Deck 17: The New Deal Era

Question 1

Black workers gained greater opportunities for organization in 1936 when John Lewis established the

A)AFL.
B)CIO.
C)NIRA.
D)NLRB.

Answer 1

CIO.

Question 2

For forty years,as part of the Tuskegee Study,the U.S.Public Health Service withheld treatment for and studied the effects of what disease on 400 uninformed poor black men?

A)syphilis
B)HIV
C)polio
D)cholera

Answer 2

syphilis

Question 3

Whose election in 1934 made him the first black Democrat in Congress,and an important symbol of blacks' defection from the Republican Party?

A)Oscar DePriest
B)Arthur W.Mitchell
C)Robert L.Vann
D)Julian Rainey

Answer 3

Arthur W.Mitchell

Question 4

Which New Deal program benefitted large numbers of black farmers by allowing them to rent land from the government and take out loans to purchase plots of their own,before it was eviscerated by congressional opponents in 1942?

A)TVA
B)AAA
C)FSA
D)REA

Question 5

Over the course of the 1930s,black Americans

A)lost substantial political clout because of the Depression.
B)became a decisive bloc in the states of the Deep South where they were most numerous.
C)gained numerous judicial and legislative seats in the Midwest and mid-Atlantic states.
D)abandoned the Republican Party almost completely.

Question 6

During the 1930s,the Civil Service Commission operated under a "rule of three" by which

A)federal employers were required to interview at least three minority applicants for each open position.
B)federal employers could select a second- or third-ranked white candidate over a first-ranked black one.
C)federal employers could hire one new minority applicant for every three white workers already in service.
D)federal employers could fire minority workers without cause,as long as they retained at least three token minorities in their departments.

Question 7

In 1939,Eleanor Roosevelt resigned from the Daughters of the American Revolution after the organization

A)admitted the first black women into its ranks.
B)embarrassed Roosevelt by providing her with a black escort when she visited their headquarters.
C)refused to allow a black singer to perform in their hall.
D)criticized her husband for not doing more to protect blacks' civil rights.

Question 8

Which important new tactic,sanctioned by the Supreme Court in 1937,did the Citizens' League for Fair Play add to the repertoire of blacks' tools of protest?

A)boycotts
B)pickets
C)sit-ins
D)rallies

Question 9

Which member of the black cabinet served as its "titular head," thanks partly to a close relationship with the Roosevelt family?

A)Mary McLeod Bethune
B)Campbell Johnson
C)Crystal Byrd Fauset
D)Rayford W.Logan

Question 10

What effect did the onset of the Great Depression have on members of the black middle class?

A)They survived the Depression with little disruption because their services were essential to their communities.
B)They abandoned their professions in large numbers and joined a swelling migration from southern cities to the countryside.
C)They suffered economically along with the devastated black lower class on whose patronage they depended for their livelihood.
D)They appealed to the Roosevelt administration for assistance,but,after years of political inertia,failed to adopt effective measures on their own.

Question 11

Which New Deal program provided both employment and material relief to citizens,to such an extent that a million African Americans owed their livelihood to it in 1939?

A)NYA
B)CCC
C)WPA
D)FSA

Question 12

The late 1930s unionization drive in the South had to overcome all of the following obstacles EXCEPT

A)the region's relatively limited industrial development.
B)the absence of a strong tradition of labor activism in the region.
C)the lack of a strong tradition of black protest in the region.
D)the prevalence of Jim Crow segregation in the region.

Question 13

After three years of Depression,what percentage of black voters cast their vote for the Republican presidential candidate,Herbert Hoover,in his 1932 re-election campaign against Franklin Roosevelt?

A)15%
B)35%
C)65%
D)85%

Question 14

Which of the following statements about the Harlem riot of 1935 is LEAST accurate?

