“One of the Greatest Things America Has Done For Us”: How the Works Progress Administration’s Education Policy Aided Black New Yorkers in the Great Depression

Abstract

This paper uses the lessons learned from the New Deal’s education policies to argue that the federal government should expand its role in adult education. The Great Depression presented Franklin D. Roosevelt’s (FDR) administration with an opportunity to create a new approach to education, which operated outside of traditional schools to increase blacks’ access to academic resources. The economic crisis during the 1930s created conditions that forced Americans, especially blacks, to reevaluate their needs for education. While black students needed to learn new skills to fight unemployment, black teachers needed work opportunities. Thus, the WPA’s adult literacy program allowed New Dealers like L. R. Alderman, James A. Atkins, and Eleanor Roosevelt to foster new relationships with educators and grassroot activism to fight for blacks’ rights. As black Americans’ livelihood improved because of the classes, conservatives pushed for new policies to limit black empowerment. Although conservatives’ efforts ended the WPA Education Program, the policy changed how Americans viewed education. Not only was adult education associated with economic stability, but it became a symbol of obtaining democracy. The New Deal’s WPA is just one of many federal interventions in education. Policies like the Freedmen’s Bureau, Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), and No Child Left Behind (NCLB) have all improved blacks’ educational opportunities. However, this paper illustrates how the WPA went beyond these efforts because it worked outside the scope of traditional schooling to create new institutions that minorities could use to obtain economic, social, and political rights. Current research suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic widened the educational inequalities between whites and blacks. Thus, this paper is important because COVID-19 has presented the government with another opportunity to help improve education for minorities. This paper urges policy makers to examine the creativity of the FDR administration’s Education Program to learn how current federal funds could create new educational institutions to fight racial inequality. Most importantly, 1930 policy offers a model of how federal officials, local educators, and individual students and teachers can work together during the pandemic and further improve how minorities experience education in America.