Was the New Deal a Success or Failure?

President Roosevelt is best known for leading the country through the Great Depression. The New Deal was a set of policies designed to provide “relief, recovery, and reform” that would alleviate the suffering of millions of Americans.

You will work in debate teams to discuss whether or not the New Deal was a success. Your goals for today should include looking at all the issues, seeing both sides, using documents for evidence, and finding common ground.
DEBATE QUESTION
During the Debate, you and your group will try to answer the following question:
Was the New Deal a Success or Failure? 
Team A will argue: YES, the New Deal was a success.
Team B will argue: NO, the New Deal was a failure. 

Document A: Fireside Chat (Modified)
President Roosevelt gave this speech over the radio on May 7, 1933, two months after he became president. He called these radio addresses “fireside chats,” and this was his second one as president.
___________________________________________________

Tonight, I come for the second time to tell you about what we have been doing and what we are planning to do. . . .
First, we are giving opportunity of employment to one-quarter of a million of the unemployed, especially the young men, to go into forestry and flood prevention work. . . .
Next, the Congress is about to pass legislation that will greatly ease the mortgage distress among the farmers and the home owners of the nation, by easing the burden of debt now bearing so heavily upon millions of our people. . . .
I know that the people of this country will understand this and will also understand the spirit in which we are undertaking this policy. . . .
All of us, the Members of the Congress and the members of this Administration owe you, the people of this country, a profound debt of gratitude.
Source: President Roosevelt’s “Fireside Chat,” May 7, 1933.

Vocabulary
legislation: laws
mortgage distress: many farmers and homeowners were unable to pay off the loans on their houses and so their property was taken away

gratitude: thanks

Document B: African Americans and the New Deal (Original)

Until the New Deal, blacks had shown their traditional loyalty to the party of Abraham Lincoln by voting overwhelmingly Republican. By the end of Roosevelt's first administration, however, one of the most dramatic voter shifts in American history had occurred. In 1936, some 75 percent of black voters supported the Democrats. Blacks turned to Roosevelt, in part, because his spending programs gave them a measure of relief from the Depression and, in part, because the GOP had done little to repay their earlier support.

Still, Roosevelt's record on civil rights was modest at best. Instead of using New Deal programs to promote civil rights, the administration consistently bowed to discrimination. In order to pass major New Deal legislation, Roosevelt needed the support of southern Democrats. Time and time again, he backed away from equal rights to avoid antagonizing southern whites; although, his wife, Eleanor, did take a public stand in support of civil rights.

Most New Deal programs discriminated against blacks. The NRA, for example, not only offered whites the first crack at jobs, but authorized separate and lower pay scales for blacks. The Federal Housing Authority (FHA) refused to guarantee mortgages for blacks who tried to buy in white neighborhoods, and the CCC maintained segregated camps. Furthermore, the Social Security Act excluded those job categories blacks traditionally filled.

The story in agriculture was particularly grim. Since 40 percent of all black workers made their living as sharecroppers and tenant farmers, the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) acreage reduction hit blacks hard. White landlords could make more money by leaving land untilled than by putting land back into production. As a result, the AAA's policies forced more than 100,000 blacks off the land in 1933 and 1934. Even more galling to black leaders, the president failed to support an anti-lynching bill and a bill to abolish the poll tax. Roosevelt feared that conservative southern Democrats, who had seniority in Congress and controlled many committee chairmanships, would block his bills if he tried to fight them on the race question.

Yet, the New Deal did record a few gains in civil rights. Roosevelt named Mary McLeod Bethune, a black educator, to the advisory committee of the National Youth Administration (NYA). Thanks to her efforts, blacks received a fair share of NYA funds. The WPA was colorblind, and blacks in northern cities benefited from its work relief programs. Harold Ickes, a strong supporter of civil rights who had several blacks on his staff, poured federal funds into black schools and hospitals in the South. Most blacks appointed to New Deal posts, however, served in token positions as advisors on black affairs. At best, they achieved a new visibility in government.

Source: This excerpt is from the Digital History online textbook.

Vocabulary
mortgage: a loan to buy a house grim: worrisome, severe

galling: irritating

Document C: Interview with Cotton Mill Worker

George Dobbin was a 67-year-old cotton mill worker when he was interviewed for the book These Are Our Lives, a book put together by the Federal Writers’ Project in 1939.

