NEW DEAL OR RAW DEAL?

Black Americans in the Roosevelt Years Library of Congress

20 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Summer 2020 | www.MoAF.org By Jill Watts Black mill workers were laid off or cut Weaver’s father, Mortimer Grover back to starvation wages at a far greater Weaver, came from far humbler ori- During the presidency of Franklin D. Roo- rate than white workers. gins. He was born on a farm in Fauquier sevelt, Black Americans were appointed At night, Weaver meticulously pored County, VA. His mother was a domestic to federal posts at historically large num- over the numbers, mining them for irre- and his father was a former white slave- bers. Together they eventually formed futable proof that Black communities holder who had sided with the Confed- an advisory body known as the Black were in a downward spiral. That sum- eracy. As a child, Mortimer worked in the Cabinet, which was led by the crusading mer he tracked the data of 12,000 Black fields. But when he reached his teens, he educator Mary McLeod Bethune and the cotton-mill workers nationwide who had was sent off to attend high school in the brilliant economist Robert Weaver. But managed to hang on to their jobs. He District of Columbia. A few years after early on Black inclusion was met with stiff determined that 75% of them were grossly graduation, he secured a prized position resistance, and appointees had to fight for underpaid and overworked, despite the in the city’s post office. A careful guardian both a voice in the administration as well National Recovery Administration’s man- of his earnings, Mortimer Weaver saved as relief for the Black community. dates regarding minimum wages and his money and, in 1901, married Florence maximum hours. Times were hard and Freeman. He purchased a home in Brook- In August 1933, Robert Weaver returned people took any job they could get—even land and, eventually, a seaside cottage for to his academic post at Greensboro’s if they earned almost nothing. This was, as weekend getaways. The Weavers quickly North Carolina Agriculture and Technical Kansas City’s Plaindealer pointed out, a added two sons to their family, Mortimer College. He dreaded going back. While he “new kind of slavery.” Grover Jr. and Robert Clifton. was a popular professor, he found teach- As Weaver walked Greensboro’s Black The Weavers were intensely proud ing there a chore. He felt smothered by neighborhoods, he witnessed firsthand the of their sons and were determined that Greensboro’s omnipresent segregationist impact of the Great Depression and the they should have the finest that could be traditions and laws; he isolated himself, suffering it caused. Families were home- offered to African American children. The refusing to patronize segregated stores less; children went hungry. For Weaver, closest Black secondary school was the top and entertainment venues. the experience marked the beginning of in the country—Paul Laurence Dunbar In Greensboro and its surroundings, a transformation. His determination to High School. Dunbar was rigorous and Weaver became exposed to the rawest resist American racism grew. “The lash challenging, requiring students to master versions of white southern racism. As he of prejudice is not the overt lash; it’s the all academic disciplines. In Weaver’s era, traveled in and out of town, he passed subtle lash of feeling yourself up against 80% of the school’s graduates attended sharecroppers’ shacks and the cotton and an iron block of prejudice that is the most northern colleges; many were admitted to tobacco fields where Black farmers barely cutting. Because I had been protected, I the most prestigious in the nation. scratched out a living. The Depression had felt the cut more deeply,” he reflected. Robert Weaver graduated near the top hit North Carolina hard. By fall 1933, 25% The Robert Weaver who came to of his class at Dunbar. In 1925, he enrolled of all families there depended on some Greensboro was a man of limited but rare at Harvard and declared an econom- kind of public or private assistance; the privileges. In 1933, he was only 26, but ics major. After finishing his bachelor’s NAACP estimated that the rate was far he was impressive in nearly every way. degree with honors, he then attempted higher for the Black rural population. Handsome, with a chiseled jaw and a sly to do what no African American had And poverty haunted not only rural smile, Weaver radiated confidence, pride ever done before—earn a PhD from Har- areas but also the cities. The textile indus- and dignity. His grandfather, DC dentist vard’s extremely conservative econom- try was one of North Carolina’s larg- Robert Tanner Freeman, remained a cele- ics department. It was not a welcoming est employers, and it had collapsed with brated figure in Washington’s Black com- environment. Weaver remembered that the Depression’s onset. Large textile mills munity. His grandmother, Rachel Turner, the department’s most influential scholar, stood on the hills surrounding Greens- born out of wedlock to white parents, had Frank Taussig, “didn’t think that Black boro—they had dominated the city’s eco- been raised by an African American fam- men had aptitude for economics.” None- nomic life. As the economy deteriorated, ily and lived her life as a Black woman. theless, Weaver excelled. After passing his Weaver’s mother, Florence was born comprehensive examinations with high shortly before her father’s early death. marks, he focused on crafting his thesis, Rachel Turner remarried in 1890—and entitled “The High Wage Theory of Pros- well at that. Her second husband, Albert J. perity.” In 1931, he headed to Greensboro Farley, was a clerk for the Supreme Court, to teach. and his salary enabled the family to move On weekends, he often returned to Impoverished Black children in the Mississippi to the middle class, interracial Washing- Brookland to work with his long-time Delta, July 1936. Dorothea Lange, photographer. ton, DC suburb of Brookland. friend John P. Davis. They founded an

