Between 1929 to 1939, the Great Depression was the worst economic downturn in the U.S. During this period, Black people were said to be the “last hired, first fired,” African Americans were the first to see work hours and jobs cut, and they experienced the highest unemployment rate during the 1930s. At the time Black Americas were already working lower-paying jobs, therefore, Black people had less of a financial cushion to fall back on.

The Great Depression would go on to impact Black Americans for years to come. This era increased the number of Black activism, which would lay the ground work for the Civil Rights Movement years later. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal program saw African Americans switch their political allegiances from Republican party to Democratic party. Black Americans unemployment rates doubled or tripled those of whites. Once the stock market crash of 1929, many entry-level, low-paying jobs disappeared or were filled by whites in need of jobs. In 1932, the Black American unemployment rate was approx. 50 percent according to Library of Congress.

Historian Cheryl Lynn Greenberg wrote in To Ask for an Equal Chance: African Americans in the Great Depression, that Black unemployment rates in the South doubled or in some places even tripled of the white population. In Atlanta, almost 70 percent of Black workers were jobless in 1934. In cities across the North, approx. 25 percent of white workers were unemployed in 1932, while the jobless rates for African Americans topped 50 percent in Chicago and Pittsburgh and 60 percent in Philadelphia and Detroit.

Sources:

Klein, C. (2018, April 18). Last hired, First Fired: How the Great depression AFFECTED African Americans. History.com. https://www.history.com/news/last-hired-first-fired-how-the-great-depression-affected-african-americans.

Race relations in the 1930s and 1940s : Great depression and World War II, 1929-1945 : U.S. history primary Source timeline : Classroom materials at the library of Congress : Library of Congress

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