I do think that Roosevelt is the biggest-hearted man we ever had in the White House. . . . It’s the first time in my recollection that a President ever got up and said, “I’m interested in and aim to do somethin’ for the workin’ man.” Just knowin’ that for once there was a man to stand up and speak for him, a man that could make what he felt so plain nobody could doubt he meant it, has made a lot of us feel a lot better even when there wasn’t much to eat in our homes.

Source: George Dobbin in These Are Our Lives, Federal Writers’ Project, 1939.

Vocabulary

recollection: memory

Document D: Hot Lunches for a Million School Children (Modified)
One million undernourished children have benefited by the Works Progress Administration's school lunch program. In the past year and a half 80,000,000 hot well-balanced meals have been served at the rate of 500,000 daily in 10,000 schools throughout the country. . . .
For many children, who are required to leave home early in the morning and travel long distances after school hours to reach their homes, the WPA lunch constitutes the only hot meal of the day. . . .
Through the daily service of warm, nourishing food, prepared by qualified, needy women workers, the WPA is making it possible for many underprivileged children of the present to grow into useful, healthy citizens of the future.

Source: Speech by Ellen S. Woodward, Assistant Administrator, Works Progress Administration. 

Vocabulary
constitutes: equals

Document E: Unemployment Statistics

Source: Gene Smiley, "Recent Unemployment Rate Estimates for the 1920s and 1930s," Journal of Economic History, June 1983.

Document F: Song

“No Depression in Heaven”

Out here the hearts of men are failing For these are latter days we know
The Great Depression now is spreading God's words declared it would be so
I'm going where there's no depression To the lovely land that's free from care I'll leave this world of toil and trouble My home's in heaven, I'm going there
In that bright land there'll be no hunger No orphan children crying for bread No weeping widows toil or struggle
No shrouds, no coffins, and no dead
I'm going where there's no depression To the lovely land that's free from care I'll leave this world of toil and trouble My home's in heaven, I'm going there
Source: The Carter Family, “No Depression in Heaven,” 1936.

Vocabulary
toil: hard and exhausting work

shroud: a cloth used to cover a corpse

Document G: Whither the American Indian? (Modified)
Roosevelt appointed John Collier, a leading social reformer, as Commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1933. Collier pushed Congress to create the Indian Emergency Conservation Program (IECP), a program that employed more than 85,000 Indians. Collier also made sure that the PWA, WPA, CCC, and NYA hired Native Americans.

In 1934 Collier convinced Congress to pass the Indian Reorganization Act, which provided money for tribes to purchase new land. That same year, the government provided federal grants to local school districts, hospitals, and social welfare agencies to assist Native Americans.
______________________________________________

Congress is authorized to appropriate $10 million from which loans may be made for the purpose of promoting the economic development of the tribes. ...
About seventy-five of the tribal corporations are now functioning, with varying degrees of success, and the number continues to grow. The Jicarillas have bought their trading post and are running it; the Chippewas run a tourist camp; the Northern Cheyennes have a very successful livestock cooperative: the Swinomish of Washington have a tribal fishing business. There are plenty of others to prove these corporations can be made to work. . . .
The truth is that the New Deal Indian administration is neither as successful as its publicity says it is, nor as black and vicious a failure as the severest critics would have us believe. Many Indian problems remain unsolved, but every one has been addressed.
Source: Alden Stevens, “Whither the American Indian?” Survey Magazine of Social Interpretation, March 1, 1940.

Vocabulary

appropriate: give 

Social Security

Document A: FDR (Modified)

President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave this speech on August 14, 1935 when he signed the Social Security Act.

Today a long-held hope is largely fulfilled. The civilization of the past 100 years, with its startling industrial changes, has made life insecure. Young people have come to wonder what would happen to them in old age. The man with a job has wondered how long the job would last.

This social security measure gives some protection to 30 million of our citizens who will receive direct benefits through unemployment compensation, through old-age pensions, and through increased services for the protection of children and the prevention of ill health.

We can never insure 100 percent of the population against 100 percent of the ups and downs of life, but we have tried to pass a law which will give some protection to the average citizen and to his family against the loss of a job and against poverty-ridden old age.

This law, too, represents a cornerstone in a structure intended to lessen the force of possible future depressions. It will act as a protection to future Administrations against the necessity of going deeply into debt to help the needy. It is, in short, a law that will take care of human needs and at the same time provide the United States a sound economic structure.

