{"id":2039,"date":"2021-11-10T14:32:41","date_gmt":"2021-11-10T14:32:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=2039"},"modified":"2022-08-21T00:00:07","modified_gmt":"2022-08-21T00:00:07","slug":"the-new-deal-in-the-south","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/chapter\/the-new-deal-in-the-south\/","title":{"raw":"The New Deal in the South","rendered":"The New Deal in the South"},"content":{"raw":"<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\r\n<h3>Learning Outcomes<\/h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Examine the unique impact of the New Deal in the South<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"fs-idp18381008\" data-depth=\"1\"><section id=\"fs-idm18197536\" data-depth=\"2\">\r\n<h2>Poverty in the South<\/h2>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idm49557776\"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem; text-align: initial;\">The impact of initial New Deal legislation was readily apparent in the South, a region of perpetual poverty especially plagued by the Depression. In 1929 the average per capita income in the American Southeast was $365, the lowest in the nation. Southern farmers averaged $183 per year, while farmers on the West Coast made more than four times that.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 1rem; text-align: initial;\">Moreover, they were trapped in <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 1rem; text-align: initial;\">the cycle of producing cotton and corn\u2014<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 1rem; text-align: initial;\">crops that depleted the soil and returned ever-diminishing profits. Despite the ceaseless efforts of civic boosters, what little industry the South had remained low-wage, low-skilled, and primarily extractive. Southern workers made significantly less than their national counterparts: 75 percent of non-southern textile workers, 60 percent of iron and steelworkers, and a paltry 45 percent of lumber workers. At the time of the crash, southerners were already underpaid, underfed, and undereducated.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/section><\/section>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_6239\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"400\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5696\/2021\/11\/06212848\/Sharecroppers_evicted_1936.jpg\"><img class=\"wp-image-6239\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5696\/2021\/11\/06212848\/Sharecroppers_evicted_1936.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"267\" \/><\/a> <strong>Figure 1.<\/strong> Sharecroppers evicted in 1936.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nMajor New Deal programs were designed with the South in mind. FDR hoped that by drastically decreasing the amount of land devoted to cotton, the AAA would arrest its long-plummeting price decline. Farmers plowed up existing crops and left fields fallow, and the market price rose. But in an agricultural world of landowners and landless farmworkers (such as tenants and sharecroppers), the benefits of the AAA bypassed the southerners who needed them most. The government relied on landowners and local organizations to distribute the money fairly to those most affected by production limits. Still, many owners kicked tenants and croppers off their land, kept the subsidy checks for keeping those acres fallow and reinvested the profits in mechanical farming equipment that further suppressed the demand for labor. Instead of making farming profitable again, the AAA pushed landless southern farmworkers off the land.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"390\"]<img src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images-archive-read-only\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/884\/2015\/08\/23203156\/CNX_History_26_02_TenantFarm.jpg\" alt=\"A photograph shows six Dust Bowl refugees\u2014three adults, two children, and a baby\u2014walking down a road. The baby rides in a small wagon.\" width=\"390\" height=\"311\" data-media-type=\"image\/jpeg\" \/> <strong>Figure 2.<\/strong> Sharecroppers and tenant farmers suffered enormously during the Great Depression. The STFU was created to help alleviate this suffering, but many farmers took to the road, along with other Dust Bowl refugees, on their way to California.[\/caption]\r\n<h3>Higher Wages and Better Working Conditions<\/h3>\r\nBut Roosevelt\u2019s assault on southern poverty took many forms. Southern industrial practices attracted much attention. The NRA encouraged higher wages and better conditions. It began to suppress the rampant use of child labor in southern mills and, for the first time, provided federal protection for unionized workers across the country. Those gains were eventually solidified in the 1938 <strong>Fair Labor Standards Act<\/strong>, which set a national minimum wage of $0.25\/hour (eventually rising to $0.40\/hour). The minimum salary disproportionately affected low-paid southern workers and brought southern wages within reach of northern wages.\r\n<h3>FDR\u2019s Support of Unionization<\/h3>\r\nThe president\u2019s support for unionization further impacted the South. Southern industrialists had proven themselves ardent foes of unionization, particularly in the infamous southern textile mills. In 1934, when workers at textile mills across southern Piedmont struck over low wages and long hours, owners turned to local and state authorities to quash workers\u2019 groups, even as they recruited thousands of strikebreakers from the many displaced farmers swelling industrial centers looking for work. But in 1935, the<strong> National Labor Relations Act<\/strong>, also known as the <strong>Wagner Act<\/strong>, guaranteed the rights of most workers to unionize and bargain collectively. And so unionized workers, backed by the federal government's support and determined to enforce the reforms of the New Deal, pushed for higher wages, shorter hours, and better conditions. With growing success, union members saw Roosevelt as a protector of workers\u2019 rights. Or, as one union leader put it, an \u201cagent of God.