To Ask for an Equal Chance

August 1, 2009
When the Great Depression collapsed the U.S. economy in 1929, Americas black population had already been living with harsh economic conditions, discrimination, and gross exploitation. They had few job opportunities, low pay, and grim prospects. But even those jobs were lost to desperate whites when unemployment among whites stood at 17 percent in 1930; among blacks, the number was 38 percent and as high as 50 or 75 percent in urban areas. Greenberg explores the social and economic forces that arose to help ameliorate the bleakness of the Depression, from black improvement associations to union efforts by socialists and A. Philip Randolphs Brotherhood of the Sleeping Car Porters. She examines the relief programsfrom the Civilian Conservation Corps to the Federal Housing Administrationthat, despite prohibitions against discrimination, practiced racism. Still, improvements offered by the New Deal, including the WPA, helped to slowly advance the cause of racial justice. This well-researched, insightful book includes photographs that enhance a sense of the times and the growing activism that eventually led to the civil rights movement.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)