Window-breaking, looting, and burning
soon followed. Before peace was restored, three Negroes had been
killed, some two hundred stores smashed, and it was estimated
that approximately $2,000,000 worth of damage had been done.
Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia appointed a study commission which
was headed by the noted black sociologist E. Franklin Frazier.
The commission concluded that the causes of the riot were rooted
in resentment against racial discrimination and poverty. The
"promised land" of the large northern cities had not lived up to
expectations.
The Depression, however, brought its own kind of hope. Franklin
Delano Roosevelt, who had been elected in 1932, promised
the country a "New Deal." It was to be a new deal for the
workers, the unemployed and, it seemed, for the Negro too. In
response, black voters switched to the Democratic party in
droves. While Franklin D. Roosevelt was not the first president
to appoint Negroes to government positions, his appointments were
different in two major respects. First, there were more of them.
Second, instead of being political payoffs, the appointees were
selected for their expert knowledge, and their intellectual
skills became part of the government's decision-making processes.
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