New Deal for Minorities

Abstract

During the Depression years, minority groups in the United States suffered more than the other segments of the American society. Yet, they were not the focus of New Dealers. One may wonder why and how were the lives of women, African Americans, and Indian Americans, impoverished by the Great Depression, enhanced under the New Deal. At the outset, NIRA codes emphasized women’s inferiority to men since they reinforced traditional long-range place in the labor arena. African Americans, too, suffered more because of the NIRA. Likewise, the AAA and the CCC were administrated in segregationist manners. It was until 1935 onwards that things changed in favor of those minorities. Federal relief programs and agencies like the FERA, the WPA, and the NYA; and many other acts and executive orders contributed significantly in enhancing minorities’ conditions of life during the Depression years.