\u201d [footnote]William Leuchtenberg, The White House Looks South: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson (Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 2005), 74.[\/footnote]\r\n<h2>The Southern Tenant Farmers Union<\/h2>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idm48017504\">Another problem plaguing this relief effort was the disparity between large commercial farms, which received the most significant payments and set the quotas<span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"color: #99cc00;\"><span style=\"caret-color: #99cc00;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: line-through;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>small family farms\u00a0felt no relief. Large farms often cut production by laying off sharecroppers or evicting tenant farmers, making the program worse for them than for small farm owners. Their frustration led to the creation of the <strong><span class=\"no-emphasis\" data-type=\"term\">Southern Tenant Farmers Union<\/span> (STFU)<\/strong>, an interracial organization that sought to gain government relief for these most disenfranchised farmers. The STFU organized, protested, and won its members some wage increases through the mid-1930s, but the overall plight of these workers remained dismal. As a result, many followed the thousands of Dust Bowl refugees to California.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"textbox key-takeaways\">\r\n<h3 data-type=\"title\">Labor Songs and the Southern Tenant Farmers Union<\/h3>\r\n<blockquote id=\"fs-idm58981616\">\r\n<div>And if the growers get in the way, we\u2019re gonna roll right over them\r\nWe\u2019re gonna roll right over them, we\u2019re gonna roll right over them\r\nAnd if the growers get in the way, we\u2019re gonna roll right over them\r\nWe\u2019re gonna roll this union on\r\n\u2014John Handcox, \u201cRoll the Union On\u201d<\/div><\/blockquote>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idm55579440\">\u201cMean Things Happening in This Land,\u201d \u201cRoll the Union On,\u201d and \u201cStrike in Arkansas\u201d are just a few of the folk songs written by John Handcox. A union organizer and STFU member, Handcox became the voice of the worker\u2019s struggle, writing dozens of songs that have continued to be sung by labor activists and folk singers over the years. Handcox joined the STFU in 1935 and used his songs to rally others, stating, \u201cI found out singing was more inspiring than talking . . . to get the attention of the people.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idm983008\">Racially integrated and with active women members, the STFU was ahead of its time. Although criticized by other union leaders for its relationship with the Communist Party in creating the \u201cPopular Front\u201d for labor activism in 1934, the STFU succeeded in organizing strikes and bringing national attention to the issues that tenant farmers faced. While the programs Roosevelt put in place did not do enough to help these farmers, the STFU\u2014and Handcox\u2019s music\u2014remains a relevant part of the country\u2019s labor movement.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idm27240192\">The AAA did succeed on some fronts. By the spring of 1934, farmers had formed over four thousand local committees, with more than three million agreeing to participate. They signed individual contracts agreeing to take land out of production in return for government payments, and checks began to arrive by the end of 1934. For some farmers, especially those with large farms, the program spelled relief.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2 data-type=\"title\"><strong>The Tennessee Valley Authority<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"390\"]<img src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images-archive-read-only\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/884\/2015\/08\/23203159\/CNX_History_26_02_TVA.jpg\" alt=\"A photograph shows a group of TVA workers standing in front of the Wilson Dam.\" width=\"390\" height=\"298\" data-media-type=\"image\/jpeg\" \/> <strong>Figure 3.<\/strong> The TVA helped a struggling part of the country through the creation of jobs and flood control and reforestation programs. The Wilson Dam, shown here, is one of nine TVA dams on the Tennessee River. (credit: United States Geological Survey)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nPerhaps the most successful New Deal program in the South was the <strong>Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)<\/strong>, an ambitious program to use hydroelectric power, agricultural and industrial reform, flood control, economic development, education, and healthcare to remake the impoverished watershed region of the Tennessee River radically. Employing several thousand Americans on a project that Roosevelt envisioned as a template for future regional redevelopment, the TVA revitalized a river valley that landowners had badly over-farmed, leaving behind eroded soil that lacked essential nutrients for future farming. Though the area of focus was limited, Roosevelt\u2019s TVA sought to \u201cmake a different type of citizen\u201d out of the area\u2019s impoverished residents.