Black History Month 2025

1934 1935 1936

31 Herbert Hoover | 32 Franklin D. Roosevelt | 33 Harry S Truman

Redemption Jim Crow Black Power

August 14, 1935
Social Securiy Act Excluded Black People



Washington, D. C. - President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law. It excluded 65% of the Black American workforce, at the time. They were farm laborers and domestic workers (Title II Sec. 210). This was Roosevelt's Second New Deal.

The law never covered the work most Black Americans people did. Most Black American men worked on farms. Black American women worked in the homes of white women. It was normal for Black Americans to get the most menial and back-breaking jobs. The law made sure to ignore them when it came time to get public support.

At a time of Jim Crow and the Great Depression, this new law only hurt Black American labor in the nation. It gave benefits to whites who already had major benefits and support over Black Americans.

No Black American was at the signing of the Social Security Act.

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