SOCIAL JUSTICE DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION
Countries slowly began to recover from World War One.
A second wave of industry began to shape the landscape; one where there were automobiles, electricity, washing machines, telephones, etc.
More countries; especially the Americans though, became wealthy because of this quickly growing rate of consumerism. Companies and corporations everywhere grew and prospered. Americans dreamed of becoming wealthy and the housing markets boomed.
People were healthy and happy with plentiful choices of employment and good benefits.
ECONOMICS
Even in those days though, poverty still existed. I’m reminded of the words of Jesus when he said that we would always have the poor among us.
People were using a new trend of language that had society referring to “the old poverty” and “the new poverty.”
In the “old poverty” most of the people prospered, but the vulnerable people groups became the children, the older/elderly people, the minorities, the female-headed families and the disabled. The South was full of share-croppers and tenant farmers and over 1/3 of these were African Americans.
At the time that slavery ended the former slaves had been promised land, then that promise was overturned when Andrew Jackson took office after President Lincoln. He returned the promised land to the former owners. This was approximately 400,000 acres of land in the south along the coastline and following the St. John’s River. The phrase tossed around in conversations during those days was “40 acres and a mule.” (Ironically this phrase later became the name of a music production company owned by Spike Lee.) It became a broken promise in the end.
During the time just before the start of The Great Depression most of the black population had survived by becoming share-croppers. The poor whites were also mostly share-croppers.
As time went forward and the second wave of industry took hold; the “new poverty” formed. It happened with the stock market crash in 1929 and the onset of The Great Depression.
In these major historical times the upper and middle class experienced poverty. That meant that EVERYONE was poor.
Between 1929 and 1933 unemployment in the US jumped from 3.2 percent to 24.9 percent. Unemployment in many cities was up to 80 percent, 8 out of 10 workers were without jobs.
A TIME OF VIOLENCE
Hard times resulted in looting and demonstrations in the street.
Once again, in a time of emergency, people demanded government help.
There were violent fights with officers of the law in the streets in places that were once peaceful and quiet cities and towns.
The “sit-down” strikes became a popular way of life in Harlem.
It became a trend for groups seeking attention to protest in Washington D.C. in front of the White House. In some of these protests violence prevailed and people were injured or killed.
Herbert Hoover was President and he sent the army out to detain the protesters.
The army used tanks and tear gas and weapons and soldiers to get the people to move from the streets. Buildings were even burned to get people to clear the area.
Eisenhower and MacArthur were the leaders for the President’s troops carrying out orders to clear the demonstrations.
ROOSEVELT’S TERM
These things were still going on at the time when President Roosevelt took office.
At the beginning of Roosevelt’s term, one man pointed out to him that “given the present crisis, he would either become the best or worst president in history.” FDR replied; “If I fail; I shall be the last one.”
It was suggested that America needed expanded partnership between the federal government and the sectors of American society in promoting the general welfare.
Until this time in history, the federal government had only been active in promoting the railroad development and the war veteran’s pensions.
Americans as a whole believed that the federal government should not be involved in providing relief to the poor. However, the poverty crisis was now national and it demanded a national solution.
The people softened toward the idea of the federal government helping with poverty relief because of the poverty that existed nationwide. Several new ideas were proposed and debated by the government to bring the poor and the elderly relief.
NEW FORMS OF RELIEF
A jobs program was put into place that provided some people with new employment.
The Federal Emergency Relief Administration was enacted. It was formed to provide emergency relief by distributing federal funds to individual states.
Many other government funded organizations for providing federal employment opportunities spun out of this one organization.
Congress passed the Wagner-Peyser Act in 1933 to fund individual states for developing employment offices.
Emergency Food Programs were set up. Food Stamps actually started out at that time as relief for needy federal workers.
THE NEW DEAL
With FDR and The New Deal came The National Recovery Administration. The NRA sought to establish wage and price agreements to curb the slashing of prices and wages during the depression.
The Agricultural Adjustment Agency was established to curtail farm production in order to maintain higher farm prices and prevent farm bankruptcies.
Then the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was established to restore people’s confidence in banking.
