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Blacks were surely hit hardest by the Great Depression. Usually "the last to be hired and the first fired," (Foner 388) they were struck sharply by the economic collapse of the U.S. In several Southern cities, almost eighty percent of the Black population needed financial assistance. This aid was even tainted by discrimination, though. Blacks were not allowed in some soup kitchens and often received less assistance than whites.
Thus, the New Deal was basically a welcome sight to Blacks, though it was even still discriminatory. They saw the New Deal and the Roosevelt Administration as a glimmer of hope. Through the New Deal, Blacks experienced aid and reform, both in farming and industrial economies. The National Recovery Administration, or NRA, was designed to eliminate competition among businesses. It set codes for the South which included lower wage schedules than for the North -- Blacks were very understandably not enthusiastic. Overall, the New Deal eventually developed into the tendencies that had victimized Blacks before. The groups with the most power benefited most, and in the nature of things, Blacks were left behind or excluded.
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