www.MoAF.org | Summer 2020 | FINANCIAL HISTORY 21 Bettmann Mary McLeod Bethune, Black Cabinet leader and the National Youth Administration’s Director of Negro Activities, First Lady Roosevelt and NYA Executive Director Aubrey Williams at the opening session of the National Conference on Problems of the Negro and Negro Youth sponsored by the NYA in Washington, January 7, 1937.

organization, the Negro Industrial League, Industrial League made its first splash, Davis by southern Democrats, who dedicated to exposing the weaknesses began lobbying for the National Recovery consistently opposed any kind of support becoming alarmingly apparent in the Administration to give his partner a posi- for . New Deal’s main jobs program under tion. The agency’s answer was a flat no. Reportedly, the Secretary of the Inte- the National Recovery Administration. In late August 1933, Weaver learned that rior, Harold L. Ickes, a Chicagoan with Testifying before congressional commit- the Roosevelt administration had estab- Rosenwald ties, finally got the plan in tees throughout 1933, Davis and Weaver lished the Office of the Special Adviser on front of the President. Ickes could be gained increasing attention in the Black the Economic Status of Negroes. The idea irascible, but as the past president of the press with Davis emerging as the charis- had originated with the Rosenwald Fund’s Windy City’s NAACP, he had established matic leader and Weaver appearing as the Edwin Embree and Will Alexander, who a reputation for being liberal on the issue dignified academician with the facts and had been peddling it around Washington of race. Roosevelt approved the proposal figures. throughout the summer. Alexander had and placed the office under Ickes, allowing Weaver had also set his sights on a gov- become convinced that Roosevelt “was him to choose the man to occupy the spe- ernment job. In the spring of 1933, just after a sort of messiah” and that “perhaps the cial adviser’s position. Rather than consult President Franklin D. Roosevelt took office, next stage in race relations in this country with the many African American lead- he had begun attempts at securing a federal would sort of center around what hap- ers he knew personally, Ickes demanded post. Government work had been a tradi- pened in Washington, DC.” The Rosen- Alexander and Embree provide him with tion in the Weaver family and among their wald Fund proposed to underwrite the a list of names. Ickes picked the last name social set. Yet, like other African Ameri- special adviser’s salary and office expenses on their list—Clark Foreman, a white cans seeking federal employment as the for the first few years. That would allow southerner. New Deal dawned, Weaver was repeatedly Roosevelt to avoid a confirmation process The reaction from the Black commu- rejected. That summer, after the Negro that might trigger retaliation against the nity was shock and dismay. The NAACP

22 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Summer 2020 | www.MoAF.org Cornell Capa Bettmann Clark Foreman, first head of the Office of the Special Adviser In 1934, Black Cabinet founder Robert C. Weaver would succeed Clark on the Economic Status of Negroes, pictured in 1946 at Foreman and take over leadership of the Office of the Special Adviser on a Citizen’s Political Action Committee meeting. the Economic Status of Negroes. Weaver became the first Black American to serve in a Cabinet after President Lyndon Johnson appointed him the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in 1966.

