Effects Of Segregation On African Americans In The 1930's

During the Great Depression all Americans suffered economically, but the African Americans suffered disproportionately. If someone were to be fired from a company the African Americans were the first to be let go which caused an unemployment rate up to three times that of whites. Because of segregation they received less aid from charitable organizations. Overall they suffered economically and socially more than their white counterparts. The 1930's were a turbulent time for race relations in America.
For more than two hundred years before the Civil War, slavery existed in the United States. Before there was no need to separate whites and blacks because ninety five percent of blacks were slaves. After the Civil War things went from bad to worse for the blacks. The south thought they needed to take charge. Black codes were passed by the Southern states which severely limited the rights and opportunities of blacks and segregated them from the whites. They were segregated at schools, theaters, swimming pools and other public places. As we all know they had to ride in the back of the city buses. They weren’t allowed to eat at the same restaurants as whites or even drink from the same water fountains. They
Men usually found jobs in the country as a farmhand or if they were lucky a tenant worker. In the city most worked as janitors or cleaning men on construction sites. The women usually did housecleaning, laundry, or childcare to earn a living. Thousands of African Americans migrated to the Northern states in search of better paying jobs. The communities there weren’t as segregated as they were in the South. Kelly Miller, an African American sociologist at Howard University labeled the black worker during the Depression as “the surplus man.” African Americans were the first to be fired from jobs when the economy slowed, and they were the last to be hired once the economy