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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - IV. Economics - 12. New Blows to Southern Agriculture During the ’Thirties: Trends and Policies - 12. Farm Security Programs
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Chapter 12. New Blows to Southern Agriculture 277
grants.*^® By December, 1939, there were in the South 154,000 white and
45,000 Negro ‘^standard rehabilitation borrowers.” Thus, while more than
one-fourth of the Southern rural farrn population is Negro, the number of
Negroes on the program constituted a somewhat smaller proportion (23
per cent) of the total number of clients. Compared with the total estimated
number of white and colored farm families which either were on relief or
had an income of less than $500, the participation in the program amounted
to 22 per cent of the whites and 1
1
per cent of the Negroes. This suggests
that a Ipw-income white family has had about twice the chance of a Negro
family in the same circumstances of being accepted on the program. Too,
the average amount of loan advances was somewhat higher for white
($659) than for colored ($606) clients.^®
It is true that not all of these discrepancies are due to “direct discrimina-
tion.” The selection of clients and the size of the loans do not depend on
need alone. Even in the Farm Security work great attention is given to the
credit rating of the individual client, and since Negroes start out with much
smaller average resources than do whites, they are more likely to be
excluded from the program and less likely to receive large loans.®^ Such
an application of “business principles” in relief work, however, can well be
called “indirect discrimination,” for it must have been obvious from the
beginning that it would limit the opportunity to give the Negro a share
of the benefits which would correspond to his relative needs. Moreover,
there is definite evidence that Negro clients have been selected in a much
more cautious manner than have white clients. Although their gross cash
Income during 1939 was 40 per cent lower -than that of white clients in the
South, their repayment record was a slightly better one. The absolute
amount repaid on the loans actually was almost the same in both cases
(about $250). The net income of the Negro clients was rather low—less
than $100 in cash and about $240 in home-use production—^whereas the
corresponding figures for white clients were about $200 and $275, respec-
tively. Both groups of clients bettered their conditions to a considerable
extent during the time they were on the program—Negroes relatively more
than whites.®^
The other F.S.A. programs are rather insignificant, as far as Negroes are
concerned. By mid-1940 there were less than 2,000 Negro families on vari-
ous types of F.S.A. settlements and rental cooperatives. They constituted
roughly one-fourth of all such families in the South. About 1,900 Negro
families were on the so-called tenant-purchase program j
there were four
times as many white families in the South on the same program.®^ Thus,
there was about the same amount of discrimination in these cases as in the
rehabilitation work. In the last year (1941- 1942), however, the F.S.A.
has provided camps for migrant agricultural workers in various parts of
the North, and Negroes get a considerable share of these facilities.
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