout his first two terms, Franklin D. Roosevelt strove to secure a decent standard of living for all Americans because he felt the government had a moral obligation to prevent tyrannical economic incentives from crushing Americans. On the contrary to a hands-off government, Roosevelt’s vision for government was a strong and powerful scaffold for American life. As he stated in his Second Inaugural Address in 1937, the government was responsible for “fashioning an instrument of unimagined power for establishment of a morally better world.” Through acts that distributed wealth and boosted the economy from the bottom up such as the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and the Social Security Act, Roosevelt used his strong executive role in
government to help the lower class because he felt that he had a moral obligation to secure Americans a decent life. In 1934, Roosevelt implemented the Wagner Act that empowered workers to unionize and band together to demand fair working conditions which then gave workers more power over their economic superiors. His pro-worker approach and his views of a government which controlled the immoral greed of big businesses allowed Roosevelt to gain Dixiecrat support. The Dixiecrats were southern democrats that were in favor of white supremacy and segregation but supported Roosevelt because of his pro-labor policies and became the most influential of Roosevelt’s supporters. Backed by the Dixiecrats and other pro-labor groups such as farmers and laborers, Roosevelt won in a landslide victory in his first and second terms. In his Second Inaugural Address, Roosevelt explained how he would continue to protect Americans from “the abuse of power by those who betray for profit the elementary decencies of life.” An unregulated economy allows profit-driven companies to make their workers work long hours with little pay and in inhumane conditions. All in all, Roosevelt clearly stated his goals for his presidency in his First Inaugural Address when he said, “With the clear consciousness of seeking old and precious moral values… we aim at the assurance of a rounded and permanent national life.” Roosevelt sought to improve American living so that citizens were not starving on the streets, not only in the present, but also in a “permanent” plan for the government to focus on in the future.
Roosevelt was significantly able to aid young white men through the Civilian Conservation Corps because it did not go against the grain of his racist voter base. Before Roosevelt took office in 1933, most Americans were suffering greatly from financial instability and unemployment was at an all-time high. At the Great Depression’s peek, twenty five percent of white American workers were unemployed. Because of Roosevelt’s programs like the CCC, unemployment dropped to only fourteen percent in 1937. The ease in aiding white American men came from little resistance along the way. Since the Dixiecrats were white supremacists, implementing programs that helped white men was easier than with other races. As illustrated by Robert L. Miller, a young white worker who enrolled in the CCC, Roosevelt’s programs had the ability to turn the lives of the unemployed white men around to a state of financial security and confidence. Before Miller enrolled in the CCC, he described himself in his personal account It’s a Great Life as being “often hungry, and almost constantly broke” as he struggled in the wake of the Great Crash. After the CCC enrolled Miller into its relief program in 1933, Miller was able to regain his financial and social footing. Miller later reflected on the positive impact the CCC had on his life when he wrote, “For the first time I realized I had the same chance as the rest to make good.” Thanks to the relief program, Miller and many other white workers were able to gain confidence in their future once again and relieved from poverty. Roosevelt’s CCC program was the symbolic case study that represented Roosevelt’s success in lowering unemployment rates for white men.
As Roosevelt had an easy path along reviving the poor white population, the Native American population did not get as much help from government programs. Native Americans were not on the top of Roosevelt’s priority list when it came to equal opportunity and aid. At first, Native Americans were completely excluded from the New Deal and there were no government programs to help them out of poverty. The CCC only had a limited number of jobs available and because of the favoring of the white population, Native Americans were excluded from the enrollment program. While Roosevelt created the backbone for aid programs, on the state level, Native Americans were being picked out of the country’s circle of concern. Only when John Collier, an American activist, stepped up to talk directly with Roosevelt did the Native Americans get a decent level of help. After actively pushing for Native American aid, in 1934 Collier created the Civilian Conservation Corps-Indian Division (CCC-ID) through the Wheeler-Howard Act. Although the CCC-ID focused specifically on Native Americans, it was the only program in the New Deal which aided Native Americans. Compared to vast number of relief, recovery and reform programs which Roosevelt signed which supported white men, only one supported Native Americans. Although the CCC-ID employed about 85,000 Native Americans in total from 1933 to its termination in 1943, there were still drawbacks to the programs because of under representation. In 1933, R.L. Spalsbury, a superintendent of the Office of Indian Affairs, wrote in a letter to Collier about Native Americans’ issues with the New Deal. Spalsbury remarked on the underrepresentation as he wrote, “I have felt that much of the dissatisfaction on the part of the Indians has been due to the fact that programs were announced without consulting them.” Even with initial discrimination and insufficient representation in the CCC, the relief program was a strong foundation for the creation of the CCC-ID that bolstered the Native American population’s prosperity in the end.
