Social Security leaves out most Black workers

The 1935 Social Security Act excluded agricultural and domestic workers — roughly two-thirds of all Black workers — a carve-out demanded by Southern lawmakers to keep New Deal benefits from Black families.

The Social Security Act of 1935 was a pillar of the New Deal — old-age insurance and unemployment benefits that helped build economic security for millions. But to win the votes of Southern Democrats, its drafters excluded agricultural and domestic workers, the two job categories that employed the great majority of Black Americans — by some estimates about two-thirds of Black workers nationally and far more in the South. Race-neutral on its face, the law was engineered to flow around Black families, a pattern the historian Ira Katznelson called affirmative action for white Americans.

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The Decision to Exclude Agricultural and Domestic Workers from the 1935 Social Security Act

Larry DeWitt

Official SSA history of the carve-out that left out most Black workers.

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Who Benefited: The Wider Economy & the Wealth Gap
The New Deal's signature program was written to exclude most Black workers.

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Who Benefited: The Wider Economy & the Wealth Gap

The New Deal's signature program was written to exclude most Black workers.