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The Black Cabinet: The Untold Story of African Americans and Politics During the Age of Roosevelt

by Jill Watts

  1. People / Organizations:

  2. Quotes:

    • "the only true gauge by which to judge an individual, or a party, or a government, is not by what is proclaimed or promised, but by what is done" - Robert Vann (pg. 43)

    • "Education had helped Joseph A. Gavagan climb out of poverty" - Author (pg. 137)

    • "black reporters, newspapers, and wire services played an important role in educating, influencing, and empowering African Americans" - Author (pg. 144)

    • "I believe in the dignity of work. Do your work with efficiency, regardless of the task" - Mary Bethune (pg. 200)

    • "the machine in which she was sitting was driven under a tree, a rope placed about her neck and the other end tied to a limb of the tree. The machine was started at a high speed and the Negress left hanging. Her body was then shot to pieces. Her eyes were shot out and such fusillade directed at her waist that she was cut in two" - On the Lynching of Anne Bostwick (pg. 232)

    • "Not only does the person develop more fully if he is given better surroundings, but society benefits because a better citizen is produced" - Robert Weaver on Housing Regulation in 1937 (pg. 241)

    • "with filth and foul air, with its one toilet for thirty or more tenants, it kills our black babies so fast that in many cities twice as many of them die as white babies" - Richard White on African American Housing (pg. 242)

  3. Data Resources:

  4. General Notes:

    • "In 1907 to 1908, according to Tuskegee Institute, white lynch mobs took the lives 147 African Americans" (pg. 3)

    • Gray's Café in Washington, D.C. - Black-Owned Eatery (pg. 3)

      • The Black Cabinet - Roosevelt black appointees who, frustrated with the federal government's open racism, met regularly at Gray's to discuss the needs of African Americans struggles within the federal government. (pg. 18-19)

    • "with no money, no homes, and no land, most black families were forced into sharecropping. In exchange for housing, land, and tools, and other farming supplies, families turned over crops as payment in kind. Sharecropping locked African Americans into an economic dependency." (pg. 8)

    • Civil Service Commission of 1884 - "to reduce the number of patronage jobs going to party regulars" (pg. 10) [Pendleton Act (1883) (print-friendly version) (ourdocuments.gov)] [PRACTICAL REFORM WORK; LABORS OF THE CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION. WHAT THE FORTHCOMING REPORT WILL SAY--GOOD RESULTS OF THE COMPETITIVE EXAMINATIONS. - The New York Times (nytimes.com)]

    • President McKinley's 'Lily White' Strategy - "demanded that Republicans court the South's white independents instead of expanding the party's base by protecting black voters" (pg. 11)

    • February 22, 1898 - 200 white men encircled Frazier Baker's home (an African American politician in Lake City, South Carolina) and set it on fire, shooting and killing him and his daughter. (pg. 12)

    • "an advocate of a conservative approach to race relations, Booker T. Washington urged African Americans to accommodate segregation and disenfranchisement and instead concentrate on economic empowerment" (pg. 13)

    • October 1, 1901 - Booker T. Washington dined with President Roosevelt (pg. 14)

    •  "as the November election neared, Wilson's support among African Americans became notable." (pg. 26)

    • Great Migration - "the surge of African Americans towards urban areas beginning in 1915" (pg. 28) "competition for employment led to a summer of violent riots in 1919." (pg. 29)

    • "after the President [Wilson] was inaugurated, the White House swiftly eliminated as many African Americans in government as possible…Wilson staffers rammed through new procedures that disadvantaged African American applicants for new positions. Job seekers were now required to submit photographs." (pg. 29)

    • "the crisis for black Americans worsened throughout the 1920's. Beginning with Harding and extending into Coolidge and Hoover, the White House focused on pro-business policies that created a financial boom. But, [it] left behind many economically vulnerable populations, including African Americans." (pg. 31)

    • September 11, 1932 - Robert Vann's speech "The Patriot and the Partisan" at Saint James African Methodist Episcopal Church in Cleveland, OH. (pg. 42)

      • Republicans had betrayed African Americans with unfulfilled promises and that it was time to "cast their lot with the Democrats" (pg. 43)

    • The Big Four - William J. Thompkins, Julian Rainey, Richard Vann, and Joseph Johnson were the four key characters behind generating support for FDR and the democrats (pg. 44)

    • "The driving philosophy behind the New Deal rested on massive federal spending on an abundance of government programs to stimulate the economy" (pg. 55)

