Growing up during the Great Depression, the screenwriter, actor and director Carl Reiner signed up for a drama class sponsored by the Works Progress Administration. He said the WPA, which ran from 1935-43, was instrumental in steering him towards a comedy career. Reiner credited President Franklin D. Roosevelt as one of the people who helped him break into showbiz. The New Deal’s support for the arts launched a thousand careers. Carl Reiner’s spanned a lifetime. He died last month at age 98. Because we could all use a good laugh about now:
Watch: Brief and Spectacular (5 minutes)
The place of African Americans and other people of color in the New Deal still haunts the legacy of President Franklin Roosevelt's administration. But it is important to judge the New Deal in historical perspective and against the virulent racism of the time. READ MORE Watch: Tulsa race massacre: The painful past of “Black Wall Street”, USA Today (9 minutes)
My grandfather, Bernard Zakheim, was a seminal figure in the New Deal art world. The proposed destruction of his murals at the University of California comes amid other assaults on New Deal-era works when the public spaces they embellish are changed or controversy arises regarding their content. READ MORE
HAPPENINGS
LaborFest 2020 San Francisco, July 1-31
LaborFest 2020 takes place in a new world. What do the pandemic, systemic racism and a growing gig economy mean for working people? Many discussions and events will be held online. History walks will proceed, but with physical distancing. Donations welcomed. View the schedule and register.
By Gray Brechin
September 12, 2014
More than fifty years before the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act, the WPA and PWA were building special schools to help children crippled by polio. These schools were, to a large extent, the result of FDR’s own paralysis from the disease. Roosevelt helped found the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis in 1938, which later became the March of Dimes.
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If You Like Laughing, Thank FDR and the New Deal
An incredible amount of the development of American comedy can be traced directly back to the 1930s, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal provided government support for the arts at a level never to be repeated. By Bob Harris and Jon Schwarz The Intercept, July 4, 2020
The Lessons for Today from FDR’s New Deal
We should be suspicious of modern-day politicians who lay claim to FDR’s mantle. Roosevelt’s presidency transformed American democracy — his civil service reforms and the force of his personality created what we think of as the job of the president. None of his successors as US president have been able to fill his shoes or come close to achieving what he did. The Editorial Board Financial Times, July 3, 2020
Students’ Calls to Remove a Mural Were Answered. Now Comes a Lawsuit.
As many predominantly white institutions are being forced to answer for their history of racism, the University of Kentucky announced it would remove a 1934 fresco depicting slavery. Author Wendell Berry, a native son and alumnus, is suing to stop them. By Julia Jacobs The New York Times, July 6, 2020
Civilian Conservation Corps Bill Unveiled
The aggressive climate action plan includes the 21st Century Civilian Conservation Corps Act, legislation introduced by Rep. Marcy Kaptur (OH) that would reestablish the historic Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). House Committee on Climate Crisis, June 30, 2020
“Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially,
are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.”
Growing up during the Great Depression, the screenwriter, actor and director Carl Reiner signed up for a drama class sponsored by the Works Progress Administration. He said the WPA, which ran from 1935-43, was instrumental in steering him towards a comedy career. Reiner credited President Franklin D. Roosevelt as one of the people who helped him break into showbiz. The New Deal’s support for the arts launched a thousand careers. Carl Reiner’s spanned a lifetime. He died last month at age 98. Because we could all use a good laugh about now:
LaborFest 2020 takes place in a new world. What do the pandemic, systemic racism and a growing gig economy mean for working people? Many discussions and events will be held online. History walks will proceed, but with physical distancing. Donations welcomed.