Vocabulary

Pension: a regular payment made to someone in retirement from a fund that they or their employer has contributed to throughout their working life

Cornerstone: a stone that lies at the foundation of a building

Source: August 14, 1935, excerpt from President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s speech, Washington, D.C.

Document A: FDR

1. Sourcing Who gave this speech and when? Who is the intended audience? How might that influence the content and tone of the speech?

2. Close Reading What four programs are included in the Social Security bill? How does

Social Security represent FDR’s program of “relief, recovery, and reform”? For each of the three words, write one quote or example that illustrates connections.

Document B: NAACP (Modified)

President Roosevelt sent his Social Security bill, named the “Economic Security Act,” to Congress in January 1935. Congress held committee hearings on the bill. Here, a representative of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), a group dedicated to advancing the rights of African Americans, testified before Congress about how the bill excluded certain groups of people.

Mr. Houston: The point that I am making is that in order for a person to qualify for Social Security, taxes must be paid on behalf of this person before he turns 60.

Now, for the benefit of Negroes, I want to ask, who would be left out by that rule?

First, and very serious, Negro sharecroppers and cash tenants would be left out. We all know that the Negro sharecropper and the Negro cash farm tenant are at the bottom of the economic scale. He is not employed.

There is no relation of master and servant by which he gets wages on which a tax could be collected. Therefore this population is left out from the old-age annuity, and that represents approximately 490,000 Negroes.  Next, domestic servants are excluded from the act because the system of employing domestic servants is so loose.

In addition to that, this old-age annuity does not provide for unemployed persons. I do not need to argue to the committee that Negroes have suffered from unemployment more than any other class of the community.

Vocabulary

Annuity: fixed amount of money paid to someone each year

Source: Excerpt from the testimony of Charles H. Houston, representing the NAACP, to the House Ways and Means Committee on the Economic Security bill, February 1, 1935. Washington, D.C.

Document B: NAACP

1. Close Reading What four groups does Houston say are excluded from Social Security?

2. Corroborating What would NAACP representative Houston say about FDR’s speech

(Document A)? Select a line from Document A: FDR and explain how Houston might disagree.

Document C: Stealing (Modified)

Americans sent thousands of letters to the White House during FDR’s presidency and many were addressed to Eleanor Roosevelt, the First

Lady. On average, more than 5,000 letters arrived daily. This letter refers to the “forgotten man,” the title of a radio address that FDR gave on April 17, 1932. The “forgotten man” became a phrase adopted by many

Americans.

no address

Jan 18, 1937

Dear Mrs. Roosevelt,

I was simply astounded to think that anyone could be nitwit enough to wish to be included in the so-called social security act if they could possibly avoid it. Call it by any name you wish, but it is, in my opinion (and that of many people I know), nothing but downright stealing.

Personally, I had my savings invested so that I would have enough money for old age. Now thanks to the President, I cannot be sure of anything, being a stockholder. After business has survived his merciless attacks (if it does), insurance will probably be no good either.

Believe me, the only thing we want from the president is for him to balance the budget and reduce taxes.

I am not an “economic royalist,” just an ordinary white-collar worker at $1600 per year. Please show this to the president and ask him to remember the wishes of the forgotten man, that is, the one who dared to vote against him. We expect to be tramped on but we do wish the stepping would be a little less hard.

Security at the price of freedom is never desired by intelligent people.

M.A. [female]

Source: Excerpt from a letter sent to Eleanor Roosevelt by an anonymous woman, January 18, 1937.

Document C: Stealing

1. Sourcing What does the author tell us about herself? What kind of person do you think she is based on the information in this letter?

2. Close Reading What was M.A. counting on to support her in old age? And why has she lost faith that this will support her?

3. Contextualizing How does this author generally feel about the New Deal? How does her phrase “security at the price of freedom” capture those feelings?

Using information from all three documents, write one paragraph in response to the following question: Which historical account of Social Security is more accurate, Degler’s or Bernstein’s?

Mexican Labor in 1920s

DOCUMENT A

Paul Taylor writes: The interviews took place at one of the railroad labor camps

of a type frequently seen in and near Chicago. The camp consists of old box cars

taken from their tracks. Additions have in some cases been built to provide extra

rooms, covered porches, or open floors. There are gardens, chickens, and even

pigs, with the usual cats and dogs. The first man I spoke to had a box car with

the addition of a covered porch and a screen for flies. His wife was sick but the

rest of the family was well.