[footnote] \u201cPress Conference #160,\u201d November 23, 1934, 214, in Roosevelt, Complete Presidential Press Conferences of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Volumes 3\u20134, 1934 (New York: Da Capo Press, 1972).[\/footnote]\u00a0Under the direction of David Lilienthal, beginning in 1933, the TVA workers erected a series of dams to harness the Tennessee River in the creation of much-needed <span class=\"no-emphasis\" data-type=\"term\">hydroelectric power, which<\/span>\u00a0distributed electricity to the otherwise nonelectrified areas at government-subsidized rates. The arrival of both electric lighting and machinery to the region eased the lives of the people who lived there and encouraged industrial growth. The TVA also included an educational component. Agents of the TVA met with residents and offered training and general education classes to improve agricultural practices and exploit new job opportunities. The TVA encapsulates Roosevelt\u2019s vision for uplifting the South and integrating it into the larger national economy.\r\n<p id=\"fs-idm49557776\">The TVA was not without its critics, but most notably among the fifteen thousand families displaced due to the massive construction projects. Although, eventually, the project benefited farmers by introducing new farming and fertilizing techniques and the added benefit of electric power, many local citizens were initially mistrustful of the TVA and the federal government\u2019s agenda. Likewise, as with several other New Deal programs, women did not directly benefit from these employment opportunities, as they were explicitly excluded for the benefit of men, who most Americans still considered the family\u2019s primary breadwinner. However, with the arrival of electricity came new industrial ventures, including several textile mills up and down the valley, several of which offered employment to women. Throughout his presidency, Roosevelt frequently pointed to the TVA as one of the glowing accomplishments of the New Deal and its ability to bring together the federal government's machinery and private interests to revitalize a regional economy. Just months before his death in 1945, he continued to speak of the possibility of creating other regional authorities throughout the country.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"textbox tryit\">\r\n<h3>Try It<\/h3>\r\nhttps:\/\/assess.lumenlearning.com\/practice\/0ba7d79b-ba79-403b-b26d-b8f914ce4a9b\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<h2 data-type=\"title\">Assessing the First New Deal<\/h2>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idm3236080\">While many were pleased with the president\u2019s bold plans, there were numerous critics of the New Deal. The New Deal was far from perfect, but Roosevelt\u2019s quickly implemented policies reversed the economy\u2019s long slide. It put new capital into ailing banks. It rescued homeowners and farmers from foreclosure and helped people keep their homes. It offered some direct relief to the unemployed poor. It gave new incentives to farmers and industry alike and put people back to work to create jobs and boost consumer spending. The total number of working Americans rose from twenty-four to twenty-seven million between 1933 and 1935, in contrast to the seven-million-worker decline during the Hoover administration. Perhaps most importantly, the First New Deal changed the pervasive pessimism that had held the country in its grip since the end of 1929. For the first time in years, people had hope.<\/p>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idm4395008\">It was the hard work of Roosevelt\u2019s advisors\u2014the \u201cBrains Trust\u201d of scholars and thinkers from leading universities\u2014as well as Congress and the American public who helped the New Deal succeed as well as it did. Ironically, it was the American people\u2019s volunteer spirit, so extolled by Hoover, that Roosevelt was able to harness. The first hundred days of his administration were not a master plan that Roosevelt dreamed up and executed on his own. In fact, it was not a master plan at all but rather a series of, at times, disjointed efforts made from different assumptions. But after taking office and analyzing the crisis, Roosevelt and his advisors felt that they had a larger sense of what had caused the Great Depression and thus attempted various solutions to fix it. They believed that abuses were caused by a small group of bankers and businessmen, aided by Republican policies that built wealth for a few at the expense of many. They felt the answer was to root out these abuses through banking reform and adjust the production and consumption of both farm and industrial goods. This adjustment would come about by increasing the purchasing power of everyday people, as well as through regulatory policies like the NRA and AAA. While it may seem counterintuitive to raise crop prices and set prices on industrial goods, Roosevelt\u2019s advisors sought to halt the deflationary spiral and economic uncertainty that had prevented businesses from committing to investments and consumers from parting with their money.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\r\n<h3>Glossary<\/h3>\r\n<strong>Fair Labor Standards Act:\u00a0<\/strong>a piece of 1938 New Deal legislation\u00a0that set a national minimum wage of $0.25\/hour (eventually rising to $0.40\/hour)\r\n\r\n<strong><span class=\"no-emphasis\" data-type=\"term\">Southern Tenant Farmers Union<\/span> (STFU):\u00a0<\/strong>an interracial organization that sought to gain government relief for these most disenfranchised of farmers\r\n\r\n<strong>Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA):<\/strong>\u00a0a New Deal program to use hydroelectric power, agricultural and industrial reform, flood control, economic development, education, and healthcare to remake the impoverished watershed region of the Tennessee River radically.