Brief description on the different groups targeted and helped by FDR's New Deal programs, especially Woman and African Americans.

1. THE NEW DEAL AFFECTS
MANY GROUPS
The Americans Chapter 23.3

2. KEY IDEA
New Deal policies and actions affected various social
and ethnic groups.
Turn the statement above into a question:
• How did New Deal policies and actions affect various social and
ethnic groups?
• What social and ethnic groups were affected by New Deal policies
and how were these groups affected?

3. WOMEN
Gains Made
• Women were appointed to
important federal positions
• Slight increase in the number of
women working outside the home
Problems not solved
• Discrimination in the workplace
• Discriminatory wages
• Discriminatory hiring practices
Examples of appointees to important government positions:
• Frances Perkins

4. FRANCES PERKINS
• long-time labor advocate
• fought for workers’ rights, especially for
women
• served as Secretary of Labor for FDR from
1933-1945
• first woman ever appointed to a
president’s cabinet

5. AFRICAN AMERICANS
Gains Made
• Increased political voice through
greater access to the president
• Organizations created for tenant
farmers
Problems not solved
• Segregation
• Racial violence
• Racism
• Discrimination in all areas of life
• Poll taxes
Examples of appointees to important government positions:
• Mary McLeod Bethune
• William H. Hastie
• Robert C. Weaver

6. MARY MCLEOD BETHUNE
• Florida native
• close friend of Eleanor Roosevelt
• educator who devoted herself to
opportunities for young African Americans
• Hired by FDR to head the Division of
Negro Affairs of the National Youth
Administration (NYA)
• worked to ensure that the NYA hired
African-American administrators and
provided job training and other benefits to
minority students.

7. WILLIAM H. HASTIE
• served as a lawyer for the Department of
the Interior under FDR
• became the first African American federal
judge when FDR appointed him to the
District Court of the US Virgin Islands

8. ROBERT C. WEAVER
• joined FDR’s Black Cabinet (along with
Bethune, Hastie, and over 40 other
prominent African Americans whom FDR
turned to for advice, support, and guidance
during the Great Depression)
• appointed by FDR as aide to the Secretary
of the Interior
• wrote the US Housing Program which
lowered rents to help keep families in their
homes during the Depression

9. LABOR UNIONS
Gains Made
• Better working conditions
• Increased bargaining power
• Dramatic increase in union
membership
Problems not solved
• Strike violence
• Big business opposition to labor unions
Examples of Unions organized during the New Deal:
• Congress of Industrial Organizations

10. CONGRESS OF
INDUSTRIAL
ORGANIZATIONS
(CIO)
• an organization of
industrial unions
• fought to protect factory
workers across many
industries from unfair
business practices – such
as low wages, long hours,
and unsafe working
conditions

11. OTHER COALITION GROUPS
Other groups
• Southern whites
• Various urban groups
• Immigrants
• Various religious and ethnic groups
Reasons they supported the
Democratic Party
• New Deal labor laws and work-relief
programs aided many of them
• FDR made direct and persuasive
appeals to them to support him
• FDR appointed many officials of urban-
immigrant backgrounds