E

• • Media portrayed AA as lazy and untrustworthy, leading to fewer white employers wanting to employ them 
• • During the Cold War, media sometimes increased negative public opinion towards socialists and socialist policies, which made it harder for the federal government to implement policies which could have helped African Americans
• • There were riots if AA were promoted:
  • In Mobile, Alabama, 50 people were injured in riots after 12 AA welders were promoted in May 1943
• • White Citizens Councils carried out economic boycotts against AA and deprived them of jobs
• • There was vocal opposition to affirmative action in employment in the 1970s
• • In 1990 Bush vetoed a Civil Rights Bill which could have made it easier to challenge job discrimination
• • President Reagan tended to oppose employment programmes and affirmative action in the 1980s
• • Booker T Washington spoke of the importance of AA economic improvement
• • He established the Tuskagee Institute in 1861 and the NNBL in 1900
• • Also gained the backing and support of influential white philanthropic entrepreneurs such as Andrew Carnegie yet didn't have much impact in practice
• • President Roosevelt’s New Deal in the 1930s created 1 million jobs for African Americans
• • However, the various New Deal programs, like the National Industrial Recovery Act and the Agricultural Adjustment Act, didn’t translate into substantial improvements for African Americans in the South
• • They often discriminated against and segregated black workers, perpetuating racial inequalities