\r\n\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\n<h3>Learning Outcomes<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Examine the unique impact of the New Deal in the South<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<section id=\"fs-idp18381008\" data-depth=\"1\">\n<section id=\"fs-idm18197536\" data-depth=\"2\">\n<h2>Poverty in the South<\/h2>\n<p id=\"fs-idm49557776\"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem; text-align: initial;\">The impact of initial New Deal legislation was readily apparent in the South, a region of perpetual poverty especially plagued by the Depression. In 1929 the average per capita income in the American Southeast was $365, the lowest in the nation. Southern farmers averaged $183 per year, while farmers on the West Coast made more than four times that.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 1rem; text-align: initial;\">Moreover, they were trapped in <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 1rem; text-align: initial;\">the cycle of producing cotton and corn\u2014<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 1rem; text-align: initial;\">crops that depleted the soil and returned ever-diminishing profits. Despite the ceaseless efforts of civic boosters, what little industry the South had remained low-wage, low-skilled, and primarily extractive. Southern workers made significantly less than their national counterparts: 75 percent of non-southern textile workers, 60 percent of iron and steelworkers, and a paltry 45 percent of lumber workers. At the time of the crash, southerners were already underpaid, underfed, and undereducated.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n<div id=\"attachment_6239\" style=\"width: 410px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5696\/2021\/11\/06212848\/Sharecroppers_evicted_1936.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6239\" class=\"wp-image-6239\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5696\/2021\/11\/06212848\/Sharecroppers_evicted_1936.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"267\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-6239\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Figure 1.<\/strong> Sharecroppers evicted in 1936.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Major New Deal programs were designed with the South in mind. FDR hoped that by drastically decreasing the amount of land devoted to cotton, the AAA would arrest its long-plummeting price decline. Farmers plowed up existing crops and left fields fallow, and the market price rose. But in an agricultural world of landowners and landless farmworkers (such as tenants and sharecroppers), the benefits of the AAA bypassed the southerners who needed them most. The government relied on landowners and local organizations to distribute the money fairly to those most affected by production limits. Still, many owners kicked tenants and croppers off their land, kept the subsidy checks for keeping those acres fallow and reinvested the profits in mechanical farming equipment that further suppressed the demand for labor. Instead of making farming profitable again, the AAA pushed landless southern farmworkers off the land.<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images-archive-read-only\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/884\/2015\/08\/23203156\/CNX_History_26_02_TenantFarm.jpg\" alt=\"A photograph shows six Dust Bowl refugees\u2014three adults, two children, and a baby\u2014walking down a road. The baby rides in a small wagon.\" width=\"390\" height=\"311\" data-media-type=\"image\/jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Figure 2.<\/strong> Sharecroppers and tenant farmers suffered enormously during the Great Depression. The STFU was created to help alleviate this suffering, but many farmers took to the road, along with other Dust Bowl refugees, on their way to California.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h3>Higher Wages and Better Working Conditions<\/h3>\n<p>But Roosevelt\u2019s assault on southern poverty took many forms. Southern industrial practices attracted much attention. The NRA encouraged higher wages and better conditions. It began to suppress the rampant use of child labor in southern mills and, for the first time, provided federal protection for unionized workers across the country. Those gains were eventually solidified in the 1938 <strong>Fair Labor Standards Act<\/strong>, which set a national minimum wage of $0.25\/hour (eventually rising to $0.40\/hour). The minimum salary disproportionately affected low-paid southern workers and brought southern wages within reach of northern wages.<\/p>\n<h3>FDR\u2019s Support of Unionization<\/h3>\n<p>The president\u2019s support for unionization further impacted the South. Southern industrialists had proven themselves ardent foes of unionization, particularly in the infamous southern textile mills. In 1934, when workers at textile mills across southern Piedmont struck over low wages and long hours, owners turned to local and state authorities to quash workers\u2019 groups, even as they recruited thousands of strikebreakers from the many displaced farmers swelling industrial centers looking for work. But in 1935, the<strong> National Labor Relations Act<\/strong>, also known as the <strong>Wagner Act<\/strong>, guaranteed the rights of most workers to unionize and bargain collectively. And so unionized workers, backed by the federal government&#8217;s support and determined to enforce the reforms of the New Deal, pushed for higher wages, shorter hours, and better conditions. With growing success, union members saw Roosevelt as a protector of workers\u2019 rights. Or, as one union leader put it, an \u201cagent of God.