3.2.2
The Alphabet Agencies
The Agricultural Adjustment Administration
The Agricultural Adjustment Administration
The AAA was created in 1933.
The Agricultural Adjustment Administration
The Agricultural Adjustment Administration
- The Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) paid farmers to decrease the production of goods such as corn, cotton, pigs, milk and wheat.
- The AAA did this because the federal government felt that the greatest problem that the American agricultural system faced was over-production and subsequent devaluation of goods.
The Agricultural Adjustment Act
The Agricultural Adjustment Act
- Under the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933, the government asked farmers to decrease the size of their land in exchange for government subsidy.
- The wealthy landowners agreed to reduce the size of their land but the land they got rid of first was the land where black sharecroppers and tenants lived (only 13% of black people owned the agricultural land they worked on).
- The white landowners profited from the scheme while around 200,000 black sharecroppers were evicted from their land.
The harsh treatment of black people
The harsh treatment of black people
- The landlords were meant to give the money that they had been given by the government to the people that had been evicted. This rarely happened.
- The government tried to force the landowners to give the cheques of compensation to the black sharecroppers.
- Yet, even when the cheques were written in the names of black people, the white landowners found a way to intimidate them to give the money over to them.
Mechanisation of farming
Mechanisation of farming
- The white landowners used their new wealth to buy new machinery which caused even more black people to lose their jobs.
- FDR did nothing to stop this harsh treatment of black people.
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
The CCC was established in 1933 and was tasked with creating jobs for the unemployed.
Racism in the CCC
Racism in the CCC
- The CCC gave hundreds of thousands of jobs to unemployed males between the ages of 17 and 24 years (later the age range went up to 28 years old).
- 250,000 workers were initially recruited to work on reforestation, conservation of soil and forest management projects.
- The CCC was welcomed by the white community but not by the black community, as it was racist and exclusionary.
- The head of the CCC, Robert Fechner, was a white supremacist and did everything he could to not recruit black people.
Government intervention
Government intervention
- In 1935, the government forced the CCC to assist with recruiting black people.
- In the end, nearly 200,000 black people worked in the CCC.
- Black people of the CCC were given very low skilled work.
- The camps that workers lived in were segregated. White workers received better food and accommodation.
- In the North, many CCC establishments faced racism.
- Some towns didn’t want the CCC to bring in black recruits because they believed stereotypes that black men raped white women.
National Recovery Administration (NRA)
National Recovery Administration (NRA)
In June 1933 congress passed the National Industry Recovery Act which resulted in the formation of the National Recovery Administration (NRA).
National Recovery Administration (NRA)
National Recovery Administration (NRA)
- The NRA aimed at helping businesses and manufacturing through a variety of schemes.
- One way the NRA tried to help businesses was to establish minimum wages for workers and maximum working hours.
- If companies stuck to the rules set out by the NRA they could achieve a blue seal of approval (an eagle) from the government.
Racism and the NRA
Racism and the NRA
- NRA codes allowed each region to set different minimum wages and it excluded workers in agricultural and domestic industries.
- Three-quarters of workers who were black were employed in these areas.
- The NRA did little to secure set wages for any of the black workers (in fact the whole of the New Deal did little to protect the wages of black people).
- Due to its unfairness, it was nicknamed, amongst other names as the ‘Negroes Rarely Allowed’.
- In 1935 the NRA was declared as unconstitutional.
The Wagner Act, 1935
The Wagner Act, 1935
- The Wagner Act forced employees to accept trade unions and collective bargaining for fairer treatments and higher wages.
The Fair Labor Standards Act, 1938
The Fair Labor Standards Act, 1938
- The Fair Labor Standards Act fixed the minimum wage and maximum working hours per week.
- 300,000 workers had an immediate wage increase and 1.3 million had their hours reduced.
- This was good for workers. However, in order for the laws to be passed, Roosevelt had made promises to the Southern Democrats that this fairer treatment would not extend to workers who were black.
- Many unions excluded members who were black.
- Jobs that were heavily populated by black people such as cleaning, farming, cooking, waiting and domestic work did not have a set minimum wage.
1‘Free at Last’ 1865-77
1.1The Thirteenth Amendment
1.2Radical Reconstruction, 1867-77
2The Triumph of ‘Jim Crow’ 1883-c1890
2.1Jim Crow Laws & Civil Rights Cases
3The New Deal and Race Relations, 1933–41
3.1Failure to Address Black Grievances
3.2The New Deal
3.3The Second World War
4‘I have a dream’, 1954–68
4.1Civil Rights Activities, 1954–63
4.2Civil Rights 1964-68
4.3Malcolm X & The Black Panthers
5Obama's Campaign for the Presidency, 2004–09
5.1The Late 20th Century
5.2Barack Obama & his Political Career
5.3Reasons for Obama's Victory
Jump to other topics
1‘Free at Last’ 1865-77
1.1The Thirteenth Amendment
1.2Radical Reconstruction, 1867-77
2The Triumph of ‘Jim Crow’ 1883-c1890
2.1Jim Crow Laws & Civil Rights Cases
3The New Deal and Race Relations, 1933–41
3.1Failure to Address Black Grievances
3.2The New Deal
3.3The Second World War
4‘I have a dream’, 1954–68
4.1Civil Rights Activities, 1954–63
4.2Civil Rights 1964-68
4.3Malcolm X & The Black Panthers
5Obama's Campaign for the Presidency, 2004–09
5.1The Late 20th Century
5.2Barack Obama & his Political Career
5.3Reasons for Obama's Victory
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