telegrammed Ickes, protesting that there with Ickes, he argued that an African grandfather had fought for the Confed- were numerous African Americans, with American appointee was far more quali- eracy and had been a leader among white equal or superior educational credentials, fied to be a special adviser on issues criti- southern Democrats. Foreman was raised better suited for the job. The Chicago cal to Black Americans. Ickes emphatically in the traditions of the white South, where Defender observed, “It was certainly bad disagreed. The “time” was “not ripe” for a racial divisions were a given and African enough to select any white man for this Black appointment, he sputtered. A white Americans were presumed naturally to particular post, but to select one from man had access to people and places, both occupy an inferior position in society. Georgia was certainly adding insult to on Capitol Hill and in the South, that were But by 1933, the 31-year-old Foreman injury.” off-limits to Blacks. had rejected white Southern ideologies After Foreman’s selection was Houston next confronted Foreman, and had amassed an impressive résumé. announced, the NAACP’s Roy Wilkins who, after some waffling, admitted that He had studied at Harvard, where he confided to the Associated Negro Press’s he too believed there were more capable met W.E.B. Du Bois. After finishing a wire-service editor Claude Barnett that African Americans who could have filled doctoral dissertation on Black education the Rosenwald Fund had intentionally the special adviser’s job. In an attempt at Columbia University, he worked for made an end run around the NAACP. to demonstrate his commitment to Black Will Alexander on race relations. Despite In his opinion, the special adviser would inclusion, Foreman pledged to fill out his these accomplishments, Foreman had not accomplish nothing; the naïve Foreman staff with Black assistants and secretaries. been the top choice of either Alexander had been put in to block, rather than He would carry his fight against discrimi- or Embree for the special adviser post. He to address, Black grievances. Wilkins nation beyond the Interior Department possessed an abundance of reckless youth- declared that the NAACP would call for and battle it in agencies throughout the ful energy and zeal that some, both Black the appointment to be “bitterly fought federal government. and white, found insufferably brash and by all Negro organizations, especially the The Black community had good reason overbearing. Negro press, not on the grounds that to be skeptical of Foreman. While he was When Foreman landed in the Depart- Foreman is personally objectionable, but an eager champion of Black causes and ment of the Interior in August 1933, he that no white man can speak for Negroes had worked on racial affairs for both the found plenty of problems. He confirmed in this time of stress.” Rosenwald Foundation and Alexander’s that the studies Weaver and Davis had This was the message the NAACP’s lead Commission on Interracial Cooperation, produced were true: The National Recov- Washington attorney, Charles H. Hous- Foreman’s Georgian roots ran deep and ery Administration’s jobs programs were ton, carried directly to Ickes. Face-to-face were tied to the slaveholding past. His either turning African Americans away

www.MoAF.org | Summer 2020 | FINANCIAL HISTORY 23 or paying Black workers disastrously low wages. He also discovered that racial bias ran rife throughout the New Deal. New Deal discrimination was increas- ingly institutionalizing racist practices into programs and policies at the federal level, and Foreman embraced the fight to end it as his personal mission. One of his first acts was to decline to accept a secretary from the all-white federal pool and demand that Ickes allow him to hire an African American woman. The interior secretary agreed and said he knew just the right person—a fellow Chicagoan, Lucia Mae Pitts. Besides being a top-notch secretary, Pitts brought to the special adviser’s office the much-needed perspective of a Black woman. After completing her secretarial degree, Pitts worked for the Tuskegee Insti- tute, a New York theater, Atlanta’s African American newspaper syndicate and the

