The “Southern Cage”: How the Myth of the Redemptive Depression Keeps Blacks at the Margins
…vote in Mississippi in 1932! And white Southerners didn’t just embrace the New Deal—they helped create it. Ira Katznelson calls this the New Deal’s “Southern cage”: Roosevelt relied on the support of powerful Southern congressmen who crafted economically progressive but racially restrictive legislation. They demanded local administration of federal programs, and also imposed restrictions that directly affected black Southerners—like excluding agri…
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