The first look at a block vote!

We do not think there would be anything more interesting than a 2012 race between Barack Hussein Obama and Herman Cain. Because of this we decided to look back and see what we could determine about the Black Population as a voting block and why they vote democratic.


The following information comes from a book by Alvin S. Felzenberg titled “The leaders we deserved – (and a few we didn’t)”. Pages 294 – 299)


We find that President Woodrow Wilson and his Democratic administration “…set back the aspirations and hopes of African Americans by more than a generation.” 


Wilson a democrat also “…praised the Ku Klux Klan of the 1860s and 1870s for achieving through ‘intimidation’ what they could not obtain through the ballot box or the courts.”


Wilson “While president of Princeton University… discouraged African Americans from seeking admission, and none were admitted while he remained on the scene.”


Wilson replaced “black republicans” who had been named to “…federal posts with white Democrats.”


We are told he made “…brief attempts to appoint some African Democrats but ceased when the Democratic majority in the Senate balked at confirming them.” It should be noted that Wilson had a Democratic majority in both the House and Senate for his 1st term and the first 2 years of his second term.


“By the middle of Wilson’s first term, the Civil Service began requiring that applicants for federal positions supply a photograph with their applications.”


During the Wilson administration lynchings “…would average between fifty and ninety each year Wilson served as president…” 


In a meeting with black leaders, “Wilson proclaimed segregation beneficial to their race.”


After the “East St. Louis riots”, Republican Representative Leonidis Dyer of Missouri introduced a bill “…to make lynching a federal crime. Wilson showed no interest in the Dyer bill, and it stalled in the Democratic Congress.”


During Wilson’s administration, “When rioters, some affiliated with the International Workers of the world (IWW), mounted sustained assaults against blacks throughout the Midwest the following year, Wilson ignored calls by black leaders, local officials, and voices within his own Justice Department to maintain order and protect black victims.”

We find on page 6 of Burton W. Folsom. Jr.’s book “New Deal or Raw Deal?” in a comparison of life expectancy, “The halt in improved life expectancy hit blacks even harder than whites. In 1933, black Americans could expect to live only 54.7 years, but in 1940 that had dropped to 53.1 years. Both before and after the Great Depression, the gap in life expectancy between blacks and whites had narrowed, but from 1933 to 1940 it actually widened. Strong indications are that blacks suffered more than whites during Roosevelt’s first term as president." The source of this information was given as Historical Statistics, I 55.

The following comes from pages 184 and 185 of Mr. Folsom’s book.


We find out that “Black Americans, who had been loyal republicans since the Civil War era, began to be enticed by federal largesse.”


Roosevelt lost the black vote by a “…three-to-one margin” in 1932. 


Then came Roosevelt’s alphabet of administrations such as “… FERA, (Federal Emergency Relief Administration) the WPA, (Works Progress Administration) the CCC, (Commodity Credit Corporation) and especially the PWA, (Public Works Administration) which targeted large building projects in black communities throughout America.” 


An extensive account of what the Roosevelt administration did for the black community can be found on page 185 of Folsom’s book. However we have to remember that Roosevelt was pumping money into every state in the Union.


In the book “The Great Depression – America, 1929 –1941" by Robert S. McElvaine Page 188, we find that Roosevelt “…went along with out complaint when President Wilson ordered the institution of a complete Jim Crow system in the Navy.” 


On page 189 we find that “Thus the legislation of the First Hundred days concentrated on the immediate economic crisis, leaving the specific concerns of blacks unaddressed.” 


It would seem that this within itself is what the Constitution would require, but any legislation passed should treat everyone the same. We find that this does not happen with the so-called alphabet legislation passed, by Roosevelt and the Democratic controlled Congress. For instance the NRA (National Recovery Administration) effect on blacks is described as being “…symptomatic of the impact of the early New Deal on that segment of the population.” As stated “Black newspapers had their own versions of what NRA stood for, including ‘Negro Run Around’ and Negroes Rarely Allowed.’”


McElvaine tells us that “A 1934 investigation estimated the average annual income of black cotton farmers of all types at under $200.” And points out “The AAA was not the cause of such deplorable conditions, but it continued them without improvement and in come cases made the problems worse.”


We find that, “Relief payments to blacks in Atlanta averaged $19.29 per month, while white relief clients in the same city received $32.66….”


Because of Roosevelt’s extensive use of the tax payers money in the midterm elections in 1934, Alf Landon noted that “The New Dealers [Roosevelt] … were using ‘relief rolls as modern reservations on which the great colored race is to be confined forever as a ward of the Federal Government.’”


On page 206 Folsom ask the question  “Why, for example, did he [Roosevelt] refuse to endorse the antilynching bills that were filibustered by southern Democrats in the Senate in 1937 and 1939?”


On page 109 we find that “In the Hoover years, lynching had actually dropped, but they still happened to blacks at a rate of almost one per month. In Roosevelt’s first term, lynching of black Americans shot back up over 40 percent to almost 1.4 per month.”


You can contact us at e-mail wetrack@windstream.net


Have a nice day.