Despite helping out white Americans through the CCC, Roosevelt not only fell behind in aiding Native Americans, but also African Americans due to resistance from his Dixiecrat supporters. Even before the Great Depression hit, the African Americans were already suffering from inequality stemming back to slavery. Once the Great Crash came in 1929, unemployment rates for African Americans soared to 50% unemployed which was twice as much as the white population. As unemployment was drastically high, Roosevelt aimed to help the disenfranchised race. But despite Roosevelt’s equaling efforts with implementation of the CCC, the relief program became racist in its execution. Roosevelt’s did not want to risk losing his strong voter base of Dixiecrats by pushing back against the racism in the CCC so he turned a blind eye to the discrimination and let the military continue to enforce Jim Crow laws. Although Roosevelt’s actions allowed him to keep his supporters, it disappointed the populations that were in need of his help. Luther C. Wandall, an African American man who enrolled in the CCC in 1935, narrated his experience with government enforced discrimination in the camp. He wrote in a personal account “A Negro in the CCC”, “Here it was that Mr. James Crow first definitely put in his appearance. When my record was taken at Pier I, a ‘C’ was placed on it. When the busloads were made up at Whitehall street an officer reported as follows: ‘35, 8 colored.’” Despite FDR's vision for an equal America, he did not stand against segregation and allowed it to continue. The CCC camps were segregated and justified due to the view that, as the Director for the Emergency Conservation Work, Robert Fechner, said, “segregation is not discrimination.” With racism on the state level on top of on the government level with the Dixiecrats, Roosevelt’s view for moral equality and rights in America had strong pushback. Additionally, many white Americans did not want African American CCC camps in their communities. In a letter, the director of Emergency Conservation Work, Robert Fechner, observed the discrimination present on the state level in relation the CCC. Fechner wrote how “There was a great difficulty in finding a community that was willing to accept a Negro company of its own citizens.” Due to communities in the United States which shunned the African American population, Roosevelt’s programs which were designed to aid all American, only succeeded for a select few.
When Roosevelt set out to aid all Americans in becoming self-sufficient during the Depression, he could not control the racism that was prevalent throughout the country nor push back against his supporters. The discrimination led to a failing on the part of the government on striving to provide equal opportunity for white workers just as much as marginalized groups.
the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) which employed young men to work for the public benefit on projects such as planting trees, building roads, and finding new water sources. In order to have as strong of a backing as Roosevelt did to create these programs, he developed a strategic approach to balancing the wants of his supporters with the needs of the American people.
While the CCC was beneficial to many Americans because it gave previously unemployed men a stable income, it fell short in social issues of racism and discrimination due to Roosevelt’s reluctance to defy his Dixiecrat supporters. While FDR believed the government should help bring Americans out of the poverty of the Great Depression, the racist attitudes present in his voter base limited his power to help racial minorities as equally as he did white men in the CCC.
Throughout his first two terms, Franklin D. Roosevelt strove to secure a decent standard of living for all Americans because he felt the government had a moral obligation to prevent tyrannical economic incentives from crushing Americans. On the contrary to a hands-off government, Roosevelt’s vision for government was a strong and powerful scaffold for American life. As he stated in his Second Inaugural Address in 1937, the government was responsible for “fashioning an instrument of unimagined power for establishment of a morally better world.” Through acts that distributed wealth and boosted the economy from the bottom up such as the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and the Social Security Act, Roosevelt used his strong executive role in
government to help the lower class because he felt that he had a moral obligation to secure Americans a decent life. In 1934, Roosevelt implemented the Wagner Act that empowered workers to unionize and band together to demand fair working conditions which then gave workers more power over their economic superiors. His pro-worker approach and his views of a government which controlled the immoral greed of big businesses allowed Roosevelt to gain Dixiecrat support. The Dixiecrats were southern democrats that were in favor of white supremacy and segregation but supported Roosevelt because of his pro-labor policies and became the most influential of Roosevelt’s supporters. Backed by the Dixiecrats and other pro-labor groups such as farmers and laborers, Roosevelt won in a landslide victory in his first and second terms. In his Second Inaugural Address, Roosevelt explained how he would continue to protect Americans from “the abuse of power by those who betray for profit the elementary decencies of life.” An unregulated economy allows profit-driven companies to make their workers work long hours with little pay and in inhumane conditions. All in all, Roosevelt clearly stated his goals for his presidency in his First Inaugural Address when he said, “With the clear consciousness of seeking old and precious moral values… we aim at the assurance of a rounded and permanent national life.” Roosevelt sought to improve American living so that citizens were not starving on the streets, not only in the present, but also in a “permanent” plan for the government to focus on in the future.
