Capitalists Did Not Want the Social Security Act: A Critique of the "Capitalist Dominance" Thesis

When Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat, was elected president in 1932, most African Americans did not support him since they were still loyal to the Republican Party. Moreover, New Deal policies, especially the Social Security Act in 1935, excluded farmers and domestics, and thus, most African Americans. One of the people who encouraged black voters to switch to the Democratic Party was Elizabeth McDuffie, a black servant in the Roosevelt White House. In the 1936 election, McDuffie went on the campaign trail and toured Chicago, Cleveland, Springfield, and St. Louis. As a domestic servant, McDuffie was a familiar face to southern migrants, and she convinced many black voters to switch to the Democratic Party. After her campaign tour concluded, McDuffie became acquainted with the large black population in Washington, D.C. McDuffie worked alongside middle-class activists to increase economic opportunities for women workers by sponsoring training programs for servants. But, as this article demonstrates, most black servants did not want training programs; they desired higher wages, better jobs, and inclusion in the Social Security Act. Working-class women in Washington wrote letters to the newspaper and in 1938, 10,000 rioted for jobs as federal charwomen, jobs that paid higher wages and offered savings for retirement. After McDuffie witnessed these events, she became a vocal critic of the limitations of New Deal programs while continuing to praise Roosevelt and the Democratic Party. This article argues that Elizabeth McDuffie’s career in Washington illuminates the contradictions of New Deal politics for black women workers.

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Depression and the Welfare State

The Imprint of Congress ◽

10.12987/yale/9780300215700.003.0005 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

David R. Mayhew

Keyword(s):

Social Security ◽

Welfare State ◽

Great Depression ◽

Time Span ◽

Social Provision ◽

The Great Depression ◽

The Social ◽

Social Security Act ◽

Franklin Delano Roosevelt ◽

High Place

This chapter navigates the 1930s and groups two impulses into it: responding to the Great Depression and building a welfare state equipped with instruments of social provision. Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Democrats blended these two impulses when they executed their New Deal in the 1930s. However, on current inspection, the blend is confusing and sometimes contradictory, and there is a difference in time span. Responding to the Great Depression was clearly a 1930s drive; whereas the Social Security Act of 1935 still enjoys its high place at the top of the American welfare state. The chapter shows how the timeline on building U.S. social provision runs a lot longer before and afterward.

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Implications of the 1965 Amendments to the Social Security Act

Social Work ◽

10.1093/sw/10.4.10 ◽

1965 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Keyword(s):

Social Security ◽

The Social ◽

Social Security Act

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A New Deal for the Alien

Three Worlds of Relief ◽

10.23943/princeton/9780691152233.003.0010 ◽

2012 ◽

Author(s):

Cybelle Fox

Keyword(s):

Social Security ◽

Old Age ◽

Social Insurance ◽

Assistance Programs ◽

Aid To Dependent Children ◽

The Social ◽

Disparate Treatment ◽

Old Age Assistance ◽

Social Security Act ◽

European Immigrants

This chapter focuses on the Social Security Act and the disparate treatment of blacks, Mexicans, and European immigrants in the administration of Social Security, Unemployment Insurance, Aid to Dependent Children, and Old Age Assistance. Though framed as legislation that would help the “average citizen,” scholars have shown that the Social Security Act in fact excluded the vast majority of blacks from the most generous social insurance programs, relegating them to meager, decentralized, and demeaning means-tested programs. European immigrants, by contrast, benefited from many of the provisions of the Social Security Act, and in at least some respects, they benefited more than even native-born whites. The net result of these policies was that blacks were disproportionately shunted into categorical assistance programs with low benefit levels, European immigrants were disproportionately covered under social insurance regardless of citizenship, and Mexicans were often shut out altogether.

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