Jim Crow laws persisted throughout the South until the 1960s. These unjust laws separated white Americans from African Americans, creating services and facilities meant to be equal while keeping the two demographics separated. The United States joining World War I did little to change these unjust laws. African-American service members were put in separate units from their white counterparts and fought for equality while in the military and afterward. Wilson's administration failed to address Jim Crow or Civil Rights activism in the South.1
When the stock market crashed in 1929, leading to the Great Depression, Americans believed President Herbert Hoover did little to contain the situation or help the people it affected the most: farmers and lower-class families. The blame for the Great Depression in the South was put on the president and Republican Party due to their poor economic legislation and the suffering of many in the region.2
When he took office in 1933, Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt immediately sought to fix the economy. The most extensive New Deal legislative program in the Nation’s history created social and economic programs that put Americans to work on government projects. Roosevelt also created the New Deal Democratic Coalition, which focused on government-funded programs. These New Deal programs supported by the coalition grew the federal government's size and power, which benefited Southern farmers and Northern laborers.3 The purpose of these programs was to utilize consumerism as a way out of the Depression by building an American society focused on spending and consumption. However, this goal was difficult to achieve in the South as many of the laboring class were in extreme poverty, and the economy lacked industry along with having debt with entities outside of the South and a regressive tax structure. The New Deal programs rebuilt the South’s economic condition in order for southerners to take part in the benefits of these programs. Created in 1937, the Farm Security Administration tackled the causes of poverty in the rural South, such as overpopulation, improper use of the land, low price of Agricultural products, and farmers' high debt. They created community farm programs to establish a new middle-class lifestyle for poor southerners in preparation to partake in New Deal programs. The successful outcome of this project was a new demand from southerners for modern appliances and conveniences.4
African Americans also benefited from the New Deal, first through the appointment of thirty-two African Americans to administrative, executive, and technical positions from 1933 to 1936 through the Federal Emergency Relief Administration of Interior and the employment of nine hundred and forty-six African Americans in the Interior Department. The creation of the Civilian Conservation Corps helped to change the environment of African-American youth. From 1933 to 1942, two hundred thousand youth worked in this program, there was an increase in literacy, the teaching of valuable skill sets, and kept youth off the streets. African Americans saw benefits through Social Security, especially with aid for unemployment, dependent mothers and children, and assistance for children who are physically disabled.5
The hope the New Deal programs brought to African Americans aided in the shift of African American voters from the Republican party of Lincoln to the Democratic party of Roosevelt. In the previous Hoover presidential administration, the Republican Party alienated African American voters, especially in the South.6 Before, during, and after his 1932 presidential campaign, Franklin Delano Roosevelt made significant gestures toward African Americans and was a favorable figure in their communities.7 Unfortunately, Roosevelt could not fulfill some legislation, such as anti-lynching legislation, due to white supremacy held by Southerners in Congress. However, Roosevelt reflected his beliefs in equality through his actions while in office. The New Deal programs did not help African Americans as much as white Americans. Still, the idea Roosevelt had behind the program spoke volumes against the arrangement they received from the Republican Party. It was the beginning of a bond between African American voters and the Democratic party.8