1. How did racism affect blacks during the Great Depression?
Racism affected blacks during the Great Depression by the unemployment rates being extremely higher than that of whites. During this time The Agricultural Adjustment Administration paid farmers to destroy their crops and livestock in order to increase market prices, yet most federal funds which were meant to benefit black sharecroppers and tenant farmers. These funds then ended up in the hands of white landlords as a result of local distribution. Consequently, thousands of poor farmers were evicted from their land. Welfare housing better known as “projects” for blacks was then created in the south still segregating them from the whites.
2. Who was Mary McLeod Bethune and what does her story tell us about blacks at the time of the Depression?
Mary McLeod Bethune was the founder of the National Council of Negro Women and Bethune Cookman College. She was an educator and a civil rights activist. Mary McLeod Bethune’s story tells us that blacks during that time were becoming an established race; they were gaining respect and recognition in the country.
3. Why did some black shift to the Democratic Party?
The reason why some blacks shifted to the Democratic Party can be contributed to many reasons one mainly being that during the Great Depression President Roosevelt and The New Deal offered more of a relief to those that were struggling the most in the economy.
4. How did Oscar Micheaux’s film portray blacks?