\u201d <a class=\"footnote\" title=\"William Leuchtenberg, The White House Looks South: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson (Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 2005), 74.\" id=\"return-footnote-2039-1\" href=\"#footnote-2039-1\" aria-label=\"Footnote 1\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>The Southern Tenant Farmers Union<\/h2>\n<p id=\"fs-idm48017504\">Another problem plaguing this relief effort was the disparity between large commercial farms, which received the most significant payments and set the quotas<span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"color: #99cc00;\"><span style=\"caret-color: #99cc00;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: line-through;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>small family farms\u00a0felt no relief. Large farms often cut production by laying off sharecroppers or evicting tenant farmers, making the program worse for them than for small farm owners. Their frustration led to the creation of the <strong><span class=\"no-emphasis\" data-type=\"term\">Southern Tenant Farmers Union<\/span> (STFU)<\/strong>, an interracial organization that sought to gain government relief for these most disenfranchised farmers. The STFU organized, protested, and won its members some wage increases through the mid-1930s, but the overall plight of these workers remained dismal. As a result, many followed the thousands of Dust Bowl refugees to California.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox key-takeaways\">\n<h3 data-type=\"title\">Labor Songs and the Southern Tenant Farmers Union<\/h3>\n<blockquote id=\"fs-idm58981616\">\n<div>And if the growers get in the way, we\u2019re gonna roll right over them<br \/>\nWe\u2019re gonna roll right over them, we\u2019re gonna roll right over them<br \/>\nAnd if the growers get in the way, we\u2019re gonna roll right over them<br \/>\nWe\u2019re gonna roll this union on<br \/>\n\u2014John Handcox, \u201cRoll the Union On\u201d<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p id=\"fs-idm55579440\">\u201cMean Things Happening in This Land,\u201d \u201cRoll the Union On,\u201d and \u201cStrike in Arkansas\u201d are just a few of the folk songs written by John Handcox. A union organizer and STFU member, Handcox became the voice of the worker\u2019s struggle, writing dozens of songs that have continued to be sung by labor activists and folk singers over the years. Handcox joined the STFU in 1935 and used his songs to rally others, stating, \u201cI found out singing was more inspiring than talking . . . to get the attention of the people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"fs-idm983008\">Racially integrated and with active women members, the STFU was ahead of its time. Although criticized by other union leaders for its relationship with the Communist Party in creating the \u201cPopular Front\u201d for labor activism in 1934, the STFU succeeded in organizing strikes and bringing national attention to the issues that tenant farmers faced. While the programs Roosevelt put in place did not do enough to help these farmers, the STFU\u2014and Handcox\u2019s music\u2014remains a relevant part of the country\u2019s labor movement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"fs-idm27240192\">The AAA did succeed on some fronts. By the spring of 1934, farmers had formed over four thousand local committees, with more than three million agreeing to participate. They signed individual contracts agreeing to take land out of production in return for government payments, and checks began to arrive by the end of 1934. For some farmers, especially those with large farms, the program spelled relief.<\/p>\n<h2 data-type=\"title\"><strong>The Tennessee Valley Authority<\/strong><\/h2>\n<div style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images-archive-read-only\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/884\/2015\/08\/23203159\/CNX_History_26_02_TVA.jpg\" alt=\"A photograph shows a group of TVA workers standing in front of the Wilson Dam.\" width=\"390\" height=\"298\" data-media-type=\"image\/jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Figure 3.<\/strong> The TVA helped a struggling part of the country through the creation of jobs and flood control and reforestation programs. The Wilson Dam, shown here, is one of nine TVA dams on the Tennessee River. (credit: United States Geological Survey)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Perhaps the most successful New Deal program in the South was the <strong>Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)<\/strong>, an ambitious program to use hydroelectric power, agricultural and industrial reform, flood control, economic development, education, and healthcare to remake the impoverished watershed region of the Tennessee River radically. Employing several thousand Americans on a project that Roosevelt envisioned as a template for future regional redevelopment, the TVA revitalized a river valley that landowners had badly over-farmed, leaving behind eroded soil that lacked essential nutrients for future farming. Though the area of focus was limited, Roosevelt\u2019s TVA sought to \u201cmake a different type of citizen\u201d out of the area\u2019s impoverished residents.