I left Mexico in 1919, when there was good work in Texas. My first job

was digging ditches. The good work lasted about a year and a half.

Then I was laid off. So were many, many Mexicans. Some of them

had worked there a long time but they kept the Americans. It made

some of us mad but what could we do? Nothing.

I went North to Detroit in hope things would be better. Then to

Pittsburgh. But they were worse. In 1923, I came to Chicago and

worked for the steel mills. I like the work there. It pays well. It is very

hot and heavy but I could stand that. Then I was laid off. I did not

work for three months and I was desperate. Finally I landed here. I

have been here four years.

The track work does not pay so well but it is steady. Out here we get

our coal and water free. That makes it very nice in the winter. In the

summer we have ice and that is a great luxury. We have no rent bill

to pay and that makes it very much better than in town. There is

always plenty of fresh air and sunshine and the children like it here

because they can play in the open country.

We get La Prensa here and when I finish reading it I pass it to

someone else. One man gets a paper from Los Angeles in California.

That is a pretty place and I have often heard so much about it. There

are many Mexicans there and we hear from them very often. Many of

the people around here would like to go there. They say the people

down there are so very happy and it is not cold like it is here.

Source: Between 1927-1930, sociologist Paul Taylor conducted interviews with

Mexican immigrants living in Chicago. The interview above was probably

conducted in 1928.

DOCUMENT B: “Corrido Pensilvanio”’

Source: A corrido is a Mexican narrative song or ballad that is passed around in

the oral tradition. The corrido highlights important social, political and cultural

issues that affect Mexican and Mexican American communities.

DOCUMENT C: Lynching

In September 1911, four hundred Mexican activists assembled in

Laredo, Texas. The delegates denounced the brutal oppression of

their people that had continued unchecked since the signing of the

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848). It was agreed to establish a new

civil rights organization with the purpose of protecting its members

against white injustice. La Grán Liga Mexicanista de Benefiencia y

Protección intended to attract the support of wealthy philanthropists

and the liberal press in order "to strike back at the hatred of some

bad sons of Uncle Sam who believe themselves better than the

Mexicans because of the magic that surrounds the word white".

In 1929, Mexicans founded another defense agency, the League

of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). LULAC organizers

experienced difficulty mobilizing Mexican Americans, especially in

small towns and remote rural areas. The only way to prevent further

lynchings was for Mexicans to rally in protest. Yet it was the very fear

of mob violence that frightened [many] into silence.

Source: “The Lynching of Persons of Mexican Origin or Descent in the United

States, 1848 To 1928,” William D. Carrigan. Journal of Social History, 2003.

Scopes Trial

In 1925, Tennessee passed the following law, called the Butler Act:
It shall be unlawful for any teacher . . . to teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals.
The Butler Act made it illegal to teach from textbooks like the one below. 

Textbook – A Civic Biology, 1925
The Doctrine of Evolution.
We have now learned that animals may begin with very simple one-celled forms and end with a group which contains man himself. The great English scientist Charles Darwin explained the theory of evolution. This is the belief that simple forms of life on the earth slowly gave rise to more complex forms.
Man’s Place in Nature.
We see that man must be placed with the vertebrate animals because of his vertebral column. We place man with the apelike mammals because of structural likeness. The group of mammals which includes the monkeys, apes, and man we call the primates.
Evolution of Man.
There once lived races of men who were much lower in their mental organization than present people. If we follow the early history of man, we find that at first he must have been little better than one of the lower animals. Gradually he must have learned to use weapons and kill his prey, first using rough stones for this purpose. Man then began to farm the fields, and to have permanent houses. Civilization began long ago, but even today the earth is not entirely civilized.
Source: Excerpt from widely-used biology textbook, A Civic Biology, written in 1914 by George W. Hunter, a biology teacher from New York City.

Questions:
1. (Close reading) How does this textbook explain where man came from?

2. (Contextualization) Why might people in Tennessee in 1925 have wanted to outlaw this textbook?

