Question

❖ Was the New Deal racist?

Answer 1

No, our view on race and the New Deal is neither disingenuous nor insulting. The truth is that the New Deal did some real harm but also quite a bit of good for African Americans, and it did so at a time when this country was profoundly racist and Jim Crow. We can debate the pros and cons, but writing it off as wholly racist is wrong – and goes against what every historian of the New Deal and African Americans says, even as they rightly criticize many of the New Deal’s programs.