The New Deal & the
Redefinition of Freedom
Living in a Migrant Camp - - Looking for Work
One Result of this Economic Disaster:
The New Democratic Coalition
Industrial workers
farmers
liberal intellectuals
middle class
reformers
1st New Deal:
Civilian Conservation Corps (Fort Pulaski)
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Emergency Relief Banking Act
Agricultural Adjustment Act
2nd New Deal
Wagner Act
Social Security Act (unemployment, pensions, aid to the
disabled and to dependent children.)
Fair Labor Standards Act (national minimum wage,
limited work hours, anti-discrimination)
FDR as master politician:
Fireside chats
Administration: liberal but not progressive
Individual freedom identified as “class” issue
Laissez-faire understood as anti working class
A. Philip Randolph
Boundaries to New Deal Freedom:
Social Security Act exemptions:
Working women and single mothers
All Black workers
Domestic workers
Agricultural workers
Further exemptions through local
administration of the Act
Who’s in, Who’s out?
Habs/Haer
Fort
Pulaski
Merritt Parkway:
1st limited access highway