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Document 8b
…Although obviously severely limited, the improvements for blacks [African Americans] during
the Depression were discernible [noticeable]. In May 1935, as the “Second New Deal” was
getting under way, President [Franklin D.] Roosevelt issued Executive Order 7046, banning
discrimination on projects of the new Works Progress Administration. Discrimination continued,
but the WPA proved to be a godsend for many blacks. In the later thirties [193os], between 15
and 20 percent of the people working for the agency were black, although blacks constituted less
than 10 percent of the national population. This, of course, was a reflection of how much worse
off blacks were than whites, but the WPA did enable many blacks to survive. More than that,
even minimum WPA wages of $12 a week were twice what many blacks had been earning
previously.
Harold Ickes’s Public Works Administration provided to black tenants a more than fair share
of the public housing it built. The PWA went so far as to construct several integrated housing
projects. PWA construction payrolls also treated blacks fairly. Some 31 percent of PWA wages in
1936 went to black workers. Ickes first made use of a quota system requiring the hiring of blacks
in proportion to their numbers in the local work force. This precedent was followed again (at
least in theory) by the wartime Fair Employment Practices Commission and in the civil rights
legislation and court decisions of the 196os and 197os.…
Source: Robert McElvaine, The Great Depression: America, 1929–1941, Three Rivers Press
According to Robert McElvaine, what was one way the New Deal affected African Americans economically?
According to Robert McElvaine, one way the New Deal affected African Americans economically was that it it put many to work through public works projects that benefitted all.
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