The Great Depression hit Americans hard, but none harder than African
Americans and the working poor. To Ask for an Equal Chance explores
black experiences during this period and the intertwined challenges
posed by race and class. "Last hired, first fired," black workers lost
their jobs at twice the rate of whites, and faced greater obstacles in
their search for economic security. Black workers, who were generally
urban newcomers, impoverished and lacking industrial skills, were
already at a disadvantage. These difficulties were intensified by an
overt, and in the South legally entrenched, system of racial segregation
and discrimination. New federal programs offered hope as they redefined
government's responsibility for its citizens, but local implementation
often proved racially discriminatory. As Cheryl Lynn Greenberg makes
clear, African Americans were not passive victims of economic
catastrophe or white racism; they responded to such challenges in a
variety of political, social, and communal ways. The book explores both
the external realities facing African Americans and individual and
communal responses to them. While experiences varied depending on many
factors including class, location, gender and community size, there are
also unifying and overarching realities that applied universally. To Ask
for an Equal Chance straddles the particular, with examinations of
specific communities and experiences, and the general, with explorations
of the broader effects of racism, discrimination, family, class, and
political organizing.
