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A New Deal for Blacks: The Emergence of Civil Rights as a National Issue, Volume I: The Depression Decade
Traces the emergence of civil rights as a national concern to the depression decade and looks at the philosophies, individuals, institutions, and social conditions that fostered the move against racial injustice
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
416 pages, Paperback
First published November 30, 1978
About the author
Harvard Sitkoff
29 books2 followersHarvard Sitkoff is is professor emeritus of history at the University of New Hampshire.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 17, 2025
If one was looking for the nadir of the civil rights movement in American history, they would be hard pressed to find a lower point than the 1920s. With segregation now fully implemented at the federal level, “Jim Crow” reigned nearly everywhere in the United States, supported by a regime of violence spearheaded by a resurgent Ku Klux Klan. Restrictions on the Black vote in the South removed any incentive Republicans had to court them, leading the national party to abandon their historic role as the protector of Black rights in favor of competing with Democrats for the remaining “lily white” vote in the region. With civil rights organizations struggling for relevance, hundreds of thousands of Blacks were drawn to Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association, as its calls for separatism and emigration to Africa offered a more promising future than what seemed possible in the United States.
Yet it was from these depths that the civil rights movement would emerge to end de jure segregation and win rights for Blacks in the 1950s and 1960s. It is the start of that journey that is the subject of Harvard Sitkoff’s book. In it, he explains how the movement overcame both political hostility and the economic miseries of the Great Depression to win the first gains enjoyed by African Americans in over a generation. While the successes enjoyed by the movement in these years may seem minor or even cosmetic when compared with what was to follow, Sitkoff sees within these achievements the building of a foundation from which the loftier heights of the civil rights era would be reached in later years.
Even modest success seemed unimaginable at the start of the 1930s. As Sitkoff notes, Blacks were particularly vulnerable to the economic downturn that now plagued the country, as the evaporation of jobs and the collapse of commodity prices impacted their communities disproportionately. Those lucky enough to have jobs faced demands that they be dismissed from them so that unemployed whites could take them. This only increased the already disproportionate numbers on welfare rolls, for which benefits in most Southern states were less than those for whites. Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal initially did little to change this, as the political powerlessness of Blacks gave them almost no voice in the operation of the early agricultural and industrial recovery programs, ensuring the continuing neglect of their needs.
Yet forces were already at work to change this. Foremost among them was the ongoing migration of Blacks from the South to the industrial states of the North. There, the absence of voting restrictions and their frustration with being taken for granted by Republicans, made them increasingly independent as voters, leading both parties to start courting their votes more vigorously in state and local elections. By 1936 this reached the national level, as Republicans sought belatedly to reaffirm their commitment to civil rights. Yet Roosevelt had the advantage in the contest, as whereas Republicans could only make promises the president delivered more tangible gains by making the aid programs of the “Second New Deal” more accessible to Blacks than had been the programs of its predecessor.
An influential element in this shift in Roosevelt’s stance was his wife, Eleanor. As First Lady, she emerged as an advocate at the highest levels of the Roosevelt Administration for Black civil rights, and worked persistently to provide civil rights leaders access to the president. Her tenacious support proved infectious, as Sitkoff sees other New Dealers following her example by expanding the number of Blacks appointed to federal positions and ensuring race-neutral distribution of federal aid. While powerful Southern Democrats in Congress fought doggedly against these efforts, Blacks in the North rewarded Roosevelt in the 1936 presidential election by voting overwhelmingly for his reelection, which confirmed the wisdom of Roosevelt’s decision while ensuring that such solicitude would continue.
Civil rights groups were also emboldened by increasing competition from the left. Here Sitkoff features the role Communists played in the civil rights discourse during the period, as the party shifted from promoting Garvey-esque racial nationalism in the 1920s to supporting more interracial policies. It was the party’s efforts on behalf of the “Scottsboro Boys,” though, that pushed the broader civil rights movement to confront discrimination more aggressively. Fearing losing support to the Communist movement, civil rights groups mounted political and legal challenges to segregation and lynching. The appointment of more liberal justices to the Supreme Court helped to win legal victories that proved a harbinger of cases to come, and while activists fell short in their campaign to enact federal anti-lynching legislation, the attempt prompted state legislatures in the South to enact their own measures in order to preempt its passage.
