Robert Clifton Weaver: “The New Deal and the Negro: A Look at the Facts”

Audience

Weaver’s essay was published in the July 1935 issue of Opportunity, the journal of the National Urban League. The magazine was one of several mainstream publications targeting black readers, but white liberals interested in fighting discrimination also read it. Opportunity and the other journals, including The Crisis, had published a number of articles critical of President Roosevelt’s New Deal programs. Weaver wrote his essay in part to counter these negative portrayals of the administration’s policies.

Weaver’s audience was educated, politically progressive, and reform minded. The fact-driven nature of his essay reflects his understanding of this audience; Weaver assumed that readers of Opportunity would want to see detailed evidence supporting his assertions that government programs were, in fact, helping to alleviate the problems facing black Americans. He also acknowledges that an “intelligent appraisal” of these programs would improve their implementation in many respects. This type of measured assessment, which draws on evidence rather than emotional appeal, would have appealed to the journal’s readers.