The Depression and Black Americans
By: Steve Hoyle
The Great Depression had a big impact on all people living in America, but the Depression was especially hard on Black Americans. The old saying that blacks were the last hired and first fired held true. By 1932 fifty percent of the Negro population in the United States was unemployed. This started a massive migration of Negroes to the north. TIM is a part of this migration and travels to Harlem, the largest black community in the United States. The migration of blacks to the north upset the whites there, who believed that Negroes were stealing their jobs, and the lynching of blacks became a very common practice. There was much controversy over this and a bill was passed in the House of Representatives that would make lynching illegal; however, a filibuster in the Senate prevented this bill from becoming law. There was also a large growth in the Ku Klux Klan during the Depression. Because of the outcry of white citizens, Negroes were not treated equally in the work force. They had lower wages and were excluded from unions. Employers did not like unions, and blacks were hired in factories as "scabs" to replace white workers on strike. TIM comes to realize this when, while working at a paint factory, he accidentally enters a union meeting and is nearly attacked by the union members. A big scene in the novel occurs when an old couple is evicted from their apartment. Evictions were very common during the Depression and caused many uprisings in the black community. The Communists started an anti-eviction movement and would help victims of evictions move their belongings and furniture back into the houses. Although it offered little help to most Negroes, some saw hope in Roosevelt's New Deal.
Acknowledgements:
McElvaine, Robert S. The Great Depression. N.p.: Times, 1984.
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