<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"\u201cPress Conference #160,\u201d November 23, 1934, 214, in Roosevelt, Complete Presidential Press Conferences of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Volumes 3\u20134, 1934 (New York: Da Capo Press, 1972).\" id=\"return-footnote-2039-2\" href=\"#footnote-2039-2\" aria-label=\"Footnote 2\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[2]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0Under the direction of David Lilienthal, beginning in 1933, the TVA workers erected a series of dams to harness the Tennessee River in the creation of much-needed <span class=\"no-emphasis\" data-type=\"term\">hydroelectric power, which<\/span>\u00a0distributed electricity to the otherwise nonelectrified areas at government-subsidized rates. The arrival of both electric lighting and machinery to the region eased the lives of the people who lived there and encouraged industrial growth. The TVA also included an educational component. Agents of the TVA met with residents and offered training and general education classes to improve agricultural practices and exploit new job opportunities. The TVA encapsulates Roosevelt\u2019s vision for uplifting the South and integrating it into the larger national economy.<\/p>\n<p id=\"fs-idm49557776\">The TVA was not without its critics, but most notably among the fifteen thousand families displaced due to the massive construction projects. Although, eventually, the project benefited farmers by introducing new farming and fertilizing techniques and the added benefit of electric power, many local citizens were initially mistrustful of the TVA and the federal government\u2019s agenda. Likewise, as with several other New Deal programs, women did not directly benefit from these employment opportunities, as they were explicitly excluded for the benefit of men, who most Americans still considered the family\u2019s primary breadwinner. However, with the arrival of electricity came new industrial ventures, including several textile mills up and down the valley, several of which offered employment to women. Throughout his presidency, Roosevelt frequently pointed to the TVA as one of the glowing accomplishments of the New Deal and its ability to bring together the federal government&#8217;s machinery and private interests to revitalize a regional economy. Just months before his death in 1945, he continued to speak of the possibility of creating other regional authorities throughout the country.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox tryit\">\n<h3>Try It<\/h3>\n<p>\t<iframe id=\"assessment_practice_0ba7d79b-ba79-403b-b26d-b8f914ce4a9b\" class=\"resizable\" src=\"https:\/\/assess.lumenlearning.com\/practice\/0ba7d79b-ba79-403b-b26d-b8f914ce4a9b?iframe_resize_id=assessment_practice_id_0ba7d79b-ba79-403b-b26d-b8f914ce4a9b\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:none;width:100%;height:100%;min-height:300px;\"><br \/>\n\t<\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2 data-type=\"title\">Assessing the First New Deal<\/h2>\n<p id=\"fs-idm3236080\">While many were pleased with the president\u2019s bold plans, there were numerous critics of the New Deal. The New Deal was far from perfect, but Roosevelt\u2019s quickly implemented policies reversed the economy\u2019s long slide. It put new capital into ailing banks. It rescued homeowners and farmers from foreclosure and helped people keep their homes. It offered some direct relief to the unemployed poor. It gave new incentives to farmers and industry alike and put people back to work to create jobs and boost consumer spending. The total number of working Americans rose from twenty-four to twenty-seven million between 1933 and 1935, in contrast to the seven-million-worker decline during the Hoover administration. Perhaps most importantly, the First New Deal changed the pervasive pessimism that had held the country in its grip since the end of 1929. For the first time in years, people had hope.<\/p>\n<p id=\"fs-idm4395008\">It was the hard work of Roosevelt\u2019s advisors\u2014the \u201cBrains Trust\u201d of scholars and thinkers from leading universities\u2014as well as Congress and the American public who helped the New Deal succeed as well as it did. Ironically, it was the American people\u2019s volunteer spirit, so extolled by Hoover, that Roosevelt was able to harness. The first hundred days of his administration were not a master plan that Roosevelt dreamed up and executed on his own. In fact, it was not a master plan at all but rather a series of, at times, disjointed efforts made from different assumptions. But after taking office and analyzing the crisis, Roosevelt and his advisors felt that they had a larger sense of what had caused the Great Depression and thus attempted various solutions to fix it. They believed that abuses were caused by a small group of bankers and businessmen, aided by Republican policies that built wealth for a few at the expense of many. They felt the answer was to root out these abuses through banking reform and adjust the production and consumption of both farm and industrial goods. This adjustment would come about by increasing the purchasing power of everyday people, as well as through regulatory policies like the NRA and AAA. While it may seem counterintuitive to raise crop prices and set prices on industrial goods, Roosevelt\u2019s advisors sought to halt the deflationary spiral and economic uncertainty that had prevented businesses from committing to investments and consumers from parting with their money.