Why African American Women Joined the Communist Party

During the 1930s, the New Deal’s efforts to drive economic recovery had a dirty not-so-secret. To get the support and votes of southern whites in Congress, President Franklin Roosevelt had to water down relief efforts for African Americans. Even with programs that attempted to be race-blind, the South’s white administrators did their best to deny federal assistance to African Americans. Discrimination and segregation were still the name of the game, even in economic collapse.  Read more.