A)The riot resulted from false rumors of the beating death of a black shoplifter.
B)The mayor of New York City appointed a black sociologist to head an investigation tasked with uncovering the roots of the riot.
C)An official committee determined that the riot had stemmed from racial discrimination and the disproportionate impoverishment of African Americans.
D)The riot was unusual in targeting persons more than property,and left almost two dozen whites dead.

Question 15

Which New Deal program established work camps which,though rigidly segregated,nonetheless provided employment for 200,000 black boys and young men?

A)FSA
B)TVA
C)NYA
D)CCC

Question 16

Which of the following statements about the Agricultural Adjustment Administration is LEAST accurate?

A)The AAA paid farmers to produce more crops and grow more livestock to meet the demands of a hungry populace.
B)The benefits distributed by the AAA were often pocketed by landlords,who failed to pass them along to tenants.
C)The AAA sometimes made things worse for black sharecroppers,since landlords could keep more government money for themselves if they evicted tenants from their land.
D)The AAA contributed to the political education of southern blacks,who could vote in AAA referenda at a time when they could not vote in regular elections.

Question 17

In terms of composition,President Roosevelt's black cabinet consisted of

A)figureheads with no real influence or political clout within the government.
B)stalwart Democrats whose party loyalty was their chief recommendation.
C)highly educated experts called in to apply their skills to specific functions.
D)a relatively small number of appointees,compared to those of earlier presidents.

Question 18

The migration of almost a million blacks from the South in the 1920s revealed that

A)the agricultural sector of the American economy was in dire straits well before the Depression began,forcing southern blacks to find work elsewhere.
B)the agricultural sector of the American economy was booming,and white workers were pushing blacks out of their agricultural jobs.
C)most industries in the North,enjoying unprecedented prosperity,were willing to hire black workers on equal terms as white workers,leading to an exodus from the South.
D)the soil of the South was no longer fertile enough to support the cultivation of cotton on which the region's economy had previously depended.

Question 19

The presidential election of 1928 revealed that

A)Republicans remained incapable of winning the votes of white southerners.
B)the Republican Party could attract white southern voters without risking the alienation of its black base of support.
C)black southerners had abandoned the Republican Party en masse for the Democrats.
D)most blacks remained faithful Republicans,though there were growing rumblings of dissent.

Question 20

The primary goal of organizations such as the Colored Merchants Association and the Citizens' League for Fair Play was to

A)block the implementation of the New Deal,which was seen as both racially biased and anti-capitalist.
B)wield the economic clout of black consumers to create business and jobs for black professionals and workers.
C)organize armed committees to prevent the foreclosure of black-owned stores and the eviction of black tenants from their homes.
D)apply political pressure on the Roosevelt administration to provide federal funding to encourage the development of black-owned businesses.

Question 21

During the 1930s,the American Communist Party

A)often spoke out against racial discrimination and helped to organize black laborers.
B)dismissed racial discrimination as a sideshow to the true class-based struggle.
C)parroted the racist ideas of mainstream parties despite its broad base of black support.
D)temporarily laid aside its class-based struggle to launch a full-scale political assault against racial discrimination.

Question 22

Which sculptor gained recognition through pieces such as Gamin and The Harp,and also played a crucial mentoring role to young artists?

A)Charles Alston
B)Mordecai Johnson
C)Charlotte Hawkins Brown
D)Augusta Savage

Question 23

As actors,Paul Robeson and Lena Horne both

A)found that,despite their acclaimed performances on stage,they would only be cast in the roles of servants in films.
B)tried to accept only roles which portrayed blacks positively and resisted playing demeaning or stereotypical roles.
C)refused to combine their politics with their film careers,a stance which made them more palatable to white audiences than other black actors of the day.
D)cultivated screen personae based on mumbling,shuffling buffoonery which film scholars now recognize as sly digs against racial stereotypes.

Question 24

The ILD,which defended black defendants in two high profile cases in the 1930s,was affiliated with

A)the CIO.
B)the NAACP.
C)the Communist Party.
D)the Democratic Party.

Question 25

Who was the first African-American actor to win an Oscar?

