ABSTRACT
The Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression that followed had a profound impact on the lives of nearly all Americans. Blacks suffered more than most. Economically insecure, and with little in the way of savings, even during the comparative prosperity of the 1920s, most African Americans were ill equipped to meet the hardships of the 1930s. Racial discrimination added to the suffering, with blacks typically being 'the last hired and first fired'. By 1931 over 40 per cent of African Americans in Pittsburgh were homeless and unemployed, and the situation was similar in other leading cities. In 1932 30 per cent of blacks in Chicago were out of work, 37 per cent in Detroit, 33 per cent in Cleveland, 28 per cent in Philadelphia and 25 per cent in New York City.
