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

The New Deal

In 1933, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal changed the role the federal government played in job creation and social welfare. Because a Democratic president offered assistance, Blacks in America began to rethink party loyalty. The New Deal was Roosevelt’s radical plan for recovery in the Great Depression. By easing America’s laissez-faire policy, the New Deal dipped into the federal government’s unlimited resources to create programs designed to provide immediate relief to starving and homeless Americans, short-term recovery for flailing businesses, and long term reforms to prevent a recurrence of the crisis, the New Deal included assistance for African Americans. The Federal Housing Authority (FHA) helped establish low cost housing for the poor, (tag: New Deal extended segregation via public housing however, most FHA projects constructed subsidized housing for poor white families, but in the end also provided housing for African American families. In Taylor, the first FHA project was the Avery Edition in South Taylor, created to solve the stagnant water issue causing polio in 1949.)  In the Work s Progress Administration (WPA) provided jobs for more than 350,000 blacks building roads and infrastructure.  The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) hired 18 – 25 year old family members to improve pubic spaces such as parks and civic buildings. The National Youth Administration hired black administrators to oversee youth programs in primarily urban areas and the Public Works Administration (PWA) required contractors hire a percentage of African Americans in skilled jobs. More importantly, African Americans felt the White House gave them a sympathetic ear. After almost 70 years of Republican loyalty, those few African Americans that still had the right to vote changed their party.
 

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