The student movements of the Depression
era were arguably the most significant mobilizations of
youth-based political activity in American history prior
to the late 1960s. As time passed, many local youth organizations
became more organized in their pursuit of progressive government,
and in 1934 the American Youth Congress (AYC) came together
as the national federation and lobbying arm of the movement
as a whole.
Although the AYC was founded as an organization that
was critical of the Roosevelt administration for not having
provided enough relief to impoverished young Americans,
by the end of the 1930s they had become what Joseph
Lash described as "a student brain of the New Deal."
(1) This remarkable transformation was largely
due to the efforts of Eleanor Roosevelt, who took special
interest in the politics of the student movement and helped
convince the AYC that partnering with the White House
in
pursuit of achievable goals would accomplish more than
deriding the New Deal and undermining the president. ER's
sympathies
naturally lay with the brash young students who composed
the AYC's leadership, such as Joseph Lash, but in courting
their support she also revealed the depth of her political
savvy. For the rest of the 1930s the first lady was able
to use the prestige of the White House in combination with
political support from the AYC to protect the National
Youth Administration from its opponents in Congress.
In return, ER protected the AYC from its right-wing
enemies,
including the House Committee on Un-American
Activities, who sought to discredit the organization
in 1938. Meeting with AYC leaders the night before their
committee appearance, Eleanor advised the young students
on how to handle the questioning process. Furthermore,
in
a show of solidarity with the AYC, Eleanor attended the
committee hearings as a private spectator and then invited
the young students back to the White House for a meal.
Between 1936 and 1939 the AYC reached the peak of its
activity. During these years it lobbied vigorously for racial
justice, increased federal spending on education, and an
end to mandatory participation in the Reserve Officers Training
Corps (ROTC) for male college students. It formulated a
Declaration of the Rights of American Youth, and some of
its members even fought alongside Republican forces in the
Spanish Civil War. In 1939, however, the Soviet Union signed
a nonaggression pact with Nazi Germany, a decision that
bitterly divided young American leftists. Communists within
the organization's leadership were able to engineer the
AYC's official support of the nonaggression pact, and this
in turn alienated large numbers of AYC supporters, including
Eleanor Roosevelt. Without the support of its most important
allies, the organization quickly became broken and powerless.
The AYC ceased to exist shortly thereafter, but its demise
signaled the larger death of empowered student activism
in the United States for the time being. It would not achieve
a resurgence until the Johnson administration when dissatisfaction
with American conduct in Vietnam once again ignited student
unrest.
Note:
- "The Student Movement of the
1930s: Joseph P. Lash, Interview," New Deal
Network.
Internet on-line. Available From http://newdeal.feri.org/students/lash.htm#26.
Sources:
Beasley, Maurine, Holly C. Schulman and Henry R. Beasley,
eds. The Eleanor Roosevelt Encyclopedia. Westport,
Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2001, 17-19.
Lash, Joseph. Eleanor and Franklin. New York: W.W.
Norton & Company, 1971, 599-603.