ABSTRACT
Some of the internal population shifts were, in fact, the most dramatic indicators of changes that had potential political as well as economic consequences. American Negroes, hardly a subject of much discussion in 1933, had resumed their First World War exodus from the South toward the industrial centers. Whatever adjustments a modern Republican Administration would require to cope with such changes were clearly not the concern of the massive crowds that lined Pennsylvania Avenue that January 20. The President-elect and Mamie Dwight D. Eisenhower started the day at a morning service conducted by the Reverend Dr. Edward L. R. Elson at the National Presbyterian Church. The ceremonies took place on a platform that had been erected on the central east front of the Capitol building. The chief criticisms of the speech deplored the President’s failure to contend with specific problems, particularly regarding domestic affairs, thus confusing its function with a State of the Union address.