Sitkoff acknowledges that most of these efforts did little to change life materially for millions of Blacks by the end of the decade. Yet he argues that these achievements fueled a newfound confidence within the civil rights movement on the eve of the Second World War, one that would propel them to further gains in the decade and a half that followed. Though Sitkoff proposed to tell the story of these later years in two subsequent volumes, he never followed through on this promise. This is particularly unfortunate given his achievements with this book. While his coverage glides over the grassroots activism that is necessary for a complete understanding of the civil rights movement, it remains an essential starting point for anyone interested in the Black experience in America during the 1930s and the history of the civil rights movement more generally.
Yet it was from these depths that the civil rights movement would emerge to end de jure segregation and win rights for Blacks in the 1950s and 1960s. It is the start of that journey that is the subject of Harvard Sitkoff’s book. In it, he explains how the movement overcame both political hostility and the economic miseries of the Great Depression to win the first gains enjoyed by African Americans in over a generation. While the successes enjoyed by the movement in these years may seem minor or even cosmetic when compared with what was to follow, Sitkoff sees within these achievements the building of a foundation from which the loftier heights of the civil rights era would be reached in later years.
Even modest success seemed unimaginable at the start of the 1930s. As Sitkoff notes, Blacks were particularly vulnerable to the economic downturn that now plagued the country, as the evaporation of jobs and the collapse of commodity prices impacted their communities disproportionately. Those lucky enough to have jobs faced demands that they be dismissed from them so that unemployed whites could take them. This only increased the already disproportionate numbers on welfare rolls, for which benefits in most Southern states were less than those for whites. Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal initially did little to change this, as the political powerlessness of Blacks gave them almost no voice in the operation of the early agricultural and industrial recovery programs, ensuring the continuing neglect of their needs.
Yet forces were already at work to change this. Foremost among them was the ongoing migration of Blacks from the South to the industrial states of the North. There, the absence of voting restrictions and their frustration with being taken for granted by Republicans, made them increasingly independent as voters, leading both parties to start courting their votes more vigorously in state and local elections. By 1936 this reached the national level, as Republicans sought belatedly to reaffirm their commitment to civil rights. Yet Roosevelt had the advantage in the contest, as whereas Republicans could only make promises the president delivered more tangible gains by making the aid programs of the “Second New Deal” more accessible to Blacks than had been the programs of its predecessor.
An influential element in this shift in Roosevelt’s stance was his wife, Eleanor. As First Lady, she emerged as an advocate at the highest levels of the Roosevelt Administration for Black civil rights, and worked persistently to provide civil rights leaders access to the president. Her tenacious support proved infectious, as Sitkoff sees other New Dealers following her example by expanding the number of Blacks appointed to federal positions and ensuring race-neutral distribution of federal aid. While powerful Southern Democrats in Congress fought doggedly against these efforts, Blacks in the North rewarded Roosevelt in the 1936 presidential election by voting overwhelmingly for his reelection, which confirmed the wisdom of Roosevelt’s decision while ensuring that such solicitude would continue.
Civil rights groups were also emboldened by increasing competition from the left. Here Sitkoff features the role Communists played in the civil rights discourse during the period, as the party shifted from promoting Garvey-esque racial nationalism in the 1920s to supporting more interracial policies. It was the party’s efforts on behalf of the “Scottsboro Boys,” though, that pushed the broader civil rights movement to confront discrimination more aggressively. Fearing losing support to the Communist movement, civil rights groups mounted political and legal challenges to segregation and lynching. The appointment of more liberal justices to the Supreme Court helped to win legal victories that proved a harbinger of cases to come, and while activists fell short in their campaign to enact federal anti-lynching legislation, the attempt prompted state legislatures in the South to enact their own measures in order to preempt its passage.
