In 1929, the United States faced financial devastation. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their jobs after the stock market crashed. Across the country, the hardest hit were African Americans. Cotton prices plunged resulting in farmers being unable to support themselves and being forced to walk away from their farms. Jobs previously help by blacks were being given to struggling whites.
Here are a few statistics that deal with life for African Americans during that time:
- According to "A New Deal For Blacks" by Harvard Sitkoff, the south received the worst end of the Great Depression. Two-thirds of the black farmers that sold cotton in the early 30's received no profit from the crop. They either broke even or went into even more debt.
- By 1931, one-third of African Americans in Southern cities could not find a job. Then over the next year, the percentage went up even more by one-half.
- African Americans not only suffered because they were black, but they suffered even more if they lived in the south. The Southern cities had the lowest unemployment rate in the country. For example in 1932, in Mississippi, African Americans took up over half of the population but only 9% of them received any relief. Compared to the 14% of white from the state that were granted some assistance.
- According to a study done in Harlem over 2000 families, the median income declined 48.7 percent from 1929 ($1922) to 1932 ($1003).
- Unemployment for African Americans in 1932 went anywhere from 40% to 50% but topped out in Philadelphia at 56%.
- African American male unemployment rate (Harlem, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Detroit) was anywhere between 40-50% and African American women unemployment rate was 55%. However, the white jobless rate was 23% for males and 14% for women. (Harlem, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Detroit)
Wolters, Raymond. Negroes and the Great Depression; the Problem of Economic Recovery. Westport, CT: Greenwood Pub., 1970. Print