From a Raw Deal to a New Deal: African Americans 1929-1945

Bank closings, soup kitchens, bread lines, unemployed workers begging for work—these images defined the 1930s and '40s in America. For African Americans the era was a study in contrasts: black workers had the highest unemployment rate at a time when black leaders held important positions in Franklin Roosevelt's administration; New Deal legislation threw hundreds of thousands of black sharecroppers off the land while the same federal government provided unprecedented opportunities for black wr…