January 1932
By 1932, Black unemployment in Northern industrial cities reached 50% in Chicago and Pittsburgh, double the rate for white workers. 'Last hired, first fired' practices concentrated Depression job losses on Black workers. In Chicago's Black Belt, 40% of Black families were on relief by 1932 vs. 14% of white families. In Philadelphia, 56% of Black workers were unemployed. White workers demanded and received preference in hiring for jobs previously done by Black workers. Black women lost domestic work positions as white women took them out of economic desperation.
Langston Hughes's Depression-era poetry and prose directly challenged American racial hypocrisy. His 1932 poem 'Christ in Alabama' — 'Christ is a nigger / Beaten and black' — written in the context of the Scottsboro trials, was published in Contempo magazine, triggering bomb threats when he read it at the University of North Carolina. His 1935 play 'Mulatto' became Broadway's longest-running play by a Black author to that date. Hughes insisted on using the word 'Negro' with dignity at a time when its connotations were contested. His journalism, poetry, and fiction reached mass Black audiences through newspapers and created cultural vocabulary for resistance.
Events
- 1932Great Depression Drives Black Unemployment to 50% in Northern Cities
By 1932, Black unemployment in Northern industrial cities reached 50% in Chicago and Pittsburgh, double the rate for white workers. 'Last hired, first fired' practices concentrated Depression job losses on Black workers. In Chicago's Black Belt, 40% of Black families were on relief by 1932 vs. 14% of white families. In Philadelphia, 56% of Black workers were unemployed. White workers demanded and received preference in hiring for jobs previously done by Black workers. Black women lost domestic work positions as white women took them out of economic desperation.
- 1932Great Depression Drives Black Unemployment to 50% in Northern Cities
By 1932, Black unemployment in Northern industrial cities reached 50% in Chicago and Pittsburgh, double the rate for white workers. 'Last hired, first fired' practices concentrated Depression job losses on Black workers. In Chicago's Black Belt, 40% of Black families were on relief by 1932 vs. 14% of white families. In Philadelphia, 56% of Black workers were unemployed. White workers demanded and received preference in hiring for jobs previously done by Black workers. Black women lost domestic work positions as white women took them out of economic desperation.
- 1932Langston Hughes's Political Poetry Directly Challenges American Racial Hypocrisy
Langston Hughes's Depression-era poetry and prose directly challenged American racial hypocrisy. His 1932 poem 'Christ in Alabama' — 'Christ is a nigger / Beaten and black' — written in the context of the Scottsboro trials, was published in Contempo magazine, triggering bomb threats when he read it at the University of North Carolina. His 1935 play 'Mulatto' became Broadway's longest-running play by a Black author to that date. Hughes insisted on using the word 'Negro' with dignity at a time when its connotations were contested. His journalism, poetry, and fiction reached mass Black audiences through newspapers and created cultural vocabulary for resistance.
- 1932Langston Hughes's Political Poetry Challenges American Racial Hypocrisy
Langston Hughes's Depression-era poetry and prose directly challenged American racial hypocrisy. His 1932 poem 'Christ in Alabama' — written in the context of the Scottsboro trials and published in Contempo magazine — triggered bomb threats when he read it at the University of North Carolina. His 1935 play 'Mulatto' became Broadway's longest-running play by a Black author to that date. Hughes insisted on using the word 'Negro' with dignity and created cultural vocabulary for resistance that reached mass Black audiences through newspapers.
- 1932The Tuskegee syphilis study begins
The U.S. Public Health Service begins a 40-year study that deceives 600 Black men in Alabama and withholds treatment for syphilis even after a cure exists.
- 1932The Tuskegee Syphilis Study
From 1932 to 1972 the U.S. Public Health Service studied untreated syphilis in some 400 Black men in Alabama — never telling them their diagnosis and withholding penicillin even after it became the standard cure.