The Great Depression and the Stock Market Crash of 1929 both served to drastically affect the entirety of the population of the U.S., with affects rippling down to the rural and urban black communities as well. Two examples of actions that were taken in these black communities to work to counteract the effects of these events include accepting the assistance offered through Roosevelt’s WPA program for migrant workers, and, as a result of farming issues in the South, many of these individuals opted to move to Northern communities in a oftentimes ill-fated attempt to better their situation by searching for work outside of the farming lifestyle (The Great Depression, 2009).
Ways in which the Great Depression and World War II Benefitted African American Acceptance
The Great Depression and the subsequent coming of World War II served to benefit African American acceptance in a variety of different ways. During the Great Depression, the rise of certain painters, writers, and musicians served to increase African American acceptance within the standard community, allowing such individuals to be seen in a light that was non-subservient, furthering the perception of individuals as equals (The Great Depression, 2009). Through the segregation of the draft, African Americans were able to work side by side as enlisted men, though only in certain positions of lower and subservient status, but by virtue of their inclusion, acceptance became more commonplace (African Americans In World War II, n.d.).
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"The Impact of the Stock Market and the Great Depression".
These two events served to bring individuals out of their niches, the areas into which they had been pigeonholed through years of oppression, allowing the first steps toward acceptance to take place, with each new development in the nation pushing the boundaries back just a little bit past where they were before, opening the doors to a new future.
- Amistadresource.org. (2009). The Great Depression. Retrieved 14 May 2014, from http://www.amistadresource.org/plantation_to_ghetto/the_great_depression.html
- The National WWII Museum. (n.d.). African Americans in World War II. Retrieved 14 May 2014, from http://www.nationalww2museum.org