Document A: Sparks Letter to the Editor (Modified)
Dear Editor:
When the bill against the teaching of evolution in public schools was passed, I could not see why more mothers were not thanking the lawmakers. They were protecting our children from one of the destructive forces which will destroy our civilization. I for one was grateful that they stood up for what was right. And grateful, too, that we have a Christian man for governor who will defend the Word of God against this so-called science.
The Bible tells us that the gates of Hell shall not win against the church. We know there will always be those who set an example for the cross of Christ. But in these times of materialism I thank God deep down in my heart for everyone whose voice is raised for humanity and the coming of God’s kingdom.
Mrs. Jesse Sparks Pope, Tennessee

Source: Mrs. Jesse Sparks, letter to the editor, Nashville Tennessean, July 3, 1925. Mrs. Sparks was one of many citizens who wrote letters to Tennessee’s newspapers in response to the Butler Act.

1. (Sourcing) Who is Mrs. Sparks and why does she care about what is taught in schools?
2. (Contextualizing) What is Mrs. Sparks referring to when she says “these times of materialism”?
3. (Close Reading) Find all of the words that suggest the presence of a great danger. Why might Mrs. Sparks believe that evolution is such a threat?

Document B: Malone’s Trial Speech (Modified)
The least that this generation can do, your Honor, is to give the next generation all the facts and theories that observation and learning have produced—give it to the children in the hope of heaven that they will make a better world than we have. We have just had a war with 20 million dead. Civilization is not so proud of the work of the adults.
For God’s sake let the children have their minds kept open—close no doors to their knowledge. Make the distinction between religion and science. Let them have both. Let them both be taught. Let them both live.
We feel we stand with progress. We feel we stand with science. We feel we stand with intelligence. We feel we stand with freedom in America. We are not afraid. Where is the fear? We meet it! Where is the fear? We defy it!
(Loud applause. Bailiff raps for order)

Source: Excerpt from Dudley Field Malone’s speech on the fourth day of the Scopes trial, July 15, 1925. Dayton, Tennessee. Dudley Field Malone was a New York attorney who was on the defense team, defending John Scopes. He argued for the importance of teaching science.

Document B: Malone’s Trial Speech
1. (Sourcing) The audience in the courthouse mostly supported Bryan and the Butler Act. Why do you think they applauded Malone’s speech?
2. (Close Reading) Why does Malone think science is so important?
3. (Contextualizing) What is Malone referring to when he says “civilization is not so proud of the work of the adults”? 

Document C: Reverend Straton Article (Modified)
The real issue at Dayton and everywhere today is this: “Whether the religion of the Bible shall be ruled out of the schools, while the religion of evolution, with its harmful results, shall be ruled into the schools by law.”
John Scopes’s lawyers left New York and Chicago, where real religion is ignored, where crime is most widespread, and they came to Tennessee to save a community where women are still honored, where men are still polite, where laws are still respected, where home life is still sweet, where the marriage vow is still sacred. Think of the nerve of it! and the enormous vanity of it!

Source: Excerpt from Reverend John Roach Straton’s article in American Fundamentalist, “The Most Sinister Movement in the United States.” December 26, 1925. John Roach Straton was a minister who preached across the country against the sins of modern life. He was firmly opposed to the teaching of evolution.

Document C: Reverend Straton Article
1. (Close reading) What words does Straton use to show that he likes small towns?
2. (Contextualizing) According to Straton, what are signs of corruption in New York and Chicago?

Document D: New York Times Article (Modified)
Cranks and Freaks Flock to Dayton:
Strange Theories are Preached and Sung
Visitors to Scopes Trial are Mostly Tennessean Mountaineers.
Tennessee came to Dayton today in overalls to attend the trial of John Scopes for the teaching of evolution. The Tennesseans came from mountain farms near Dayton, where work, usually begun at day light, had been deserted so that gaunt, tanned, toil-worn men and women and shy children might see William Jennings Bryan’s “duel to the death” with “enemies of the Bible.”

They stood in groups under the trees, listening to evangelists, moved by the occasion to speak for the “Word.” They listened to blind minstrels, who sang mountain hymns and promises of reward for the faithful, and to a string quartet of negroes. They walked up and down hot, dusty Market Street, with its buildings hung with banners, and lined with soda-water, sandwich, and book stalls, as for a carnival. Religion and business had become strangely mixed.

