The advancement of African Americans and their struggles for rights and liberation begun much earlier than most high school textbooks teach. Decades before Martin Luther King Jr., “I Have A Dream”, Rosa Parks and the March on Washington, there were significant event, people and organizations that created real change that set the stage for the more famed events of the later decades.
As Harvard Sitkoff writes, “For civil rights, the Depression decade proved to be a time of planting, not harvesting. It was an era of rising black expectations and decreasing black powerlessness, an age of diminishing white indifference to the plight of African Americans.” After W.E.B Du Bois and Booker T. Washington’s height of power ended, many African Americans …show more content…
As the Great Depression worsened, it affected the poor African American population at a much greater rate than any other demographic in the country. Over two times the amount of African Americans were unemployed compared to whites. FDR’s New Deal wasn’t designed for the portion of the population that needed it most. Religious organizations run by whites only helped whites, excluding African Americans. That was, until FDR saw a large community of untapped voters in African Americans, especially those who lived in the North and had just recently gained their right to vote. Encouraged by his wife and her new friends in the African American community, FDR began tailoring his New Deal programs to fit a wider range of the American population, which included poor African Americans. He created the ‘Black Cabinet’ which was the first major breakthrough for African Americans. 45 new positions were created for public policy advisors in multiple agencies, including ones that created New Deal programs. They made the programs work for the African American community, and proved that African Americans could have important roles in the federal government. African Americans had new and rather effective representation in the White House. This was monumental progress in the literal and …show more content…
And though the leaders and activists of the 60’s and later didn’t know it yet, these formative years laid the groundwork for them and their work for African American liberation. A. Philip Randolph’s work with the March on Washington Movement led to Executive Order 8802 in 1941. This Order prohibited racial discrimination in the national defense industry and led to an Executive Order that would attempt to put a stop to all discrimination in the workplace, EO 11246. The March on Washington in 1963 was built on the non-violent principles Randolph channeled from leader such as Mahatma Ghandi. The MOWM also showed the later leaders and opponents that the African American community could gather as one to battle for liberation and civil rights. These coming leaders, people such as Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, etc. stood on the shoulders of those who had come before them. Without the voices of the African American politicians, activists, laborers, educators, shop owners and regular citizens, the foundation of the later movement would not exist. The conductors of the civil rights movements of the 1960’s didn’t start from scratch thanks to the men and women who fought for every inch, every new local, state and federal law. These changes, these advancement weren’t always monumental by definition. They weren’t always
As Harvard Sitkoff writes, “For civil rights, the Depression decade proved to be a time of planting, not harvesting. It was an era of rising black expectations and decreasing black powerlessness, an age of diminishing white indifference to the plight of African Americans.” After W.E.B Du Bois and Booker T. Washington’s height of power ended, many African Americans …show more content…
As the Great Depression worsened, it affected the poor African American population at a much greater rate than any other demographic in the country. Over two times the amount of African Americans were unemployed compared to whites. FDR’s New Deal wasn’t designed for the portion of the population that needed it most. Religious organizations run by whites only helped whites, excluding African Americans. That was, until FDR saw a large community of untapped voters in African Americans, especially those who lived in the North and had just recently gained their right to vote. Encouraged by his wife and her new friends in the African American community, FDR began tailoring his New Deal programs to fit a wider range of the American population, which included poor African Americans. He created the ‘Black Cabinet’ which was the first major breakthrough for African Americans. 45 new positions were created for public policy advisors in multiple agencies, including ones that created New Deal programs. They made the programs work for the African American community, and proved that African Americans could have important roles in the federal government. African Americans had new and rather effective representation in the White House. This was monumental progress in the literal and …show more content…
And though the leaders and activists of the 60’s and later didn’t know it yet, these formative years laid the groundwork for them and their work for African American liberation. A. Philip Randolph’s work with the March on Washington Movement led to Executive Order 8802 in 1941. This Order prohibited racial discrimination in the national defense industry and led to an Executive Order that would attempt to put a stop to all discrimination in the workplace, EO 11246. The March on Washington in 1963 was built on the non-violent principles Randolph channeled from leader such as Mahatma Ghandi. The MOWM also showed the later leaders and opponents that the African American community could gather as one to battle for liberation and civil rights. These coming leaders, people such as Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, etc. stood on the shoulders of those who had come before them. Without the voices of the African American politicians, activists, laborers, educators, shop owners and regular citizens, the foundation of the later movement would not exist. The conductors of the civil rights movements of the 1960’s didn’t start from scratch thanks to the men and women who fought for every inch, every new local, state and federal law. These changes, these advancement weren’t always monumental by definition. They weren’t always