The Depression,
which eroded the hopes of many Americans, hit the Negro unusually
hard. It served to increase the level of bitterness in the Afro-
American community as a whole.
CHAPTER 10
Fighting Racism at Home and Abroad
Hard Times Again
THE new Negro of the 1920s who had struck out for "the
Promised Land" found, in the 1930s, that his old enemies
of hunger, cold, and prejudice were lurking outside the door of
his newly chosen home. Hope slid into despair and cynicism. The
dynamic, self-confident Harlem which Johnson had described in
1925 as the Culture Capital of the Negro World became choked
with disillusionment and frustration, and, in 1935, it was the
scene of looting, burning, and violence.
While the Depression which swept America in 1929 was a
national disaster, it did not hit all segments of society
equally, In America, poverty and starvation are also
discriminatory. To quote the old adage again, "The Negro is the
last to be hired and the first to be fired." The Depression also
proved that Harlem, like other Afro-American communities, was not
as economically self-sufficient as Johnson had imagined.
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