Thinking of homes, The National Housing Act established the Federal Home Administration (FHA) for insuring home mortgages.
For establishing economic developments, in 1933 The Tennessee Valley Authority was established.
The Security and Exchange Commission was created in 1934 to regulate stockbroker speculation abuse.
WELFARE REFORMS
In 1934-36 a standard set of reforms were set to provide on-going responsibility of the Federal Government. Those included social welfare policies similar to European countries.
The Social Security Act was passed in 1935. The Social Security Board was set up to administer the Social Security Act, which later became The United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.
The Social Security Act became, and still is, the foundation of the American Health and Human Service System.
Also during this same time; The National Labor Relations Board was set up to regulate unions.
Despite all of these changes with The New Deal the depression lingered on.
BORROWING FOR SOCIAL REFORMS
For the first time in history Americans needed more money than their taxes provided and they began to borrow money creating a new spending deficit.
The people also began to fear that socialism was creeping in.
Some that had originally been on Roosevelt’s team began to oppose the new changes. In spite of that; he was able to pass The Wagner-Stegall Housing Act in 1937. This established The US Housing Authority.
The Fair Labor Standards Act also passed in 1938. It established minimum wages and maximum working hours. Farm labor was not included.
SOCIAL WORK BECAME MORE KNOWN AND RESPECTED
During all of these many changes the field of social work flourished.
One day all the people woke up to find that times were good again and jobs were plentiful.
Once again the problems of poverty and unemployment were tied back to the individual instead of the state of the nation.
About this time Sigmund Freud became a popular psychiatrist, bringing his theory and methods to social workers.
Casework became the emphasis of social reform. In 1929 there were 29 graduate schools for social work.
HARRY HOPKINS AND SOCIAL POLICIES
Eleanor Roosevelt was very active in social reform. She did research for her husband and advised him of the real conditions of the populous.
She recommended a man named Harry Hopkins to develop the social policies of The New Deal.
After managing Roosevelt’s relief programs in New York, Hopkins headed the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, then after that he headed The Works Progress Administration.
It was rumored that Roosevelt was grooming Harry Hopkins to be the next president. He actually attended a few presidential meetings with Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin in Roosevelt’s absence.
FRANCIS PERKINS
Francis Perkins became the first woman ever appointed to a presidential cabinet in US history.
She served as Secretary for The Department of Labor.
Previously she had worked at two Chicago settlement houses, Hull House and Chicago Commons. She attended the New York School of Philanthropy (later it became Columbia University Graduate School of Social Work.) It was there that she learned survey research methods. Later she received a Master’s degree in Political Science from Columbia University.
FAMOUS SOCIAL WORKERS EMERGE
Some other prominent players in Roosevelt’s cabinet who were social workers were Grace Abbott, Paul Kellogg, Adolph Berle, Henry Mogenthau, Jr., and Edward Lindermann.
During the 1930’s the number of employed social workers doubled.
There were over 60,000 active positions.
This made a huge shift in this field from the previous positions of private agencies and clinical roles to public agencies and social advocacy.
Now with The New Deal, the work of the social worker was expanded to cover practices all across the nation.
THE BEGINNING ROOTS OF TODAY’S SYSTEMS
From all of the above we can clearly determine that the Great Depression played a huge role in helping to form and set up the social justice system that our government uses today.
These circumstances brought about the great influence of social workers on governmental agencies and policy making.
It was during the time of The New Deal that Social Advocacy came into play in a huge way. Much of that advocacy involved social justice causes.
I have to ask the million dollar question; Had The Great Depression not taken place; would we have ever instituted all of these government reforms? Since it DID happen; did we do the right thing? If The New Deal had not been implemented; where do you think America would be today?
Which of our greatest thinkers would have approved The New Deal? Which philosophers would have shook their head and refused to take such measures? Who do you agree with and why?
It is important to think about these things as we ALL make a difference in our society. Each man must learn to think in a way that will bring the most needed gifts to our society. What would you have to offer had you lived through these days?
Next time we will look at the history of social justice during World War Two and think about the effects of those times on our society of today.