A)Sidney Poitier
B)Louise Beavers
C)Hattie McDaniel
D)Bojangles Robinson

Question 26

Which of the following statements about the Scottsboro case is LEAST accurate?

A)White Alabamans prided themselves on the initial verdict because,even though the black defendants were sentenced to death on flimsy evidence,they nonetheless were not lynched.
B)Despite initially receiving death sentences,all of the convicted defendants were eventually released.
C)The case brought national and international attention to the South's often barbaric justice system,and the worst aspects of the Jim Crow system.
D)The notoriety of the case led to the substantial erosion of legal protections for African Americans,as white southerners dug in their heels against calls for reform.

Question 27

Who performed an open-air concert in front of the Lincoln Memorial in the spring of 1939 after the Daughters of the American Revolution barred her from singing in their Constitution Hall?

A)Ella Fitzgerald
B)Bessie Smith
C)Billy Holliday
D)Marian Anderson

Question 28

Which swing musician's orchestra,which included such important figures as Sy Oliver,played in an unusual two-beat rhythm and cultivated an influential brand of physical spectacle and showmanship?

A)Count Basie
B)Jimmie Lunceford
C)Cab Calloway
D)Ella Fitzgerald

Question 29

The Southern Conference for Human Welfare was

A)an all-black organization created to oppose the South's Jim Crow laws.
B)an interracial organization created to counter the spread of Communist influence into the civil rights movement.
C)a leftist interracial organization created to address the problems of poverty and discrimination in the South.
D)an all-black organization created to promote the works of young black artists.

Question 30

The Popular Front of the 1930s was

A)a grass-roots movement of black Americans dedicated to overthrowing Jim Crow in the South.
B)a Communist-led movement to organize concerted leftist resistance to the rise of fascism throughout the world.
C)a Democratic Party initiative to rally blacks,poor whites,Jews,Catholics,and other marginalized groups into a united political bloc.
D)a white supremacist movement formed to prevent southern blacks from gaining political rights or economic clout.

Question 31

William H.Johnson's work in the late 1930s could best be described as

A)influenced by "primitivism" and native African styles.
B)abstract designs devoid of apparent meaning.
C)a modernist approach to black folk art.
D)a marriage of modern urban subject matter and classical technique.

Question 32

The Southern Tenant Farmers' Union is most notable for

A)demonstrating the possibilities of grassroots interracial labor organizing.
B)its prolonged affiliation with the CIO.
C)its failure to affect federal policy despite its large membership.
D)demonstrating that white southerners no longer viewed the organization of black workers as a significant threat.

Question 33

An important transformation in American culture signified by the emergence of swing was that

A)black musicians gained widespread popularity among white audiences for the first time.
B)white musicians consciously emulated black artists for the first time.
C)young people emerged as the deciders of the nation's musical tastes for the first time.
D)black musicians created a nationwide yet racially inclusive musical genre for the first time.

Question 34

Which of the following statements about Southern Negro Youth Conference is LEAST accurate?

A)The organization had affiliations with American Communists and other leftists.
B)Moderate black leaders opposed the organization because of its radicalism.
C)The organization assisted black workers in organizing for better conditions and wages.
D)By the late 1940s,the organization had begun to decline,partly due to government opposition.

Question 35

Who popularized the genre of gospel music through compositions such as "Precious Lord,Take My Hand"?

A)Thomas Dorsey
B)Duke Ellington
C)William Grant Still
D)R.Nathaniel Dett

Question 36

Who was the best known black leftist of the 1930s?

A)Cyril Briggs
B)Richard Wright
C)Eric Walrond
D)Josh White

Question 37

The National Negro Conference united all of the following groups EXCEPT

A)industrialists.
B)Communists.
C)workers.
D)middle-class black organizations.

Question 38

Which film actor's dance duets with Shirley Temple were the first interracial dance partnering in film history?

A)Bojangles Robinson
B)Stepin Fetchit
C)Willie Best
D)Mantan Moreland