“We Work Again”: African Americans and the Works Progress ...



“We Work Again”: African Americans and the Works Progress Administration, c. 1938

Duration: 5:31. Sound. Black & White.

Description and Context:

With New Deal programs like the WPA, the Democratic party, for the first time, cultivated a loyal African American constituency in northern, urban areas. This film, produced by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) during the Great Depression, highlights how the New Deal helped unemployed African Americans. This clip also highlights how African Americans benefited from the New Deal and the reality of racial discrimination that existed in the 1930s.

Questions to Consider:

How does this clip deal with racism and discrimination?

What does it suggest about how Democrats maintained a political coalition that joined African Americans with white supremacist Southerners?

Transcript:

00:00:01

Only a few years ago we were a discouraged people. Because we were the first to lose our jobs when old man Depression came along and the last to get them back, we struggled vainly to regain our bearings while depression, fear and failure stalked the nation.

00:00:30

A tenth of the population of the United States, we bond as a race over a sixth of the unemployed. One out of every four of us was on relief.

In vain, we sought for something to restore our confidence, our hope, our courage. Without jobs we had no money. Without money we could not purchase food for the ____________ at home.

Our only hope lay in charity. Hunger drove our people to the breadlines. Anxiously we waited, waited for some sign of better days. Then came the federal government’s work program.

00:00:59

One by one it took us out of the breadline. It gave us a new chance to take a normal place in the life of our community.

It made us self-supporting. It changed the haggard, hopeless faces of the breadlines into faces filled with hope and happiness. For now, we work again.

00:01:36

Unskilled laborers, the forgotten men of past generations, now work steadily at decent wages. The nation over, they’re building and repairing schools, public buildings, community centers and airports to meet the changing needs of our modern world.

In one project at the nation’s capitol, 1200 men are employed in improving Bolling Field. Grading, constructing runways, building hangars in the administration building.

00:02:01

In addition to the hundreds of unskilled laborers who were removed from relief rolls, many skilled workers are employed in this employment improvement project.

Hundreds of homes have been freed from the bondage of poverty as their breadwinners find security and hope in their new jobs

00:02:31

In New York City, a WPA housing demolition project is underway which will greatly improve the living conditions of families of moderate means.

In many other cities of the country, old tenements and firetraps are being torn down to make way for modern buildings containing comfortable, sanitary apartments.

00:02:56

At Colonial Park in Harlem, as in many other congested areas, WPA workers have constructed a huge swimming pool and are now completing a bathhouse which will accommodate 4100 persons.

In this construction project, skilled workers are employed utilizing the knowledge of their trades gained in the days before Depression.

Swimming pools are particularly valuable to the community because they offer a haven of relaxation to young and old during the hot summer months.

00:03:30

Crowded city streets, providing every safeguard to prevent such tragedies as were all too common to the old swimming hole.

- Typical of the park improvement projects underway all over the country and another feature of the improvement program at Colonial Park.

A wading pool has been built by WPA workers in which the youngsters may splash to their hearts’ content.

00:03:58

New additions to the playground area have been made possible by the grading and improvement of parts of the part which were formerly merely decorative. Even the youngest children find plenty of opportunities for play under watchful supervision.

In many parts of the country, nursery schools have been established where almost 10,000 children of our needy families are provided with hot meals, supervised play activities, and excellent preschool training under competent instructors removed from relief rolls.

00:04:29

In these projects employment has been provided for 600 teachers, nurses, dieticians and cooks.

At the other extreme of age, more than 300,000 adults have learned to read and write for the first time in their lives. Eagerly they study, realizing how very much a little knowledge can mean in our modern workaday life.

00:05:00

Teachers drawn from relief rolls instruct them in useful subjects such as arithmetic and foreign languages. In Harlem where a large part of the population is from Puerto Rico and Central and South America, a knowledge of Spanish is valuable to workers, shopkeepers and others. In this class, elementary instruction in the spoken language is given by native teachers.

00:05:30

In cooperation with the National Youth Administration, 26,500 young men and women are employed as instructors, laboratory assistants, and clerical helpers. Thus, they are enabled to continue their education.

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