Vocabulary
Cranks: oddballs

minstrels: white entertainers who wore black makeup and performed in variety shows

Source: Excerpt from a front page New York Times article, “Cranks and Freaks Flock to Dayton.” July 11, 1925. The New York Times editorials sided with the defense and criticized Dayton’s small-town mentality. Dayton’s population in 1925 was 1,800. 

Document D: New York Times Article
1. (Sourcing) What was New York City like in the 1920s? Why might the New York Times look down on Dayton, Tennessee?

2. (Close Reading) How does the New York Times describe the local Tennesseans? What words can you find that show that the New York Times thinks of these people and events as bizarre and interesting?

Palmer Raids

Do now: What is communism? What is socialism? Why does the United States have a long history of opposition to socialist ideas?

 Document A: “The Case Against the "Reds" (Modified)

In 1917, Russia became a communist country. Also, right after WWI, the country experienced high inflation, high unemployment, and a number of labor strikes. Against this backdrop, the United States began arresting and deporting anyone suspected of “radical” thinking (e.g., communism, socialism, anarchism, pro- labor). These arrests became known as the “Palmer Raids” after the Attorney General of the United States, A. Mitchell Palmer.
Like a prairie-fire, the blaze of revolution was sweeping over every American institution a year ago. It was eating its way into the homes of the American workmen, its sharp tongues of revolutionary heat were licking the altars of the churches, leaping into schools, crawling into the sacred corners of American homes, burning up the foundations of society.
My information showed that thousands of aliens supported communism in this country.
The whole purpose of communism appears to be a mass organization of the criminals of the world to overthrow the decencies of private life, to usurp property that they have not earned, to disrupt the present order of life. Communism distorts our social law.
The Department of Justice will pursue the attack of these "Reds" upon the Government of the United States with vigilance, and no alien, advocating the overthrow of existing law and order in this country, shall escape arrest and prompt deportation.

Vocabulary
Aliens: Foreigners
Usurp: take over

Distort: Twist out of shape

Source: Excerpt from an essay written by A. Mitchell Palmer called "The Case Against the ‘Reds,'” 1920.

Guiding Questions Document A: “The Case Against the Reds”
1. (Sourcing) Read the sourcing information and the headnote.
Who wrote this document and what is his perspective?
What do you predict he will say in this document?
2. (Close reading) Read the document carefully.
According to Palmer, what is spreading like a fire? (Don’t just write ‘revolution!’ Explain what he’s referring to).
How does Palmer describe communism? Why does he think it’s dangerous?
What is he promising to do?
3. (Contextualization) Think about what’s happening at the time.

According to this document, who is Palmer going to arrest?

Document B: Emma Goldman Deportation Statement (Modified)
I wish to register my protest against these proceedings, whose very spirit is nothing less than a revival of the ancient days of the Spanish Inquisition or Czarist Russia (when anyone who disagreed with the government was deported or killed). Today so-called aliens are deported. Tomorrow American citizens will be banished. Already some “patriots” are suggesting that some native-born American citizens should be exiled.
The free expression of the hopes of a people is the greatest and only safety in a sane society. The object of the deportations and of the anti-anarchist law is to stifle the voice of the people, to muzzle every aspiration of labor. That is the real and terrible menace of these proceedings. Their goal is to exile and banish every one who does not agree with the lies that our leaders of industry continue to spread.
Emma Goldman

New York, October 27, 1919

Vocabulary
Banish= Exile= Deported= Kicked out of the country Aspiration: hope or ambition

Menace: danger, threat

Source: Excerpt from the statement Emma Goldman gave at her deportation hearings. Goldman was an anarchist and socialist who sympathized with the working poor. She was deported during the Palmer Raids.

Document B: Emma Goldman
1. (Sourcing) Read the sourcing information at the bottom.
Who wrote this document and what is her perspective?
What do you predict she will say in this document?
2. (Close reading) Read the document carefully.
According to Goldman, what is wrong with the Palmer Raids?
According to Goldman, what is the goal of the Palmer Raids?
3. (Contextualization) Think about what’s happening at the time.
According to this document, who did Palmer arrest?

(Corroboration) Use evidence from the two documents to answer the question:

Why did Palmer arrest thousands of people and deport hundreds between 1919- 1920? 

Marcus Garvey

Do Now: Read a passage on Marcus Garvey from the classroom textbook and answer the following questions:
a. Who was Marcus Garvey?
b. According to the textbook, what were the strengths of his movement? 
c. According to the textbook, what happened to Garvey and the UNIA? d. What questions do you have about Garvey and the UNIA? 