Sitkoff acknowledges that most of these efforts did little to change life materially for millions of Blacks by the end of the decade. Yet he argues that these achievements fueled a newfound confidence within the civil rights movement on the eve of the Second World War, one that would propel them to further gains in the decade and a half that followed. Though Sitkoff proposed to tell the story of these later years in two subsequent volumes, he never followed through on this promise. This is particularly unfortunate given his achievements with this book. While his coverage glides over the grassroots activism that is necessary for a complete understanding of the civil rights movement, it remains an essential starting point for anyone interested in the Black experience in America during the 1930s and the history of the civil rights movement more generally.
November 16, 2023
Actually a very interesting perspective in to the realities of the depression for African American’s across the north and south in the 1930s. Goes through the changes that took place due to shifts in attitudes in the Democratic Party and in the left wing workers movements in a lot of detail. Easily digestible history read that helped my research.
February 9, 2009
Sitkoff views the New Deal as the era that laid the groundwork for future Civil Rights breakthroughs. Yet, the era itself held only promise for blacks, not reform. The New Deal Years were in crucible in which “broad-based social movement[s:] aimed at bringing about a fuller participation of blacks in American society.” (ix) American remained segregated. Two major themes of the era created tension. First, Civil Rights groups bickered amongst themselves, never fully agreeing on the proper course of reform. Second, FDR and other politicians never took a firm stance on reform, in part because they did not want to lose votes in the south needed to pass New Deal legislation.
For Comparison:
Cohen, Making a New Deal argues that this was the era in which ethnic divides dissipated in favor of democratic cohesion. Mass Media broke down ethnic barriers and helped to adhere diverse groups to a common cause of government-led intervention in the economy, a clear break from corporate welfare. Sitkoff’s argument, however, shows that black civil rights leaders continued to fight amongst each other because of disparate ideologies and social views. Groups like the NAACP reinforce this argument—that blacks maintained a separate identity in an era seen as forming mass political groups.
For Comparison:
Cohen, Making a New Deal argues that this was the era in which ethnic divides dissipated in favor of democratic cohesion. Mass Media broke down ethnic barriers and helped to adhere diverse groups to a common cause of government-led intervention in the economy, a clear break from corporate welfare. Sitkoff’s argument, however, shows that black civil rights leaders continued to fight amongst each other because of disparate ideologies and social views. Groups like the NAACP reinforce this argument—that blacks maintained a separate identity in an era seen as forming mass political groups.
May 13, 2015
This book is about the many factors behind the rise of the "Second Reconstruction" or Civil Rights in the national political consciousness. There was a surprising amount of activity and progress in this period relating to poverty, discrimination, lynching, law, unions, and general views about race. Probably the two most significant allies that African-Americans gained in this period were the federal government and unions, although their support was inconsistent and their motivations largely political. For example, FDR did little to help blacks in the first part of the New Deal largely because Southern Democrats consistently blocked civil rights and/or poverty laws or controlled the distribution of federal largesse. However, as more blacks moved to the North and began to vote, the Democrats had to pay more attention to the black vote and try to peel it away from the Republicans. The shift of black loyalty to the Democratic Party was one of the most significant political events of this period. The book makes for interesting reading and lends credence to the concept of the Long Civil Rights Movement. I didn't strongly dislike anything about the book, although some chapters were a bit detail heavy. I recommend it for anyone interested in African-American History, the New Deal era, or politics in general.
May 2, 2013
What a read! I read a few chapters for my African Americans in the City class about six years ago and put it away. I recently went home, picked it up and read it for my novel that I'm currently working on and devoured it! There may have been one chapter that I felt disconnected with but everything else is spot on and Mr. Sitkoff's research is admirable and so relevant. Never before had I read a book that covered the events leading up to the Civil Rights Movement and took shape for how policies formed, fired up, or dissuaded a movement. What a gem!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews