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The Switch from republican to Democrat
in 1929, one year after President Herbert Hoover took office with a promise to" put a chicken in every pot," the stock market crashed, ouor nation went into a deep depression, and the republicans knew they were in trouble. This was the perfect opportuniy for the Democrats to take the White House, but they needed more than the Depression: they needed the black vote. During this same period, serveral black newspapers, including the baltimore Afro American, the Norfolk Journal, and the Pittsburg Courier had become very critcal of the Republican Party. As their collective circulation soared into millions, thse newspapers became a very powerful voice in the black community.
Prior to this time from 1866 to 1928, blacks had voted exclusvely for the Republican ticket. Frustrated with the economy, the newspapers used theri powerful voice to urge black voters to break traditon and vote Democrat. "The break was neither clean nore complete, however, for there were those who cousld not be presuaded to support the party that, after all was the party of the Ku Klux Klan and other bigots."
On Election Day in 1933, the collective voices of the newspaper where heard and when the votes were counted, Democratic candidate Franklin D. Rossevelt was the new President of the United States. They voted Democrat beause the Pittsburg Couier and other poweful black newspapers told their readers the 'Republicans took their vote for granted."
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