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\n<h3>Glossary<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Fair Labor Standards Act:\u00a0<\/strong>a piece of 1938 New Deal legislation\u00a0that set a national minimum wage of $0.25\/hour (eventually rising to $0.40\/hour)<\/p>\n<p><strong><span class=\"no-emphasis\" data-type=\"term\">Southern Tenant Farmers Union<\/span> (STFU):\u00a0<\/strong>an interracial organization that sought to gain government relief for these most disenfranchised of farmers<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA):<\/strong>\u00a0a New Deal program to use hydroelectric power, agricultural and industrial reform, flood control, economic development, education, and healthcare to remake the impoverished watershed region of the Tennessee River radically.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t <section class=\"citations-section\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n\t\t\t <h3>Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t <div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <div id=\"citation-list-2039\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div class=\"licensing\"><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Original<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Modification, adaptation, and original content. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Kaitlyn Connell for Lumen Learning. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Lumen Learning. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Shared previously<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>US History. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: OpenStax. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/openstaxcollege.org\/textbooks\/us-history\">http:\/\/openstaxcollege.org\/textbooks\/us-history<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">CC BY: Attribution<\/a><\/em>. <strong>License Terms<\/strong>: Access for free at https:\/\/openstax.org\/books\/us-history\/pages\/1-introduction<\/li><li>The Great Depression. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: The American Yawp. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/text\/23-the-great-depression\/\">http:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/text\/23-the-great-depression\/<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">Public domain content<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Sharecroppers evicted 1936. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Wikimedia Commons. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Sharecroppers_evicted_1936.jpg\">https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Sharecroppers_evicted_1936.jpg<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/about\/pdm\">Public Domain: No Known Copyright<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t <\/section><hr class=\"before-footnotes clear\" \/><div class=\"footnotes\"><ol><li id=\"footnote-2039-1\">William Leuchtenberg, The White House Looks South: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson (Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 2005), 74. <a href=\"#return-footnote-2039-1\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 1\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-2039-2\"> \u201cPress Conference #160,\u201d November 23, 1934, 214, in Roosevelt, Complete Presidential Press Conferences of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Volumes 3\u20134, 1934 (New York: Da Capo Press, 1972). <a href=\"#return-footnote-2039-2\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 2\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/div>","protected":false},"author":169554,"menu_order":8,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"US History\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"OpenStax\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/openstaxcollege.org\/textbooks\/us-history\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by\",\"license_terms\":\"Access for free at https:\/\/openstax.org\/books\/us-history\/pages\/1-introduction\"},{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"The Great Depression\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"The American Yawp\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/text\/23-the-great-depression\/\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by-sa\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"original\",\"description\":\"Modification, adaptation, and original content\",\"author\":\"Kaitlyn Connell for Lumen Learning\",\"organization\":\"Lumen Learning\",\"url\":\"\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by-sa\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"pd\",\"description\":\"Sharecroppers evicted 1936\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"Wikimedia Commons\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Sharecroppers_evicted_1936.jpg\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"pd\",\"license_terms\":\"\"}]","CANDELA_OUTCOMES_GUID":"37598ade-538e-426b-bcaf-462eb28af616,462fe9b1-2aa2-4a91-80cc-3b4fa16116ae","pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-2039","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":282,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/2039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/169554"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/2039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9144,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/2039\/revisions\/9144"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/282"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/2039\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=2039"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=2039"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=2039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}