    • "almost sixty days into the new administration, not a single African American had been hired" (pg. 55)

    • July 14, 1933 - Robert Vann takes oath of office as an attorney in the Justice Department (pg. 58) [San Antonio Register (San Antonio, Tex.), Vol. 3, No. 15, Ed. 1 Friday, July 14, 1933 - Page 1 of 8 - The Portal to Texas History (unt.edu)]

    • "throughout the summer of 1933, calls for Roosevelt to bring African Americans into his administration as New Deal advisors grew louder." (pg. 61)

    • Office of the Special Advisor on the Economic Status of the Negros (pg. 75)

    • November 13, 1933 - Robert Weaver, Robert Vann and Eugene Kinckle Jones become one of the first few African Americans who occupied advisory positions within the FDR Administration. (pg. 91)

    • December 12, 1933 - Urban League meeting at Howard University to discuss race-based wage differentials (pg. 102) [National Urban League Records [finding aid]. Library of Congress. [PDF rendered Tue Apr 24 17:22:54 EDT 2018] [XSLT Processor: SAXON 9.1.0.8 from Saxonica] (loc.gov)]

      • "the minutes revealed that the administration's core leaders were prejudiced against African Americans in general, and the Howard [University] meeting proved that the New Deal's architects were adherent to the southern myth that African Americans were inferior and undeserving of comparable pay" (pg. 105-106)

    • December 27, 1933 - Harold Ickes briefs FDR Robert Moton's proposal for an advisory committee to offer counsel on African American affairs. (pg. 112)

    • Inter-Departmental Group Concerned with the Special Problems of the Negro (pg. 112)

    • "the Department of Agriculture, the Public Works Administration, and the Federal Emergency Relief Administration recruited African Americans for key posts" (pg. 113)

    • March, 1934 - Eugene C. Davidson's "The Black Cabinet in the New Deal" (pg. 114) [DAVIDSON, EUGENE C. (howard.edu)] [San Antonio Register (San Antonio, Tex.), Vol. 4, No. 3, Ed. 1 Friday, April 27, 1934 - Page 4 of 8 - The Portal to Texas History (unt.edu)]

    • Agricultural Adjustment Act (pg. 124) [U.S. Farm Bills, National Agricultural Law Center (nationalaglawcenter.org)] [Agricultural Adjustment Act (1933, Reauthorized 1938) - Living New Deal]

      • "the program was thoroughly impractical for black people. Participation required property ownership, and most African Americans were landless" (pg. 124)

    • "only a small portion of African American belonged to unions, because almost all unions, including the AFL, allows white locals to vote down African American applicants. The New Deal's attempts to protect and empower unions only disadvantaged black workers." (pg. 127)

    • June 19, 1913 - William Norman (an African American from Hot Springs, Arkansas) was murder by a mob alleging he had assaulted a 14 years old girl (pg. 133) [The Jim Crow Era: A Solemn Roll Call Of Those Brutally Murdered – Our Time Press]

    • February, 1934 - an African American farmer, Sylvester Harris, in Mississippi calls FDR directly addressing a property rights issue (pg. 136) [My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, February 23, 1957 (gwu.edu)]

    • October 19, 1934 - Claude Neal of Jackson County, Florida was arrested for murder of a white woman (pg. 144) [Claude Neal | CRT | Department of Justice]

    • "By 1935, programs targeting African Americans were receiving more support and more funds. The number of black federal appointees continued to expand. Local agencies also hired advisors, clerical workers, and consultants. In the South, the federal government had provided more funding for teachers salaries in black schools. That not only increased employment but gave African American children more access to education. Federal housing projects was another area of success. [Robert Weaver] had pushed for African Americans to get their fare share of both public housing and the jobs that came with the construction of new projects. [Robert Weaver] emerged as one of the New Deal's foremost experts in housing and urban renewal." (pg. 149)

    • Florida Agricultural and Mechanical (A&M) College for Negroes (pg. 149) [History of Florida A&M University (famu.edu)] [FAMU Collections | famu.digital.flvc.org]

      • "the funding of black schools was grossly inequitable and unacceptable" (pg. 175)

    • "Lawrence Oxley's approach to remedying African American poverty and unemployment focused on black self-reliance and self-improvement" (pg. 153)

    • "[Henry] Hunt contended that a conservative educational philosophy was the most practical approach to black education in the climate of southern white resentment. Some sharply criticized Hunt for being an accommodationist." (pg. 231)