Roosevelt was significantly able to aid young white men through the Civilian Conservation Corps because it did not go against the grain of his racist voter base. Before Roosevelt took office in 1933, most Americans were suffering greatly from financial instability and unemployment was at an all-time high. At the Great Depression’s peek, twenty five percent of white American workers were unemployed. Because of Roosevelt’s programs like the CCC, unemployment dropped to only fourteen percent in 1937. The ease in aiding white American men came from little resistance along the way. Since the Dixiecrats were white supremacists, implementing programs that helped white men was easier than with other races. As illustrated by Robert L. Miller, a young white worker who enrolled in the CCC, Roosevelt’s programs had the ability to turn the lives of the unemployed white men around to a state of financial security and confidence. Before Miller enrolled in the CCC, he described himself in his personal account It’s a Great Life as being “often hungry, and almost constantly broke” as he struggled in the wake of the Great Crash. After the CCC enrolled Miller into its relief program in 1933, Miller was able to regain his financial and social footing. Miller later reflected on the positive impact the CCC had on his life when he wrote, “For the first time I realized I had the same chance as the rest to make good.” Thanks to the relief program, Miller and many other white workers were able to gain confidence in their future once again and relieved from poverty. Roosevelt’s CCC program was the symbolic case study that represented Roosevelt’s success in lowering unemployment rates for white men.
As Roosevelt had an easy path along reviving the poor white population, the Native American population did not get as much help from government programs. Native Americans were not on the top of Roosevelt’s priority list when it came to equal opportunity and aid. At first, Native Americans were completely excluded from the New Deal and there were no government programs to help them out of poverty. The CCC only had a limited number of jobs available and because of the favoring of the white population, Native Americans were excluded from the enrollment program. While Roosevelt created the backbone for aid programs, on the state level, Native Americans were being picked out of the country’s circle of concern. Only when John Collier, an American activist, stepped up to talk directly with Roosevelt did the Native Americans get a decent level of help. After actively pushing for Native American aid, in 1934 Collier created the Civilian Conservation Corps-Indian Division (CCC-ID) through the Wheeler-Howard Act. Although the CCC-ID focused specifically on Native Americans, it was the only program in the New Deal which aided Native Americans. Compared to vast number of relief, recovery and reform programs which Roosevelt signed which supported white men, only one supported Native Americans. Although the CCC-ID employed about 85,000 Native Americans in total from 1933 to its termination in 1943, there were still drawbacks to the programs because of under representation. In 1933, R.L. Spalsbury, a superintendent of the Office of Indian Affairs, wrote in a letter to Collier about Native Americans’ issues with the New Deal. Spalsbury remarked on the underrepresentation as he wrote, “I have felt that much of the dissatisfaction on the part of the Indians has been due to the fact that programs were announced without consulting them.” Even with initial discrimination and insufficient representation in the CCC, the relief program was a strong foundation for the creation of the CCC-ID that bolstered the Native American population’s prosperity in the end.
Despite helping out white Americans through the CCC, Roosevelt not only fell behind in aiding Native Americans, but also African Americans due to resistance from his Dixiecrat supporters. Even before the Great Depression hit, the African Americans were already suffering from inequality stemming back to slavery. Once the Great Crash came in 1929, unemployment rates for African Americans soared to 50% unemployed which was twice as much as the white population. As unemployment was drastically high, Roosevelt aimed to help the disenfranchised race. But despite Roosevelt’s equaling efforts with implementation of the CCC, the relief program became racist in its execution. Roosevelt’s did not want to risk losing his strong voter base of Dixiecrats by pushing back against the racism in the CCC so he turned a blind eye to the discrimination and let the military continue to enforce Jim Crow laws. Although Roosevelt’s actions allowed him to keep his supporters, it disappointed the populations that were in need of his help. Luther C. Wandall, an African American man who enrolled in the CCC in 1935, narrated his experience with government enforced discrimination in the camp. He wrote in a personal account “A Negro in the CCC”, “Here it was that Mr. James Crow first definitely put in his appearance. When my record was taken at Pier I, a ‘C’ was placed on it. When the busloads were made up at Whitehall street an officer reported as follows: ‘35, 8 colored.’” Despite FDR's vision for an equal America, he did not stand against segregation and allowed it to continue. The CCC camps were segregated and justified due to the view that, as the Director for the Emergency Conservation Work, Robert Fechner, said, “segregation is not discrimination.” With racism on the state level on top of on the government level with the Dixiecrats, Roosevelt’s view for moral equality and rights in America had strong pushback. Additionally, many white Americans did not want African American CCC camps in their communities. In a letter, the director of Emergency Conservation Work, Robert Fechner, observed the discrimination present on the state level in relation the CCC. Fechner wrote how “There was a great difficulty in finding a community that was willing to accept a Negro company of its own citizens.” Due to communities in the United States which shunned the African American population, Roosevelt’s programs which were designed to aid all American, only succeeded for a select few.
When Roosevelt set out to aid all Americans in becoming self-sufficient during the Depression, he could not control the racism that was prevalent throughout the country nor push back against his supporters. The discrimination led to a failing on the part of the government on striving to provide equal opportunity for white workers just as much as marginalized groups.