Black Cabinet

The Black Cabinet was formed by more than a dozen African American men and women who had been appointed to federal positions by President Franklin D. Roosevelt by the year 1935. Known as the Federal Council on Negro Affairs after 1935, it was an informal gathering of African American advisers from various New Deal agencies led unofficially by Mary McLeod Bethune, the director of the National Youth Administration’s Division of Negro Affairs. Its members included Robert C. Weaver, the Negro Affairs adviser in the Public Works Administration, and William Henry Hastie, assistant solicitor in the Department of the Interior. Several other cabinet members later became nationally prominent. They usually met at the home of Bethune or Weaver and informally had some impact on New Deal agencies. Eleanor Roosevelt often provided the impetus behind certain changes after meeting with Bethune.

The appointment of Black people to federal positions symbolized the attempt by some New Dealers to eradicate racial injustice in the United States and influenced some Black people to convert from the Republican to the Democratic Party. President Roosevelt, however, ultimately did not challenge the more intransigent elements of a still segregated society. Still, although the Black Cabinet did not dramatically alter federal government policies toward African Americans because the appointments were not at the highest levels and its membership was fluctuating, it made White New Dealers more responsive to African American problems. Furthermore, some historians believe that the Black Cabinet led the expansion of New Deal and some relief to Black communities during the Depression.

Bibliography

“FDR's Black Cabinet in Retrospect: A Conversation with Descendants of Roosevelt's African American Advisors.” Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College, 22 Feb. 2021, www.roosevelthouse.hunter.cuny.edu/events/fdrs-black-cabinet-in-retrospect/. Accessed 17 Oct. 2024.

Finkelman, Paul. Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present: From the Age of Segregation to the Twenty-First Century. New York: Oxford UP, 2009. Print.

“History Professor Writes Book about Little-Known 'Black Cabinet' of FDR Era.” CSUSM NewsCenter, 12 May 2020, news.csusm.edu/jill-watts-book/. Accessed 17 Oct. 2024.

Palmer, Colin A. Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History. Detroit: Macmillan, 2006. Print.

Pritchett, Wendell E. Robert Clifton Weaver and the American City: The Life and Times of an Urban Reformer. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2008. Digital file.

“On This Day, a Historic Cabinet Nomination.” The National Constitution Center, 13 Jan. 2022, constitutioncenter.org/blog/remember-the-first-black-cabinet-member. Accessed 17 Oct. 2024.

Trotter, Joe William, Robin D. G. Kelley, and Earl Lewis. From a Raw Deal to a New Deal? African Americans 1929–1945. New York: Oxford UP, 1996. Print.