Charlie Wilson
The 1930’s was a time of great struggle in the USA. The New York stock market crashed in 1929 and triggered a spiral of economic depression, which hit African Americans hard.
The Great Depression had a huge impact on African Americans. The Great Depression of the 1930s was catastrophic for all workers. But as usual, African Americans suffered worse, pushed out of unskilled jobs previously scorned by whites before the depression. African Americans faced unemployment of 50 percent or more, compared with about 30 percent for whites. Black wages were at least 30 percent below those of white workers, who themselves were barely at subsistence level. African American prospects at the time were bleak, with next to no chance of getting or keeping a job. Another key moment of the 1930’s that effected African Americans was the New Deal. The New Deal was a series of domestic economic programs enacted in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They involved presidential executive orders or laws passed by Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were in response to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call the "3 R’s": Relief, Recovery, and Reform. That is Relief for the unemployed and poor; Recovery of the economy to normal levels; and Reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression. It was black people who suffered the most during the Depression. By mid-1934 over half the black people in the north were dependent on government support. President Roosevelt's New Deal helped black people a little – over a million received support and found jobs. However, the New Deal discriminated against certain groups and did not help everybody. In 1936 many black people voted for the Democrats and, as a result, there was an increase in the number of black people elected to national and local government. By 1940 there were 100 black