Federal Council of Churches. In the early Deutsch Hulton 1930s, she landed a job in the Illinois President Franklin D. Roosevelt greets scientist and inventor George Washington House of Representatives’ stenographic Carver with a handshake during his second term of office, at a time when pool. The pool’s only African American whites generally refused to shake hands with African Americans. secretary, Pitts endured the frigidity of her white coworkers and elected officials. But one figure welcomed her, Anna Wilmarth Ickes, a representative from Winnetka, IL, and the wife of Harold Ickes, who was then a crusading local reformer. When Foreman came calling, Pitts their charge; they were there to rescue the He tenaciously charged ahead pushing had fallen victim to the state of Illinois’s nation from economic catastrophe. Fore- for jobs and resources for Black citizens. Depression-era layoffs. She jumped at his man had already rushed into battle. He He aggressively buttonholed Roosevelt’s offer and headed to Washington. On Sep- spent long days trying to pressure cabinet cabinet heads and became an unwelcome tember 5, 1933 she became the first African officials and New Deal heads to appoint figure in cabinet and New Deal offices. American woman to serve as a secretary to African Americans to their divisions. Foreman eventually stumbled onto one a white federal administrator at the capital. The iciness between Pitts and Foreman official willing to hear him out, Secretary Pitts was eager to work but she refused quickly thawed, as she became convinced of Commerce Daniel C. Roper. A fellow to be flattered and, like other African of his sincerity. He spent long hours in southerner, Roper was eager to do dam- Americans, harbored serious reservations the office receiving individuals and del- age control on race relations. The Com- about Foreman. At the beginning, she egations asking for help for themselves merce Department was a major player in maintained a cool, yet professional dis- or economically devastated Black com- the National Recovery Administration, and tance from her new boss. Foreman later munities. Pitts not only witnessed but also Roper had taken much of the heat for described her attitude as “rude,” while she contributed to the expansion of African that program’s bigoted practices. Roper had characterized it as “unbending.” American federal appointments, as Fore- compounded his problems by dismissing Pitts remembered the New Deal’s for- man sought her recommendations for a respected African American appointee, mative period as “hectic and busy.” Relief expanding the Black secretarial corps. He a Republican holdover who advised the and recovery programs were organized also immediately added “field representa- department on Black-owned businesses. and reorganized rapidly. Some were tive” to her list of duties and dispatched Then he made an unpopular decision even housed within preexisting divisions in cab- her to Virginia Beach to survey the dam- worse by abolishing that position. African inet departments; others were new, inde- age from a deadly hurricane that had left Americans demanded the secretary restore pendent agencies whose purpose required numerous Black families homeless. the post and either rehire its previous occu- oversight from one or more cabinet sec- While Foreman may have earned Pitts’s pant or find a replacement. So, when Fore- retaries. There was competition among respect, he still had a long way to go man came calling in the late summer, Roper programs and cabinet secretaries, espe- with the Black public. He knew that with seized the chance to fix his public image. cially for funding. But all those serving in each passing day, African Americans were At Foreman’s suggestion, Roper agreed the New Deal realized the seriousness of tumbling deeper into economic despair. to sponsor a conference on the economic

