Roosevelt and African Americans

Was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt really a “friend” to African Americans? Why or why not?

“Was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt really a “friend” to African Americans? Why or why not?”

Introduction

In the late 19th and 20th century, white Americans were having significant part from the social and economic sector of the USA whereas African Americans were in great disarray. They were experiencing extreme social and economic hardships. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt positions near or at the very top of approximately every list of America's greatest presidents. He brought about several reforms in USA through his four terms of office.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to African Americans

The Great Depression of 1929 was a tough time for the people of USA. It had a great impact on the lives of people of USA. The impact particularly affected the lives of African Americans.

He worked effectively to get the USA out of the hardships of the Great Depression (Schnell 1999). In 1933, immediately upon taking up the government President Roosevelt wasted little time and formed what would comprise the single largest economic reform program in the history of the United States: The New Deal. Roosevelt expected that his New Deal would offer much needed relief to blue-collar Americans during the prevailing period of devastating depression (Badger 1989).

Before Roosevelt, no one had attempted to bring black Americans into the mainstream of American economic and social spheres. He selected a record number of blacks to second-level positions in his government; these appointees were collectively called the Black Cabinet. Roosevelt worked with several big city mayors to support the evolution of black political organizations from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party from 1934-36. The black community reacted favorably, so that by 1936 the majority who voted (usually in the North) were voting Democratic. This was a ...