The implementation of the New Deal by the newly elected president Franklin D. Roosevelt marked a pivotal turn in the fight for African American rights. After a long and arduous struggle attempting to infiltrate both the federal and state governments, African Americans were finally making measurable progress. Racial caste systems still dominated Congress but with the determination of the NAACP, inspiration from the New Deal, and the individual efforts of many such as Charles Houston, Walter White, and Thurgood Marshall new reformations were made. The NAACP decided to take economic and employment issues into their own hands and developed both acts and groups such as the National Industry Recovery Act and National Recovery Administration (NRA) to ensure black representation in social reforms (192). Anti-lynching reform continued to be an integral part of the NAACP’s policy agenda. With the help of newly trained African American lawyers as discussed in Chapter 5, anti-lynching proposals flooded the courts.

Mounting tension between White and Du Bois eventually resulted in Du Bois’ resignation from the NAACP. They disagreed on issues such as voluntary segregation and neither party was budging. White argued that accepting any form of voluntary segregation would completely undermine the NAACP’s mission to help foster a harmonious and racially intermixed country (200). Throughout the history of the NAACP, fieldwork had been an essential part of the organizations base, and headquarters continued to emphasis the importance of local branches involvement in local reformation (205).

The reason why the NAACP was so “successful” despite the Depression was due to the emphasis placed on training and incorporating African American lawyers into the core of the NAACP as well as support from the New Deal. The process of teaching blacks to become lawyers and then hiring them as their representatives in court cases was a huge boost to the NAACP’s reputation and legitimacy. Despite the New Deal having various racist restrictions, funding was still provided to African Americans institutions and inspired many groups such as the NAACP to develop their own forms of reconstruction (226). I use the word successful in quotations because the term is relative. The NAACP may not have accomplished their broader goals in Chapter 6, but they did win minor battles while on their way to tackling those larger issues.

How important is it for long-term organizations to adapt to the demands of changing times? Do you think W.E.B. Du Bois’ greatest fault was his inability to accept the growing need to intermingle with different races? Or was he just in his thinking that in order for African Americans to succeed, they must fully rely on themselves and their own race?

(Shout out to Ella Baker on page 243)

Lucie Dufour