James Lee Dickey: An Analysis of One African-American's Leadership in Jim Crow Texas

The Great Depression

The Great Depression (1929 - 1940) was a true leveler. It reduced whites to the same abject poverty African Americans had experienced for decades. For perhaps the first time, African Americans began to believe their dire circumstances were not due entirely to prejudice but due to a flawed economic system. The NAACP had lost some ground with African Americans because it has not taken the case of the Scottsboro Boys because victory in courts seemed less important than providing food for the family. More and more, African Americans turned to their own race for support. Long established red lining in urban areas had created black ghettos thus blacks voluntarily segregated their churches, societies, and social clubs.

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