24 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Summer 2020 | www.MoAF.org problems of African Americans. The Jus- celebrated Jones as “one of the foremost for African Americans to be admitted tice Department’s Black adviser Robert authorities on the problems of Negro life to the programs run by the Division of Vann was recruited to chair the meeting, in the cities.” Jones’s achievement was Subsistence Homesteads, which placed which included Black intellectuals, leaders certainly a milestone. When he arrived on families on collective farms to commu- and activists from across the nation. They the job in late October 1933, he became the nally work the land. Those programs had met in Washington in September 1933 and first upper-level leader of a national civil only accepted white applicants and turned for two days discussed strategies to speed rights organization to occupy an advisory away Black Americans seeking aid. up relief to Black communities. post in the federal government. Far from making him more popular, The high point of the conference came Yet for Jones, the transition from Urban Foreman’s proposal actually damaged his when Roper, while addressing the gather- League head to Commerce Department reputation further. He did not advocate ing, announced his plan to restore the adviser was rough. Despite his efforts to for African Americans to be integrated recently eliminated African American rise above the quarrels over his appoint- into preexisting projects. Instead he called post. He then asked the group to put for- ment, he entered office under a cloud of for separate Blacks-only collective farms. ward names for the position. While the suspicion. Additionally, to some Jones Such plans convinced some Black leaders delegates may have been encouraged to seemed a bad fit. A nationally recognized that the white southerner was really in the hear that Commerce would hire a Black specialist in Black labor, he now headed business of promoting segregation. adviser, they agreed that no one person a division dedicated to the recovery and Furthermore, the justice system con- could handle the overwhelming needs of expansion of Black businesses. tinued to fail Black citizens in the most Black America. At the end of the meet- Although Jones was hired at $5,600 a horrific ways. Throughout the summer ing, they informed Roper that they had year (a respectable salary although lower and fall of 1933, the national media was organized themselves into an official advi- than that of other New Deal officials) and filled with stories of the “Scottsboro Boys,” sory committee. Although they insisted given a spacious suite with two offices, nine African American youths, ranging in on being based in the Commerce Depart- he had no staff and no authority to pur- age from 13 to 20, who had been arrested ment, they demanded review power over sue projects or investigations. It quickly for allegedly gang-raping two young white all decisions affecting African Americans appeared that his role in New Deal relief, women. While there were both Black throughout the New Deal. John P. Davis outside of serving as the subject of a pub- and white Americans who spoke out on seized the opportunity and lobbied for licity campaign, was murky at best. Jones behalf of the accused, establishing that the department to include Weaver on the soon found himself under a mountain of the charges were groundless, in late fall advisory committee. He was told no. complaints regarding New Deal inequali- two of the nine were found guilty and While some noted that the Commerce ties, many from the Urban League itself. sentenced to die in the electric chair by an Department’s advisory committee on With no resources, he was blocked from Alabama jury. (All nine were much later African American affairs threatened to offering any response. exonerated.) compete with Foreman’s office, no doubt The fanfare around Jones’s appoint- About the same time, George Arm- many realized that it also had the potential ment was certainly not enough to satisfy strong of Princess Anne, MD, was jailed to emerge as the New Deal’s Black Cabi- those demanding that Roosevelt respond for an alleged assault of a white woman. net. But that hope died quickly. In the end, to the crises in Black America. Stories of While he awaited a hearing and an Roper named the Urban League’s Eugene African Americans struggling against pov- opportunity to defend himself, a white Kinckle Jones to the Commerce post. erty filled the pages of the nation’s Black mob pushed past 25 state police officers Tall, charming and athletic, the Urban newspapers. Already cash-poor com- assigned to protect him, dragged him League executive, at the age of 48, was munities watched helplessly as food and through the town, hung him and then strikingly fit and distinguished. Raised in fuel prices started to rise when National burned his body. Richmond, VA, the son of two respected Recovery Administration wage and price Just over 130 miles away, in Washing- and race-conscious college professors, regulations kicked in. As the cost of living ton, DC, President Roosevelt sat silent in Jones had been given many opportuni- increased, Black incomes continued to the White House. ties, and he embraced the responsibility of plummet. One African American journal- challenging American racism. After earn- ist reported that “a conservative estimate Jill Watts is a professor of history at Cali- ing degrees at Virginia Union and Cornell, would place 90 percent of Harlem’s popu- fornia State University San Marcos. In he took a job as a field inspector for the lation in the breadline.” addition to The Black Cabinet, she is also Urban League in 1911. The organization Howard University Professor Kelly the author of Hattie McDaniel: Black was only a year old, and he fully embraced Miller urged African Americans to aban- Ambition, White Hollywood. the chance to shape the Urban League’s don cities and return to the countryside, programs dedicated to addressing the where they might make a living off the conditions faced by African Americans in land. “The city Negro has no definite func- This article has been adapted from The the cities. In 1917, he became the organiza- tion or assured status,” he told The New Black Cabinet: The Untold Story of tion’s executive secretary. York Times. “The farm is the Negro’s best African Americans and Politics Dur- Jones’s addition to the New Deal chance and the best help the government ing the Age of Roosevelt, by Jill Watts team was received with applause, in can render him in this emergency is to (Grove Press, 2020). Used by permission part prompted by Commerce Depart- aid him to avail himself of this chance.” of the publisher. ment press releases. The New York Times Foreman agreed and began to advocate

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