Marcus Garvey and the United Negro Improvement Association
*Note: this timeline focuses on Garvey and the UNIA during the years he was based in NYC. Garvey continued to be active after 1927, and the UNIA continued to exist after his death in 1940.

Guiding Questions


What does the Timeline add to the textbook account?
What new questions do you have after reading the timeline?  



Document A: Autobiography of Malcolm X

When my mother was pregnant with me, she told me later, a party of hoodedKu Klux Klan riders galloped up to our home in Omaha, Nebraska, one night. Surrounding the house...the Klansmen shouted
threats and warnings at her that we had better get out of town
because “the good Christian white people” were not going to stand for
my father’s “spreading trouble” among the “good” Negroes of Omaha
with the “back to Africa” preachings of Marcus Garvey.


My father, the Reverend Earl Little, was a Baptist minister, a
dedicated organizer for Marcus Aurelius Garvey’s U.N.I.A. (Universal
Negro Improvement Association). . . . Garvey, from his headquarters
in New York City’s Harlem, was raising the banner of black-race
purity and exhorting the Negro masses to return to their ancestral
African homeland—a cause which had made Garvey the most
controversial black man on earth. . .


[My father] believed, as did Marcus Garvey, that freedom,
independence and self-respect could never be achieved by the Negro
in America, and that therefore the Negro should leave America to the
white man and return to his African land of origin. . .


I remember seeing the big, shiny photographs of Marcus Garvey. . .
The pictures showed what seemed to me millions of Negroes
thronged in parade behind Garvey riding in a fine car, a big black
man dressed in a dazzling uniform with gold braid on it, and he was
wearing a thrilling hat with tall plumes. I remember hearing that he
had black followers not only in the United States but all around the
world, and I remember how the meetings always closed with my
father saying, several times, and the people chanting after him, “Up,
you mighty race, you can accomplish what you will!”





Vocabulary   

Exhorting: encouraging
Thronged: crowded






Source: Excerpt from The Autobiography of Malcolm X, 1964, pp. 1-6. Malcolm
X was a political activist who was a strong advocate for black rights. He initially
advocated for black separatism but later moderated his views. He was
assassinated in 1965.







Guiding Questions for Document A: Autobiography of Malcolm X

Sourcing 

1. What type of document is this? When was it written? 

2. What do you know about the author? Can you make any predictions about what he might say about Marcus Garvey?


Close reading
3. According to Malcolm X, why was Garvey “controversial?”  

4. Why did the pictures of Garvey make such an impression on Malcolm X?







Document B: Letter to U.S. Attorney-General (Modified)  



Harry M. Daugherty, U.S. Attorney-General Jan 15, 1923
Department of Justice, Washington, D. C.

Dear Sir:


(1) There are in our midst certain Negro criminals and potential murderers, both
foreign and American born, who are moved by intense hatred against the white
race. These undesirables continually to proclaim that all white people are
enemies to the Negro. They have become so fanatical that they have threatened
and attempted the death of their opponents, actually assassinating in one
instance.


(5) The U. N. I. A. is composed chiefly of the most primitive ignorant element of
West Indian and American Negroes. The so-called respectable element of the
movement are largely ministers without churches, physicians without patients,
lawyers without clients and publishers without readers, who are usually in search
of "easy money." In short, this organization is composed in the main of Negro
sharks and ignorant Negro fanatics.


(27) The Garvey organization, known as the U.N.I.A., is just as objectionable and
even more dangerous as the KKK, inasmuch as it naturally attracts an even
lower type of crooks, and racial bigots.


(29) The signers of this appeal have no personal ends or political interests to
serve. Nor are they moved by any personal bias against Marcus Garvey. They
sound this alarm only because they foresee the gathering storm of race prejudice
and sense the danger of this movement, which cancer-like, is eating away at the
core of peace and safety -- of civic harmony and interracial coexistence.




The signers of this letter are:


Robert S. Abbott, Chicago, editor and publisher of the "Chicago Defender."Dr. Julia P. Coleman, New York City, president of the Hair-Vim Chemical Co.
William Pickens, New York City, field secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Chandler Owen, New York City, co-editor of "The Messenger" and co-executive secretary of the Friends of Negro Freedom.