      • "In Hunt's opinion, the key to African American liberation was agriculture. The same fields that tied African Americans to debt and destitution could become a path to freedom if property ownership could somehow be extended to black southerners. By farming their own land, African Americans would rise and contribute to one of the nation's greatest enterprises - farming for national and international markets." (pg. 232)

    • "[Al] Smith's goal was clear-cut: African Americans wanted jobs, not public welfare" (pg. 251)

    • "the administration had provided educational stipends to African American children from grades 1 to 12, college scholarships to black students, and CCC jobs to black youth" (pg. 200)

    • "as the election neared [in 1936], the White House pumped more funding into African American relief efforts. The administration allocated $2 Million for studies on black joblessness. More than $50 Million had gone to federal housing projects" (pg. 203)

    • "the challenge for the Black Cabinet was to force the party to honor the black community's needs and to continue to recognize the power of African Americans at the ballot box" (pg. 208)

    • National Conference on the Problems of the Negro and Negro Youth Report to FDR ("Blue Book") (pg. 210, 214)

    • Flint River Farms Agricultural Project (pg. 235) [History - Flint River Farms] [LC Catalog - Item Information (Full Record) (loc.gov)]

      • "the federal government purchased 11,000 acres of former plantation land and began dividing it into more than 1,000 farmsteads. Property was distributed under a lease-to-own agreement, and participants paid for it with low-interest government loans." (pg. 236)

    • Housing Act of 1937 (pg. 240) [FDR and Housing Legislation - FDR Presidential Library & Museum (fdrlibrary.org)]

    • "student aid had increased. Job placement programs operated in eight states. Training centers had served 3,707 black youths, and 21,485 were employed on work projects." (pg. 248)

    • "although Bethune's NYA and Weaver's USHA received the most attention from the African American press, Al Smith's WPA division was the largest black program in the New Deal. The WPA was the biggest work-relief agency in Washington." (pg. 250)

    • "In 1937, joblessness had dropped to about 14%. Trying to balance the budget, Roosevelt had pulled back on relief, which sent the economy careening downward. In 1938, unemployment shot up to 20%." (PG. 264)

    • "[in 1938] preparedness became the keynote for the Roosevelt White House, which recognized the necessity of building up American defense. This resulted in an increase in government-funded employment." (pg. 264)

    • January 12, 1939 - NYA's second National Conference on the Problems of the Negro and Negro Youth (pg. 266)

    • September 16, 1940 - FDR signs the Selective Services Act (a peacetime draft) (pg. 308)

      • Discussion about integration and equal opportunity for African Americans in the military (pg. 310)

      • October 9, 1940 - "the armed forces would allow black men to fight and promised to provide them with some opportunities to advance as officers. But segregation would remain strictly the rule. This new policy was a giant step backward." (pg. 313)

    • "if the Roosevelt administration didn’t immediately open up equal opportunity to African Americans, Randolph vowed to call for all black citizens to rally and march in Washington, D.C. on July 1, 1941" (pg. 329)

    • "the march represented a serious dilemma for the Black Cabinet" (pg. 330)

      • "most Black Cabinet members had avoided open confrontation and worried that the march might create hard feelings and trigger a reduction of African Americans in the federal ranks" (331)

      • "in May, Randolph announced that whites would be banned from participation. The march must, Randolph emphasized, demonstrate the power of black self-determination." (pg. 332)

    • June 25, 1941 - FDR signed executive order 8802 outlawing discrimination in hiring by the federal government and by defense contractors (pg. 341)

    • Sojourner Truth Homes - Detroit Public Housing Project (pg. 361, 403) [Special Focus: Sojourner Truth Housing Project · Before the Unrest: 1940 - 1967 · 12th Street Detroit (wayne.edu)]

    • "like many other urban areas during WWII, Detroit witnessed a massive influx of new residents drawn to cities by industrial job growth" (pg. 361)

    • "Lee Street Riot" (pg. 366)

    • "the War Department initially order the Red Cross to refuse African American blood" (pg. 374)

    • Women's Army Corps Officer Training School (pg. 380)

    • "The war kicked the economy into high gear. With the expansion of industry and the military, the nation's unemployment rate had dropped to just under 5%." (pg. 389)

    • "the WPA construction projects, many of which provided jobs to African Americans, had built schools, libraries, recreation facilities, and hospitals in black communities around the nation." (pg. 390)

    • "in early July [of 1943], Mary Bethune received her termination noticed and orders to shut down all of her programs" (pg. 410)

  5. Further Readings:

The Black Cabinet: Text
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