Events of the 1930’s

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 people working for the country’s government. The NAACP had a huge impact on the prosperity of African Americans during the 1930’s. The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909.Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination".

The NAACP impacted African American lives because they campaigned against African American discrimination. They also encourage African Americans to stand up for themselves against discrimination. In 1930 the NAACP successfully carried out a series of protests against Supreme Court nominees and John Parker, who officially favoured laws that discriminate against African Americans.There were a few landmark court cases that impacted African Americans. For example, Powell vs. Alabama.

9 African American men hopped on a train where a group of white Americans were. A fight broke out between the men that ended up in the white men being thrown off the train. The white men sent a report to the nearest town about the incident. Two white women testified against the black men, saying they sexually assaulted them. There was only one local lawyer that was willing to defend the nine men.

The two lawyers had no opportunity to investigate the case, meaning all nine men were found guilty. Eight out of the nine were given death penalties despite doctors saying there was no evidence of rape upon examining the women. This affected African Americans because they were not given fair trials at the time, meaning they would almost certainly be convicted of a crime, even if they didn’t do it. Another factor in the 1930’s that impacted African Americans is Jim Crow. The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965.

They mandated de jure racial segregation in all public facilities in Southern states of the former Confederacy, with, starting in 1890, a "separate but equal" status for African Americans. The Jim Crow laws affected African Americans by creating a status of 'separate but equal. ' African Americans were not, under the Jim Crow laws, allowed to drink from the same water fountains as white people. They had to attend different schools, restaurants, and sit at the back of the bus. The Jim Crow laws affected almost every area of the life of African Americans.

The Jim Crow laws took the first hit in 1954 in the ruling by the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education. The Supreme Court ruled that segregation was unconstitutional. In conclusion, the events of the 1930’s impacted African Americans immensely.

Many of the factors that affected African Americans impacted them negatively. The most important factor that impacted African American prosperity was the Great Depression. This is because it lead to many other factors such as unemployment, the New Deal and the growth of trade unions in the USA.