Robert W. Bagnall, New York City, director of branches of the National Association for the 

Advancement of Colored People.



Guiding Questions for Document B: Letter to U.S. Attorney-General  

Sourcing

1. Who wrote this letter and who was it sent to? What types of jobs did the authors
have?

2. When was this letter sent? Look at the timeline. Can you make any predictions
about what the letter might say?


Close Reading  

3. How does this document describe the UNIA? Provide a quote to support your
answer.  

4. Why do the authors think Garvey and the UNIA are dangerous?









Document C: Memo from J. Edgar Hoover (Modified)  

J. Edgar Hoover to Special Agent Ridgely
Washington, D.C., October 11, 1919


MEMORANDUM FOR MR. RIDGELY.


I am transmitting information that has come to my attention about the
activities of Marcus Garvey. Garvey is a West-Indian negro and in addition
to his activities in endeavoring to establish the Black Star Line Steamship
Corporation he has also been particularly active among the radical
elements in New York City in agitating the negro movement. Unfortunately,
however, he has not as yet violated any federal law whereby he could be
proceeded against on the grounds of being an undesirable alien, from the
point of view of deportation. It occurs to me, however, from the attached
clipping that there might be some proceeding against him for fraud in
connection with his Black Star Line propaganda and for this reason I am
transmitting the communication to you for your appropriate attention.


The following is a brief statement of Marcus Garvey and his activities:


* Subject a native of the West Indies and one of the most prominent
negro agitators in New York;


* He is a founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and
African Communities League;


* He is the promulgator of the Black Star Line and is the managing editor
of the Negro World;


* He is an exceptionally fine orator, creating much excitement among
the negroes through his steamship proposition;


* In his paper the "Negro World" the Soviet Russian Rule is upheld and
there is open support of socialism.


Respectfully,

J. E. Hoover, Bureau of Investigations (FBI)



Vocabulary


Agitating: arousing public concern and attention

Promulgator: promoter
Orator: public speaker







Guiding Questions for Document C: Memo from J. Edgar Hoover

Sourcing
1. What type of document is this? When was it written?  

2. What do you predict is the purpose of this document?


Close Reading

3. Why does Hoover think Garvey is dangerous? Provide a quote to support your
answer.  
4. What is “unfortunate,” according to Hoover?





Document D: Marcus Garvey’s Autobiography (Modified)


My downfall was planned by my enemies. They laid all kinds of traps for
me. They scattered their spies among the employees of the Black Star
Line and the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Our office records
were stolen. Employees started to be openly dishonest. . . . I had to
dismiss them. They joined my enemies, and thus I had an endless fight on
my hands to save the ideals of the UNIA and carry out our program for the
race. My negro enemies, finding that they alone could not destroy me,
resorted to misrepresenting me to the leaders of the white race, several of
whom, without proper investigation, also opposed me. . . .


My trial is a matter of history. I know I was not given a square deal,
because my indictment was the result of a "frame-up" among my political
and business enemies. . . .


The temporary ruin of the Black Star Line in no way affected the larger
work of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, which now has 900
branches with an approximate membership of 6,000,000. . . .


Being black, I have committed an unpardonable offense against the very
light colored negroes in America and the West Indies by making myself
famous as a negro leader of millions. In their view, no black man must rise
above them. . . .The Universal Negro Improvement Association has been
misrepresented by my enemies. They have tried to make it appear that we
are hostile to other races. This is absolutely false. We love all humanity. . .
 

We believe in the purity of both races. . . . It is cruel and dangerous to
promote social equality, as certain black leaders do. The belief that black
and white should get together would destroy the racial purity of both.


We believe that the black people should have a country of their own where
they should be given the fullest opportunity to develop politically, socially
and industrially.


Source: Excerpt from Marcus Garvey’s autobiography, written in September
1923.








Guiding Questions for Document D: Marcus Garvey’s Autobiography

Sourcing  1. What type of document is this? When was it written? What do you predict Garvey will
say in this document?


Close reading   

2. According to Garvey, what happened to the UNIA? Provide a quote to support your
answer.  

3. How does he explain why other African Americans turned against him?  

4. Why does he oppose the ideas of “certain black leaders?”


   


Using evidence from Documents A-D, write two paragraphs that answer the
following question:


  Why was Marcus Garvey a controversial figure?