Public Works Administration Projects Built by Segregated Labor Under FDR

The Public Works Administration under Harold Ickes (who was personally committed to racial equality) formally prohibited racial wage discrimination in contracts but was largely unable to enforce this in the South. PWA construction projects were built by segregated workforces, with Black workers assigned to the most dangerous and lowest-paid tasks. Housing projects built by the PWA were explicitly segregated — white projects in white neighborhoods, Black projects in Black neighborhoods — formalizing and reinforcing residential segregation through public investment. Ickes insisted on nondiscrimination in federal employment but could not override Southern congressional resistance on broader implementation.