John P. Davis: “A Black Inventory of the New Deal”

Impact

Davis’s critique of Roosevelt’s New Deal programs gained him increased recognition as a black activist and leader. It also positioned him at odds with the more conservative African American figures who sought to work within the Roosevelt administration to effect change, such as Robert C. Weaver. Davis and Bunche, along with A. Philip Randolph, head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters union, formed the National Negro Congress based on the vision Davis outlined in his essay. The congress hoped to forge a union that crossed boundaries of class and partisanship. Its increasingly leftist bent alienated many of its more moderate members, and cold war politics led to its demise in 1947.

Davis’s position outside the political mainstream translated into his having little direct impact on the electoral landscape in his time. Despite the very real deficiencies of Roosevelt’s policies, African American voters overwhelmingly supported the president in the 1936 election. In 1932 a majority of blacks had voted for the Republican candidate, Herbert Hoover, but four years later the Democratic Party could claim the allegiance of most black voters. Despite the racial inequities of the New Deal, African Americans saw in Roosevelt a president who cared about them.

It is with historical hindsight that Davis’s essay has become important for a wider American audience. This document catalogs what are now well-established negative effects of New Deal programs on the African American community, effects that were minimized by many in the government and the public in 1935. One of the lasting impacts of this essay is its reminder to modern audiences that even the most well intentioned of public policies can sometimes have negative consequences for some citizens.