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RUNNING HEADER: Roosevelt and New Deal’s Failure to Aid African Americans vs. Johnson and the Great Society





Roosevelt and New Deal’s Failure to Aid African Americans

vs. Johnson and the Great Society




The New Deal
The New Deal made up a period from 1933 to 1939 and was characterized by intense government activity on the national level. Through the New Deal, FDR started the Federal Housing Association, the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, and the National Recovery Administration. During this period much of the power went back to the national government. In the mid-1930s, the Supreme Court decided that parts of the New Deal went beyond the authority of Congress to regulate commerce. Another part of the era of Cooperative Federalism was Marble Cake Federalism. Marble Cake Federalism was when the states and the national government began to share more powers. Federal grants also made up a lot of this era big changes.
President Roosevelt’s New Deal program during the 1930’s failed to aid impoverished African-American citizens. The New Deal followed a long, historical chronology of American failures in attempts to ensure economic prosperity and racial equality. During the nearly seventy years after the conclusion of the Civil War, the United States faced a series of economic depressions, unmotivated Congress,’ and a series of mediocre presidents. With the exception of Teddy Roosevelt, few presidents were able to enact anti-depression mechanisms and minimize unemployment. The America of the 1920’s was a country at its lowest economic and social stature facing a terrible depression and increasing racial turmoil. Producer and historian Henry Hampton described the situation as follows (PBS 1993) :

The Cold War
In 1963, Lyndon Johnson inherited the presidency after John F. Kennedy's death in Dallas. Johnson immediately began pushing reforms to end discrimination and poverty. In the next year...