Documentary Highlights Cultural Work During the Great Depression

Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, chaired the Detroit premiere of a new documentary film on the struggle to free Mumia Abu-Jamal from prison in Pennsylvania. The event took place on Nov. 1, 2010. (Photo: Andrea Egypt)
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos

New Documentary Highlights Cultural Work During the Depression

Federal Writers' Project provided opportunities for artists

By Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire

Link to Promotional Spot for "Soul of a People" on the FWP
http://www.smithsonianchannel.com/site/sn/show.do?show=135396

A recently-released documentary film highlights the role of cultural workers during the Great Depression when they participated in the Federal Writers' Project, a New Deal program that was administered by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The film entitled: “The Soul of a People: Writing America’s Story,” revisits the ways in which the WPA not only provided millions of jobs to laid off industrial and service employees, but that it established a program that hired writers, actors, painters, journalists, researchers and other creative artists to document the history and culture of the United States.

This film is based on the book of a similar title written by David A. Taylor. The book meticulously documents the Federal Writers’ Project within the Depression-era context and sheds light on the continuing failure of the capitalist system in the U.S. to support its cultural workers who are committed to realizing social change.

The reforms won through the WPA were the direct result of the labor and community struggles that were waged during the early years of the depression which officially began in October 1929. In 1930, mass demonstrations of the unemployed were held and in numerous cities Unemployed Councils were formed to demand jobs and to fight against foreclosures and evictions.

When Roosevelt was elected in 1932, in an attempt to save the American capitalist system, he enacted emergency measures which included the re-organization of the banking system and the initiation of a federal jobs program. The Federal Writers' Project employed over 6,600 writers, teachers, researchers and artists where their work resulted in the documentation of heretofore unpublished aspects of the political and cultural history of the United States.

Work of the FWP

The Federal Writers’ Project was established on July 27, 1935 and it was directed by the journalist and theater producer Henry Alsberg. It was later taken over by John D. Newsome-- both of whom commissioned the compiling of historical studies, oral histories, books for young people and assorted ethnographic research projects.

One of the most notable projects was the American Guide Series that provided information on all 48 states as well as the-then Alaska Territory, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. In every state a FWP committee was formed which sent out larger numbers of field workers taken from the unemployment lines.

Many of the FWP writers were left wing activists, trade unionists, members of the Communist Party and other formations. The project was responsible for collecting narratives of African Americans who were formerly enslaved prior to the Civil War.

In addition, many of the blues and folk artists of the period made their first recordings through the work of Alan Lomax who traveled through the South and recorded musicians such as McKinley Morganfield (later known as Muddy Waters). In recent years these documents and recordings have become available to the public.

Some of the well-known writers and artists who worked in the FWP included Ralph Ellison, Zora Neale Hurston, Claude McKay, John Steinbeck, Arna Bontemps, May Swenson, Studs Turkel, Richard Wright, Margaret Walker, Dorothy West, Frank Yerby, John Cheever, Saul Bellow and many others. Nonetheless, very few African Americans were employed by the FWP with the possible exception of the Illinois Writers’ Project which helped launch the literary careers of Richard Wright, Margaret Walker, Katherine Dunham and Frank Yerby.

In 1939 federal support for the program ended even though it continued under state sponsorship until 1943. A program of this scope and magnitude does not exist today in the United States despite the fact that there are untold numbers of teachers, poets, script writers, actors, producers, painters, musicians, sculptures and other assorted creative cultural workers who are unemployed with many living in abject poverty.

Cultural Work and the Demand for a Federal Jobs Program

One of the major demands of the Bailout the People Movement, the Moratorium NOW! Coalition and other organizations around the country is for the creation of a WPA-style jobs program that would re-employ at decent wages and benefits the 30-35 million people in the U.S. who are either unemployed or underemployed. Within this struggle for jobs and income, the role of cultural workers in the movement becomes crucial.

In other societies--particularly those which are socialist-- artists, athletes, educators, scientists and others are employed by the state and therefore guaranteed the right to pursue their creative capabilities. Within a capitalist society an artist can only make a living working outside their field of interest and specialization or if their cultural productions are marketable within the economic system.

The overall economic crisis in the U.S. has had a significant impact on the popular culture of the people. Radio and television stations allow less diversity of programming in order capture advertising revenue. In the music field fewer artists are able to release their music and spoken word material because the major record companies only want to produce a select group of artists who sell millions of compact discs and therefore maximize corporate profits.

This is why many musicians and cultural workers have taken to producing their own work independently of the large corporate conglomerates. This movement, largely among youth, should be mobilized into the local and national campaigns which fight for jobs and income.

As the so-called jobless recovery continues leaving tens of millions of workers and oppressed people without employment, housing, healthcare and education, mass struggles must emerge to address the deepening class inequalities within the U.S.