These jobs included domestic help, elevator operators, street cleaners, garbage collectors, waiters, and bellhops. With unemployment escalating, jobs previously considered "Negro occupations" suddenly became attractive to the larger population. By 1932 black Americans had a 50 percent unemployment rate compared to 25 percent in the U.S. The slogan "Last Hired, First Fired" became well known. Those employed were often the first to be laid off when company fortunes fell. Given this longstanding social atmosphere, black Americans naturally suffered greatly when the economy declined in 1929. Many people outwardly expressed such feelings in public with few reservations. Racism in the 1920s invaded every aspect of life in the United States. The New Deal was a period of great economic suffering, small political gains, and lost social opportunities. But significant advances in racial equality would not come until the civil rights movement pressed for changes in the 1950s and 1960s. World War II (1939–1945) finally brought economic relief to black Americans. Roosevelt's support did not come without controversy and loss of political support for the New Deal programs, particularly among Southern Democrats. Shortly after the elections, a Black Cabinet, composed of black American government employees, was formed to advise the president. The majority of black voters voted for Roosevelt, bringing to an end a 75-year period of black allegiance to Republican candidates. Consequences of these changes appeared in the 1936 presidential election. In addition, significant amounts of relief were targeted for black Americans. The Roosevelt administration ended racial discrimination in some federal programs in 1935. With First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt personally taking up the cause of racial equality, initial steps were directed toward racial harmony by the mid-1930s. These activities included exclusion of blacks from union membership, lobbying Congress to keep anti-discrimination clauses out of New Deal laws, and striking against companies that employed blacks in jobs desired by whites. Labor unions, including the American Federal of Labor (AFL), actively pursued discriminatory practices. Racial discrimination was seen in federal housing, social security, and youth programs. As a result, black Americans suffered more than any other group during the Great Depression. To make matters worse, violence rose against blacks during the 1930s, carried out by whites competing for the same jobs. Roosevelt's programs a "raw deal" instead of a "new deal." Some charities refused to provide needy black persons food, particularly in the South. In deep frustration many blacks called President Franklin D. Individuals were even threatened at relief centers when applying for work. Often they were denied public works employment supposedly available to all needy citizens. Black workers were normally the first to lose jobs at a business or on a farm. Nonetheless, the Great Depression made things worse. After all, Southern slavery had ended only a few generations earlier. Hard times were nothing new for black Americans. These words were spoken by a black minister to his congregation shortly before the 1936 presidential election. "Let Jesus lead you and Roosevelt feed you" (quoted in Robert S.
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