African American Women In The 1930's

Women of the 1950’s through the 1960’s are ridden with male oppression and self-esteem issues. The book Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates and an episode of Mad Men titled The Shoot have a lot in common. The differences and similarities between the leading women in both of these stories from the 1950’s show that times are different today. The women of the 1950’s had a dream for the future and their dream has finally become a reality for American women. From Mad Men, Betty Draper’s dream of becoming a model and in Revolutionary Road, April Wheeler’s dream of traveling the world are actual realities for women today. Their dreams show similarities, differences and the “American Dream” that every woman has.

African Americans lifestyle did not see much change from before the depression and during the depression in the sense of the capital dollar. They assumed the New Deal brought up by president Roosevelt at the time would bring change to their life, but the white public would not stand to be on equal terms with a person of color. “Unemployment was rampant, and many whites felt that any available jobs belonged to the whites first.”i Many white Americans did not want African Americans to be paid minimum wage, but be paid lower than minimum wage. Industry’s also wanted to pay their employers a different wage depending on the color of their skin. “Negro unskilled labor,

the house becoming the homemaker once the war was over. The 1950s has also been

During the 1930s women is not treated equal with men and they are very different with each other. The amount of women actually getting jobs are less likely to men getting jobs. Fashion is also very different, women are in plain dresses while men are in blue denim jackets. Women during the Great Depression are actually depressed because they can not get jobs and their wages are half as as much as men. Men gets good jobs and amazing wages but at least both still got their fashion.

African Americans didn’t know that is was a Great Depression. African Americans have always been poor and knew how to survive. By 1932, approximately half of black Americans were unemployed, blacks always felt unemployed and under paid. Whites attempted to keep blacks out of work by not hiring African Americans. They used racial violence, and discrimination tactics to keep an underprivileged population depressed.

The book starts out addressing the problem with the New deal and Great Depression. Black Americans suffered the most because they were mostly in agriculture and would be hit the hardest. Black urban unemployment reached well over 50 percent, more than twice the rate of whites. In my own opinion that wasn’t a coincidence. In southern cities, white workers rallied around such slogan “back to the cotton fields city jobs are for white folks." The most violent times took place on southern railroads, as unionized white workers intimidated, attacked, and murdered black firemen in order to take their jobs. Throughout African Americans lost their jobs in various parts of the South. Ku Klux Klan practices were being resumed and it became more and more dangerous for Blacks to live daily lives.

The 1930’s started off with a huge economic crash which left the U.S. startled and in the Great Depression. The stock market had just crashed on October 24, 1929, also known as the Wall Street Crash. The “Jazz Age” had just ended and new musicians and artists were slowly rising up to their fame. African American’s were being discriminated against in the south. Many African Americans were farmers who had to suffer from the Great Depression as well as the Dust Bowl. As a result of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl many African Americans had to go through the struggles of losing their jobs and having to move north in search for a new life. Many Americans had this problem as well, but the racism that was used against Africans, added to the severeness of the situation. African Americans weren’t able to get jobs, homes, or opportunities as easily as African Americans. Many African Americans were in terrible condition and most of it was because of the way that African Americans were treated. After President Roosevelt was elected a new hope had arisen through the country and Africans Americans were given another chance.

In America, the years 1929 through 1941 were not necessarily the brightest years the country has seen, but certainly should not be forgotten, and here’s why: during the Great Depression, one may say the true colors of the nation, showed through. As people lost money and unemployment rates skyrocketed (seen in document 1), companies were picky as who to hire, usually hiring the average white male over any other minority (women included). On the other hand, however, many people came together as a community and helped restore America to its former glory.

The 1920’s was an era of dramatic political and cultural change, where many Americans lived in cities rather than farms. Many inventors came to be noticed as new cars were invented and as music entered the entertainment industry. A new style of music was invented mainly in the African American community, creating the Harlem Renaissance; which was an evolution of music and entertainment in Harlem, New York City. The women of America began to evolve in the 1920s, adding new styles to our fashion industry and changing the way women dress, act, and are portrayed in society for generations. Women were viewed before the 1920’s as innocent housewives, that made little to no money, as they often relied on their husbands’ for income. Women also had little to no rights, such as voting rights, which many women began to protest. Women of the 1920’s through the 1930’s influenced and impacted society by transforming their looks from innocent housewives to a sexually liberated generation of women, increasing the working rate to twenty-five percent by working in factories and the telemarketing business, and participating in the Women’s Suffrage Movement in which they protested for their rights which then influenced the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment.

African American women advocate for social change in the Progressive Era by forming and participating in an organization that advocates for women suffrage, racial violence, and improvement of social conditions.

The Great Depression. The worst financial crisis to ever hit America. Unemployment rates of over 25%. A 50% decrease in national income. Billions of dollars lost in a single day. (Trotter, pg.8) The Depression affected everyone in America. Young and old, rich and poor, black and white, none were spared. However, for America’s 12 million African Americans (Encyclopedia of Race and Racism) the Depression didn’t just start in 1929.(Africa to America: From the Middle Passage Through the 1930s) African Americans were a subjugated minority. Racism wasn’t only present in America, it was accepted by many. In the South, Democrats fought to keep African Americans under harsh segregation and oppressive laws. (Trotter, pg. 9) Efforts to relieve

The Progressive Movement of 1901 to 1917 began as a result of the abuse and suffrage African American endures at the hand of those in power. The period of the progressive era many reformers believed the difficultly people encountered such as racism, violence, poverty, health care was as a result of the lack of education that was available. As America became more industrialize women reacted to the turmoil that it brings with by connecting together to form organization both at the local and national level. Women step up to the place and played major roles in order to bring changes to the general welfare and improve social integrity.

Their duties consisted of being the mother, house workers, and field workers. While both African American men and women in the South suffered and were “systematically deprived of self-determination” , African American women struggled greatly under their employers, husbands, and even their children. “[B]lack women helped to fulfill the economic as well as the emotional needs of their families. … [B]lack women performed housekeeping and childcare tasks, earned modest sums of cash, and worked

The lives of African American people in the early 1900s were greatly limited due to the Jim Crow laws. When these laws were in effect, colored people were often forced to separate themselves from whites, commonly in worse, even dangerous, conditions. Originally, the Jim Crow Laws seemed like a good alternative to having their old way of life bombarded with new and different people. However, white people began to understand the horrors the Jim Crow laws had brought to those of color, and turned against them. One girl, who had never seen segregation first-handed as she lived in the north, experienced segregation for the first time when she visited her grandmother's house down in the south. Horrified with the segregation, she “mixed all the brown

During the 1930s, small movements began growing, based on the goal of achieving civil rights. The fight for equality began even further back, but during these years new movements grew and organizations stood in the spotlight once more for Mexican Americans and African Americans. Various events occurred in the 1930s, one being the monumental Great Depression that devastated numerous families. African Americans and Mexican Americans were affected as well, being denied relief in areas such as Houston because people believed the resources at hand should be given to the white race first before helping the minorities. In fact, treatment was very unfair, if you were a minority, you would be the first to be fired or the last to be hired. Unemployment